The Mistake

“Hey, stranger,” a raspy voice said to a young mother in the park, “I have a proposition.”

The man making the offer looked to be in his 50s. He was unshaven, smelled like he hadn’t bathed in a while and wore tatty clothes. One of his shoelaces was broken and part of his jacket had been burned. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

Ethan, a tall and handsome college student lived just across the way and was going for his morning jog.

“Not interested,” the young mother said in passing.

Ethan made a round around the park and saw the apparent drifter approaching another individual. He was too far away to hear the conversation, but it appeared to be going much the same as the last.

Ethan made another lap around the park.

This time around, the 50 something had withdrawn a little black leather notebook from his pocket and was showing it to a young man who had stopped.

“If you’re willing to take this little, empty book, I’ll make it worth your while,” said the homeless man.

I’m said “Sorry, man,” said the young man, “I’m not into whatever you’ve got going on.”

“It’s just an empty book, here, I’ll show you,” the dirty stranger flipped the pages of the book, showing it to be empty.”

“Not interested,” the youngster said as he started to walk away.

“I’ll give you twenty thousand dollars.”

Hearing the man in tattered clothes say that caused Ethan to turn about. He saw the stranger holding several stacks of dollar bills.

Ethan laughed within, thinking “That much money would sure come in handy.”

He made another lap, this time he slowed as he passed. The man looked exasperated as he tried to get another passerby to take his book and his money.

The youthful jogger slowed to a stop and made his way to the hobo.

He walked up just as the latest victim turned to walk away, drifter still clutching the book and the money.

“I’ll take the money,” Ethan heard himself saying. Before he knew what was happening the smelly stranger had thrust the book and several wads of cash into his arms, turned and walked away. The strange man seemed to have an enormous weight lifted off his mind as he walked away contentedly. “Keep it close,” the man in his 50s called out over his shoulder.

The youngster looked at the money dumbfounded for a moment then lifted his head back up. The man had disappeared.

Ethan thumbed the money. It appeared to be legal tender. “Is this really what twenty thousand dollars looks like?” he thought. He then looked over the little black book. It was about 7” tall, leather bound with an elastic strap holding it closed. Upon examining it, he found the pages were all empty. It looked as though it had never been used. The paper was silky smooth, and the binding was super tight. “Pretty high-quality stuff,” Ethan mused. He looked about and saw a group of people staring at him and, more importantly his newfound stack of money.

With that, he decided he better retreat to his apartment.

All the way up the stairs to his home, Ethan dreamed about what he could do with the money. Cars, clothes, maybe save it or invest it. “Naw,” he definitively said, “car, 100%.”

Once he entered his apartment, the young college student went to his room and set the little black book and the stack of money on his nightstand. He emptied his pockets there as well and got ready to shower. Just as he was about to enter the hot water, he heard his phone ring. He quickly picked it up and saw it was his older brother calling.

“Hi Scott. You’re not going to believe my luck-” Ethan was cut off by his brother’s voice.

“Ethan! Drop what you’re doing and get to the hospital. Dad’s had a stroke and he’s not doing well.”

“What?” Ethan said in surprise, “what happened? Where are they?”

“In their rush they left their phones behind. Let me give you the number for the hospital,” said Scott’s voice over the line.

Ethan reached for a pen and grabbed the nearest paper, which happened to be his new notebook.

“Let me have the number,” he said, pressing the pen to the paper.

No sooner had he done so when he felt his phone vibrate. Another call was coming in for their sister Lisa. Ethan quickly merged the calls.

“Lisa, Mom and Dad are in the hospital-” Ethan said but was cut off by his sister, “I’m with them now,” she said. “I just got here. They gave Dad some emergency meds and it seems to be working. They say he’s gonna be alright”

“Oh thank heavens,” said the older brother over the line as his younger brother sunk down onto his bed in relief.

“I think I’ll to run to see Dad anyway,” Scott said, “maybe you ought to do the same.”

Ethan took the black book and set it on the counter, “going to have to call to find out where Dad is,” thought the young man.

He turned to get some leftovers out of the fridge. As he did so, from the top of his vision he saw a black widow spider, descending from a single strand of web from the ceiling, directly in front of his face.

