Noel and the Little Black Book

Isla Rose has been optimistic her whole life. And not because of good fortune. Terrible things had happened to her in her forty years of life, like challenging her, like tempting her to become a more ... common person... and yet there she was, aware of how lucky she was to appreciate the little things of life.

She has had a good life. She had forged it by herself, and although the result had been positive, sometimes she felt sad, confused, wondering if her life really was meant to be that way. ¿Had she made the proper decisions? Because one thing it was her optimism, and another her analytical and spiritual mind. And sometimes, the demons of her mind came to take her out of her happy world.

"What could I have done?" Isla Rose asked her friend, Adeline, looking into her eyes with an expression of: "tell me the truth, but gently."

“When my grandmother died, the timing didn't help me. I had just been promoted in the office, and I couldn't dare to leave for some days.

It still hurts a lot not to have been there for my mom. I know she expected me to go. It's one of the things I'm sorry I didn't do. "

Adeline was looking at her affectionately. Her friendship had been born in college many years ago. She always enjoyed listening to Isla Rose telling the story of how they met because she told it to whoever wanted to listen, like someone who says that has won a lottery ticket:

“I was sitting in the front seat, terrified that the teacher would make me go to the blackboard because that teacher specifically was a mean one, a bully. If he sent me to the blackboard, I was going to screw it up.

And suddenly, the teacher asks the class an innocent question: who could come forward to draw a net, a simple net? He could have asked to write the vowels, and even so, I wouldn't dare. Did I mention the man was horrible?

And that's when, from the back of the room, looking like "I don't understand how those upfront have not drawn not one, but twenty nets, does the teacher bites? why is everybody so afraid of that bully?"... this beautiful girl, Adeline, my friend, passed by, grabbed the marker from the teacher's hand without hesitation, drew a net in less than a second, returned the marker to the teacher almost contemptuously, and returned to her seat.

I looked at my friend Adam, who was sitting next to me and with whom we unintentionally played to be the best team in the room, our own dream team, and without saying a word, we both knew we had to bring her to our group."

And so they did, Adeline thought. At the end of the class, they approached me: "Do you have a study group?" (no), "are you new?" (yes, I had just switched to that class). "Ok, you are on our team."

From that moment on, we were inseparable, Adeline concluded with a smile.

Adeline learned to care about Isla Rose. She admired and appreciated her. She loved her kindness, and she was an inspiration. "When I grow up, I want to be like Isla Rose." After all, Isla Rose was ten years older than her. She had walked the path Adeline was beginning to walk.

“Isla, you did the only thing you knew, continue working, give support to your mom from a distance, and justify yourself. You couldn't have done it differently. Don't torture yourself. " Adeline said to her sincerely.

“If only I knew what I know now. That what really matters is not a job, but to give love, help, support." Isla Rose was really going through a moment of regret, an internal duel.

Adeline's mind began to work quickly. She was torn between telling her what she knew because if Isla Rose liked her idea, she would carry it out to get her result without thinking about the consequences. But at the same time, she was excited to help her friend get rid of that weight that she carried in her soul for not having been able to be there for her mother.

"Isla Rose, there is something I want to tell you."

Adeline said to herself, "you still have time. Think carefully if this is what you should do."

But she had already caught the attention of Isla Rose, who, understanding the different tone in her friend's voice, sat facing her as avoiding any possibility of her changing her mind about what she had to say.

"Tell me, Adeline." Whispered Isla Rose.

Adeline sighed while she thought that really that moment that was going to happen was destined to happen. It hadn't been her imagination. It was no accident that she had arrived at the Isla Rose classroom that afternoon when they met.

The morning of that day, Adeline had gone out for a jog early, and at one point, she saw how an older man was being beaten by some subjects, with no one around but her.

Without thinking twice, she ran to defend the poor man. Perhaps it was her adrenaline that helped her because, armed only with her hands and legs, she not only released the man from out of the evildoers' arms but hit them and scared them that much that they were out of sight in less than ten seconds.

After making sure that the old man, "Noel," she learned, was okay, she helped him sit up and stayed next to him, making sure he caught his breath.

Noel told Adeline that she had been fearless, "just as he had imagined."

"What did he mean with that he had imagined it that way"? Adeline asked him with curiosity and a little apprehension.

What Noel was about to tell her, she would not have guessed in a million years ...

- "This has been a test, and you passed it." As he said that, he took out from his portfolio, which had mysteriously not been taken away by the criminals, a small black book and an envelope with a large sum of money.

“This little black book is a treasure. It's magic. There you will find the instructions to achieve what you want. You can use it for yourself or someone else. And here are twenty thousand dollars, for you to use as you please. Don't worry about saving them for a special occasion, use them whenever you want. It is a reward. "

As Noel was saying all this to a bewildered Adeline, she watched him vanish like smoke. Adeline told him that she didn't understand anything, she stammered "thank you," she wanted to hug the good man, so she did. She felt like she was hugging the air, but she knew he was still there, she felt his goodness and his magic, and her heart was filled with the most incredible joy."

So she stayed for a while and then she looked at the little black book. "Instructions." (Instructions for what?)

Instructions for reliving an experience in a parallel world, by Noel Christmas.

1- Close your eyes and keep them closed

2- Think about what you want to achieve, with all the details of how you would do to achieve it if there were no impediments

3- Breathe, counting the inhalations and exhalations

4- Touch with your right hand, the wrist of your left arm, for five seconds.

Once the experience has been lived, repeat step 4 to return to the present world.

Note: it is advisable to do this accompanied by someone you trust, so that, in case you do not want to return to the current world, the other person can do point 4 and bring back the person who was living the experience.

Adeline read the instructions over and over with fascination, then returned to her house.

Once there, she tucked the money between two books from her library, unhurried, unpretentious. I'll know when I'll want to use it, she told herself.

And the little black book was placed next to her favourite books, to give a place of honour to such peculiar gift.

That night she met Isla Rose, and since then, three years had passed. Three years during which she hadn't used the money or the little black book. But she knew the time had come.

Adeline told everything to Isla Rose, who was perplexed, looking at her with her huge brown eyes wide open, her mouth as well.

When she finished explaining, they held hands like two little children, and without saying a word, they went to Adeline's house.

Once there, Isla Rose was moved to think about what she was about to live: the possibility of amending that mistake of the past, of being able to go to be with her mother in her city and hug her, comfort her, tell her that everything would be fine, without matter the consequences in her work.

So she did. Instructions. Step 1, 2, 3, 4.

It was wonderful.

Isla Rose's mother ran to Isla Rose. She wasn't expecting her. They embraced. Isla Rose kissed her hands, join her in her room, and there they talked for a long time. She made her mother some tea. They cried several times, laughed, and then fell asleep.

"Step 4", Isla Rose heard in her dreams, I must touch my arm; otherwise, I will not be able to return. But why do I want to go back? I'm so good here.

If I don't come back, things can be very different when I wake up.

She touched her arm and woke up placidly.

She was in her bed, in her room. She knew that she had lived a wonderful, unique experience. She wanted to run and tell… wait, who? She felt that she wanted to tell someone, but she did not remember who that person was.

After bathing, she went to her work. She had a feeling it was going to be a good day!

"Isla Rose, this is Adeline. She will start working with us here today," commented one of the firm's partners.

“Nice to meet you, Adeline. My name is Isla Rose. Welcome,” Isla Rose said warmly.

"My pleasure," Adeline smiled, thinking to herself, "I think we will be excellent friends."

The end