Reasonable Request

She bought the little notebook because it already had writing on the first page. She opened the black cover to reveal the words, ‘buy this book’ written hastily on the first page. It made her laugh. She had a Roomba named Marco and an intense attachment to her maroon car named Stephanie, so of course she couldn’t say no to an inanimate object commanding her to buy it. However, like so many impulse purchases before it, it sat on top of her bookshelf. She didn't really think much of it.

One day she decided to try a headstand with some not so vertical results. She ended up kicking the bookcase, knocking the book onto the floor. Once she recovered she picked up it up and held it for the first time in a little over a month. She smiles at the unassuming cover and flipped it open to look at the anonymous inscription.

‘Buy some strawberries’. Well, that was strange. Hadn’t it read ‘buy me’ or something? Now it wanted strawberries. She starred at the strange handwriting. It didn’t change as she was look at it.

She had to run some errands anyway, but she hesitated before leaving. It sat still on the counter and, she eyed the it suspiciously as if it were suddenly going to jump up at her. She picked up the notebook to take with her, it was just small enough to tuck into her purse. Before she could doubt herself, she and Stephanie were on their way. It would be weird for her to listen to it right? Though now that she had it in her head she did want some strawberries. She decided it wasn’t weird enough of a request to stop her from buying the fruit.

She was in the parking lot when she gave the page a look again. It still read ‘Buy some strawberries'. It was a quick trip in and out of the grocery store. Nothing out of the ordinary. As she was walking out the handle on her bag broke and the carton fell out onto the floor. A man who was leaving at the same time passed by quickly and ended up stepping right on her beautiful red strawberries.

“Sorry.” He said though he didn’t sound sorry, more like he was inconvenienced. “Here.” He tore a scratch off lottery ticket from the long tail of them, and shoved it at her before continuing on his way. She looked down at her destroyed fruit. So much for berries. One of the cashiers came up to her.

“I’m so sorry.” She said awkwardly juggling her other purchases.

“It’s fine, happens all the time.” the cashier said brightly. “Here.” She had a new bag open and helped her deposit everything in it.

“I’m so sorry about this mess.” She hated making more work for other people.

“Really it’s no trouble. Can I get you another carton of berries?”

“No, I think this is the universe telling me I don’t need them.” She chuckled.

“If you’re sure…”

“Yeah, thank you!” She said finally waving at the cashier. Once she was back in her car she heaved out a sigh. Stupid notebook. She pulled it out of her purse and flipped open the cover again.

‘Scratch the ticket.’ It now read. Now, that was freaky. She just starred at it, the same messy handwriting that wasn’t hers starred back. It had been in her purse the whole time. How could it say something different? She turned her attention to her grocery bag. The ticket had been shoved in with everything else. She fished it out form the bottom. It boasted possible winnings of 100,000 dollars. She scoffed. She knew no one really won that much on scratchers, but maybe she could get a dollar or two out of the deal. She used her house key to scratch away the grey coating. The game, if you could call it that, was simple enough; reveal the little stack of cash, win the prize underneath. The second space had poorly drawn little stack. Score! She scratched underneath to see what her prize was. It wasn’t 100,000. It was 20,000. She starred at the figure for a long time. Then she looked at the little black book. She was afraid to flip it open this time. This was silly. It was impossible, this all had to be coincidence. She flipped it open again.

‘Don’t wait.’ She couldn’t disagree with that.