My Grandmother's Book

I have two memories of my grandma. The first memory that comes to mind is that she constantly holding this little leather-bound black book. If she saw anyone near (unless the maid at the time) she would immediately snatch it from us. I am honestly surprised she did not request to be buried with it. Instead, we bury her holding a single red rose.

Ironically, the sun was shining bright and the birds were singing on this day – the sad day of the year. My second memory of my grandma was dark. I was the one who had found her collapsed body in the kitchen. It seemed like she was in the middle of baking some of her delicious cookies. I remember turning off the oven, checking her pulse, and calling an ambulance.

When they had left, I notice that the black book was nowhere to be found. I knew then that something was wrong. The doctors informed us she has passed away due to a heart attack. I do not know why these are the only memories I can clearly see right now. I hoping as time goes on, I remember more. What I do know is that it’s been a month and we still couldn’t find that darn book.

The wake was uncomfortable. Since there was a pandemic going on it was a drive-by wake where family and friends were dropping of warm cooked meals. The ones that were allowed in the funeral were also allowed back in at grandma’s house.

I was put on kitchen duty. Restocking the drinks and snacks that the family had ate. As I was pulling out the last plater of cookies from the fridge, I notice the book was on the bottom covered with cookie crumbs. I wonder if grandma tried to bake the book without realizing it. I hide the book under the plater to keep my mom from seeing it. We had different views on what to do with the book. I wanted to keep it while Mom wanted to throw it away. I slipped into the coatroom to hide the book in my purse until we got home. I could finally be nosy on why I couldn’t touch it growing up.

Hours passed and it was finally just my mom and me in a big empty house. Mom and I lived in a one-bedroom apartment, so we were planning to move into grandma’s house since she had left me the house in her will. Thankfully, the house was paid off. Somehow, grandma and grandpa had never worked a day in their life but always had money.

It was close to the witching hour when we finally went back to our apartment. In the morning, we had to finish packing. We wanted to leave as soon as possible. We could be finally free from the noisy neighbors on the right. I flopped down onto my bed, which is the pull-out couch in the living room, and sighed. No matter what this book seemed to cause issues within our family. I could finally figure out why.

I pulled the book out of my purse. My hands were starting to get sweaty and I felt my heartbeat increase. I could hear my grandmother screaming at me to leave this darn book alone. It wasn’t for kids to see. Those words echoed into my mind as I open to the first page. I was dumbfounded. The book was empty. An empty book caused my mother and grandma to stop talking to each other. An empty book caused my mother and I to be constantly at each other throats. I didn’t understand it.

I don’t recall what time I fell asleep, but I was full of emotion when I did. I am still pretty upset. The book had fallen onto the floor and I grabbed it. I am grateful Mother wasn’t up yet to see the book. She would have been very upset I hide it from her. All of the food we had was at grandma’s house across town. I didn’t want to wait for when Mom woke up to drive there, so I loaded some stuff into the car and took off.

I stopped at a popular fast-food chain and grabbed some sweet tea and a harsh brown. I am not a fan of this place’s breakfast, but it’s something for now. I noticed a light coming from instead my purse as I pulled up to the cashier to pay my total. I was confused and once I collected my food, I pulled over to park. I opened my purse to find the book had appeared.

When I went to open it, it flipped to a page in the back. This page had my grandma’s name on it. It had information about her written in the book. It listed the time and date that a contract had been signed, her death and cause, and shocking a future date and cause of death was listed. Underneath, was a list of names. The names had matched the missing maids that had stopped working at grandma’s house over the years. I froze as the book turned to the next blank page.

Dear Reader:

To whoever finds this book - I need a soul. In return, you gain some wealth. At least 20,000 will be award. Our contract needs to be blood bounded.

It all made sense now. Those poor families will never know that my grandma had killed them for wealth. Some of the names on this list I did not recognize, so I am sure she had killed others that weren’t her maids. From the looks of the list, she killed a lot of people. I do not know where she stored the bodies or how the police never put two and two together.

I am surprised my grandmother was that dark of a person. The book did not clearly state what kind of soul it needed to be. I looked up and across the road was a freshly killed deer that a car probably hit in the night. I wonder if this will work. I walked over and put a napkin to wipe some of the blood onto it. The smell was awful. I tried to clean the napkin off by rubbing it on the dotted line where the book had said to sign.

My name slowly appeared on the page in blood. I heard a ding from my phone so I went to see what it was. My bank had sent me a notice that money had been deposited into my account and sent a text message to verify that it was me. As I walked back to my car, I was shocked. 20,000 had been deposited into my account. I understood now that greed was a dangerous thing. Someone had turned pandora’s book into a little black book. At least it will accept the souls of animals instead of humans. Life will never be boring again.