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“Hey babe, look at this!” My husband called out.

I turned to see him wiggling a loose stone out of the wall. “Wow, What’s that?”

He set the stone down, then straightened to peer inside the dark hole. “Looks like a wooden box.” Then he immediately turned to me in question.

“What?” I asked.

“This is never a good idea. It may be a possessed doll or a curse or something. This house is like a million years old.”

“Or.” I said, reaching for the box. “It’s a bunch of money. Or some jewelry maybe?”

I pulled it out of its small confines and dusted it off. I opened the clasps excitedly, only to be disappointed. “Or .. it’s just a stupid book.” I said dejectedly, taking the small black notebook out of its case and looking it over. It was in surprisingly good shape with its rounded corners and elastic band to keep it shut.

I opened it and rolled my eyes. “Oh wait, its not just any stupid book.” I said dryly, flipping through the pages before throwing it to my husband. “It’s a cookbook.”

He opened it, scanning the contents more thoroughly than I had. “Wait. Listen to this.” He said standing as he began to read out of the book.

“In this book lies wealth indeed.

The recipes within will supply your needs.

The more you cook, the more you make.

But the more you make, the more it takes.”

He looked up slowly. “I knew it! It’s like a curse or something.”

I rolled my eyes and snatched the book from him, putting it back into its case. “We will see if it’s a curse.”

“What?”

“Let’s go make some dinner!” I said cheerfully.

Once in the kitchen, I opened the book and started reading where my husband left off.

“Okay, there are rules.” I said leaning against the counter.

“Each recipe will have a figure beside it. That is how much you will receive once the dinner is cooked and eaten.”

I flipped the page to go to a recipe.

“Whoa, this shepherd's pie will give us three thousand dollars.” I said laughing. Then turned back to the rule page.

“Before you cook your dinner, make sure you have all of the ingredients listed. No substitutes. Place the wooden box next to the fire and keep it closed. Cook your dinner exactly as instructed. Once you have finished the dinner, open the wooden box to retrieve your reward.” I shrugged. “Sounds easy enough right?”

I sat the book up against the counter wall, and grabbed the ingredients for the Shepherd’s pie.

“Babe. What about the rest? Didn’t it say it will take something if we do this?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “You are a grown man, James. Do you really believe anything will happen from taking a recipe from this book?”

“Then why are you about to make Shepherd's pie?” He asked me sharply. He grabbed the book to continue reading. “Cook at your own risk. The book will give as much as it takes.”

I ignored him and continued prepping the food.

“Are you hearing this? Even if you didn’t believe it, why risk it?”

“You’re getting on my nerves, James.” I said, snatching the book from him to start cooking.

The truth was, I was hoping it did work. We just dumped all of our money in this new house. James was the only one working and I stayed home with our two kids. We’ve barely furnished the house and we’ve been here a month. I was hoping it worked. We needed it, no matter the risk.

“Okay fine.” James said in an annoyed tone. “You take the risk. I won’t.”

The shepherd's pie turned out amazing. I had never made it that good before. The kids finished quickly, and so did my husband, who was very reluctant to try it at first.

As soon as the kids left the table, my husband and I huddled around the wooden box. If there was money in there, it would change everything. There were hundreds of recipes in that small book that could last us a lifetime. That would also mean that something bad may happen from this.

I didn’t let that thought take root. I hurriedly unlocked the clasps and opened the box.

My eyes widened at the sight of the bills stacked neatly into two piles. My husband and I each grabbed a pile and started counting.

“Fifteen hundred.” My husband said.

“Yea same.” I muttered. “Three thousand dollars. Just like the book said!” I grabbed the book and flipped through the recipes, seeing how much each of them were worth.

“Are you forgetting something?” My husband said, looking around wearily. “Something is going to happen.”

As soon as he said that, our house phone rang. I paused and watched my husband walk over to the phone and picked it up.

“Hello.” He said slowly.

I watched as his eyes grew wide. Then he hung up the phone.

“That was your mom.” He said slowly. “It seems your cousin Paul had a heart attack and died a few moments ago.”

My heart slammed against my chest. “It couldn’t be from this. I haven’t spoken to Paul in years! He’s almost eighty, this could have been totally natural!”

I followed James into the living room and down onto the couch.

“We have so much debt to pay James.” I said after a long moment of silence. “Let’s sleep on it. If nothing else happens by tomorrow, then we are in the clear. Paul was old. He was sure to go soon.”

