The prompt this week was as follows: “It’s a birthday, with
a cake, and candles. Someone makes a wish and there are consequences.” ‘I wish
I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.’ Do you? Really?
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR…
“Happy Birthday, David. I’m so happy we were able to
surprise you.”
“Aunt Josie, you’re such a sneak. You ask me over to check
through some documents, and all the while, you’ve had a party planned.”
As if I couldn’t figure out what the old gal was up to since
she does the same thing every year.
“Your birthday is two days away. That’s why the party is
early. We wanted to fool you for real this year. You’re not an easy man to
fool.”
Old man, since you always schedule my ‘surprise’ birthday
party two days before my actual birthday, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to
figure it out.
“I hope not, Uncle Seth. But having a party early sure did
the trick. I never suspected a thing. My goodness, you’ve even got what’s left
of our family here. Uncle Mike and Aunt Geraldine, and even cousins Harry and Suzanne.
Millicent? So nice of you to come too, and you’ve brought your fiancé Bernard
along. That’s yet another surprise.”
I can’t believe that bitch showed up with her bastard of a
boyfriend.
“David, you know I wouldn’t miss this. I’ve known you all my
life, and Bernard thinks the world of you, don’t you, Bernard?”
“Of course, Millicent. Positively. The world.”
That warms my heart, Bernard, you ass. If only I could shut
you up permanently…
“You’re too kind. Well, let’s get this party started. I see
a cake with candles on the table. Aunt Josie, you make the best cakes in the
world, and that’s where I want to start. Somebody get my candles lit so I can make
my wish. I already know what it’s going to be.”
I sure do. I’ve known what to wish for since day before
yesterday. I’m not into witchcraft or voodoo, but by all that is holy, I pray
that my birthday cake wish comes true. It has to. Uncle Seth said I’m not an
easy man to fool, and up until day before yesterday, I thought that too. I was
lunching at the Windview downtown, and who slides into the booth next to mine
but Millicent and her sister, Louise. They didn’t see me, and I overheard them
chatting about Millie’s upcoming wedding. She talked about how anxious she was
for the wedding to occur so she could spend her life with her one true love. I
couldn’t stand to hear any more and made my escape.
All the way home, I couldn’t believe how I’ve been played by
that bitch. She and I have been lovers for many years, and often spoke of marriage.
Millie’s father had a problem with his business though, and she was determined
to help save it before we began our lives together. Bernard and his company purchased
small companies, shut them down, and screwed the employees out of any benefits
or compensation. Apparently, Bernard wanted to marry Millie, and told her
father that he would sign a note confirming his intention to leave her father’s
company alone if he would arrange the marriage. Millie had overheard this
conversation, and also heard her father tell him that it would be a cold day in
Hell before he would do that to his daughter. Millie knew her father would be
ruined, so took it upon herself to pretend to love Bernard and accept his
proposal. It was supposed to be a ruse to help her father. Her one true love
was not supposed to be Bernard. Her one true love was supposed to be me.
“All right, David. It’s time. Blow out these candles and
make your wish.”
“Oh, I’m ready, Uncle Mike. I am more than ready.”
Done. Now, I wait. I’ll hear about it because the families
are so close, Millie will call one of them, or she might even call me directly.
There’s no way out for her either since she takes marriage vows very seriously;
you know, that for better or worse crap. She won’t walk away from her one true
love. She won’t live happily ever after either. I made sure of that. You see,
my wish was that once their wedding was over, on Sunday evening, that her one
true love would lose the ability to speak. Permanently. It would make his and
Millie’s married life a bit dull, but it also would save the world from Bernard’s
cruelty. He could still have his minions continue to ruin lives, but how long
would that last? Sooner or later – hopefully, sooner, his power would fade and
he’d end up like those he destroyed. And Millie right along with him.
Come on, wish. Her one true love. Ha!
*****
Well, I’ll be damned, my wish came true. When I said ‘I’ll
be damned’, I meant that. You see, Millie and the Jerk King got married Sunday morning,
had their reception, and arrived at their honeymoon hotel in the evening.
Shortly thereafter, Millie came to see me at my apartment. As soon as I opened
the door, she rushed in, threw her arms around me, and told me everything was
taken care of. Bernard had signed the agreement to never bother her father’s business
right after their I do’s. She played along until they got to their hotel, and
it was there that she told him she was divorcing him. She had already hired an
attorney to draw up the papers, and she had them in her overnight bag. She told
him he’d better sign them and let her walk away clean or she’d go to the press
with his blackmail scheme. He couldn’t sign them fast enough.
She then told me she was happy the wedding was over so she
could spend the rest of her life with her one true love, and that her one true
love was me. Me. I started to tell her about how I had misunderstood what she
said in the restaurant, and all about the wish I’d made, but…
No comments:
Post a Comment