Wish I May, Wish I Might

Chapter 23

Annabelle and I tested wishing over the next few weeks. From asking for tiny things like a pair of headphones to asking for everybody in the world to have an income above the poverty line, we experimented to see if our wishes would come true. And they never did. My last wish had done the trick. No more wishes, no more abilities. We were truly alone out here, just two normal people living in a normal world.

We had a few advantages going for us. Before our wishes had gone away, we had wished for spare money. We had the truck and a gas container waiting. The fence was around Valleytown, protecting us from outsiders. Annabelle's ability to garden and her great ability to teach gardening meant we were mostly self-sufficient and only needed to go out and interact with other people rarely.

Or, I suppose I should say, Annabelle did most of the interacting. I stayed behind her in the shadows, trying to avoid being seeing or spoken to. After the carnival the night of my birthday, the people we would occasionally see in the area were polite to us. Sometimes they would ask questions I was unable to answer, but they never looked too much into us.

Everything must come to an end, though. I don't know what will happen if I ever truly show my face again. Maybe Annabelle's wish as she was saving me got rid of all the charges against me, and the memory of my crime has faded with time. But I know better than anyone, if your family hasn't given up on you, you can't give up on them. It took me a long time, but I finally got Annabelle to listen to me on that. Her family was waiting for her in Chicago, and it was time she went and told them the truth.

As for me, well, I'll go where the world tells me to go. Whether that's prison or back into the desert or back home, wherever it is. I know there's a reason behind all of this. And I trust that this was just the start of my own adventure.

But before I leave you, I want you to know there was a reason behind why I wrote all of this down. By the time you're seeing this, I have written this all down and printed it. I put it under the bed in my room in the rose-covered house. I also posted it online in an encrypted file. So if you're reading this, then you're reading one of those files. Now, I obviously can't make you do anything with what you've learned here. My wishes are gone, after all. Not that I could even make a wish if I still had them. But I do have a request for you.

If you ever are in the Chicago area, and you find yourself a little town off the I-94 Freeway called Apple, stick around for a while. Go get some ice cream, maybe. I recommend the Birthday Cake flavor. And then, if you can, go to the house of Alex Davis and Benjamin Moore. You can find them in the house next to the lot where a house belonging to a crazy old man used to stand. Tell them their daughter is okay, and that she misses them. Maybe while you're there, you'll find two people named Cassius Garcia and Mariana Zambrano, but I think they are destined for far more than Apple will ever give them. Should you see them, however, tell them that Carter says she's sorry for everything. It's not enough, not even close to enough, but it's all I can do.

As for you, my dear reader, thank you for finding this. I hope you learned something from this.

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With that, I clicked my pen.

"Carter!" Annabelle said from the stairway. I put the last page of the stack of printed papers back. My curly handwriting seemed weird next to the typed words, but I wanted to make sure it was clear that I was someone who really wrote all of it, and who really meant all of it. I placed the pages in my shoebox and put the lid on as I heard her footsteps coming up the stairs. "Are you up here?"

I slid the box under my bed, or what had been my bed. The fresh smell of the roses that still bloomed in full glory wafted through the window with a breeze, and I took in a long final inhale.

Annabelle walked to the doorway. "Oh, you are in here. What're you doing?"

I gestured vaguely with the pen.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked.

I combed my hair with my fingers and nodded. I wasn't sure what I was feeling. I had never considered Valleytown to be my home, despite all the memories there. As much as I loved and hated Apple, it was my true home. So I didn't know why I was so upset to be leaving Valleytown. Maybe it was because I was scared of what would happen when I left. There was feigned confidence and acceptance in the letter I had written to whoever would find the digital file or printed copy under the bed of my story. I meant what I had written, but it had probably had more confidence than what I actually felt. I guess we all want to pretend to be braver on our own stories than we really are.

Still, I nodded, and Annabelle and I went downstairs together. Annie was already in the truck with her head sticking out the window, and I scratched her ears as I passed. Annabelle and I checked we had all of our bags packed in the bed of the truck, and we got into the car.

When we had finished, Annabelle looked around and sighed deeply. Everything around us, from the rose-covered house to the general store to the crooked old apple tree were all special little objects we could tie memories to. "Do you think we'll ever come back here?"

I shrugged, then looked back at the tree in the center of the road. There was protection in Valleytown. There was a promise I was safe and no one would find me in Valleytown. It was the same protection I had in my wishes when I had them. Now I was giving both of those forms of protection up. I looked back at Annabelle and the tiny fraction of our lives we were bringing with us in the truck. I had made my decision. And even though it had been difficult, I would be happy with it.

I climbed into the truck and Annabelle followed. I turned the key and the engine roared to life, and I started the long drive back from where we had come from.