The girls got up early and ate breakfast and then they went and apologized to the Arnolds and cleaned up their yard. Mike helped, which made all of the girls giggle because he was so cute. When the Arnold’s yard was clean, Aimee’s mom told them that they had to go home, because they were having company that afternoon. A Bible study.
The rest of the girls left with their parents. But not Susie. She didn’t have parents anymore. She was excited to start her life without them. She skipped home, let herself in the front door and sat on the couch to watch television. “Direct TV, here I come!” she said aloud. “A jillion channels and I can watch whatever I want, now!”
I could get used to this, she thought. Normally, her parents didn’t let her watch much TV. So, she knew exactly how she was spending the rest of her afternoon.
Susie fell asleep in the middle of one of her television programs. When she was sleeping, she had a nightmare of the monster from the movie the night before. She dreamed that he got inside the house and was chasing her.
She woke up to the sound of her own scream. “Mom, Dad, I had a bad dream.” Susie ran into their bedroom, but nothing was in there. Then she remembered her wish. No parents existed.
“It’s okay, I’ll be fine. I sure am hungry though.”
She went into the kitchen to see what she could find to eat. There wasn’t much in the refrigerator. Even if there was, she didn’t know how to cook. She thought about going to the store, but the nearest grocery store was five miles away. She couldn’t even ride her bike that far.
She opened the kitchen pantry and pulled out a box of crackers to eat. She pulled each cracker out, one by one, and ate them with the end of a jar of peanut butter. When she finished, she realized that she was still hungry. Examining the kitchen one last time, she still couldn’t find anything.
I have an idea, she thought. I’ll see if I can go to Aimee’s for dinner.
She picked up the telephone and dialed Aimee’s number, but there was no answer. She remembered they were having a Bible study. They probably silenced their phone or maybe, she thought, They must have gone out afterward for ice cream.
She looked out the window and noticed that it was getting dark outside. She began to get afraid. She never did like the dark and now she had to face it alone.
“I’m a big girl, I will be fine. I just wish I wasn’t so hungry.”
Boom! Boom! She heard a noise outside.
“Oh no, it’s the monster from the movie.” Susie dived up the stairs into her bedroom and hid under her blankets.
Boom! Boom! “Oh, no, it’s going to get me!” she screamed.
“I want my mommy and daddy! What do I do now, without them?” She began to cry, and then remembered what Mrs. Honey Pickle told her: ‘If you need me look to the sky and repeat my name three times,’ she had said.
Susie ran to her window and said three times: “Mrs. Honey Pickle.”
She turned around and Mrs. Honey Pickle and Buzzy were in her room.
“You rang?” asked Mrs. Honey Pickle.
“Yes, I want to take back my wish.”
“And why is that?”
“Because it was a stupid wish and I didn’t realize how much I needed my parents.”
“I am happy you learned this, Susie, now I think you will be a lot happier.” She raised her index finger. “And, now what do you think of my favorite movie?”
“I loved It’s a Wonderful Life. The ending made me cry. I’m sorry that I called it cheesy dreck. It rocks.”
“There we go! That’s what I wanted to hear. How could anyone not be moved by the scene where George Bailey finds Zuzu’s petals in his pants pocket?”
“That’s my favorite part!” Susie cried. “That and the bell ringing at the end. I even watched the credits and cried like a baby.”
“I knew you were a sweet girl, Susie.”
Mrs. Honey Pickle waved her wand and said the spell in reverse and then her parents appeared. Mrs. Honey Pickle and Buzzy waved goodbye to Susie as they made their way home.
“Mom, Dad. I’ve missed you so much.”
Her mother looked at her strangely. “Honey, we haven’t gone anywhere.”
“Oh, but you have, and I’m sorry I’ll never wish for you two to disappear again. I need you guys. I love you. What was I thinking? We’re a family. Happy birthday, Daddy! I can’t wait to go away for the weekend with you two. We’re going to have so much fun!”
