“Bye mom!” Tilly yelled, sticking her head of the coach’s window,
“Bye!” Mike shouted alongside his sister. The coach began to start moving.
Tamika waved back, giving a great big smile as she watched her two kids be driven off for Summer Camp.
She’d never been to Summer Camp, and as a 37 year old woman, she wasn’t planning on attending one. She had spoken to a number of parents, her kids’ teachers, and anyone that she could find who might be able to help her make a decision. Eventually, she decided it was a great way for her kids to become independent, and maybe even make some lifelong friends!
“Breaks my heart,” Tamika heard a woman behind her say to herself,
“Don’t even get me started,” Tamika casually replied,
“It’s like… they’re never gonna come back!” The woman said, beginning to tear up for real,
“Oh sweetie,” Tamika said, walking towards the woman, wrapping her arms around her, “it’s my first time, too,”
“Oh,” the woman said, letting the embrace go, stepping back, “no, this is the third time I’ve let them go,”
“Really?” Tamika said, astounded, “how old are your kids?”
“One eleven year old, and two nine year old twins,”
“Wow!” Tamika said, “that’s a handful if I’ve ever heard of one,”
“Nah,” the woman said, wiping her eye, “the twins stick to each other like magnets, even though they’re nothing alike,”
“Opposites attract,” Tamika said, jokingly, “at least from what I remember,”
The two women kept chatting. They found that they had a lot in common. They shared phone numbers before the woman had to leave due to an appointment,
“It was nice meeting you…” the woman said, realising she didn’t have Tamika’s name,
Tamika chuckled, “Tamika,” she said, “remind me,” she said, casually. The woman chuckled,
“Lauren,” she said, “it was nice talking Tamika, we should get together at some point,”
“Absolutely!” Tamika replied.
And like that, the two women parted ways.
Tamika didn’t feel like chatting with the other parents, she’d made one new friend, and she expected that she’d be speaking with a lot more parents when the kids arrived back in exactly one month.
She finally arrived home, parking her car, walking to the front door. She was incredibly tired, she didn’t really have anything else to do today so she decided to take a nap.
She noticed a letter right in front of her door, she picked it up before going inside. She looked at it,
“To Miss. Tamika Hernandez,
From Rose”
Tamika didn’t know who this ‘Rose’ was, and frankly she didn’t really care. She left the letter on the kitchen counter and walked upstairs to her room. She threw her bag to the ground and started to get changed into a more appropriate outfit for sleeping. She took off her scarf, over-shirt, and plain t-shirt. She stared at herself in the mirror, only wearing her jeans, socks, and a bra.
Her body was slim, sure. It was nice, she looked better than half the mom’s her age for sure. But sometimes she wished she could experience what it’s like to have that ‘plump’ or ‘voluptuous’ figure. The closest she ever got was when she was pregnant. Sometime’s she missed it. It was strange, she never brought it up with anyone, she just felt like people would judge her.
She brushed it off. Throwing a loose shirt over her bra, changing her jeans to pair of pyjama pants, and finally removing her socks. Since the kids weren’t here, she decided she’d order a pizza for herself when she woke up.
She turned around, stretching. Making her way over to her bed.
Then she noticed.
“What the hell?” Tamika said to herself, reaching onto her bed and picking a letter,
“To Miss. Tamika Hernandez,
From Rose”
Did she seriously bring it up with her and not realise it.
She gave in and tore open the envelope, pulling out the actual letter,
“Tamika, you are quite hard to get a hold of,
Lucky you, from a ‘hat’, I’ve drawn your name. This means that you have the privilege of a ‘daily wish’ for the next month. I’m entrusting you with the power to make one wish by saying ‘I wish’ before anything. Anything is possible with this, we’re trusting you entirely with this power. Don’t question the why or the how, make the most of it.
We will check up on you in a month, we have chosen you at completely at random.
Please be sensible with it, but have fun, the readers won’t want to be bored by this. Still, try not to get anyone hurt or dead. Thanks,
- Rose”
Tamika didn’t know whether to laugh or be worried. What a strange letter. A daily wish? What kind of weird Genie deal is this… if it’s real, which she heavily doubted, there had to be some kind of catch… she went to reread the letter but something was different. It was all gone, replaced by new text, still handwritten,
“There is no catch. This power is endowed to you, free of charge. One wish, every day, resets at midnight every night.
We have also introduced a two new policies: if you do not use one of your wishes, it will carry onto the next day, giving you two wishes, so on, so fourth. Every wish you use will be permanent until the next day, but once the clock reaches midnight, you can cancel the wish, free of charge. It’s fairer that way,
Don’t ask anymore questions, nobody is going to read this part,
Yours,
Rose”
“What the hell,” Tamika said, dropping the letter onto the bed, trying to take it all in. She just couldn’t do it. No way did that letter just change… and if it did, that means magic is real. And if magic is real…
“I wish—”