A book of magic

“Are you sure this is it?” I asked, frowning.

For a book of magic it sure is unassuming. Just a small black notebook, no sigils or even a title on its cover. I expected to find something more, I don't know... artistic? Elaborate?

“Well, the coordinates pointed to this exact place and it's not like there's anything else in here,” Sam waved his hands towards the clearing.

Yup, nothing else in here. Only us and a tree stump on which we found the notebook.

“So, what do we do now? Do we sell it somewhere?”

“We might try to open it for a start.”

Yeah, of course, as if I haven't thought of that. I was hoping for a more specific pointer, like, what do we do after opening it and going back. We didn't plan beyond this point, I mean, we never thought we're actually going to find something here. I had a suspicion that whoever gave Sam the coordinates was pulling his leg and the 'book' was probably just part of this elaborate prank. Nevertheless, I was off and down for an adventure even if it only involved going off track in our local forest.

I sighed and braced myself for an impact, magical blast or anything of the sort. Nothing like that happened. It's all so anticlimactic.

Inside was a collection of handwritten spells. I flipped through it and saw titles like:

'Spells to vanquish your enemies', 'to enhance your love life', 'to get rich'.

Now that's interesting. Samuel saw it too and we exchanged excited looks. Even though none of us believed in magic, who wouldn't give it a shot? After reviewing some of the spells, we picked one that sounded the most promising and didn't require anything else than chanting a few words. 'A spell to get more money than you've ever seen' it claimed.

With the book back on its trusty stump, we joined hands (it seemed appropriate for some reason) and focused on the words we were about to chant three times.

Riches come forth

Give me more than I'm worth

I felt kind of stupid saying it but well, it's a small price to pay for getting rich. And then, there it was, on the tree stump between us was a pile of money. I couldn't believe it.

“How much is this?” Sam asked, poorly masking how shocked he was.

I picked it up, praying for it not to vanish into thin air, and counted.

“Forty thousand.”

We agreed to split it in half and that I'll take a book with me, but we will be sharing it with each other whenever the need comes. Nobody mentioned selling it to a guillible, wanna-be-witch or a collector. Nope, it's officialy ours now. You know, finders-keppers and the like.

To be perfectly honest, this amount wasn't as big as I'd expected it to be but it was true that I've never seen this much money in my life. And now, I'm twenty thousand richer than I have ever been. There are no downsides to this situation.

Back home, I placed the cash under my pillow and slept sounder than ever. The alarm clock woke me up for work but instead of getting up and ready, I checked under the pillow and fell asleep again. No more waking up in ungodly hours. After sleeping in I'll get a nice breakfast (that's a new one for me - I always skipped it) and then head to work to tell them I quit.

I'm free.

I can't believe it.

I can do what I want. I can move to a different apartment without worrying about losing the deposit from this one.

I kept checking under the pillow, struggling to comprehend how it all happened.

I mean, I know how: the small black notebook magicked it for me.

But still, how?

I took the notebook from my desk where I left it, and it still was just as unassuming as it was upon my first impression. What else can I do with it? I contemplated using a love spell on my crush and then thought against it. It wouldn't feel good to have someone fall in love with me this way. Money can come from magic, it's perfectly fine, but love needs to be genuine.

So the next course of action is a visit to a hairdresser. I haven't had a nice haircut since last autumn and my roots grew horrendously large. Then I'll shop for some clothes. I'll make myself pretty and this way find my happily ever after.

I wonder what is Sam doing with his jackpot.