Even once I’m gone

The wake was months ago, yet it was so vivid in Jacob’s mind as he sat in one of the stiff chairs in the family attorney’s office. His grandfather’s testament was being read, the man who raised him. He felt sick, the reality of it never really settled in until recently. Jacob’s grandfather was all he had, his mother died in labor and his father disappeared without a trace a few weeks later. His siblings were older and already had their lives together and their own families while he just recently turned 19. He didn’t know them very well, they moved out when he was 6 to live with their mom, his dad’s ex wife.

Jacob felt cold and uncomfortable. The chair was making his body ache and the emotion that was screeching around the dimly lit room he found himself presented in was driving him up the wall. His grandfather wrote a heartfelt and lengthy testament that he couldn’t even read or appreciate listening to as his older brother kept telling the attorney to get to the point and skip all the ‘nonsense.’ Jacob wanted this to end, he didn’t want to be in this cramped office with his disrespectful so-called relatives anymore. But for his father figure, he stayed.

“Well,” the attorney sighed “You two-” she motioned to the siblings “get your father’s fortune. Your grandfather put it all in savings when he disappeared and never spent any of it. And Jacob, the only thing your grandfather wrote down in reference to you is his old notebook.” Jacob nodded as he lift his head to face the attorney. She was a presentable woman, she looked sad, and had a look of pity directed at him as she picked up an old note book from her desk drawer. She gently set it on top of her desk and pushed it towards him, her hand resting on top of it for a short second before removing it, allowing him to pick it up. It was a small black leather notebook, one of the corners was curled from rubbing and page turning. It was smooth to the touch and strangely warm to hold. It was inviting, enticing, even though it was simply a tiny, black notebook. The attorney continued her discussion but Jacob couldn’t focus on what she was saying as her words just mumbled on and turned to noise in his ears and head. He gave all his attention to the notebook, he opened it to the first page and read the all familiar handwriting of his grandfather’s cursive on the cover-page. There were two separate signings but both written in a golden ink that looked like it flowed smoothly on the page, almost as if it was printed with the book and not written in.

“Happy 20th Jr.” - Dad

and below that,

“Jacob, May this answer all your questions and needs” - Pa

All the other pages were empty, not even holding any lines.

Jacob felt a hand tap against his shoulder, he looked up and saw his siblings leaving. Embarrassed he jolted up to leave, pushing away his chair, not wanting to take up anymore of the attorney’s time. He shuffled out the office door, putting the notebook into his jacket pocket, and continued down the long, grey hallways of the gloomy building towards the exit at the end of the hall. He heaved the giant door forwards and stumbled out into the rain. He stood and watched his older brother and sister get in their respective cars and drive off.

Sopping wet, Jacob walked his way to the nearest bus stop and sat down on the bench. Luckily he didn’t have to wait long as it was only 8 minutes till the 3 o’clock bus. A dark blue bus eventually rolled up to a stop covered in mud from the numerous puddles scattered around the roads it had to plow through. The doors swung open allowing Jacob to hop on. He paid his bus fee and slid into a seat in the middle of the bus. The bus closed it’s doors and pulled forward, continuing on its route as soon as Jacob met his seat. It was quiet, the bus driver played music from the radio softly and a couple in the far back were calmly chatting, besides those 3 people and him there was no one else on the bus. Jacob rode the bus for about an hour, several new people got on and a few got off at each stop. When they arrived at his stop Jacob heaved himself from the seat, making his way to the front of the bus and grabbing and pocketing one of the extra pens in a cup by the door on the way out.

The rain had let up but it was now windy and Jacob could feel the cold wind cut through his wet clothes as he hurried down the road to the small town cemetery. He pushed open the rusty entrance gate and it let out a creaky welcome from his presence. Jacob waddled up the pathway to a reasonably small grave-keepers house and unlocked the warped wooden door, pulling it open and shuffling inside. The house was more like a cottage by how small it was, with an entry way sharing space with the dining room, it had a one person kitchen, a closet bathroom and a fairly sized bedroom. He pulled his coat off and hung it up, as he shrugged off his shoes Jacob reached into one of the deep pockets and pulled out the notebook and pen. Jacob placed the respective items on the dining room table on his way to the bedroom to change out of his wet clothes.

