Wishes Set In Stone

A story that tells the moral of, "you can't always get what you want."

Influenced by: Strange Day in July and the Harp
Maryrose Krassner

Wishes Set In Stone

    “Come on!” my mother screamed as she gripped my hand tightly and forced me to keep up with her.
    I didn’t speak because all my energy was focused on keeping my feet moving. Faster and faster she forced us to run. I didn’t realize what was happening; I was only three years old.

“Ah!” screeched my mother. Her scream was so blood curdling, so harsh and high pitched, that I could instantly tell she was hurt.

She tumbled to the ground with blinding speed. “Mommy what’s wrong?!” I screamed over the sound of sirens, gun shots, and crackling fires. Then I saw it. I saw her pants legs turn from their dirty blue to a sickening red. I screamed at the sight, and I collapsed emotionally next to her side. “Mom,” I said, tears stinging my eyes, “don’t go! Don’t leave. You can’t die!”

“Catrina, my sweet,” she spoke in a hushed tone due to her collapsing lungs, “I’m so sorry; I should have told you sooner, but I didn’t want to believe it myself.”  

“Believe what mama?”

“I saw I was going to die,” she said pain and grief in her eyes, “but I didn’t want you to...”

“No! You can’t die!” I was so young, so fragile. All I remember was how, even in her dying moments, she smiled.

“Everyone dies eventually sweetie. You can’t avoid fate, but you should always keep hope. Even when things go bad, everything happens for a reason whether we know it or not.”

“But… but you…”

“Sweetie, I know it’s going to be hard, but just remember something for me. Can you?”

The pain and tears in her eyes persuaded me into saying, “Yes.”

She looked at me with pure compassion through her tear filled eyes, when she said, “Never give up on yourself for anything or anyone. No matter how bad you want to. Okay?”

All I did was nod, and watch as her eyes closed. My tears slid down my cheeks, and fell onto her blood soaked clothes. “Mom?” I asked, but it was too late. I felt her grip tighten one last time before her hand slipped, fell, and plummeted from mine.

I remember how her body looked so lifeless, so dead. That was the last day I ever saw my mother. Then there was a screech…

 

“Ah!” I holler, jolting into an upright position in my, twin sized, bed. My hands are clutching my bed sheets tightly. My head is pounding, and my heart is racing at, what feels like, one hundred miles per hour. That’s when my dad came in turning on my bedroom light with one hand, and gripping a metal baseball bat in his other hand.  

“What’s wrong?! Why did you scream?” he asked, clutching the bat firmly with both hands now.

“Nothing. It’s nothing. Just a nightmare,” I say trying not to worry him.

He sighs deeply, before he says, “It’s the one about your mom again isn’t it? Look kiddo. What happened to your mom was tragic, but that’s the outcome of stupid teenage kids with their gangs, bombs, and guns. You see? That’s why we moved here. It won’t ever happen again. Okay?” he asks.

“Okay,” I say nodding to look reassuring.

“Now get back to sleep. I’ll make your favorite breakfast in the morning,” he says before turning the lights off again, and saying, “good night.”

I lay here in my bed staring at the ceiling. Most parents would be more concerned about their child screaming in their sleep, but that isn’t the case here. This has been happening for as long as I can remember. Like cyclic changes of the moon’s phases. Closing my eyes gently, plugging my headphones into my IPod, and inserting my ear buds into my ears, I try to fall asleep again.

 

Lucky for me, yesterday was Friday; I wake up and yawn loudly, exhaling all my breath. Taking my headphones out of my ears, I sit up in bed. Thinking over and over again of my mother, I remember a particular moment with her.

 

“Catarina, can you come here?” my mother asked.

I walked over to her as she held out her palm, and in it were three rocks: one blue, and two green. She handed me all three and stared at me expectantly. “What should I do with them?” I asked.

“Well,” she said turning to face the grassy park’s lake, “I want you to skip them across the water.”

So just as my mother asked, I skipped the rock across the lake one by one. The first rock I threw, a gray one, skipped two times. I continued to throw the second gray rock. As I held the blue one in my hand, it felt like it was buzzing. A bit confused I threw it.

It came skipping back.

I threw it again and again, but the third stone kept skipping back. After a few more tries my mother brought me home.

“Since this rock seems to like you so much, why don’t we make it into a necklace? Maybe it has magic powers,” she said while giving me a wide, happy smile.

I was going to reminisce some more, when the telephone rang and scared me half to death.

RING! RING! CALL FROM RED.

