The Little Black Book

My life wasn’t always like this, fancy, glamorous and lavish. At least, not until I wrote a wish on the little black book my Grandmother left me before she died. Now, I cannot find this book anywhere in my giant house in Beverly Hills. I am desperate. I need to find this book so that I can make a wish again.

It all started three days ago on the funeral of my Grandmother. That day her caretaker gave me a box with some belongings she left me. With tears in my face and a broken heart, I grabbed the box and I brought it home. My Grandmother was all the family I had. She raised me by herself after my parents died in a terrible car accident when I was eight years old.

When I got home, I immediately opened the box. It was too large for what it was carrying inside. It had a picture of my parents and me when I was a baby girl and a little black book. When I opened the book, a check slid from it falling on my lap. I was surprised to see my name and a sum of $20,000 written on it. Then, I looked up on the page of the notebook and it said in her handwriting “I hope all your dreams become true, as mine did”. That amount of money would help me and my roommate to get back on track with the past- due rents and there would be still left to help me out to follow my dream in Hollywood.

For the past eight years I have tried ceaselessly to become an actress. Since I was a kid, I only wanted to be famous and have a glamorous TV boyfriend. But my life was far from it. I hadn’t been able to find an important role as an actress, but I kept trying every day. To pay the bills, I was a waitress during the day at a restaurant in Santa Monica and at night I worked as a bartender in Hollywood. It sounds unfortunate, but I was rather content. I had amazing friends, an unfamous but sweet boyfriend and a fantastic dream to chase.

However, the news of my grandmother dying sadden my heart so intently that I stayed for days in my room without going to work or see anyone. I even did not attend a promising audition that could get me the role to become a real actress. The day of the audition, I just cried the whole day on my bed since I was not brave enough to attend to it. I felt miserable and stupid. And just then, within grief and regret, I saw the little black book of my Grandmother on my bed table. I took it in my hands and opened it to a white sheet and wrote “I am failure, I want to stop being miserable and I wish to famous an actress. A rich and praised actress”.

The next day I was woken by a strange and loud voice. When I opened my eyes, I saw a woman looking at me. I had never seen her in my life. She was trying to get me to wake up since it was an important day for me. I was completely disoriented. I was in a large and beautiful bedroom I couldn’t recognize. Then, a young man came out from under the sheets of the bed. I screamed because I could recognize who he was, he was a famous pop singer. He kissed me and walked naked to the bathroom. Why was I in bed with well-known singer? Whose house was that? How was I even there?

Later that day, I realized that the women that woke me up was my manager. She was waking me up because I was late for the filming of my latest movie. That lavish house with thirteen bedrooms, a pool and a cinema was my house in Beverly Hills. And the naked singer was my boyfriend. That day, my manager sent me to the set with the latest edition of fancy and expensive car. The most interesting part was that I didn’t have to drive it; I had a personal driver. At night, I had a chef in my house preparing Italian food for me. I knew I must be dreaming, but it was a marvelous dream. I had the dreamed job, the perfect house and the desired life. The only thing this dream was missing was my friends and boyfriend.

I went to sleep on my king bed next to this famous stranger thinking I would wake up on my old bed again, but that didn’t happen. The next day I walked up again in the same lavish room, with the same pool view. How could this be true?

That day I tried calling my roommate and my boyfriend. I left voice messages, texted them but I couldn’t contact them. After the filming that day, I told the driver to bring me to the restaurant in Santa Monica where my roommate and I worked. As I walked in, people would see me and ask me autographs. I was surrounded by people and I could see my roommate staring at me with a tense facial expression from the inside of the restaurant. As soon as I able to escape from the crowd, I entered the restaurant. I tried talking to her, but she was evading me. After I asked several times for an answer for her awkward behavior she just responded “We haven’t been friends since we graduated high school and you became a famous actress six years ago. There is nothing for us to talk about”

She was not only my roommate; we had been friends since middle school. We always shared the dream to live in the city together and become famous actresses. In this weird reality I had been living, I got to be famous and she didn’t. The fame I had been chasing, took away from me the most valuable friend I had.

Right after this, I went to Venice Beach, where my boyfriend would usually skateboard. When I got to the skate park by the beach, most of the skaters noticed me and started to approach me. The fame was starting to irritate me. After I was able to get everyone off me, I saw my boyfriend teaching a girl how to skate at the end of the park. I approached them and tried to talk to him about us, but he seemed confused. He just said “I know who you are Marina Smith, I am just not the person you are looking for. I already have a girlfriend” He looked with love at the girl next to him and gave her a kiss in the cheek.

Just at moment I realized that this life seemed amazing, but it was quite the opposite. All my life I just wanted fame, but what is money and recognition without the people you love? I immediately went to the extravagant house to look for the little black book that brought me here in the first place. With tears on my face, I looked on every shelf and drawer on that enormous house. Nothing. It was gone, and I was stuck in the ideal life I didn’t desire anymore.

Right then, I thought about the only other place it could be. I drove through the dark night to the graveyard where my Grandmother was buried. As soon as I got there, I saw the little black book on her gravestone. I grabbed it in on my hands and with the flashlight of my phone I illuminated the inside of the notebook. There was an extra page with a note I did not see the other day since those pages were adhered together. The note was a wish written with my Grandmother’s handwriting “I just wish to be happy until the end of my days”. A blissful smile appeared on my face as I knew that wish truly became true. I turned the page and wrote my last and final wish “I wish my life was as happy as it had always been”

The next day, I opened my eyes and I was back in my rented old apartment. I couldn’t contain my smile of how happy I was to be back to my life. I ran out of my room and I saw my roommate cooking breakfast. I hugged her with all my strengths. I then left the house and got my motorcycle to meet my boyfriend in Venice Beach.

My Grandmother taught me a hard lesson through the little black book. Three days ago, I made the wrong wish out of sadness and grief. I wished to be famous because I thought that would made be happy, but the reality was, I already had everything to be happy.