Once in dry clothes, Jacob stepped out of his room, towards the dining room table and sat down. He opened the notebook to the first page and stared at his grandfathers handwriting. The golden ink shined in the natural light coming from the window across the room. Picking up the pen, Jacob started to flip it between his fingers and fidget with it as he fixated on the entry dedicated to him. What did it mean? It couldn’t be literal, could it? His grandfather was pretty mysterious and not very open about a lot of things. The rest of the day seemed to slip away as Jacob was lost in thought, it wasn’t until a bright light that Jacob was pulled out of his head. Jacob was tapping the pen against the page, the ink hitting the paper and started to shine a bright yellow color as it turned into the golden ink that it looked like his grandfather used to sign the notebook. Jacob scrambled backwards away from the table and onto his feet, the whole time holding his gaze at the page he was accidentally writing on, horrified. He had a hundred questions running through his head. What just happened? Was I just seeing things? Was that magic? Magic doesn’t exist? Right?

Jacob took another gander at his grandfather’s note. Taking a deep breath he pulled up his chair and sat back down. He put the pen to the paper and forced himself to write with shaking hands,

“Is this real?”

The ink on the page flashed a yellow before fading into the golden pigment. A few seconds later, lines started to show up under Jacob’s question forming letters,

“Yes”

Then everything on the page vanished.

Jacob just sat there, awestruck. He couldn’t even begin to fathom the potential. He eventually stood up, ideas rushing into his head, he scooped up the notebook and pen and rushed towards the door. He had to try something out, test a theory he had. Reaching into his other coat pocket for his wallet then continuing out the door not even bothering with putting on his damp coat or shoes. He quickly walked down the cemetery path, past the gate, and started making his way up the sidewalk to the town grocery store. Jacob burst open the doors then felt embarrassed from his haste actions as the cashier turned towards him unpleased by the crash and harsh treatment of the store doors. Ashamed Jacob looked at the floor and walked to the lottery ticket machine down the aisle to the left of him. He stood facing it as he put the notebook in front of him. He picked up the pen with his right hand and took a deep breath.

“Which ticket is a winner”

Jacob only had to wait a moment for the transformation to take place and a reply to finish formatting.

“Third Hit Jackpot”

Jacob looked to the machine, his eyes glancing over all the available options until he landed on a button in the middle of the top row. ‘Hit Jackpot,’ $10 per ticket. Jacob closed the notebook and fumbled with his wallet as he tried to pull out a ten and a twenty. He shoved them into the machine then pushed the desired button three times. The lottery machine purred at the input and spit out the tickets. Jacob grabbed them and sheepishly walked past the cashier and out of the store. As soon as he was out he ran back home, realizing upon his arrival he left the door wide open in his careless exhilaration.

He closed the door behind him and hovered over the dining room table, putting everything down in front of him. In his excitement Jacob picked up the tickets irrationally and didn’t remember which one was the third one so he had to scratch them all. He used the end half of the pen and scratched away. The first ticket had $100, not seeming like much of a ‘Jackpot’ Jacob went to the other two. The second had nothing but the third one was looking more and more promising as Jacob went. The tickets were a simple match three numbers, win the prize and it turned out Jacob just won $20,000.

Twenty thousand dollars! Jacob started crying, he picked up the notebook and kissed it. He was breathing heavily, tears and snot beginning to run down his face. He was feeling shaky and went to go lay down in his bed. He couldn’t believe it. This incredible gift his grandfather passed on to him. Jacob smiled and started to giggle like a little kid with a new toy. He was going to be okay. He didn’t have to worry about trying to make ends meet every month now. Didn’t have to stress about how much he could afford to eat.

Even after death, Jacob’s grandfather was taking care of him. Jacob signed deeply, he felt happy, for the first time since the funeral. He couldn’t help but repeat his gratitude as he slipped into a deep sleep.