The Pocket Divot Tool at Edgewood Fairway, 2024

Nick pulled a dull, bent divot tool from a cardboard box labeled TEN CENTS outside Edgewood’s pro shop in May 2024. He stuffed it into his pocket, not thinking twice as he headed to the first tee-until the first swing. The ball flew like he’d planned it, a smooth arc dropping right in the center of the fairway. After years of sliced drives and triple bogeys, Nick watched each shot land flush, his score plunging lower with every hole. But with each perfect swing, his hands started tingling, a buzzing running up his fingers until after his birdie putt on sixteen, his knuckles stiffened. He tugged out the old tool to fix a divot, and rust from the handle stained his palm. That’s when he saw a warning gouged into the metal: ‘What you take must be returned, stroke for stroke.’ Nick kept playing, but with every flawless shot, the tool’s metal grew hotter and heavier, weighing down his pocket like lead. The final putt dropped on eighteen, and suddenly his arms felt like they’d swung a thousand rounds-while the divot tool lay ice cold, showing his own initials, scratched where the warning had been.