Blue Eyes

Sandy picked out a magazine from a pile on sale at the train station and handed it to the grumpy man behind the counter.

"Six dollars and twenty cents" he mumbled, with a cigarette sticking out of his mouth.

Sandy pulled out the cash and waited as he licked his fat finger and counted the money. He then frowned, "Is this a joke?"

"Excuse me?" she asked, her forehead crinkled in confusion.

He held out a little card from the money she gave him that read:

"Spit here and make 1 wish!"

"Oh, sorry" her face flushed red and she quickly snatched the card back, stuffing it in her pocket.

Stupid card, she thought as she walked to the train with her suitcase in one hand and her new magazine in the other. The wish card happened to be a gift from the cereal box she ate that morning. Sandy hoped it could come in handy when she arrived at her grandmother's house. Maybe she could wish that dinner won't be "granny's secret soup", which smelled like old socks.

Inside the train Sandy placed her suit case, took a seat, and flipped through the magazine. When the train started moving, she looked up to watch as the station grew smaller and smaller out of the window until it completely disappeared. Then right before she could back to her magazine, Sandy caught the sight of a girl around her age, sitting across the aisle.

The girl was, without a doubt, beautiful. She had lovely golden hair that fell down on her shoulders, smooth cream-colored skin, and a sweet smile. She had long sweeping eyelashes, but best of all, her eyes.

Sandy had always wanted blue eyes, and that girl had exactly what she wanted. Her eyes weren't just any kind of blue; they were more like a pair of flawless aquamarine gemstones sitting between her eyelids as if on display.

The pretty girl sat calmly listening to the man sitting in front of her. Sandy thought she heard him say "Clarissa" and guessed it must be the girl's name. Even the name was pretty! She also guessed that the man must have been her father, since; he too, had blue eyes. Except that they weren't as charming as Clarissa's eyes. They were a type of faint blue, almost transparent, as if old age drained the color out of them. It wasn't the kind of blue Sandy wanted, she wanted the type of pure, sharp blue the girl had.

Feeling a little self-conscious, Sandy pulled out a mini mirror from her bag and examined herself. Messy, tangled hair that could have been mistaken for a mop if it weren't so red, freckles dotting her whole face, yellow teeth with many gaps in between, but worst of all, eyes so dark that she wasn't even sure whether she had pupils or not.

The hair and teeth can possibly be fixed some day, a few years of braces and many visits to the salon would solve the problem, but the eyes will always stay the same. Even if she wore contact lenses, that wouldn't be her real eye color, and she couldn't wear them all the time.

Only cartoon animals are supposed have round, inky black circles for eyes, she thought, not human girls.

With a sigh, Sandy put the mirror back and started munching angrily on a sandwich, blaming her parents for giving her such horrible ebony eyes. Halfway through tearing chunks of bread and cheese, she noticed Clarissa eating a sandwich as well. Though unlike Sandy, she held the sandwich with only two fingers and took small, delicate bites, carefully chewing with her mouth closed.

Sandy looked down at her shirt, saw a salad mix of sandwich crumbs, and lost her appetite. She put the half-eaten sandwich away and, after flicking the crumbs off herself, went back to reading the magazine.

The next half hour was uneventful. Sandy shifted in her seat, fiddled with her nails, looked outside the window, and attempted in vain to dose off a few times, but no matter what she couldn't stop glancing begrudgingly at Clarissa, who sat most of the time staring with into space with her elegant, dreamy sky blue eyes, sometimes listening to her IPod or to her father speaking.

She tried looking for flaws in Clarissa's face, but found none, and that only made her seem more perfect, and the more perfect Clarissa seemed, the uglier Sandy felt.

At that moment, Clarissa laughed at something her father said. It was a warm, cheerful laugh filled with melody that showed her shining white teeth. Sandy felt a lump in her throat, knowing that her own laugh sounded like the screams of a dying chicken. That wasn't the problem, though. It wasn't about how the laugh sounded but how Clarissa's eyes sparkled as she did, like brilliant stars reflecting in a dazzling lake of electric blue.

An artery must have exploded in Sandy's body because her heart pounded harder than ever against her chest.

Why? She thought, Why does she get to have such gorgeous eyes when I don't? Isn't she already pretty enough?!

With her face twisted into a scowl, and her hands curled into shaking fists, (say, there could have been steam coming out of her ears as well!), Sandy wrathfully glared at Clarissa, her charcoal eyes darker than ever. If looks could kill, the poor girl would've dropped dead. Clarissa was still alive though, and smiled happily, unaware that only a few seats away there were fingers that itched to claw her eyes out.

Suddenly, in the midst of her rage, an idea sparked in Sandy's brain. She quickly took out the little card which had been waiting patiently in her pocket the whole train ride, it read:

"Spit here and make 1 wish!"

It was worth the try, wasn't it?

The idea of spitting on it was gross, but Sandy did it anyway, though it would've been more satisfying if her saliva had landed on Clarissa's face, not on the card. After the spitting part, she closed around the card with her hand, shut her eyes as tight as she could, then, hoping it would be the last time she saw through hideous black holes, Sandy made her wish.

For a few moments, she remained still, eyes closed, doubting that a silly card could make her wish come true.

Or maybe it could?

When Sandy finally opened her eyes, they were indeed blue and beautiful. Except that she saw nothing.

At the same time, Clarissa gasped unexpectedly then looked around in wonder, her mouth gawking as tears started to form in her new, pitch black eyes.

"What's wrong?" her father asked, concerned.

She whispered in awe, "I can see!"