Uncle Rick's Book

In the busy city of New York, a dated book store is particularly slow today. The afternoon sun is blaring through the windows, giving the shop a warm energy. Gerald is about to get off of work today when his boss, North, stops him.

“Hey Gerald, headed out for the day?”

“Yeah, I have to get to my night class in a couple of hours.”

“Alright, thanks for coming in today. I know today was your day off”

“ No worries. I always appreciate the extra hours”

“Hey, I’ve got something for you.” North pulls out a small book from his back pocket.

“What’s this?”

“It’s an old journal. Some man came in the other day and told me to give this to you. He was an older gentleman. Called you by your name, even.”

“Oh, that must’ve been my uncle. He must’ve been in town and checked to see if I was working… Thanks.”

“You got it, have a good one, Ger.”

Gerald puts the journal into his back pocket. He clocks out and leaves the store, and he walks around the block to grab coffee and go on with his day.

Once he gets back to his apartment, he sits down on his couch. He notices the journal that’s still in his pocket. He takes it out of his pocket and holds it out in front of him. The cover is made of a black leather.

Hm. Why would my uncle leave this at the shop for me?

He opens the first page of the small book and notices something written immediately on the inside.

'Write what you want. Be specific. Don’t be greedy. - Uncle Rick'

Gerald is confused by what his uncle wrote.

“Write what I want, huh?”

Gerald finds a pencil and takes It to the book. He thinks for a moment, then writes, I want a delicious sandwich. After a moment, the words fade away, as if someone erased them the same way they were written.

“This must be a joke.”

He turns on his TV and sits in front of it. As soon as he sits down, he gets a knock at the door. He’s not expecting anyone, so he ignores it. Whoever is at the door knocks a few more times before saying through the door, “Hey, is this Gerald? I have your order out here.”

Gerald goes to the door and opens it. The man on the other side of the door says, “Gerald?”

“Yes, that’s me, but I didn’t order anything.”

“Well, unless there’s another Gerald in this hall, this is your sandwich.”

When Gerald hears the word sandwich, he freezes. He looks over at the book, then back over at the man. He walks over and takes the sandwich.

“Thanks, I guess.”

He shuts the door and sets the sandwich down. He runs across the room for the book and reads the note written by his uncle.

'Write what you want. Be specific. Don’t be greedy. - Uncle Rick'

A realization washed over him. Write what you want… like a wish. He sits back on the couch and stares at the book. I could have anything I want.

He looks over at the clock, and realizes he’s about to be late to his class. He quickly grabs his bag and grabs the book and runs out the door. He runs until he gets to class, and he gets there just on time. He sits through his lecture and tries to take notes, however, he is too excited at the idea of the book. After a little while, he becomes too impatient and pulls out the book.

'I want lecture to end early.'

The words erase themselves once more. Once they are completely gone, the professor’s phone starts to ring. She walks over to her desk to look at it, and notices it’s important. She pauses the lecture to answer it.

“Hello. Yes, this is she…. Oh my… I uh, yeah, I’ll be there soon. Thanks for calling.”


She hangs up in a hurry. She looks very panicked and her face has gone pale.


“Alright, something urgent just came up. I’ll send you all the rest of the powerpoint to look through before next class. I have to get going, but I’ll see you all in a few days.”

She gathers her things and rushes out of the classroom. Gerald looks at the book.

What did I do?

Gerald leaves class and starts to walk back to his apartment. He feels guilty. Something happened. Something bad happened because of the wish, because of him. He does his best to not think of it. It has to be a coincidence. Right? He couldn’t have caused anything like that.

Once he gets back to his apartment, he starts to call his friend, but hangs up before she has the chance to answer.

This is crazy. She wouldn’t believe me. A little book that just gives me what I want? Is this even real? Am I awake right now?

Gerald remembers that it was his uncle who gave him the book. He picks up his phone to try and call his uncle. He called him a few times, but didn’t get an answer.

Okay. Crazy magic book that can give me what I want. I guess I can’t talk about it to anyone, who would believe me? The only guy who would isn’t answering. I can’t imagine this thing will work forever, so I’ve gotta make these requests count. But… look what happened with the last one. It seemed like something bad happened. It didn’t happen to me, but I can’t help but feel guilty.