I reach my hand over to where my phone lies ringing on my nightstand.

I pick it up and answer it. “Hello?” I ask.

“Hey Cold, you’ve gotta come check this out!” he exclaimed.

“Check what out?” I ask in a sleepy, groggy voice.

“You’ll see just come to my house, kay?”

“Okay,” I agree, “I’ll be over in ten.”

 

After a quick breakfast and changing into clean clothes, I head out to the car and drive over to my best friend, Red’s, house.

As soon as I pull in the driveway, he comes out of the house running with blinding speed, his brown hair in messy knots and his eyes filled with excitement.

Thrusting a box into my hands he says, “Open it up! Some weird lady came up to me while I was out for my morning jog. She said to give it to you.”

I lift the lid off the, normal, little box, only to find a tiny piece of plastic.

“Well what is it?” he asks in an impatient, monotone voice.  

“It looks like a guitar pick, but I feel as tough it’s for something other instrument. Maybe if we take it to… hey look,” I say, pulling a piece of paper of paper from the box, “there’s a phone a phone a number. Should we call it or…”

But before I could finish my sentence, he already had his cell phone in his hand and was dialing away. I take the phone while it’s ringing.

“Hello?” says a, clearly female, voice.

It sounded like a young woman whose maybe in her thirties. “Hello? Are you the woman who gave my friend who gave my friend that box?” I question. Better to be upfront when something sounds fishy.

“Yes I am. It’s something to help you get what you’re wishing for. Just a piece of advice; don’t ever look for or follow me.”

Click! The phone went dead silent.

“What’d she say?” Red asked.

“She told me never to follow or look for her.”

He just stared at me. After a few moments of silence, his face went black, and his eyes went wide. “What is it? Do I something on my face?” I wondered aloud.

He stayed silent.

I followed his eyes to find my rock necklace was lighting up a soft, golden color, and it was making a buzzing noise.  

I was so caught off guard that I dropped the box and toppled over onto the cold pavement. As soon as I let go of the box, the necklace stopped glowing and buzzing.

What the heck. Was the box making that happen? Out of curiosity, I walked over and picked up the box.

Nothing happened.

How could that be?! It was glowing just a second ago! Very frustrated, I threw the box back to Red. Just as I did so, the pick inside came flying out to the ground.  I bent down to pick it up. I just touched its smooth plastic with my fingertips, when my necklace went haywire again. This time I brought it up close to my face for closer observation. Only, it never got to my eyes. When I brought up towards my necklace it flew out of my hand and attached to the necklace!

Both pieces of matter were now glowing and buzzing.  

There was a burst of light that surrounded me. I was in a swirling tunnel of colors, and all at once the tunnel disappeared and I was standing next to Red again.

“What happened to your necklace?” he whispered, pointing to the new pendant hanging around my neck.

“I don’t know. Did you see all those colors?” I stammered. “They were amazing. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Uh…nothing, never mind.”

That’s when he drew a step closer and warned, “We’re being watched. It’s the same woman that gave me the box. She’s staring at us from across the street. Should we go talk to her?”

“Yes. I would like to know what exactly just happened, and WHY it happened,” I responded.

We pretended to walk down the block. Hopping four backyard fences, we made our way to where the woman was still standing. Quietly, we walked up behind her and tapped her shoulder.

She jumped and turned around with shock and astonishment on her face. Before we could question her, she made a run for it.

We ran for what seemed like hours. We chased after her screaming, pleading, begging for her to stop running. She led us to a place we’ve never even seen before.

It was a forest.

“That’s odd,” I state.

“What is?” Red asked, curiosity filling his features.

“It’s just, I’ve been to this part of town over a thousand times. There was never any large amount of plant life like this.”

“You sure?”

“I’m positive. I think we should go inside.” I say hoping he’ll say yes.

“I think we shouldn’t. Look,” he speaks now pointing to an, enter at own risk, sign that’s just barely clinging to a wooden post.

“You can stay outside it, but I want to know what’s happening.” I say. It’s true, I did want to know what’s going on, but I was more interested in what she said about my “wishes” coming true. Wishes? I haven’t wished for anything since my mother died. Mostly because I don’t believe in something that could never happen.

After he realized I was definitely going in no matte what the sign and himself said, he decided to come along just in case there was something harmful in there. We walked through multiple arch ways of different shrubbery. Beautifully colored flowers, that I’ve never even seen or heard of before, grew on large bushes and tree.

“Hey do you think,” I was just about to say, when I smelled one of the most alluring smells on the face of the planet.

