A Golden Wish

“Final Notice!” I rip off the bright orange paper the Water Company taped to the door and crumple it into the side pocket of my bookbag. That’s the last thing my mom needs to see on her birthday. I’ll just give it to her tomorrow. She doesn’t need another reminder about our delinquent bills. She knows.

I run after the bus waving my hands and panting. You think I’d be in better shape since this is a regular occurrence. Mr. Orlando sees my distress signal and pulls over. I’ve had the same bus driver since 2nd grade. He’s used to me not being on time by now.

I step onto the bus and he giggles, “rough morning?” I roll my eyes and manage to huff out a “Thanks for stopping!” I head to my usual seat. I’m the only one that doesn’t mind sitting behind the bus driver. It’s more peaceful than the loud gossip going on in the back of the bus. My phone dings.

MOM: YOU FORGOT YOUR LUNCH

ME: CRAP

MOM: DON’T WORRY, I’LL RUN IT

UP TO YOU ON MY WAY TO WORK!

ME: THANKS, LOVE YA!

We finally pull up to the school and I must have missed the last step, because next thing you know I have a face full of concrete. I feel warmth on my forehead although my hands are chilled from the cold sidewalk. Mr. Orlando lifts me to my feet. “You okay, kid?” I dust myself off and reach for my forehead. “Ow, shoot I’m bleeding.” Mr. Orlando replies patiently, “let me walk you to the nurses office.” It’s then I realize I’m surrounded by my classmates, some are giggling, some look to be in complete horror at the sight of all of the blood. I glance away and let him walk me to the building.

After he ushers me to the bench in the principles office he walks over to Mrs. Bubbles , our receptionist. I hear him nervously belt out “Brittany took a spill getting out of my bus.” “Oh, poor dear, we’ll take care of her.” Then she announces over the speaker: “Mrs. Stephens, you are needed right away in the front office!” Oh great. All of the kids that witnessed my disaster are probably laughing right about now. I shudder at the thought of being the center of any kind of attention. I’ve never been an interesting topic before. Maybe I can go home early today, more time to study for that Algebra exam.

“Hi, you must be Bleeding” I hear the school nurse say. I reply, “what?” She states again, “You must be Brittany?” Wow I must’ve hit my head pretty hard that is not what I thought she said. I look around and Mr. Orlando, Mrs. Bubbles, and Mrs. Stephens are staring at me. “Um, yes, that’s me, I’m Brittany.” She pats my hand and says, “let’s head to my office and get you fixed up.” I follow behind her matching her steps in her pink sneakers. She nods towards her exam table and I hop on.

“Now, tell me what happened.” I give her all the details. She looks at the gash on my forehead, and explains to me it’s not very big, but I did just learn from her that the head and scalp are very vascular and tend to bleed more than other areas. She assures me not to worry, but mentions she is more worried of a possible concussion. “I called your mother and she is on her way, I told her I want you supervised for the next 48hrs. I want your mother to take you to the hospital if there is any vomiting, dizziness, severe headaches, loss of consciousness or if there is any confusion.” I nod, hoping to remember all of what she listed. I don’t even think my fall was that bad, but I know she’s a little more knowledgeable about this sort of stuff so I thank her for her help. “I’m going to clean up this little cut for you, get you out of that bloody coat, and let you dig through the lost-and-found for something to keep you warm on the ride home.” Ew, I can only imagine what used purple polka-dotted monstrosity I will find in that lost-and-found. It’s pretty cold out, but that’s a Minnesota fall for ya.

She dresses my forehead wound and I pull off my coat. When I finally get a good look at it I realize the fur on the hood is matted with blood and the pretty white patch in the front is now a pinkish hue where we tried to wipe off some of the blood, I bundle it up and throw it in the grocery bag she gives me. “The closet across the hallway is our lost-and-found.” She points to the blue door across the hall. I jump off the exam table and walk out of her office towards the closet. I look back and notice that she didn’t follow me. Good, I can cringe in peace while I pick out my next fashion statement. I roll my eyes to myself.

“Gross.” The doorknob is sticky. I wipe my hands on my jeans and pull the door open. This is a mess. There are coats hanging on hooks on the back wall of the closet, the floor is littered in mismatched gloves, socks, pens, shoes, torn bookbags, some math books and what looks to be a pair of polk-a-dot leggings. I knew I’d find something with spots in here I laugh to myself. Okay I need to find a coat that fits. Something shiny catches my eye on the messy floor. “Are you managing to find what you need?” Mrs. Stephens interrupts my thoughts as she shouts from her doorway. “Yeah, I think I’ll just wear this plain black jacket.” I pull it from the hook it’s on and let it drop from my hands. “Oops” I say as I scoop up the shiny object in my right hand and hide it in my palm while picking the coat back up. She smiles, “Great choice.”

