The Final Wish

Jerry Zhang
Author: Jerry Zhang
Word Count: 555
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A swarm of mosquitoes formed a lick of menacing pewter grey, across a canary yellow horizon. They flew gingerly towards, and almost had the slightest hint of swagger as they snickered amongst themselves. They could feel my blood soothing their sickly throats and I could taste their yearning.
But I didn’t budge; I just sighed and looked on, with maybe disbelief, but maybe just apathy- a deadly nonchalance, an insatiable nonchalance, that had taken me over long before. And I couldn’t help but think that these mosquitoes must have been waiting forty years for a chance at such a stupid little human being to come wandering their way. Well, they found their miserable victim. And I felt like screaming, “You found me!” just to listen to the sound of my own voice admitting defeat to a bunch of dumb insects, as a reminder of how pathetic I was. Then again, my old hag of a neighbour was probably still picking tomatoes.
That’s when it finally dawned on me that the caress of twenty mosquitoes all gnawing at you simultaneously, wasn’t so enjoyable after all. It was like a bunch of people decided to throw little needles at me and they each hit me square, somewhere on my body. Oh well; too late now.
And as they each served themselves to second helpings, I went back to tousling with my tangled hockey net. Each string seemed to be exactly the same colour as every other one and apparently they all decided to have a big gathering in the town square that I hadn’t been invited to. They were probably having fancy wines and elegant 24-letter cheeses: All I’d ever been served at a function was cheap orange juice.
And, as usual, the hockey net wouldn’t listen to my muttering of threats. I glanced at my watch; 10:12, time for bed.
But I sure as heck wasn’t about to make my exit cheap. I was going to put my entire heart and soul into it.
Boom, over the fence went the hockey net and a loud crack resounded through the neighbourhood. Then, I growled and flung my shoe into my mom’s rose garden. I graded it a 7.5, maybe an 8. I’d do better next time.
But suddenly, I felt something on my neck. It was weird. I just squinted into the faded wood fence in front of me. It was definitely weird because I felt something trickling down through every single nook and cranny in my body. It was this indesribable warmth.
No, it must have been bird poo. But reached for my neck and there was nothing there.
Then, I looked straight up and there it was. A slight speckle of barely noticeable light straight above me. It was a star, maybe the most beautiful star I’d ever seen. And I felt like, it was for me, truly for me.
So I made a wish. But this wasn’t going to be another stupid one. I realized, I didn’t just want two million dollars and I didn’t just want to finish a video game. I wanted something that would actually have a bit of meaning.
And that’s when I knew it. I wanted to fall in love again.

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