James turned a shocked gaze on me, then he looked down at the money in my hand and sighed. “We do need the money, don’t we?”

I nodded vigorously at him. “So bad James. Just sleep on it.”

“Okay. Let’s clean up and go to bed.”

The next day came with no further incident. I used the money to buy the kid’s some beds to sleep in and I made a payment towards one of our many loans.

James seemed more open to cooking another dinner from the recipe book. When it was time to get ready to cook, he started on a recipe of the same value.

I waited in the living room anxiously. Ready for it to be done so we could eat and see if it worked again.

After dinner, we rushed the kids upstairs to get ready for bed. Then we headed to the box. Just like last night, there were two stacks of bills inside. We each counted again, then looked at the phone anxiously. When it did not ring, I felt a sigh of relief slip pass my lips.

We sat on the couch and made plans for the money.

I opened my social media app, and scrolled through my feed as James was talking. Something caught my eye, and I stopped on the picture. It was Jame’s uncle. He had been found in his bed. He died from a stroke.

I showed James. He looked upset, but not overly concerned.

“He was old as well.” He said thoughtfully.

“So.” I said slowly. “Whoever cooks, loses the relative. They are older and die of natural causes it seems.”

We spent the next couple of hours writing out plans and old relatives we each had. We also looked at all the recipes. If we did one of a larger value, we wouldn’t have to do it too often.

The months to follow were great. We managed to get a lot of our debt paid and half of the house was furnished. We were also able to take the kids to the beach.

We soon realized that the larger the sum, the closer the reactive was. James wanted to stop after losing his brother, but we earned $20,000 for that meal.

It helped that I hated my sisters and didn’t know any of my nephews. It sounded bad, but I felt no sadness for them.

Even though the money was much higher for siblings, we were spending more than we should have and bills were once again piling up.

James started cooking again.

A couple of weeks later, all of our siblings were dead. James cried every single night. I didn’t cry, but I felt so much guilt. I knew we couldn’t continue cooking. We only had our parents and children left.

I took the wooden case with the book inside and placed it back into the wall. We each had lost a total of nine relatives.

That was it. No more. We had enough money to get by for a while, while James started looking for work.

It had been months since our last meal from the book. The kids seemed unhappy that we weren’t able to go places or buy them nice things. James was worn out from trying to find jobs. We were back in the same spot we were before we found the book.

James gave me a pleasing look, but I shook my head. I finished eating. The food tasted bland. The kids never finished the meals anymore and always excused themselves from the table.

I went up a moment after them and called it a night.

Sometime in the middle of the night, a delicious smell wafted through the house and up my nose. I smiled and licked my lips, only to pop open my eyes and look around.

James was nowhere to be found.

I shot out of bed and ran down the stairs.

James was seated at the table. Tears streamed down his face as he ate two different meals from two different plates.

“James! What have you done?” I screamed at him. I put my hand over my mouth and watched as he ate the two plates until they were empty.

I walked to the box and opened it. I counted fifty thousand dollars. That was the most we had ever gotten at one time.

I closed it, only to open it back up after hearing a thud. Another fifty thousand dollars.

I put the money on the counter and walked out of the room.

Fifty thousand for each parent. The thought made my heart beat faster, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. After an hour of contemplating, I went downstairs and turned on the stove.

“What are you doing?” James asked.

“My turn.” I said sadly.

He didn’t say anything, just watched as I prepared two meals from the book.

I sat at the table and started eating. I ate in silence as my husband watched me. I had started on the second plate, when the phone rang. My husband’s face dropped as he got up to answer it.

I watched him as I continued eating. He was nodding his head and muttering, when his eyes went round with shock.

“Wait, what?” He exclaimed.

I finished my last bite, then put the plates in the sink waiting for him to get off the phone.

“My parents died in a car crash an hour ago.” He started, still looking shocked. “Your parent’s were in the car with them, they were on their way to dinner. They all died.”

I frowned. “Does that mean we got paid all of that money for all four of them?” I walked to the wooden box and opened it, surprised to see there was money in it.

The stacks were much higher than they were before. I counted five hundred thousand dollars. “Why is this so much? I don’t get it.”

James shook his head violently, his face distorted in anguish. “It isn’t for them.They were already dead when you cooked the meals!” He screamed as he raced upstairs.

I watched him in confusion, then I felt as if I were hit with a million bricks as realization dawned on me. “Oh my God!” I screamed racing after him.