The little black book

It was one of those days that everything seemed to go against me. I slept through my alarm clock, my car had a flat tire, the bus was late, and because of the rain, there didn't seem to be a working taxi in a 10 block radius.

I don't know how I managed it, but despite everything, I managed to show up on time only looking slightly less than a drowned rat.

Work was the same as always, a boss that was a little too much a combination of the dreaded "Karen" (the bane of all workers everywhere), and micromanager of the year contender. We were blessedly slow that day so my manager had me working on stocking the shelves and doing general busywork. He of course sat up in the office and played with his phone while I and another worker handled all the work, nothing unusual.

The stranger that walked through the door around lunchtime though is what changed my life, though of course, I didn't know it at the time. My coworker was on a smoke break out back so I plastered on my best retail worker smile and opened my mouth to say something, but stopped short. This man was the most bizarrely dressed person I've met in my life, and that was saying something since I spent most weekends larping with friends out at the local park.

Tall, dark, and wearing a long black duster and a hat pulled low over his eyes, he walked in and began browsing around one hand firmly in his pocket, the other pulling his coat collar up around his ears, despite the rather warm weather we'd been having. I didn't want to assume the worst of him, I didn't think he'd shoplift from our tiny hole in the wall store. His eyes kept darting to the door as he browsed and mumbled a simple "just looking" when I approached him and asked if he was looking for anything.

He did eventually leave when my coworker came back in a few minutes later, and I told them about the weird man. We both thought nothing of it till later when we were closing up the shop for the day and I happened to notice a small black book behind some cleaning supplies we'd stashed under the counter. We didn't know who it had belonged to since no one can easily get behind here, and this was well up under the counter.

I don't know why I did it but I slipped it into my pocket as we were closing up, I guess I had meant to give it to the manager as we were leaving, but he pulled his powertrip moment again, and all but rushed us out the door.

Though the sun was setting as we were leaving, the rain had finally let up and looked to be a clear starry night, with a nearly full moon. "Maybe I'd go onto the roof of my apartment building and watch the stars for a while." The thought crossed my mind as I started walking towards the bus, which for once was on time, pulling up just as I arrived, and the bus driver actually waited for me! I thought my luck was turning around finally until a car accident caused a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam less than a mile from my apartment. With a groan, I pulled the rope to indicate I wanted off as soon as possible and I noticed I was outside a small mom-and-pop grocery store I'd never been in before, which reminded me how I needed to buy groceries and get something for dinner at the same time.

Things were finally starting to look up, and I smiled as the grandmotherly woman behind the counter rang me up and made small talk, maybe rambling at times like the elderly tend to do. Just as we were finishing a young man entered the store wearing an apron featuring a handstitched name of the shop across his chest. With a sly wink the old woman mentioned her grandson helped out around the shop by doing grocery deliveries and could certainly make sure I got everything home safely.

Turns out this young man and I went to school together and he helps out part-time while he goes to college, something I knew was beyond my reach since bills tended to be more than I could afford and my parents were no better. We hit it off as he drove me home, the traffic snarl miraculously cleared up time I was ready to leave. The day was finally looking up, as he helped me carry everything up to my 3rd story overpriced hole in the wall, and we exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch. I swear I must have blushed like a schoolgirl.

After a quick dinner and shower, I headed to the roof, a mostly flat piece of open area available for most of the tenants to use at their leisure so long as we don't leave trash up there. I watched as several stars came into being, mostly lost by the light pollution from living in the middle of a fair-sized city, but to me it always felt magical. It was actually a rather nice end to what had started out as the worst day in my life.

That night I had the most bizarre dream, and even when I woke in the early morning before my alarm (for once), I couldn't shake the feeling like someone had been watching me all night. I couldn't fall back asleep after the rather abrupt awakening, so I decided to actually pretend to be productive. My phone rang as I was about to take some laundry down to the basement to get that started and groaned when I recognized my boss's number. Surprisingly he was calling to tell me not to come in, a pipe had burst overnight and the entire place was closed for a few days while they got it fixed and assessed the damage.

