About an hour later I had not moved from the couch and I began to feel drowsy. But then I heard the door to
the apartment open and heard a pair of high heeled shoes click on the floor. “Joe, I’m home,” came my
sister’s voice. I heard the sound of her shoes grow louder and then grow softer until they silenced. I heard
her open her bedroom door. She called out, “What’re you up to?”
“Not much,” I called back to her. Apparently she had not yet noticed any differences. “How’d your date go?”
I asked.
“Eh,” I heard her say with a decisive lack of enthusiasm. “He’s an OK guy, but he’s pretty bland. No sense
of humor. Too career focused.” I smiled knowingly at her summary. It was something I’d heard from her so
often. “Something really weird happened on the way, though,” she added. Uh oh, I thought to myself. I heard
my sister walking toward the living room. Then the sound of her feet stopped. “Joe, did you clean this
place?”
“Sorta,” I said nervously.
She walked into the living room and immediately stopped. “Where did these come from?” she asked. I turned to
face her. She had changed out of the dress she had on earlier and now wore a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.
“What happened to you?” she asked as she caught sight of my arms.
“I-I can explain,” I said. “Just c-come on and sit down.” She obliged. I turned off the TV so we could
talk. She cast a stern look at me which told me that she expected answers. “So here goes,” I said. “See
this ring?” She nodded. “Well I helped an old lady earlier today and she gave this to me. She said it was a
wishing ring. Naturally I didn’t believe her. But then I found out it actually does!” There was no change
to her expression. “I came home and made a few wishes, and voila!”
Nicole continued to glare at me. I didn’t say anything else. Finally she asked, “So you’re telling me you
received some kind of magical wishing ring and you didn’t tell me right away?”
“Well…about that…you said something weird happened to you on the way?” I asked.
“Yea, all of a sudden…” Slowly it dawned on her what transpired. “All of a sudden I was naked on the street.
You did that?”
For a moment I wondered why my wish had not worked. I didn’t intend for her to remember being naked. I
realized that I wished for no one else to remember her being naked. That wording meant that she remembered
it, just as I did. I nodded slowly. “It was an accident, I swear,” I said. “I didn’t realize it was you.”
“What exactly did you wish for?” she asked.
“I wished for the clothes of the woman I was looking at to be naked,” I admitted. “I didn’t think it was
going to work.”
Nicole looked shocked and hurt. Then she reached across the couch and slapped me on the face. Then she did
it again. Suddenly she lunged at me and attacked my face with her hands. “You goddamned bastard! You
stupid, idiotic troll!” she screamed. As I tried to fend her off I made a quick silent wish that our
apartment was soundproof. I didn’t want anyone to hear this commotion.
Eventually I subdued her as I grabbed her by the wrists. She still tried to hit me but she had expended her
energy and couldn’t overpower me. Luckily she was still on the couch and couldn’t attempt to kick me. There
were tears streaming down her face. I hadn’t seen her like this since our father died. I began to cry as
well. She was deeply hurt by my actions and so it had a similar effect on me. I cried not because she hurt
me by hitting me, but because I felt so guilty.
In between my own tears I was finally able to say, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Nicole, please forgive me, I’m so
sorry! No one remembers what happened, I wished everyone else to forget.”
“You think that makes it better?” she screamed.
“Of course not,” I sobbed. “I can’t undo it, but I can’t let you hate me!”
She wrested herself free of my grasp. She stood up and left the room. Before she did she turned back to me
and said, “I do hate you!” She stomped into her room and slammed the door.
I made no attempt to follow her. She would only hate me more if I did. I wiped the tears from my face and
laid down on the couch. I just stared at the ceiling. For a brief moment I looked at the ring and was
tempted to wish away her anger. I caught myself as I realized that by doing so, it would be worse than what I
had already done. I sighed heavily as I wondered if our relationship was permanently damaged.