The black book

“The stuff I get myself into.”

She sat on the hood of her car for a bit, peering into the woods.

“God damn compulsions.”

She slid off the hood, walked back to the trunk, opened it up, and took out a pick and shovel. She peered up was seemed to be an overgrown driveway heading off toward the hill, but the birch, alder and pine had had a good 40-odd years to grow, and it was a challenge picking her way along it. She came to a less dense area where it seemed there was once a clearing. To the north edge, tucked in at the foot of the hill, were the remains of a small cabin. The corrugated tin roof had collapsed down into the interior, the green paint mostly eroded away. The front wall had partially caved in showing an interior full of rotting leaves and branches. It was very unimpressive. She shook her head and grimaced.

It all the fault of that damn black book.

The second hand shop was always fun to explore. She had found quite a few treasures over the years. This trip her gaze fell on a small black leather notebook. Hoping it was still blank she pulled it off the shelf and started to leaf through it. Sadly it was mostly filled, with a small, angular but legible script. Curious, she read a bit. The writing was odd. It kind of made sense, but then it really didn't. Intrigued, she bought it. She found herself reading that book cover to cover, over and over. It felt like it was trying to describe something important, but never quite managed it. Strangely, it felt like part of her understood it perfectly, and she was deeply drawn to it.

Trying to sort things out, she took a few long drives through the woods near her home. The forest was was lovely. Most of the snow was gone, and the spring flowers were just starting to peak through on the sides of the dirt roads. On one of her drives she saw a small sign partially covered by the overgrowth. She got out of her car and cleaned it off. It read: For Sale, 3 acres, $13,000 or best offer, with a phone number. It was an unimpressive, landlocked parcel with a hill at the back. There were traces of a road or driveway heading through it toward the hill.

A few phone calls later and she had made an offer to buy it. The seller was eager to get rid of it, and knocked a bit off the asking price. She had enough saved up to pay half down and she managed to get a small loan to cover the rest.

She started kicking herself almost immediately for taking that loan. Bills were hard enough, and now her savings was gone and she had this parcel of quite probably useless land. She hadn't talked to anyone before buying it, and was not too excited at the prospect of how her brothers would react. Maybe she just wouldn't tell them. She knew she could be a bit compulsive, but this just took things to a whole new level.

Well, she could always have it logged. If there were any decent trees it might cover part of her loan. She decided to hike around the parcel and see if anything looked worthwhile. Also, the previous owner had said that there was once a cabin near the back of the parcel. It might be worthwhile digging near the ruin. You never knew what might be found in someone's old trash heap.

Loading up her tools she set off.

Once she got to the remains of the cabin she dug around the foundation for a while, and, as well as finding the usual beer and liquor bottles, she uncovered an old rotting bankers box. You could still see the gray-green paint in a few spots, but the top and hinges were in pretty bad shape. The rust did eliminate the problem of not having a key, though. One good blow with the shovel and she was able to get the top off. Inside were a few dirty parcels wrapped in a waxed cloth.

She took it to a small open spot near where the front door had been and started unwrapping the bundles. The smallest held a few old rings. There was some value there, so that was nice. She got chills, though, when unwrapping the larger two bundles.

Cash. A stack of $100 and $500 dollar bills, very old but still in decent shape. Shaking, she counted it. There was around $20,000! She wrapped it back up and placed it back in the box, took the little black notebook out of her pocket and just stared at it.

And then she began to laugh.