Jonathan Heiser

The Mysterious Notebook

Thomas sat in bed thumbing the mysterious notebook, it was small in comparison to his typical college ones, and it was exceptionally aged, as if it would crumble to dust in his hands. The first thing he noticed about it was it seemed to be very well used, the pages were dog-eared in specific places throughout and most of the pages had at least one tear to their name. The notebook was made of blackened leather, and on the front was a single name: Winston Mathins. Thomas recognized this name as one of his great-uncles, his name came up occasionally during dinner with his family, and it seemed the consensus was that Winston was a shut-in, who kept to his house in his later years. His wife was concerned with his mental health, as Winston repeatedly told of nightmarish creatures visiting him in the long night and giving him promises of great wealth and long life. After Winston and his wife divorced, the great wealth part of his disillusion seemed to come true, as Winston happened upon hoards of money, though he never revealed to anyone how he accrued his fortune. Winston passed a week from yesterday, at the ripe old age of ninety-seven, and he surprisingly left Thomas the notebook, and twenty thousand dollars, which Thomas remarked was “but a drop in the bucket of Winston’s actual fortune.” but Thomas held his tongue, as many in his family believed the money to be dirty, most thought Winston was involved in organized crime. Thomas’ curiosity got the better of him, and he opened the notebook to the first page.