“Do you smell that?” I ask.

“Yeah. What could be making that smell?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never smelled anything like it in my entire life.”

Then silence fell between us as we enjoyed the fragrant aroma. The gentle breeze blew the lush leaves.

“Hey, do you hear that?” Red said so suddenly it made me jump.    

“Hear what?” I asked.

“Shh, just listen carefully.”

I listened, and I heard it, a, very faint, whistling noise. “What is that?”

“I don’t know, but maybe it will go away.”

So we both stood silent and listened. It sounded like it was getting louder. Louder and louder the noise grew. It started to sound less like a whistle and more like a rolling thunder storm or stampede.

“We should probably get out of here. That noise sounds like it’s closing in on us,” I say a bit frightened. I turn to make a dash out of this spot of this freaky jungle, and just as I do I hear a scream and notice the only footsteps I hear are my own. I turn to find Red collapsed on the ground. “Ah!” I shriek. “Red! Hello?! Are you okay?!” I holler, while I sprint at full speed towards my fallen friend. “Are you okay?” I ask kneeling next to him.

...No response...

He’s out cold. This is just great. What knocked him out anyway? Where did the whistling noise go?

FWAP!

“Whoa!” I yell. What the heck was that?!

FWAP!

Oh my gosh was that... was that a vine?!
“Uh, what happened? All I remember is hearing a weird whip like noise and then everything went black.” Red says sitting up.

“It’s the vines! They’re slapping the ground like crazy! We’ve got to get out of here! Now!”

“Agreed. Let’s get out of here,” he says getting up and starting to jog down the only pathway there was in this whole mess. The same path we came in on. Only this time we didn’t reach where we started. We ended up somewhere completely different. This place has a river and a sparkling waterfall.

“Hello. I thought I told you to never follow me? Did I not?” says a familiar voice. It was the woman who ran away. She was perched on top of a rock in the middle of one of the river’s many bends.

“You give me some weird gift, my necklace changes, you talk about wishing when I haven’t for a long time, and you think I’m not going to want an explanation?!” I yell at her and her smug attitude.

“On the contrary my dear, I knew all to well you wouldn’t listen. It’s how fate had it set out.” she replied in that snarky, smug tone. “But you really should have listened to my warnings my dear.”

“Why?” I say just in time to catch a vine swinging at me from the corner of my eye. I dodge as she laughs, harsh and cold, like a blizzard, an ice storm, dark and shrill.

“What you don’t like plants?”

FWAP! FWAP! FWAP!

Three more vines come swinging out at me, and I dodge them. I start dodging multiples of vines, branches, deathly fast leaves, and falling plants of all sorts. It started to become a base line, almost as if it were some old song passed down throughout the centuries. A melody started to play in my head with the plants noise creating a background beat.

“Why won’t these stupid plants hit you?! That’s it! Never send plants to do a Keres job,” she said spitting venom out with every word.

“A Keres? What is that?” I ask the odd woman.

“Ha ha ha!” she cackled so loudly it rang throughout the torn forest. “You have not a clue of what a Keres is you say? Keres are the most fierce and amazing creatures. They out and over rank all other beings! Do you know what they feed on puny mortal girl?”

“By the sound of it, I’d go with anything they can.” I respond trying to hold back the quiver in my voice.

“Yes it’s true we can eat everything, we prefer human blood. It’s the most quenching.”

“These creatures sound like... wait did you just say we?” I ask fear filling my whole body.

“Hehe, indeed I did. So what will it be are you going to surrender now, or will you put up a pathetic fight like many others have attempted to?” she questioned in a tone triumphant, alluring, and vile tone.

“Never.” I say mustering all the strength I have into the words.

“Well fine. Have it your way. Hm the boy seems to cute to kill. How ‘bout I keep him around for a while? I could use a pet errand boy. So what do you say we take our little disagreement up a notch?” she says in her heartless tone, as she raises her finger and all of the river water raises around us into a large dome. “Such a shame you have to die like this. You never even got to say goodbye,” she mocks.

She rushes at me with blinding speed knocking me down into the solid, stony earth. She starts to choke me with her bare hands. I put all my strength into my right hand and slam it straight into her face, managing to knock her back a few good feet.

