The Mysterious Black Book

Sarah’s big rottweiler, Jake, tugged at the leash. The air was crisp and smelled of the fresh snow that had just fallen last night. Her feet crunched in the snow and the light from her vest bobbed and illuminated the dark sidewalk in front of her.

She preferred walking this early in the morning. For one, there were no people except the occasional other dog-walker here and there, but they didn’t want to wave or smile or talk or be social any more than she did. Secondly, it was quiet. Just the way she preferred it.

The street lights gave off a yellowish, steady light that didn’t quite do enough to expose the uneven sidewalks. Her ex-boyfriend, Ben, had given her a lighted vest shortly before he left for greener pastures with Victoria.

Sarah snorted. Victoria! Some best friend she’d turned out to be. Her mother had warned her about Victoria back in high school.

“That girl is boy crazy, and she doesn’t care if the boy belongs to someone else. Keep an eye on that one.” Sarah blinked back tears.

“If only you knew, Mom. You were so right.” Her mom had died of a sudden heart attack a little over two months ago. Sarah missed her every day. With everything that had happened lately, Sarah wasn't sure she'd even still be here if it hadn't been for Jake.

Jake stopped and sniffed the air. He bared his teeth and raised his hackles a little, but as quickly as he startled, he was fine and he began to walk again as if nothing had disturbed him.

“What the heck was that Jake?”

Big brown eyes looked up at her adoringly and his stub tail wiggled.

She squatted down next to him giving him pets and scratches. He leaned into her. He’d been her best friend for seven years now. A better best friend than her human best friend had ended up being.

“You’re a goof. Stop being weird. You’re going to give me the heebie jeebies doing stuff like that.”

She caught a glimpse of something half-buried in the snow. If she hadn’t squatted down to pet Jake, she would’ve missed it.

“What’s this?” She reached down and picked up a small black book.

Behind her, Jake whined and paced back, as far as his lead would let him, his hackles now standing up straight.

“Someone lost their little black book buddy. I wonder what kind of secrets this holds!” Standing up, she aimed the light from the middle of her vest at the book, to get a better look. The cover was black, with some beautiful silver scroll work on the front.

“Look at this Jake. This is a beautiful book. There’s nothing on the spine, but there is something here…written on the cover…I thought it was just a design, but it might be words…I can’t really make it out - it looks to be written in the same scroll work as the design…it's really neat."

She turned the book this way and that until the light hit it in just a way to make the words pop out of the design.

“An Offer You Can’t Refuse = A Reward For Someone In Need.”

Sarah’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.

“What the heck…”

She looked around and finally noticed Jake, who was giving a low growl/whine.

“Hey…what’s the matter boy?” She took a step towards him, but he backed away. Sarah noticed he wasn’t looking at her, he was focused on the book in her hand.

“What in the world? Really? You’re afraid of a book?” Exasperated with the dog, she shifted her attention back to the book. Maybe someone would have put their name in it - it was a beautiful book, surely someone would want it back.

Gently, she pulled the ribbon off that held it closed.

“Okay, Jake, moral dilemma time. Do I look in here? I can see who it belongs to and try to find them. I don’t need to read any deep dark secrets…just…you know…see who owns it, and find them and return it. Simple, right? So why does it feel like if I open it, I’ll be taking a step I can’t take back…”

Jake chuffed at her. Still at the farthest reach of his lead, still refusing to come any closer.

“Oh for pete’s sake, you’ve got me completely spooked! It’s just a BOOK!”

With that, she opened the book and thumbed through to the first page with writing.

“Wow, this…is…beautiful…it sounds like paradise…” The writing was unlike any she had ever seen. Scrolling, flowing, it almost made her dizzy…the words bloomed into visions in her head.

“Mom?” Her vision began to spiral and she felt herself falling…

Jake whined and backed away from the book, laying where his human had stood just a moment ago.

Snow began to fall again, in thick, fluffy flakes.

Whining, still unsure, he took tentative steps until he was standing over the book. He pawed at it, uncertainly. The book had fallen, open, face down, on the sidewalk, and when he pawed it, it flipped over, causing him to bark and jump back. Growling at the book, he moved forward again. Looking down at the book, what the dog saw wasn’t words or flowing script…he saw a picture of his human, standing in a doorway, smiling, and looking back at him, as if calling him. Standing next to her, with an arm around her, was the human he remembered as Grandma.

Still whining, Jake put his paw on the book…

Several minutes later, a man walked down that same street. The snow was falling gently, and had begun to build up on the sidewalk.

He had taken a walk to clear his head, and had ended up walking for hours. He didn’t even know where exactly he was.

Dan had been laid off from his job and the bills were piling up. Their landlord was being understanding, but Dan knew it couldn’t last forever. The lender for the car loan and the credit card lenders weren’t as understanding. He had thrown resumes everywhere he could think of, but hadn’t heard back.

Dan pulled his phone out and then berated himself under his breath. He had put out several resumes and had finally had an interview. He was waiting for the call as to whether or not he got the job. Unfortunately, his phone had been turned off for non-payment yesterday. He'd been out wandering, trying to figure out how to get just a couple hundred bucks to at least get the phone turned back on. He still found himself checking it periodically.

“I just need a break!” He whispered to no one in particular. “I don’t need to win the lottery, I don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hell, $20k would be enough.” He sighed. “Like that’s any different than asking for a million.”

Just at that moment. He kicked something under the snow. He stopped, and moved it with his toe. It looked similar to his wife’s coupon wallet. Next to it was a dog leash and collar. “Must’ve been a big dog.” He had begun talking to himself shortly after starting his walk. He’d never done that before, but it made him feel better today. “Where’d you go buddy?” He looked around to see if a large dog suddenly materialized out of the darkness. He whistled and called out a couple of times, but no dog materialized from the dark.

Maybe there was something inside to indicate who had lost the wallet…and, apparently, a large dog. He opened it to see what was inside and caught his breath.

“No…freaking…way…” The wallet was full of cash. Large bills. He quickly counted it - Twenty-thousand dollars. His heart was beating out of his chest. He looked around - surely someone had to be frantically looking for this! There was no one.

He looked in the wallet again to see if there was anything that said who it belonged to.

A small piece of black paper had been carefully placed behind the bills. He pulled it out.

“Weird, I can hardly read this…” he said to himself. The script on the black page was written in silver ink, and was beautifully artistic, scrolling and flowing across the page. He finally made out the words.

“She took the offer, you get the reward.”