“Let’s get going on our trip!” her dad said.
“Yay!”
Susie leaned in and gave both of her parents a huge hug.
The End
Wish Four:
“I wish I never had to clean my room.”
“Rory,” his mother called. Why isn’t your room clean?”
“I’ll get to it later, Mom.”
“Rory, if you expect to go to the skate park today, it has to be cleaned.”
“But Mom, I’m supposed to meet my friends there now.”
“Well, then, you’d better hurry and clean first.”
Rory stomped into his room and quickly threw everything in his closet.
“Okay, Mom. I’m done.”
She came to inspect and walked right to the closet and opened it.
“Rory, I didn’t mean for you to throw everything in your closet.”
“Oh, come on, Mom! Can’t I just do it later?”
“I let you get away with not cleaning it yesterday and the day before that. So, you will have it clean before you go.”
She left his room.
“This going to take forever,” said Rory. “I wish I never had to clean my room.”
“If that’s your wish, I can grant it for you,” said Mrs. Honey Pickle.
“Where did you come from?” asked Rory.
“I am your fairy godmother and I’m here to grant you a wish.”
“Yeah right, fairy godmothers only do stuff only for girls.”
“No, I take wishes from boys, too,” said Mrs. Honey Pickle.
Buzzy barked as if he was agreeing with her.
“Oh, sorry, where are my manners? This is Buzzy.”
Rory looked at the two of them dumbfounded. “So, if you’re my fairy godmother, you can grant me any wish?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Okay, I bet you can’t make it so I never have to clean my room again.”
“I bet I can,” said Mrs. Honey Pickle. “All I have to do is pull out my magic wand and I can make anything happen.”
“Then do it,” he challenged.
Mrs. Honey Pickle pulled out her magic wand and cast Rory’s wish.
“There you go, Rory, your wish is granted.”
“Before you leave, Mrs. Honey Pickle, I’m going to make sure.”
This was new to Mrs. Honey Pickle. She’d never had a child question her powers before. She and Buzzy exchanged puzzled glances.
He exited his room and entered the kitchen where his mother was reading a book.
“Mom, do I still have to clean my room?”
“Rory, you never have to clean your room.”
Rory ran back to his bedroom and thanked Mrs. Honey Pickle for the wish granted. She and Buzzy left and Rory made his way to the skate park to meet his buddies.
Rory had a blast at the skate park. He showed off his skateboarding skills by doing a kick flip and a pop shove-it.
Out of all of his friends, he was the best skateboarder. He practiced every day so that one day he could become a professional skateboarder.
Rory lost track of time and didn’t realize how late it was. He missed dinner and his parents would be upset. He skateboarded toward home as fast as he could home. The last thing he needed was to be grounded.
When he finally arrived home, he found his mom, dad, and little sister, Becky, in the living room, playing a board game.
“You missed dinner,” his father said.
“I’m sorry. I lost track of time.”
“It’s okay, don’t let it happ
en again. There is a plate for you in the microwave.”
Rory heated up his dinner then went into his bedroom. He opened the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of milk. His bedroom was getting a little messy, but nothing too bad.
Rory was just happy that he didn’t have to clean it ever again. It took too much time, plus, he liked living in a mess. He found he could find his stuff better if it was all out so that he could see it.
He ate his dinner and drank his milk, not caring if he spilled anything on his bed.
“I can make as big of a mess as I want and not have to clean it.” Rory threw some of his dinner on the floor just because he could. He laughed at himself and got ready for bed.
*
The next morning, his friends Kevin and Alan came over to play. When Rory explained to his pals about his wish, they decided to help make a mess, too.
They tossed comic books, toys, and dirty clothes all over the room, as they yelled.
“This is a lot of fun,” said Alan.
“The best part is, we don’t have to clean it up,” said Rory.
“We should do this every day,” Kevin said as he opened up Rory’s closet and scattered a bunch of old toy soldiers all over the floor.