“Woah!” he exclaimed as he backed up. His hands fumbled on the counter to find something to squish the spider. As they did, he saw the walls of his apartment come alive with movement. Black widow spiders were crawling everywhere.

“What the hell?” Ethan exclaimed as his hands found the little black book. He instinctively used it to smash the single black widow. To his surprise, almost immediately the other spiders retreated behind the cupboards, counters and appliances.

In something of a state of shock, the frightened young man started to look behind his kitchen appliances. He carefully opened his cupboards and looked for spiders. In short, he searched his whole kitchen with no signs of the creepy creatures.

That left Ethan shaken.

“What in the name of all that is holy is going on here?” he said as he set the book down. “I think I’m going to call the superintendent, see if he can schedule an exterminator.”

The young college student started to dial his phone when he was suddenly startled by the sound of his smoke alarm. Smoke poured out from his oven. He ran to the oven to turn it off, but found it was already off. He turned to look at the smoke alarm. His jaw hit the floor when he saw every appliance and electronic in his studio apartment had smoke pouring out at the seams.

“Oh damn! Oh damn! Oh damn!” Ethan blurted frightenedly. He quickly cleared his phone and started to dial 911. Instinctively, he reached for an object to fan the smoke alarm so he could hear the call. His hands found the little black book and he started to fan the smoke alarm.

“911 What is your emergency,” sounded in the young man’s ear. At the same time, the sound of the smoke alarm stopped. Ethan looked around the room and saw that the smoke was completely gone. All his electronics appeared to be completely normal.

Stunned, he let the phone slip out of his hand and fall to the ground. His apartment looked completely normal. There he stood, motionless for a time, dumbfounded.

He found his way to a chair around his table.

“What on earth is happening to me?” Ethan finally thought. His glassy eyes migrated to the black book, still in his grip. His mind traveled back to earlier this morning and the tattered stranger that all but forced the book on him. “The guy seemed to be relieved... he even paid for someone else to take it,” thought the dazed man.

He held the book up in front of him and looked at it. He laid it flat in his hand as if he were judging its weight. “It all started when I took this damn thing,” Ethan lamented. He slammed the book down on the table.

Immediately upon doing to, he heard screeching tires, a crash and broken glass. The college student ran to his window and threw it open. Another car had apparently lost control and crashed into Ethan’s car.

Quickly the youngster ran back to the table and picked up the book and rushed to the window. All traces of the crash were gone.

“It only happens when I set this thing down,” he conjectured.

With that, he walked decisively over to the door, opened it and thew the notebook out the door and closed it with a slam.

Instantly, Ethan heard sirens outside. Three stray bullets shot in through the front door, narrowly missing the young man’s body.

“Holy shit!” He exclaimed as he dropped his body to the ground. As fast as he could, he low crawled outside, down the steps and picked up the black book, “looks like I can’t just ditch it.”

He picked himself up off the ground and ran back to the park where he had previously seen the drifter.

“Hey!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, “I have your book!” He raised the little black book up. “Come and take this damn thing back! Hey! I know you’re here.” For almost two hours Ethan repeated this process in the park. Finally, with a hoarse voice and a police car driving by, the now apparently cursed man made his way back to his home.

“Of course the bastard wouldn’t come back. He knew he might run into me.”

For hours he sat with the book in his lap, staring, thinking, wondering...

At one point Ethan fell asleep. He shifted his weight in his sleep and the book slid of his lap. He awoke with a start as a sudden, intense heat radiated from his side pocket. His phone batter had over heated and caught fire.

After an exhausting, sleepless night of misfortune, the exasperated victim found himself wandering the streets. His clothes were torn, charred, dirty and stained from the time in his cursed state. He hadn’t shaved yesterday or that morning either. In exhaustion, he collapsed at a bus stop bench. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there but he was startled by the sound of rustling coming from behind him.

He saw a homeless man digging through a garbage can, searching for something of value. He stared at the hobo for a while, then glanced down at the black book. His mind turned to the stack of cash sitting on his nightstand. A smile crossed his face as he opened his mouth to speak to the homeless man.

“Hey you, I’ve got a proposition...”