This is my Procrastination Story, The Wishmaker. This is the prologue. I might post more chapters but hopefully I'll never have need to.
Wishes are curious things. They detach from one when they are whispered or thought or screamed, much like a leaf detaches from a branch. They float, spiraling, down through the crisp air, until they land softly amidst the Bureau of Wishes, where they are pinched and prodded and packaged and then sent out to be granted.
Of course, that isn’t how it always goes. Sometimes wishes get caught, tangled in between spidery branches for days or months or years, where they lie in patient wait until a gust of wind or a spot of rain or a friendly squirrel comes and carries them down to the Bureau, just a little too late. This can often be the case with wishes made upon stars, which of course have a long way to fall.
Such was the case of one hopeful little wish, a whisper it was, still studded with raindrops as it rode an autumn breeze down to the Bureau of Wishes, three years after it was born.
An officer standing in the town square caught it in between two fingers as it fell. He was the only one there- it was early morning, not rush hour, and there were no smoking birthday-candle wishes or fizzy soda-can wishes or sparking chain-email wishes raining down on the square. Just the one little, whispered wish.
The Bureau was that for only the northeastern region of the United States, and it was a very new bureau- only set up at the beginning of the millennium, so there weren’t centuries of clutter to sort through. A few wishes coated the stones of the Bureau courtyard, but this wish, at the moment, was being paid undivided attention.
The officer inspected the squirming little wish, which was not very comfortable in his rough hands, and sighed. “Late, I expect,” he murmured. He decided to hold onto it until a wish-maker showed up.
This happened about half an hour later- a young woman with short, spiky black hair and a blue robe- the wish-maker’s uniform- strolled into the courtyard, just as the sun was beginning to poke its face over the horizon. The officer handed over the wish. The young woman looked down at it.
“Late one?” she asked.
The officer nodded. “Fairly sure it is. You’ll have to figure out the details.”
The wish-maker sighed. “Sheesh, I hate late wishes.” She leaned her head down to listen. A few seconds later, she shook the poor little wish. “Come on! Don’t you know the drill?”
She bent her head over her hand again, holding her ear to the small wish. This time, she heard what she wanted, and a soft smile appeared on her face.
“Ah, just what I’ve wanted. The soft and brainless mumblings of a teenage girl.” She looked down at the little wish, which was sitting very still in her palm. “You and I are going to have a lot of fun, little wish.”
“Now, you know the rules-” the officer warned.
“I know the rules,” the wish-maker said. “I’m not going to mess with the wish. Not doing anything harmful. Just going to… ah… make things interesting for this girl.”
“What exactly is the wish?” the officer asked curiously.
“Classified information,” the wish-maker replied, which wasn’t true, but she liked saying it. “Let’s just say that the nature of teenage girls means that this particular wish being granted a little late would be… amusing.”
The officer sighed. “Look, I don’t want to know. Go off and do your work with it.”
The wish-maker, still smiling, left the courtyard for her office, and left the courtyard quiet for the next few moments before more and more wish-makers and officers appeared, and wishes began raining thick and hard on the ground.
Much later that day, the wish left the wish-maker’s office. The wish-maker was proud with herself- the form she had chosen for the wish was unusual. A young girl, maybe a year or two younger than the wisher, who had long, flowing dark hair and wore a simple blue dress. And piercing silver eyes. She had liked that touch.
And wings. Those were the best part.
Night fell on the Bureau of Wishes of Northeastern America, and the little courtyard became silent once more.
Just amazing, wasn't it? NOT AS AMAZING AS THE KEOLUVENT TRILOGY. Because that is what I should be working on.
From your hopeless procrastinating poet,
magic*esi
