"Go to the Village Square"

I suppose I could have always had it, because to be honest, I can't recall when it came into my life. I like believing that it came from my Grandma; like it was one last birthday present that she left me before she passed away.

You might be wondering what I’m talking about, or why I've decided to tell you this story, and I guess there's only one reason I decided to tell you, because I don’t think my family would believe me.

My realization of how special this book was started about a week prior to the big event when my mom was frantically searching for her car keys. My older brother never did put them back on the hook when he borrowed her car, so this was a pretty regular event. Between all of the grunting and swearing of her searching, I heard my mom scream my name. I ran into the living room to find out why, and there she was holding this little black book and insisting it was mine and that I needed to learn to put my stuff away. In this moment I was pretty sure my mom had lost her mind because I had never seen this book before in my life. She threw it at me, and me never being the best with catching anything flying at me, it hit me square in the middle of my face and fell to the floor. I picked it up and stared at it with confusion. Where did it come from? It’s not mine. Why did she think the book belonged to me?

“Well don't just stare at it! Put it away“ mom yelled.

I took the book up to my bedroom and threw it on my night stand; days would go before I looked at it again . One night while trying to fall asleep, I heard the book talking to me. I grabbed it, opened it, and guess what? It was empty. It was a totally blank book; what a disappointment. I tossed it across my room and turned over.

The next morning when I woke up, the little black book was back on my nightstand. Immediately I jumped out of bed and went running into the kitchen to find out who had been in my room. To my surprise, I found my family peacefully eating breakfast.

“What is that in your hand?“ my brother Steven asked.

“It's your stupid book mom pawned off on me.“ I snipped back.

“Wait a second. I did nothing of the sort. Don't get me involved in another one of your arguments” my mom growled back at us.

In that moment, I felt like my family had lost their minds and I stormed back to my room. Seriously, what the hell was going on?

I laid on my bed and stared at the little black book. Where did it come from and why can’t my mom remember telling me that it belonged to me yesterday? I seriously contemplated just throwing it away when out of nowhere I heard a loud scream “NO”, and the book flew open. On the page in front of me I read, “Trust and believe in all that I tell you. I will guide you where you need to go.”

“HUH? What? Are you like a genie or something?” I said to the book.

I flipped through the book again but all of the pages were now blank, including the one that had just had words on it.

I thought, what the hell!

At that moment I needed a break from the crazy book so I took a bath to calm me down. Unlucky for me, there were no bath towels left so my relaxing bath became a wet mad dash for my bedroom where I was met at the door by the little black book on the floor.

“What?” I said to the book.” I know. I know. Listen to your words. I would, but you haven’t given me any.”

I felt like I was losing my mind. I had full out started to have a conversation with the creepy little black book.

Eventually I got up the courage to see if something new was written in it, and just like last time, one single page had writing on it; it said “Go to the village square.“

Go to the village square! I thought. Why? When? I challenged the book “Pretty ambiguous directions when you said you’re supposed to be guiding me where I need to go.”

I looked at my clock and realized that I was now going to be late for work. I was 45 minutes late when I finally arrived at work and everyone treated me like I was doing the “next morning” walk of shame. I thought my whole shift was going to suck until Ryan came in; he was my crush. He was best friends with our bartender so he was in pretty often but I never had the courage to talk to him. That night Ryan was telling a story that I couldn't help but over hear because he said it happened at the village square that afternoon. The book had told me to go to the village square. Had it meant this past afternoon? Maybe the book was trying to set me up with Ryan?

I must have unknowingly been talking out load because all of a sudden our bartender sarcastically said, “Yes Caitlyn, Ryan would love to go on a date with you!” I was so embarrassed; I hung my head and walked away to check on my tables. For the rest of the night I avoided the bar and Ryan as best I could. I couldn’t believe that I had said that out loud.

As I was leaving work, Ryan came up to me and said he had no idea that I had a crush on him. Guess what? He asked me out! I gave Ryan my phone number and for the rest of the night we texted back and forth and set a date of Friday March 12 to go on our first date.