“You just made a grave mistake,” she says with her long brown hair hanging in her face, making the words come out muffled. She sits up on her legs and curls herself inward towards her stomach. “Ah!” she screams. Her scream turns into a deafening screech. There’s a ripping sound, as I watch black wings sprout from her back. Her hands grew into talons, and her figure grew slimmer. When her horrific transformation was complete she stood up, baring her blindingly white teeth that stood out against her pail grey skin.  “I was going to make it painless, but now you’ve given me no reason to. I’m going to rip you to shreds individual piece by piece.”

I stood there, awaiting my death. I saw her heading straight for me, and I knew I would never be able to move in time.

I thought it was all over, but I was wrong.

As soon as she was just about to grab me, my necklace shot straight off my neck and into the air, circling me in the same tunnel of lights as before. Only this time, it served a purpose. It kept her back. I felt my feet lift off the ground, and the colors spiraled around me. After a few moment of being suspended in mid air I dropped back down to the ground, except I was now wearing an armored metal suit.

“No it...it can’t be...” she stuttered in utter shock. “They...they said you were dead...that you never even existed...” she went on. Then she quickly regained her arrogant composure. “No matter. I’ll still dispose of you, and be looked at as God of all the Keres! Aha ha!”

Once again she came at me, but this time it seemed like she was moving in slow motion. I could predict exactly what she was going to do and counter it perfectly. She came at me from the side, and I smashed her arm. She came over me from the top, and I smashed her spinal cord. She stayed down long enough to where I thought she was dead, but she made one last move.

She used her wings to pelt straight at me, but it was too late for her. She made her choice and had to suffer the consequences. I drew one of my arms of to the sky, and the wrist piece formed into a special cannon. I charged it up using every ounce of my necklace’s power, aimed it straight at her darting figure, and fired. I was thrown back a couple feet from the powerful blast, but she however was pulverized into dust. The dome of water splashed back down around me, and Red was standing there gaping at my “new look.”

“What happened in there?!” he asked.

“Oh nothing,” I say pressing a button in the middle of my odd suit. All at once the tunnel of light came back, the suit flashed back into my necklace, and I was wearing the outfit I originally had on.  

“Cool! Can I try?” he asks in his immature manor.

“Sorry it only works for me,” I say not wanting to let anyone else try something dangerous.

“Hey, do you hear that?” he asks.

“Yes,” I respond listening to a beautiful melody that seems to be playing from somewhere. It’s the same melody that was playing in my head when we were under attack by that vicious creature.

We followed the sound to a cave hidden under the waterfall. Upon entering, we noticed it look exactly like the outside, waterfalls and all. except there was a large harp sitting on a ridge in the water fall.

“Okay. This makes no sense what so ever. What is that doing here?”

“I think I know,” I say making my way over to the instrument.

Taking my unusual pendant off of its chain, I strum a few of the strings and listen to the lovely sound they make.   

Then a string of information comes into my head. A bunch of fingerings on how to play a song, and talk of how playing this song is said to give you what you most desire. Then an image of my mother popped into my head... my favorite image of her. She’s sitting at the black ebony piano, in her denim skirt with the blue frill at the edge, and her favorite blue blouse on with little intricate designs. Her long, elegant fingers gracefully grazing over the piano keys, making a beautiful melody come out from under them. Her long, thick, brown hair coming down in spiraled ringlets at the ends, just like mine does. Her hazel eyes alight from the joy of her music. I could listen to her for hours.  

Without even noticing it, my finger had begun strumming the golden strings of this magnificent harp sitting before me. I thought solely about my mother. Then a ring of golden light surrounded me, and I saw her. My mother stood before me, and I could feel the hot tears of joy stinging my eyes. I tried to speak, but my words were caught in sobs. She looked at me as if to say hi or hello, but then she spoke words that I never thought I’d hear.

“Catarina you must not stay here. I’ve passed on already. I love you and always will, but this is not the place for you. I know it’s been hard for you, and I’m very sorry it has. But you can’t bring me back. You can’t die either yet. You have to stay strong, because not even this harp can change the past. It’s already set in stone. I’ve got to go now, for good. I love you. Goodbye,” she said waving as her image got sucked back into a shining light my eyes were too weak to bare.

“Goodbye,” I whisper, a tears escaping my eye, “mom.”

As the lights fade I come back to reality.

“You okay?” Red asks staring at me.

“Yeah, I’m fine now.” I say.

I guess that if something happens in the past you can’t change it. No matter how hard you wish.

 Fin

BY: Maryrose Krassner 1/7/13 

Author's Note

Feel free to comment. I'm not the best with spelling or grammar so feel free to help me revise. I've never been one to share my work so this is a start I suppose. Thanks for those who read it to the end!