The boys took off posters off the wall and tore Rory’s sheets and blankets off his bed. They even found a stale bag of cheese puffs under the bed and they had a cheese puff fight. When they finished making a big mess, there was no room to even walk in Rory’s room, so they decided it was time to skateboard.
They had a blast at the park, telling the other boys what fun they had making a mess of Rory’s room.
“Wow, your mom doesn’t even care?” asked one boy.
“No, I made a wish that I would never have to clean my room again and it came true.”
“That’s awesome,” said another boy.
After the skate park, Rory went home to get ready for Little League practice. He entered his room and was astonished by the mess. It really was a disaster. It even…smelled!
Rory went through his mess to look for his baseball glove and bat. He couldn’t find them. This had never happened to him before. He was always able to find anything in his messy room.
This might take a while, he thought.
A half hour had passed and he still couldn’t find his baseball gear. He called to his mom to help him. But she told him that it was his room and he needed to find it himself.
Finally, buried in the depths of his closet, lay the two items. Rory grabbed his glove and bat and headed for practice.
“That sure did take a long time,” said Rory. “I will ask my mom to clean my room when I get home.”
Little League practice went by quickly and soon, Rory was back home in his disgusting bedroom. He could hardly look at it.
“Mom,” asked Rory, “can you pick up my room for me?”
“Rory, if you don’t have to clean your room, then that means I don’t have to do it, either. It can stay filthy as long as I’m concerned. If you want to live like a pig, do it.”
“I guess it’s not that bad,” he thought. “After all this is what I wanted.”
Before bed, he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth, and take a shower. He was all nice and clean for bed.
Too bad that his bed wasn’t nice and clean for him. Rory reached for his blankets from the floor and went to bed. A couple of times, he woke up wincing in pain because he had rolled over a toy soldier. When he rolled the other way, cheese puffs crunched all over the bare mattress. He even got gum in his hair! He cut it out when he woke up in the middle of the night, using a nail scissors that he borrowed from his mom’s bathroom. It didn’t look too bad. Now he had a spikey hairdo to match his skateboard life!
The next day was school, and Rory loved school. He wasn’t too crazy over the school work, but he loved hanging out with his friends. Kevin and Alan were coming over after school and spending the night. So, that would make the day better.
The boys walked home from school to Rory’s house, talking about skateboarding and baseball.
When they arrived at Rory’s house, they stopped by his room to drop off their backpacks. His two friends stared at his room in disgust.
“Man, your room is gross,” said Kevin.
“Eww,” agreed Alan. “What died in here?”
Kevin said, “We should put a hazardous waste sign on the bedroom door!”
“Yeah,” Alan agreed, shuddering. “It’s majorly toxic in here! Like that scene in Star Wars when they are inside the garbage compactor.”
“I think we should spend the night at Alan’s tonight,” added Kevin.
“Why, guys?”
“Because your room is really messy and I don’t want to sleep here,” said Kevin.
“You didn’t think it was so gross yesterday when you were helping me mess it up.”
“It was fun yesterday, Rory, but today, it’s just nasty. Are you really going to live in here? I think your parents should just sell the house and let you start over somewhere else.”
His friends laughed, and said, “We’re going to the park. Rory, maybe you should stay here and clean your room,” suggested Alan. “No kidding. It’s a health hazard. Like that show, Hoarders.”
Alan and Kevin left in disgust. Kevin washed his hands a bunch of times before they left. Rory couldn’t believe his friends thought his room was, of all words, nasty. That was going a little too far, he thought. Rory took Alan’s suggestion and started to clean his room. He got three Hefty bags to start and started to fill them with anything that was too gross to throw in the washing machine. Somehow, there was even a jar of open caramel sauce dripped on the carpet. And then it got on his socks and he tracked it everywhere.
Rory opened his bedroom door and could barely make his way into the room.