'Write what you want. Be specific. Don’t be greedy.'

Maybe I was too greedy? Maybe I wasn’t specific enough. I should’ve said “I want the professor to cancel the lecture because she is tired.” That covers all the bases, doesn’t it? No room for anything bad to happen there.

It happened. I can’t do anything about it now. I just have to be safer next time. But what do I need? I can get anything from this, so what could I benefit from? What would help me the most?

Gerald is pacing around his apartment in thought. He feels overwhelmed. He feels guilty.

He wants to do something good. He wants to maximize the effectiveness of these requests. He doesn’t want to be too greedy though.

He remembers his debt. His best option might be to try and wish for means to pay off his debt he owes for college.

Wishing for money seems greedy. Maybe it’s dependent on what it’s for. It’s to pay off my debt, but what if wishing for enough to pay it all off is being too greedy? I’ll wish for a part of it. Not the whole thing.

Gerald reaches for the book again. He takes his pencil to the book.

'I want $20,000.'

He waits a moment, and it starts to fade away. Once it’s all gone, silence fills his apartment. He waits a moment, and nothing happens. He puts down the book.

Maybe it was too much. Too greedy. Maybe they don’t work if they’re too greedy.

He was puzzled by the book. He didn’t understand it. He didn’t understand the rules of which it played by. He just happened upon it’s functionality and a warning from his uncle.


Gerald figured that the wish wasn’t happening. It was late, and he was exhausted. He had been under so much stress because of this book. He decided to go to sleep, and turned in for the night.

In the middle of the night, he was awoken to the smell of smoke. He started to find it increasingly difficult to breathe. He shot up and knew something was very wrong. He heard the fire alarm coming from the other room. He grabbed his important things, and opened his bedroom door to confirm his suspicions. His apartment was on fire.

He hurriedly grabbed his keys, his laptop, his phone, and his wallet. He made a dash toward the front door, noticing the fire coming from the stove. He didn’t know how to put it out. His only option was to run away and call for help. He almost made it out of the door before he realized he forgot the book. He had left it on the counter near his kitchen. He ran back into the room and he grabbed the book, while holding his shirt over his face so he didn’t breathe in the smoke. He ran out of the room. The book was partially burned.

He made it out of the building and went to his car. He could already hear the siren of the firetruck on it’s way to put out the fire. He looked at the book that had partially caught on fire.

This couldn’t have been me. No way. This was a coincidence. I didn’t even cook anything.

—

A week went by and Gerald had started to stay at his parents’ house. He couldn’t bring himself to use the book again. It didn’t look like it would be usable for much longer though. It got caught in the fire and was weak and tearing now. He had a meeting with his insurance company, since everything that was left in his apartment had burned.

“I’m truly sorry that this happened to you. Fires are one of the worst things to recover from, but I think we got you a good amount compared to other situations. We found out that the stove that you had was a faulty model. There had been an issue with those stoves in another building, where they would leak gas. They’ve caused a few fires around the area. Lucky for you, the owner of your building had been warned of this, but he never did anything about it. He feels terrible about the situation, and is willing to offer you a good amount of money to settle this situation.”

“How much is he offering?”

“He said that the absolute most he could offer you is $20,000”

As those words left the agent’s mouth, Gerald’s heart dropped into his stomach.

So this was my fault. Be specific. Don’t be greedy. I knew I shouldn’t have wished for money. I put so many people in danger for this.

Gerald took the offer. It was what he asked for. He felt more guilty. He wanted this money to help him. Not ruin it and make him have to use it on something else.

He returns home and goes right for the book. He grabs the book and he grabs his pencil.

This Is insane. I want things to go back to normal. Please. Nothing can go wrong with that. Please, I just want to return to before when I got the book.

He writes

'I want everything to go back to normal. I want to go back to before I found this book. '

He waits a moment. The words don’t erase.

C’mon stupid book. Do something right, please. Help me out here. You’ve ruined me. Please just let me go back.

Nothing. Just the words of what he wants more than anything, remaining still on the page. He stares at them. The words stare back, as if to mock him.

Look what you’ve done to yourself.