Down in the basement, a long, clean, but worn cinderblock room filled with washers and dryers, I got that uneasy feeling again, despite no one else being down there and having lived here for years. I again shrugged it off and began putting clothes in the washer, first finding the small black book I'd left in my work pants, and surprisingly a $10 bill tucked into a fold I'd forgotten I'd had. After starting the wash I took the book upstairs, and sat on my dingy couch, and opened it. I expected phone numbers or names and addresses, like my parent's old fashioned address book. Inside however I found words....or I think they were words. It wasn't written in English, and numbers and other strange symbols were written or drawn throughout it, I'd almost think it was something straight out of dungeons and dragons or one of those fake props from larping.

I thumbed through the whole thing a few times trying to see if I could see a name or address of someone, and all I could think about was the odd man who'd come in yesterday acting all strange. I tossed it on the coffee table and with a sigh closed my eyes and leaned back on the couch. I opened one eye a moment later and looked outside the window, and saw a clear blue sky, hardly a cloud marring its brilliance. I decided it was too nice a day to stay inside, and since I didn't have work today I thought I'd go down to the park near the house and take my sketchbook with me, and join the other buskers in their daily entertainment of the locals.

I pulled my hair up into a messy bun, slipped on shorts and a loose oversized shirt, and tucked everything into my messenger bag. I found a place near the main throng of other street performers and set up my easel, sign, and chair, near a tree that provided just enough shade to keep the worst of the day time heat off me for a while at least.

The takings I had just before I called it quits for the day were great, almost $200 just mostly doing quick caricature sketches for the tourists. Someone had even given me his business card to talk with later about doing something for his company's family appreciation day. As I began packing up for the day, I noticed that the little black book I swore I'd left on my table back home was sitting plain as day tucked between some of my spare sketchbooks. I figured I must have swept it up when I was getting everything together and shrugged. A few of the other street performers invited me out for drinks and riding the high of my day I agreed.

The next morning I woke up surprisingly without a hangover, and I barely remembered the night before, but I knew I had enjoyed myself. Looking down at the money I'd earned yesterday, I knew I needed to do something productive with it, and I also knew I needed to see if I could find the owner of the book, though chances of that were slim and I knew it.

I was getting a funny feeling about the book again, and checking my messenger bag that I used as a purse, noticed it safely tucked deep in a back corner. I left my apartment shortly after 10 that day, and as it was another one of those flawless days I decided to walk through town to a corner conveniece store and test a small theory about my luck.

10 minutes later I was walking out of the store with an extra $500 in my pocket, and 2 scratcher tickets that had to be mailed in since the prizes were $5,000 and $10,000! I'd never so much as won a free ticket before in my life!

While I knew that this money would not change my life dramatically, I had a feeling that it was something to do with the book. I actually felt a little guilty because whoever had lost it would be looking for it. I pulled out my phone and searched for occult stores in my area, and found one about 10 minutes away, the name of it was interesting "The Den of Dragons" and I thought it would be a good place to start.

It started to rain not 2 minutes after I made this decision, and if I were a superstitious person I might have changed my mind. I couldn't find a cab, and the bus was pulling away despite me frantically waving my arms and running trying to get it to stop. I pulled out the book and looked at it funny and said "you are strange....but a piece of paper can't change anything!"

I would like to say that my life was the same after that fateful day I found that little black book, but that would be lying. It does have a rather odd set of rules to follow that you have to learn as you go, such as...

1. If you think about a choice that the book does not agree with, it makes fate set you on a different path.

2. all that you receive does come with a price, no...not your soul....no you have to give in equal measure that which you receive. I found this out after gaining too much and then hit a losing streak. I was never exactly a selfish person, but when you lived paycheck to paycheck most of your life, you rarely have much to give. I began volunteering at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, nursing homes, and the animal shelter. I donated anytime a cashier asked if I would donate to whatever cause they were raising money for, and never became rude to them...I'd been on that side of the counter before, I knew what it was like.

3. The book always is on you. I tried to leave it a few random places a few times, even once threw it into a lake, only to find it sitting, slightly damp, on my kitchen counter, when I got home. That did freak me out a little bit.

4. It does NOT grant wishes, I tried that in the early days. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but it seems to know exactly when I need something and it just gently guides my steps towards that destination.

I'm sure there are more, I'm actually fairly certain they're written IN the book, but I've never been able to read it, and when I show it to other people, they think I'm crazy since they only see blank pages inside.

With all that this book has given me, I still think back to that fateful day when that unknown man walked into my shop and left me the book that changed my life!