Eddie on the Edge of Everything

5: The Wish-Hunter

I grabbed the baseball bat from under my bed and rushed down the stairs. Footsteps pounded the wooden deck outside coming closer and closer. I reached the front door and locked it. The handle rattled in frustration. My heart thumped fearfully against my ribs. I stood on my tiptoes and squinted through the peephole in the door to see if the man was still there.

"If you don't leave I'm going to call the police," I shouted. "I mean it." A blinding burst of light blasted through the peephole. I shut my eyes and turned away. As the light faded I looked again. "Did he leave?" I whispered.

Suddenly the house shook and the lights flickered on and off. I crouched and covered my head and screamed. The floorboards bounced making me feel the whole house was falling apart. Then silence, stillness. I peeked through my fingers to the living room around me. Everything was the same. My aunt's ugly couch still slumped in front of the television. Piles of empty Chinese take out boxes and hoards of partly used makeup containers rested on the coffee table. I stood up and twisted around the room, my bat raised in the air. Then I heard the refrigerator door shut.

I hurried into the kitchen, ready to strike this intruder. When I reached the entryway I stopped. This man was seated at the dinner table with a jar of pickles, my ham and cheese sandwich, and an open soda bottle. I watched as all the soda slipped past his lips. He emptied the entire liter within seconds.

"Ah," he cried out placing the soda bottle on the table. A large burp escaped his mouth. "Ugh so good. Nothing beats Earth drinks."

"Sir," I said nervously aiming my bat at him from across the table. "You are not supposed to be in here."

"And you, young lady, are not supposed to be wishing on stars. But here we are." There was a pause as he took a big bite of my sandwich. I wondered how he knew about me wishing on stars. "Ugh. So good." He smiled, the food poking out of his teeth. "What do you call this?"

"A ham sandwich. My dinner."

"So that's what ham tastes like." He removed his hood showing off his short green hair. I shook the bat at him again.

"How did you get in here? The doors are locked."

"Easy." The man whipped out a black cube from his cloak. "I used an Alcemator." He stopped chewing. I stared at the cube, it shimmered different colored lights just like the rock that crashed into my room. "Amazing isn't it. Alcemators are hard to come by. Had to nab this one off a Blockian. Barely has ten wishes left."

I looked at the man confused.

"I forget you Earthlings are on the no contact list. Guess you've never seen anything like this before."

"What are you talking about?"

"The name is Novus. I come from the planet Bix about thirty solar systems over."

"You're an alien?" I laughed. "That's rich. Prove it."

"I thought my clothes would be enough." He swallowed the last bite of my sandwich and stood up to show off his cloak. It sparkled like the night sky. "Made from the finest spider thread you can find, it is amazingly comfortable. And my boots--" Novus stopped. "Well, guess it doesn't matter. Most intelligent life in the universe looks about the same, dresses the same. We may have different skin and hair color sometimes scales, but we all seem to evolve with two arms and legs and front facing eyes. Though I must say, clothes do make the Manan."

"You mean, clothes make the man. It's a saying."

"Eh, whatever. My Earth sayings are not very good." Novus wiped his mouth clean with the tablecloth and gave one final burp. He picked up the pickle jar and shoved it into this cloak. The whole thing vanished. No one had pockets that big.

"Look, kid, I know you are probably confused, but I'm here to collect something you stole. If you hand it over, I can be on my merry way and you will never see nor hear of me again. In fact you may just remember this night as a dream."

"I stole something?"

"A wish, dear girl. A wish. It's a glowing rock. Falls from the sky. Comes from a star. I'm a wish-hunter and I've come to collect the Djinn's property." My eyes widened. "I figure you know what I'm talking about."

"A wish you say? Like that black cube thing?"

"Sort of, but no. So where is it?" He gave me a serious look. I didn't answer. He sighed. "Well thanks for the food, kid, but I really gotta get out of here. So if you're not going to tell me where the wish is, I'm going to have to search the place."

"Go ahead," I said. "But if you touch anything I'm going to hit you."

"Got some fight in you kid." Novus smiled. "I like, but it's going to get you in trouble."

"My name is Eddie, and I'm not a kid. I'm a young adult."

Novus leaned in.

"Kid."

"Young adult."

"Kid."

"Young adult!"

"Kid!"

Suddenly bright headlights turned into the driveway and the sound of car wheels rolled across the gravel.

"Oh no. My aunts are home early!" I screamed.

"You're last chance, Eddie. Where is the wish?"

"Get out of here."

"Fine, but I'll be back tomorrow for that wish." Novus raised the Alcemator into the air. A bright light flashed across the room followed by a shock wave so powerful it flipped chairs and tables, broke bookshelves, and cracked the television screen. I stood shaken. "Good luck explaining that to your aunts." Novus opened his cloak. Tiny lights glittered inside. His finger tapped on one of the lights and in a sudden swish and pop, he vanished into thin air. Then the worst happened. My aunts entered the trashed room with me holding a baseball bat.

"Edwina Eversby!" they yelled together. "You're in big trouble!"