The Notebook

Dejected, he dragged his heavy feet away from the bookstore and to the convenience store.

The familiar bell rang as the door opened, and he was blasted by a burst of cool air. His front half was now chilled down to their bones, and the other half was hot from walking in the sun for so long. As he went in, goosebumps prickled his skin.

“This is gonna take time to get used to.” He muttered to himself as he wrapped his arms around to defend himself from the cold.

With a made-up decision and destination in mind, he turned left and headed straight toward the refrigerated section. The coldness was even apparent here.

He stood as far away as possible from them as he scanned for what he would take home.

With a red basket in hand, he picked up ten bags of Kitsune Udon that contained sweet fried tofu. He still remembered the taste of the kelp and mackerel flakes from the udon that his mother used to make at home every Sunday. He grew up with that. Trying to get even a slight taste of that, all he could do was order udon from restaurants or rely on pre-packaged stuff like the one he was holding in his hands. Nothing ever came close, however. 

Shaking off those feelings, he procured other things he had wanted to stock up on. By the time he went to the checkout section, he was carrying two red baskets containing instant ramen cups, rice balls made with beans and nori seaweed, and some pink candies. The most essential of all, he was carrying two twelve-pack beers.

“Did you find everything you needed?” The girl at the counter asked while she deftly scanned his items and put them in a grocery bag.

“Y-Yes. Thank you.”

“Glad you found everything!”

To his awkward response, she gave a heartfelt smile. The girl’s name was Hana, as the nametag that she was wearing suggested.

There was something about Hana. Kaito has been to many convenience stores in the past thirty-four years of his life. Every cashier at each of those places was warm and friendly, however, there was something about their smile that seemed fake to him. It was as if two clippers were holding the edges of their lips against their will to form a smile. As if they were putting up a front. A mask that they had to wear because of a company policy, otherwise they would not give a damn about it.

However, Hina was different. Her smile did not seem fake. It was genuine. He could sense no falsehood from her smile and her words. If it was fake, then she was good at fooling people, or maybe fooling herself.

He looked at the screen after she had finished scanning everything. The amount that it showed made him flinch. While he had enough money from the time he worked part-time in a restaurant and the royalties from his first book, he had not worked or earned any money for the past three years. He had been living off his savings.

He did a quick calculation in his head. He had enough money to live on for a year. But just a year. After a year, what will he do? He would need to write something that would earn him some money. Since that prospect did not look bright, he would need to work part-time. He shuddered at that thought.

“Is everything okay?” As he got out of his head, he saw Hina staring at him quizzically.

He took out his purse and paid for his stuff. She handed him the bag full of goods, and with a “Please come back again!” hanging in the air, he left the store.

He went the other way from the way he got here. From the cafe side, so that it would complete a circle once he reached home. He did not want to go by that bookstore again and have that impulse to look at the books lined up there just to take another hit to his self-worth. However, this decision turned against him.

The way he was going back consisted of a playground in the middle of a fairly huge residential area. You would see children playing in the park, if it were a weekend or in the evening, but right now, the park was empty, or it should have been at least.

Oddly enough, an old lady was in the park at this time of the day and in that heat. She was not alone. There was a leash in her trembling arms and a big, black dog was struggling to break free at the other end. That was a comical scene to see.

If you can’t handle a dog, then don’t get a dog. This is what he thought in his mind. However, as if the two had heard him speak, the old lady and the dog turned to look at him at the same time.

O-Oops. Better get out of here.

He had just taken one step forward when the dog came running towards him. With a force that the old lady couldn’t keep up with, he pulled the leash and was able to easily get shake her off.

The dog was barking. It’s huge white canines peeking from under its jaws and the salivated tongue that dangled in pace with its run, it suggested as if it had finally found its prey.

Panic setting inside his brain, he ran. Or at least he tried to, to the best of his abilities.

Even if he was a healthy man for his age, with the speed and vigor the dog was running, he doubted he would have been able to shake it off. To his misfortune, he was not a healthy man. He had not gotten any exercise in for the past few years, and he was on an empty stomach.

His stamina had run out even before he ran half a meter. The joints in his body were screaming like rusted metal gears of an old and unmaintained mechanical clock. He tried to look back at how close the two were, and he saw the dog right behind him, its jaw wide open and its eye locked on his right calf.

He screamed. “Eeeeyyyppp!!”

Right before the jaws could have his calf, he was able to jerk his right leg and narrowly avoid getting chewed. He felt its saliva soak through his pants. It was disgusting and horrifying.

There was no time to be at ease, though. The dog was still hot on his heels. He could get bitten and chewed whole at any moment. He felt the moment creep closer and closer with every passing second.

Am I gonna die today?

That thought crossed his mind for a brief second. Something was about to come over him along with that thought. The sharp clang of the canines shutting close inches away from him pulled him out of that incoming trance. The dog had yet again missed him by inches.

He was using every muscle in his body to run, but the dog was not letting up.

He saw a junction ahead of him. He took a sharp turn to the left.

Right then, he collided with somebody.

Both of them fell to the ground on their butts. It was a tall, old man he had collided with. Both of them had grocery bags in their hands.

While he would have loved to help the man get up and collect his things, a dangerous mammal was closing in on him. The sound of his dreadful bark got him into motion.

He hurriedly grabbed his stuff. He checked whether the man had suffered any injuries. He could see none. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“S-Sorry!” He managed to blurt that out at least before collecting his things and dashing out of there in a hurry.

The reason why he took a left instead of right where his home lay was because he knew there was an alley there that led into a building that belonged to some corporation. He was sure he would be fine if he somehow managed to get in there.

Leaving the old man behind, he took another left that led him to the alley and got into the building. The people there looked at him funny when he entered, looking so out of breath, but nobody came forward to ask any questions.

He sat down in the reception and took a moment to catch his breath. It helped that there was a water fountain nearby. He quenched his thirst and replenished the water he had lost through sweating.

The dog had not come running after him. Through the glass door, he had not seen a single soul go through the alleyway. No dogs either.

He breathed a long sigh. He got up and started walking back to his house.

Just to make sure that the dog was not lying in wait for him, he peeked his head out to scan the surroundings. It was not there. He did the same at the junction. It was not there. Thanking god, he made his way towards his home.

“I am alive.”

Those were the first words that came out of his mouth as he got home. He had not encountered the dog on his way back.

He was tired and thirsty once again. The water had not held for long. He opened the grocery bag containing beer. He popped the can open and took a swig. It was cold and refreshing. It breathed life into him.

He felt like eating a sweet candy and looked for the bag containing candies. However, it was not there.

“Huh? I am pretty sure I brought candies with me.”

He looked around, but he could find nothing.

Instead of the bag full of candies, there was something else. A bag filled with pink diabetic medicines.

He remembered.

He had collided with the old man, and in a hurry, he had not given much thought to the bags he had carried. It had probably gotten mixed up during that collision since both looked pink from the outside.

“That damn dog!” He cursed.

He looked at the bag full of pink medicine.

“Am I supposed to eat this instead of the candy?” He jokingly reached for the bag, and that was when he felt something other than medicine.

He pulled it out. It was a notebook. Black binder with white sheets tied with a string inside. The kind you would find at any stationery store.

However, something caught his attention.

As he flipped the pages, he noticed something written on the end cover.

It was inscribed on the black binder. The writing was so smooth that an image of a master calligrapher spending days to write these few words surfaced in his mind.

What was more interesting than that was the words inscribed in that.

This was what the words read:

“Anything you write in this notebook will come true for 24 hours.”