Aaron Hale waited for his luggage to come around on the carousel. His family had already had theirs come around minutes earlier. He could swear he’d seen the same set of luggage come by at least three times, now. His wife, Emily came up to him.
“Honey, i’m gonna take the kids and go to that coffee shop over there.”, his wife said, pointing a finger over at the nearest shop in the airport, a simple looking cafe. “I swear, we managed to find the only flight long enough to leave you starving and short enough to not serve a meal.”, she laughed.
“Sure, hun.”, Aaron said before leaning in to peck his wife on the cheek. He was ready to relax, and he had sure as hell earned it. The last year had been rough. Being a census survey agent was a job in it’s own little category. Very few people liked government employees, and even fewer had a special place in their hearts for the ones that show up on their doorstep. The pay was decent, though. Nothing amazing, but enough that with diligent saving he was able to send himself, his wife, and their three kids to a resort in Hawaii for 3 days.
He watched his wife pulling her suitcase behind be followed by his children, Leslie, Mike and Kayla. Leslie, the oldest, was 22 and had just graduated college. She’d recently broken up with her long term boyfriend, so Aaron was glad to give her something to take her mind off things back home. Mike and Kayla were fraternal twins, age 18. Mike was ready to have some fun before heading off to college, himself, on an athletic scholarship for baseball. Kayla was taking a year off after high school in order to volunteer at a local wildlife rescue. She was fond of pretty much any animal and after convincing her parents it would help her future career, was looking forward to a year of helping foster baby deer and re-habitat foxes.
Aaron turned back to the luggage carousel and tapped a foot, growing more than a little annoyed at the lack of his things. Just as he was about to ask for some assistance from an employee, he saw his navy bag coming around the track. He reached out and took it off the carousel and set it on the floor before pulling the handle out. As he was extending the handle he noticed something. The netting on the exterior of the bag held something. He reached in and found a small, pocket-sized notebook with a pencil in a little loop at the top. It was as unassuming as anything else he carried, though there was the odd detail that instead of a cardboard cover, it was covered in a thin leather. Positive that he hadn’t packed it, let alone owned it, he cautiously looked around before pocketing the strange notebook.
He looked up and saw his wife a bit away wave at him from the line at the cafe. He pulled on his suitcase and made his way over to his family.
30 minutes later and they were in a shuttle on the way to the resort hotel. The weather was phenomenal. Warm with plenty of sunshine but just enough of a breeze to refresh. The twins were busy looking over the promotional pamphlet deciding what they wanted to do with their short 3 days. Leslie was on her phone, texting her friends about the trip so far. Emily was looking out the window, taking in the gorgeous beaches, cliffs and mountains.
Aaron was fixed on the notebook in his pocket. With time to himself, he could no longer resist and pulled it out of his pocket. His family paying no mind he opened the notebook, curious to see what was in it, or if he could see who it belonged to. To his mild surprise it was blank. The faint lining was empty. The notebook appeared brand new, which was made more odd by the slightly weathered leather of it’s exterior.Just before he could close it and put it away, a little disappointed, lettering appeared on the lines. As if a ghost were writing in the notebook word after word appeared. Aaron’s eyes squinted in disbelief as the notebook wrote in itself in front of him. After a moment it read, “Greetings, mortal. I have found you worthy to be in my service.”
Aaron shook his head, not understanding. The words cleared themselves off the lines and the writing continued once more. “I am known as Heroth, and this notebook is an extension of myself.”
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