Fiction Friday: Chapter Five

Shelby found it hard to think of something good. Her hands turned sweaty as she stared at the wall for a while. She made dots of gold on her arm and watched them disappear. Sienna had left her stack of money in the corner of the shed. She could hear her sisters running around the yard. When she could choose for herself, nothing came to mind.

Perhaps she would take money like her sister. She could buy everyone iPods and take the family out to eat. Maybe even buy a car or a house. "Money" she wrote on the wall, the same as Sienna had. It disappeared. Maybe you couldn't wish for the same thing. She kicked at dry grass on the floor of the shed.

Sierra had gotten a super power, she thought, maybe she could too. Superman could fly. Spiderman could sling webs. Perhaps something like strength or X-ray vision. She chewed over her options. She wanted to know what was going on behind the pulled drapes of her neighbor's home. She wanted to know what they watched on TV and who was playing the same Wii games she was. She also wanted to get better at finding things.

"I want X-ray vision" she wrote. The writing hardened and shown on the walls underneath the others. She opened her eyes trying to look deeply and at first nothing happened. She slid her eyes out of focus, causing the world around her to appear blurry. Then the wall changed, she wasn't looking at the writing, but the wood underneath, she could see the nails holding it together, then the pain on the outside, then she could see straight through it. Through her eyes she could peel the world like an onion, layer by layer stripping away the parts that just blocked what she wanted to see.

She dropped the quill on the ground and studied the world around her, she peered into her house, where Dad was on the computer and Mom wa reading on the couch. She peered into the neighbors house, they had a lot of junk on their floor. She peered into the earth, finding worms beneath the soil, seeing the root systems of trees, seeing the big pipes that connected all the houses together.

Savannah, seeing that Shelby was done, picked up the quill again. She had an idea not wishes, but powers. She didn't want to be able to produce money, like Sienna or turn invisible, like Sierra, she wanted all of it. All of that and more. She wanted to be able to turn into an animal and shoot fireballs. How would she word it?

"I want all the powers" she wrote. It seemed a sloppy way to say it, but it stuck. The forth wish was on the wall. Her mind screamed, you got your wish. Then she was stuck. How was she supposed to do these things?

She left the shed. Shelby was gazing into the distance. Sienna was making more money and Sierra was seeing what she could turn invisible. Savannah thrust her hands not the air and thought, fireball. Nothing happened. She jumped, seeing if she could fly, but she didn't feel any different. She even tried breathing in to see if she could turn invisible, like Sierra, but no matter what nothing seemed to happen. The closest she got was when she stuck her hand in her pocket and found a one dollar bill, but she thought it might have been there already.

She could do anything, but she didn't know how.

It was then Shelby saw the big, dangerous looking man, dressed all in black, watching them.