I laid in bed that night looking at the little black book, smiled, and said to it, “You tried to get me to bump into Ryan. But how did you know? And how did you know he was going to be at the village square?” I searched through the pages of the book hoping to find the answers, but again, there were nothing but blank pages. The next morning, to my surprise the little black book was on my pillow open, and there in front of me was another message. This time all it said was “March 12”. The book had confirmed my date with Ryan.

“Oh thank you, thank you. It’s a sign our date is meant to be.” I said to the little black book.

Over the course of the next 3 days, Ryan and I texted pretty much non stop. My dreams were finally coming true! I was going to be Ryan’s girlfriend. The little black book had been leaving me messages as well during this time but I couldn’t understand them. All the book left were random numbers and I had no idea what numbers had to do with Ryan and I.

Finally the morning of March 12th arrived; I woke up early because I was so excited for my date. I looked around for the little black book but it wasn’t anywhere to be found. I went downstairs to see if someone had seen it and found my mom throwing pillows off of the couch and swearing under her breath. This felt oddly familiar.

“Caitlyn” my mom yelled.

“What Mom? I’m right behind you” I replied back.

“You need to learn to put your things back where they belong.” She responded back to me. And just like that, my mom pulled my little black book out from between the cushions in the couch and threw it at me. It hit me square in the face and dropped to the floor.

I went back to my room and opened the book and this time, to my surprise, all of the pages were full. Every single page had something written on it. I flipped through the pages until I found the one that said “Go to the village square” and then I flipped to the next page and it said March 12th. The next page said “at noon”, and the next page gave me 3 numbers, and the next page had another 4 numbers on it, and the next told me to spend $3, and the next page said “Expect to win”.

“Huh? Wait!” I blurted out. Had these messages been about a lottery ticket that I was supposed to buy? They didn’t have anything to do with Ryan? I looked at the clock and it was 20 minutes to 12.

I ran out of the house so fast that I hadn’t even noticed that I was still in my pajamas. When I got to the village square there was a line up of 5 people waiting to buy lottery tickets and there was only a couple of minutes left until 12. But the book had said 12! What if I was late? I started to bite my finger nails; I was so nervous. I had never been this nervous before. I had completely forgotten about my date with Ryan at this point.

The time now said 12:01 and I finally made it to the front of the line. Was I too late? But the book had said “Expect to win”! So I thought to myself, OK, and bought the ticket anyway. The cashier giggled and said as she handed me my ticket, “I think this one’s a winner; I can feel it. Good luck.”

My walk back home was filled with dread. I know the little black book had told me to expect to be a winner but I had been late in purchasing the ticket. What if I was too late? I got home and put the ticket inside the little black book.

I heard my mom yell “Found them”! I peaked my head out of the room and said, “Found what”?

My mother replied, “The keys your brother didn’t put back.”

Now I knew why I had felt deja’vu! This had all happened already. What was going on?

Steven so kindly reminded me that I only had 6 more hours to get ready for my date with Ryan. Shit! My date with Ryan! I had totally forgotten.

The night went ok but nothing like that big dream date that I had been envisioning for the last 6 months. After our date I went home and looked inside the little black book. All of the pages were blank again; all except the one that said “Expect to win.”

“Ok book; Ok.” I said to it.

The next morning I woke up feeling groggy and upset; I didn’t even want to check my ticket. I dragged myself downstairs.

Mom immediately said to me with excitement, “Did you hear Caitlyn? Someone who bought a lottery ticket at the village square yesterday won $20,000 on the lottery”.

I replied back with excitement, “WHAT!”

I ran up to my bedroom to grab the little black book and my ticket. The book was open to a page that read “Congratulations”.

I yelled down to my mom with excitement, “Mom! I think I’m the winner.”.

The little black book had done it; it had helped me to win $20,000.

Later that night my mom asked me where I got the little black book from. I told her that I had no idea other than I thought that she had given it to me over a week ago, and she said, “Caitlyn, I’ve never seen it before today.”

I just smiled and said “Ok, mom; maybe it came from Grandma.”