“It is like Hoarders! What is going on?” he said aloud. Toys and clothes were almost piled up to the ceiling. Everything was mixed with old food, trash, homework papers, and dirty Kleenex. Legos kept hurting his feet. Pizza was stuck to the wall. How had all of this happened? He tried picking up some clothes and putting them into his clothes hamper, but every time he put something away, it went back on the floor.
“That’s strange,” he thought. He tried putting his comic books back on his bookshelf. To his surprise, they fell back down on the floor.
“What is going on?”
Then he remembered his wish. “I guess I’m just meant to have a messy room for the rest of my life.” Then he remembered Mrs. Honey Pickle telling him to look to the sky and call her name three times if she was needed. He did just that and she and Buzzy arrived in his room.
“Oh, my goodness, look at this mess,” said Mrs. Honey Pickle.
“I tried to clean it but the things just fell back on the floor. It’s like the mess is alive and taking on a life of its own. It goes where it wants to go, and it’s getting bigger, like everything I bring into the room is its nourishment.”
“That’s because you wished to never have to clean your room.”
“I don’t want that wish anymore. It’s not as fun as I thought it was going to be. My friends don’t even want to spend the night. I don’t even want to spend the night but my mom won’t let me sleep on the couch in the living room.”
“So, you realize that having a clean room is important Rory.”
“Yes, Mrs. Honey Pickle.”
“Then I shall reverse your wish.”
Mrs. Honey Pickle pulled out her magic wand and reversed the wish.
“Now, get to cleaning your room, Rory,” she said.
That’s exactly what Rory did. He never once complained again about cleaning his room. And he found something he thought he had lost long ago: a 1958 Roger Maris Rookie baseball card from his grandpa, years before.
Wish Five:
“I wish I never had to go to bed.”
One Wednesday evening, Tawny Pine was up past her bedtime playing with her Barbie dolls. She knew that it was past her bedtime, but she
was too caught up in her dolls to go to sleep. Plus she felt that an 8:00 p.m. bedtime was much too early for a girl of eight years old.
She heard a knock at her bedroom door, “Tawny, are you in bed yet?” called her father. She didn’t answer. She was too busy.
Her father opened her door to find Tawny on the floor playing with her Barbie dolls.
“Tawny, you know your bedtime is 8 o’clock. It is nearly nine.”
“I know, Daddy. I was just having a lot of fun playing.”
“You probably were, honey, but you are a growing girl who needs her rest.”
Tawny’s dad helped her put her Barbies away and then tucked her into bed.
“Goodnight, Tawny.”
“Goodnight, Daddy.”
Her dad kissed her goodnight, turned off the bedroom light, and shut the door.
Tawny tossed and turned in her bed, trying to get comfortable. She just wasn’t tired at all, she wanted to play. Why did her parents make her have to go to bed every night when she would much rather stay up later so that she could play?
She was perfectly able to have a later bedtime. She was hardly ever sleepy when they put her to bed.
“I wish I never had to go to bed,” she said.
Tawny tossed and turned a little more and then she heard a knock at her window.
She got out of her bed to see what the noise was.
“Who on Earth would be knocking at my window?”
She opened it up and Mrs. Honey Pickle and Buzzy came flying in to her bedroom.
“Hello, Tawny. I am Mrs. Honey Pickle and this is Buzzy. I am your fairy godmother.”
“Yay,” said Tawny. “I’ve been wanting one of those for a while. What took you so long?”
Mrs. Honey Pickle laughed. “Well, here I am. I have been so busy, but I heard you make a wish.”
“Oh yes! I wished that I would never have to go to bed.”
“That’s a pretty extreme wish, Tawny. Are you prepared to be tired a lot?”
“Oh, I don’t really care about that. I could play forever and never have to waste time sleeping.”
“Okay, if that’s what you want.”
“Yes, it is. Please?”
Mrs. Honey Pickle pulled out her magic wand and cast Tawny’s wish.
Relentless: Three Novels Page 17