The book that saved my life

"What’s this?" Sharon asked as she bent down to grab a small black notebook. “I wonder if someone lost their “little black book”, I answered back. I giggled and jibed “maybe it will come in handy”. Sharon was 36 and attractive in a down to earth kind of way, her reddish brown hair was offset by her perfect white complexion and green eyes. And she had the confidence resulting from one who didn’t have any troubles in the dating world. To be honest, she preferred being single and wasn’t really interested in anyone in particular. “Ha”, Sharon laughed as she opened the book, “it’s empty”. “What?, that’s weird” I said as I peered over her shoulder. “Here”, she offered the book to me, “I know you love your notebooks. “Awe, thanks”. This will come in handy when I fill up the other ones” I laughed. I did love notebooks and had a good collection at home.

I had written countless book beginnings with big dreams of hitting on the “one” one day. I didn’t have enough faith in my writing to try and publish anything. I never let anyone read my stories either. I kept the hope that one day, I would just do it, just sit down and write and write and be happy with the story, without the usual lamentations of: is this too cheesy? Am I describing too much? Am I not being descriptive enough? Etc.

We had been standing on the corner for this exchange and we had to jump out of the way when a car suddenly veered in our direction. We had moved just in time and the car sped off. “You M**F***”, Sharon shouted as she shook her fist at the offending vehicle. We incurred some stares from the people around us, the worst from a woman with her two children just trying to cross the street. “Did you see that?” Sharon blurted at her. “Whatever”. We carried on to the pub where we had been headed before seeing the notebook. I had a weird feeling that it wasn’t just an impatient driver and the car had targeted us, but that didn’t make any sense.

I had thrown the notebook in my purse and forgotten about it. In fact, I forgot about it for a few weeks until I grabbed the same purse on my way out to meet Sharon again for dinner. I was looking for something when my hand lit on it. I took it out and opened it again out of sheer curiosity. When I opened it this time, there was a strange green glow. I can’t really explain it, the pages weren’t green, there was just a …glow. I don’t know how long I sat there staring at it. I have to say that it did creep me out a bit so I closed it and opened it again and nothing, it was blank and normal looking, like before. Of course, I opened it again to double check. I ended up opening it about 10 or so more times. “Ok Sam, what the hell was that? I am imagining things…great. Maybe I need more sleep”, I said to my curious pup who was staring at me at this point. She was an adorable boxer that I couldn’t resist adopting from a local shelter. She didn’t seem too concerned and wandered over to sit in vigil by her bowl waiting for dinner. “Sorry girl, here you go”, I fed her and took her out and then grabbed my purse again and headed out to meet Sharon.

I didn’t mention the green glow to Sharon, she would think I was nuts, I mean I was seriously considering it. We had a really delicious dinner, but I couldn’t concentrate. I really wanted to get home and back to that book and I couldn’t really figure out why. “Hello, are you there?” Sharon was looking at me with a slightly concerned face. “Everything ok?” “Yes, sure, I think I’m just tired” I responded. I do have to get some sleep tonight, big presentation at work tomorrow”. “Oh ya, that’s right”. “Alright, let’s do this again sometime” Sharon joked. We tried to go for dinner at least once every two weeks.

When I got home, I was of course impatient to take a look at the book again. I grabbed it off the table where I had left it and opened it again. I wasn’t crazy, well I wasn’t sure but in any case, the book was glowing again. “Ok Sam, this is really weirding me out now”, I said to the mostly prone boxer lying at me feet. She sighed and went to her bed. I felt the need to write something…but what? I grabbed a pen and started writing. I wrote and wrote and couldn’t stop writing, or at least that’s what I thought.

I woke in a fog sometime later. It was still dark out but it felt like 4ish. I glanced at the clock and it was 4:30. Great, I felt so tired, but I had to work in a couple of hours. Ugh. I looked at the notebook and it was the strangest thing. It was blank! I had a cramp in my hand from writing. I knew I had written …a lot. But the book was blank. It wasn’t glowing, and it was blank, just like when Sharon and I found it. I was very confused and creeped out, but I had to get some sleep. I got a few hours sleep and made it to work and managed to get through the presentation without dying. I couldn’t wait to get home again and check the book, and of course take a nap.

A few hours later, I was comfy on my couch with the notebook in my lap and a boozy coffee drink in my hand. I took a deep breath before opening the book again. I opened it and nothing again, no glow, no writing. I searched through the entire book. “Sam, I just don’t know what happened last night”. Sam gave me a look that seemed to say, “Why aren’t you giving me treats”, then scratched herself and wandered off. I did have a good sleep that night, falling asleep early after the night and day I had had. The image in my head before I fell asleep was an older man that I passed on the street every day and occasionally engaged in conversation, with a green glow around him.

I went to work the next day and the vision of the old guy popped into my head again, but I didn’t see him in the usual place. As I walked by the spot he usually was, I saw the green glow again and I heard a voice. “Go home” it seemed to scream at me. It frightened me so much I almost stumbled. Once I recovered myself, I heard it again “Don’t’ go to work! Go HOME!! Honestly, I was really freaked out and looking around to see if anyone else had heard it. Obviously not, given the confused looks I was getting. I kept walking for a few steps but had to jump out of the way of the same car that had almost taken Sharon and I out. At least it looked like the same car. This part might sound stupid to you, or it might not but I went home. I called my boss and made up some excuse, but I was positive it was right to stay home.

Once home, I didn’t really know what to do. I just kind of wandered around my place for a bit, pet the dog, watched some tv. Then I grabbed the notebook again and there is was. It was my handwriting but I didn’t remember writing it.

It was a story about a workplace accident. It was a building that had structural issues and had somehow passed inspection. It turned out that the inspector had been paid off by the CEO of the company that owned the building. There were only a few that knew the building was unstable and was basically a death trap on the verge of collapse. I kept reading, enthralled by the story now (that was somehow so familiar), and I almost dropped the book when I found out where the building was. It was my office building, and the date was that day. It was crazy.

I turned on the news because I wasn’t sure what else to do and I’m pretty sure you can guess what I saw. I was in shock. If I had gone to work, I would have been one of the people buried in rubble. No one in the building survived the collapse.

I grabbed the notebook again, it wasn’t glowing anymore but there was writing still. I read the story from start to finish. “Oh my god”, I said. This story is fantastic. Did I write this? I must have. It sounded like me but better. Vaguely I remembered that there was a story contest I had seen posted the week before. It was for a grand prize of $20,000.