Wish Note

I

Jordan Jackson was a studious young man. He always had been. In fact, the day that he graduated middle school, his family took him to Benihana’s to celebrate the fact that he had received honors and top marks in all of his classes. In traditional Benihana’s style, they were seated with another party. It was a daughter, in her 40s perhaps, and her father, well into his 80s at least. The daughter, noticing Jordan’s cap and gown, struck up a conversation, one which began, as most conversations did at that juncture in his life, with the question “what high school are you going to?” This conversation, inevitably, led to the typical follow up discussion of colleges, upon which the father, barely lucid, interjected, recalling some distant yet temporarily present memory. “You know, I had a friend in high school who went to college. He loved school so much, boy I tell ya. In fact, after college, he went on to get his masters degree… and after his masters, he got his PhD! Actually, he ended up getting two PhDs!” The father paused and laughed to himself. He looked at, and yet somehow through, Jordan. “Yeah, he loved school so much, by the time he finished, he didn’t know what to do. So he killed himself” “Dad!” The daughter was so embarrassed at the abrupt and morbid turn that the conversation took that she offered to pay for the entire meal. Jordan liked that memory. He thought about the father’s friend a lot. In fact, it was this exact memory that had just drifted into his thoughts, occluding his focus like a storm cloud interrupting a beautiful vista view.

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. The timer rang, and Jordan cursed quietly to himself. He was in the university library taking a practice LSAT exam and he still wasn’t fast enough to complete every section within the allotted time. Jordan wanted to go to law school, and he wanted to earn his PhD too. But, he knew that he did not have the money. In fact, he was still paying off the loans from his undergraduate experience, and he couldn’t even afford to pay for an LSAT prep course. Which is why he found himself in the library on a Wednesday evening, well past closing time. The librarian, Ms. Lane, kept the library open an extra 30 minutes for Jordan on Wednesdays. Those were his testing days, where he’d take 3 LSAT practice tests in a row. He was trying to build his mental stamina and speed, but so far he was having very little success. He had one section left, and a 3 minute break. Deciding that he needed to get up and move, he stretched his body and went for a walk through the bookstacks.

Jordan mindlessly thumbed through the books, grabbing each one and flipping through the pages. He wasn’t reading anything; his mind was still too wired to absorb any superfluous information. And that’s when he came across it. A small, black book, with clear, blank pages. Jordan almost put the book back before realizing how out of place it was. An empty black book with nothing written in it. He flipped it over, first to its back, then to its spine. No author names, no library tags, no title even. He fanned through the pages again, and before putting it back into the stacks, he noticed there actually was something written at the very top of the first page. “Will you take me home? Yes/No” How strange.

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Jordan’s break was over. He rushed back to the table, black book in hand. He had one last section to complete that day and he was determined to finish it on time.

Jordan got home at midnight that night. He completed a rigorous day of testing and he had another round first thing in the morning the following day. Preparing for bed, Jordan washed his face and brushed his teeth and drank a glass of water. The next step in his nightly routine was to pack his bag for the next day, and as Jordan reached for the small, worn out knapsack, he realized that he had accidentally grabbed the black book and had taken it home. He opened it and turned to the first page. “Will you take me home? Yes/No” Jordan chuckled to himself. He grabbed his pen and circled the “Yes” option. “I guess you’re with me now” he said to the book as he closed it and turned off the lights. It had been a long day.

The next day Jordan woke up at 7AM. He always set his alarm for 8, but these days he was too stressed out to get that last hour of sleep. He had been grinding hard for the LSATs, but in the moments he wasn’t training, all he could think about was how much debt he was in. If he wanted to continue to get an education, Jordan was looking at anywhere from 3 to 5 more years of school, and he knew that depending on where he got in, he could be looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars of more debt. But, he couldn’t think about that now. Right now, all that mattered was the goal he had before him: train and ace the LSATs so that by the following year he could go to the number one law school in the country, Yale University.

As Jordan cleared his desk to take another practice exam, he came across the black book. He picked it up, momentarily confused. “Oh yeah” he said to himself, recalling the events of the night before. Jordan opened the book and began to flip to the first page when he noticed something strange. Now the second page of the book had something written on it as well. He could have sworn only the first page had something written on it the day before! He held the book closer to his face and read “What do you want?” “What do I want..? More like, what’s going on with this book?” Jordan closed the book and tossed it on his bed. As he continued to clear his desk, he came across a bill from his student loan servicer. “This is a notice for Jordan Jackson. You have 9 more months in your deferment period. After 9 months, your loan will continue to accrue interest. Your current outstanding balance is $20,000. Remember, loans cannot be forgiven through bankruptcy. Please contact one of our loan officers to discuss your repayment plan.” Jordan sighed. “You know what, that’s what I want.” Jordan grabbed a pen and snatched the black book from his bed. He opened it to the second page and wrote “$20,000 within the next 9 months.” He threw the book back on his bed, grabbed the student loan bill from his desk and flipped it off. “You’ll get your money. But first, LSATs.”

The next day began much like all the others. 7AM and Jordan was up. The only items on his desk were several pieces of scrap paper and the black book he had accidentally taken from the library. Remembering how strange it was that he had found something written on the second page, he decided to check the mysterious book one more time. And there it was! Something was written clear as day on the third page now. “Follow my instructions and in 9 months time, you will have $20,000” freaked out, Jordan closed the book. He knew for a fact that nothing had been written on any of the other pages except for the first two. He triple checked the night before just to be sure. He now knew, something strange was happening. This book was writing itself.

II

Coming soon.