betrayal. My father is right. This all started because I’d looked at my uncles’ lives and found them to be small and not at all what I wanted for myself. The idea of my life being like theirs made me feel depressed. I didn’t just let them down, I turned on them. And now, even worse, I’d left my uncles behind at Michaela’s to come here and sit with my father and ask him to solve all my problems.
I push my chair back with a loud screech. “If you think this was some grand plan, that I wanted all of this to happen, then you’re crazy. I didn’t even know I could grant wishes until today. And now all I want is to undo them and be normal and boring and safe and small and to never have anything exciting happen to me for the rest of my gray little lifetime.”
Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Still, I imagine I’ll need at least a good decade of boring to recover from this weekend.
“Sit down!” Showing a flash of temper, Cash bangs both hands against his desk. “It’s past time you lived up to your potential. You are meant for great things and I am done idly standing by while you waste your life away.”
“You think I’m wasting my life away?! You’re a felon. In hiding. Beneath a crappy bar in an even crappier office. Gee whiz, Dad, I hope I grow up to be just like you.” This last bit oozes sarcasm, but Cash doesn’t even seem to notice.
“Yes, you should want to be like me.” He leans across the desk, his eyes glittering dangerously. “You’ve been brainwashed like everyone else to believe that life is about accumulating things. Car. House. Fancy shoes. Diplomas. Important job titles. What you should really want is something that lasts. Something you can’t hold in your hand, but stays deeper inside yourself, where it can never be taken away. That’s when you’re onto something. That’s when you begin to live not as a mere man, but as something bigger and more powerful than any president or captain of industry could ever aspire to.”
Despite the crazy shit coming from his mouth, I find myself wanting to nod in agreement, simply from the force of his belief. When he’s done I have to take several more gulps of water. Wiping my mouth with the back of my sleeve gives me the needed time to collect myself. To remember that no matter how alluring the beat, this is a man whose tune I don’t ever want to march to again.
I force my rigid backbone into a slouch and smirk. Only then am I able to reply, “The thing deeper inside of you. It’s self-esteem, right? Better than gold and no one can take it away? They actually taught us that in second grade.”
Not only does my father have the captivating personality of a snake charmer, but he is also apparently impervious to snark.
He falls back into his chair, at ease except for his burning gaze that never wavers from mine. “Do you think it’s a coincidence I married your mother, a woman who comes from a long line of well-concealed wish granters? Or that I keep Rabbit, the Snitch who can’t hold his tongue, close by my side? And those are only two of the many oddities I’ve collected over the years. I have hunted and found ways to bind the powerful, the magical, the extra-human, and the inhuman, to me. And it’s lucky for you I have, because that is how I came across this.”
He produces what looks like a homemade birthday candle made from lumpy gray wax with an extra-long wick. “I heard you granted some wishes that you now regret.”
Understatement of the year. But I just shrug. “I guess.”
“Take this,” he commands, and after a moment of hesitation, I do. “Now, repeat aloud one of the wishes you granted.”
Again, I am uncertain, but can’t see what harm it will do. “To Larry’s and everyone else’s moms staying chill no matter what. May—” I stop with a little gasp of alarm as the wick of the candle bursts into flame.
“Don’t drop it!” Cash cautions as I lurch to my feet and nearly fling it away. “It won’t work if it’s broken.”
Slowly I sit back down, staring at the odd candle and the little flame dancing at its tip. “Now what?” I ask, no longer skeptical.