I smiled at Nicole’s question. I wanted her to take an interest in the ring. “Seemingly anything,” I said.
“Anything that I’ve tried so far.”
“Other than making my clothes disappear and reappear, making everyone ignore that, and what you did to
yourself and the apartment, what else have you tried?” Nicole asked.
I had to think back on all the wishes I’d made. “I made the apartment soundproof, too,” I said.
“When did you do that?” she asked. “Why did you do that?”
“When you were pummeling me,” I said. “I thought it would be a good idea to not attract anyone else’s
attention.”
She giggled. “Yea, that was a good wish. Especially since we went way past fighting,” she said. Her
expression changed from a smile to a frown. “Joe, how are we going to keep this a secret? Sooner or later
someone will notice.”
I understood her worry. This wasn’t a situation that people would merely frown upon. We would be outcasts.
We could even get arrested. I figured I had the perfect solution. “We can just wish everyone to ignore
anything that might otherwise get their attention,” I said.
“Like how you made everyone ignore me being naked?” she asked. “I don’t think so, Joe.”
I cocked my head in surprise. “Why not?” I asked.
“Because messing with people’s minds might be too dangerous,” she said. “We don’t know if it could cause
permanent damage or something.”
“Do you have another solution?” I asked.
Her smile reappeared. In fact it was what I referred to as her evil smile. It wasn’t a malicious smile, but
one that implied mischief. “I might,” she said. She got off the bed and ran to my door. She looked back to
see that I did not follow her. “Well come on, lazy,” she said.
I complied with her request and followed her. She opened the door and ran to the kitchen. I wasn’t sure what
she had in mind. She began to look all around the kitchen for something, but I had no idea what. “Dammit,
where is it?” she asked.
“What?” I asked back as I entered the kitchen.
“Today’s newspaper,” she said. “I left it on the counter.” She looked at me. “Your wish,” she said. “Your
wish made it go somewhere.”
“OK, then. I wish that the newspaper was back on the counter,” I said with a grin.
“Thanks, babe,” she said. She grabbed the newspaper and then looked back at me. “Uh…sorry,” she said.
I smiled at her. “Don’t be embarrassed…babe,” I said.
She smiled back at me. She picked up the newspaper and showed it to me. “This,” she said. “This is my
idea.”
I walked forward and looked at the paper. The main headline read, “KELLY MANSION TO BE DEMOLISHED NEXT
MONTH.” The Kelly family had been a prominent family in the area for many years. However the last remaining
family member died several years ago without any heirs. The mansion was put on the auction block but no one
bought it. For the last year or so it sat there like a museum. The bank that took it over and couldn’t sell
was successful in getting the property condemned. Their intention was to demolish the building, divide the
land and develop it in some way.
As I looked at the newspaper, complete with a picture of the once opulent home taking up most of the front
page, I had an inkling of what she meant. “You want us to be the heirs?” I asked.
“No, silly, I just want the mansion and the grounds,” she answered.
“But…why?” I asked.
“You know why,” she replied. “We’ve both felt like the world owes us something. We had our parents taken
from us for no good reason. We didn’t do anything to deserve that. Maybe that’s why you have this ring.
It’s a reward for the hurt we’ve suffered.”
This didn’t sound like Nicole. She sounded like she was drunk with power. So I called her on it. “This
doesn’t sound like you,” I said. “You sound like you’re on a power trip.”
“I know,” she said. “I feel liberated now, like I don’t have to repress things.”
“I don’t think I feel the same way,” I said as I crossed my arms.
She said, “Hear me out. And uncross your arms so I know you’re listening to me.” Whenever I crossed my arms
it meant that I was not open to suggestion. She knew this all too well. “They’re going to tear this place
down. It’s going to go to waste,” she said.
“Yea, but didn’t it say something about development?” I asked. “New homes and stuff?”
“Stop interrupting!” she protested. “I’ll get to that in a minute. What we could do, with your ring, is take
over the house ourselves. Then we can fix it so that we don’t have to work and we can spend our time together
doing all kinds of things. We can travel, we can be philanthropic…we can be together. With no interference
or nosy neighbors or anything.”
“So you want me to wish for us to have this house and enough money to never need to work again?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said.
I had to admit that this sounded like a good idea. But I was still wary of using the ring in such a way. I
had another question for her, too. “But what about the bank’s plans for the property? You said…”
She cut me off and said, “Right. You forget I work for that bank.” This was true. She worked for the same
bank that owned the property, but she was just an assistant branch manager. “Well when some bigwigs stopped
in the branch last week, one of them was careless and left some copies laying around. I happened to see a
document that outlined their real plans. They aren’t going to build houses or parks. They’re just going to
build another retail center, and the rest of the property is going to be converted into a god-damned country
club!” she explained.
“Oh ho ho,” I said. “So they’ll give us commonfolk another place to buy things and stuff our faces and
they’ll build another playground for the rich!”
“Exactly,” she said. “As soon as I saw that I panicked and shredded those documents. I could have been fired
just for seeing it. The worst part of their plan is that they’ll cut down those woods that are near the
mansion, which is going to kill a bunch of animals.”
I looked back at the newspaper. “Those fucking asshole bankers,” I said. “Makes me wonder if they ever
really did try to sell the place.” Slowly I found myself agreeing with everything Nicole said. I felt that
we could be better owners of this place than the bank could. It would also accomplish everything that we
needed if we were to continue what we started. I could see no way under which we would not.
“Nicole, when’s the last time you didn’t convince me of something?” I asked.
She grinned at me. “Never that I can remember,” she replied.
“Not this time either,” I said. She let out a squeal and she jumped into my arms as her legs wrapped around
my body. Immediately I felt myself growing aroused. I felt my erect cock poke against her. “Huh,” I said.
She said, “To think I was the one worried about doing this.” We ended up making love on the kitchen floor.
Afterwards we were too exhausted to get up and so we fell asleep right there.