“Brittany, your mother is here.” Mrs. Bubbles catches me in the hallway. I wave goodbye to the nurse. I feel like I’m stealing now. I shove my find into my pocket, it feels strange, square shaped, but soft like leather. Did I grab the wrong item? This doesn’t feel like it would be shiny. I walk with Mrs. Bubbles to the front desk and see my mother, she doesn’t look mad, but she does look a little upset. Probably because we really can’t afford for her to take a day off of work, let alone 2 days like the school nurse recommended. Plus, it’s her birthday. I can’t believe I ruined her birthday. I know she’s going to spend it worrying about me.

“Hi, Honey. How do you feel?” she says. “Mom, I’m sorry you had to leave work. I’m fine” I reply guiltily. “Oh hush, no job is as important as my baby. We will be fine, don’t you worry about that. ” She smiles at me and kisses my forehead. I follow her to the car and duck my head while climbing in. I know I’m too tall for this little Ford Fiesta, but we make it work. At 5’ 11” it’s even hard to find a long enough pair of jeans. Mom has always said I’m a prettier, taller version of her. I remember when dad was alive he used to call me his pretty Britty. Parents are supposed to think their kids are pretty, but I’ve never found anything quite appealing about myself. I feel rather on the plain side. As mom drives away from the school I pull the passenger side visor down and examine my bandaged forehead in the mirror. There’s a little bit of dried blood near my eyebrow. I see my green eyes looking back at me in the mirror and lick my finger. I rub the dried blood on my eyebrow with my wet finger and my mom side glances at me. I notice more blood matted in my light brown hair. I sigh, guess I’m going to have to scrub this out of my hair when I get home.

After we pull into our driveway mom carries in the bag that holds my bloody coat. I grab my book bag and throw it onto the floor of the kitchen when we walk into the house. “Hand me that coat, too!” she exclaims before I rush up to my room. I remember the treasure I took from the lost-and-found that’s in my right pocket. I hide it in my clenched hand as I slide out of the coat. “We don’t know where this thing has been, I’m going to wash it and I’ll send it back to the school in case another child needs it.” “God forbid,” I whisper. I toss the coat to her and run up the stairs. “I’m going to read over my Algebra notes.” I lie to her as I run up the steps.

“I’ll check on you shortly, dear” she hollers as I get to the top of the staircase. I close my door and open my hand to find a tiny black notebook bound in black leather, no bigger than a quarter it fits right into the palm of my hand. The front of the notebook displays a shiny golden dragon emblem. I’m pretty sure that’s what I saw gleaming in the closet. There are only a couple pages in it. The first page reads in old ink, “A wish in a word is the only wish heard”. That’s weird, the next page is blank. I wonder what it means by a wish in a word? I read the script out loud this time, hoping to make sense of it.“ A wish in a word is the only wish heard?” “OUCH”, the book drops from my hands and I stick my burning fingertip in my mouth. I see the emblem on the front glowing red hot as it lay on my carpet. Seconds later it returns to it’s golden glimmer. I pick it up and a thought goes through my mind: “What if I write my wish down in the book?” I grab a pen from my desk, it’s worth at least trying. I quickly scribble, “I wish for beautiful hair”. Seems innocent enough. The emblem glows again and I look into the mirror above my dresser to see my frizzy, shoulder length hair glow. By the time I blink it has completely transformed. It’s now down to my breasts. It looks soft and shiny with a slight wave, even the dried blood is gone. My jaw drops, I pick my pen back up and where I wrote my first wish the ink had disappeared. So I write, “I wish to no longer be burdened by debt.”

The doorbell rings, and I yell out to my mom, “I’ve got it.” I run downstairs hoping it’s the mail carrier with the package I ordered for her birthday. When I open the door I see A woman with a large cardboard check that has mom’s name on it. “MOM!” I excitedly yell out. She meets me at the door and her face lights up. I guess the woman holding the giant check is her company’s CEO. “I won?” she cries. The pretty blonde reaches out her arm for a handshake and says, “Congrats, Rachel, you won the company drawing for $20,000 you entered last month”. My mom tears up and steps outside to talk to the news crew and her boss. I rush back upstairs in a hurry. I have so many more ideas and wishes. This is going to change everything. After plopping myself onto my bed I run my hands slowly over the book emblem, I look up at myself in the mirror and smile. Then I whisper, “I’m going to change the world…..”