Julian walked alone along the beach, wearing his red and black swimming trunks and flip-flops, kicking the white sand with his feet, frustrated. He had always hated being the youngest in the family, but it really sucked today. His parents were back at the resort lying down and "sunning" next to the pool, his sister had gone off scuba diving, and his three brothers had taken off on their own adventure (Julian was pretty sure they were trying to find someplace that would serve them alcohol). He wanted to do something, anything, with any of them, but he couldn't: the pool his parents were at was adults-only, the scuba company required anyone using their equipment to be at least sixteen and put a $100 deposit down, and his brothers wouldn't let him come along cause he was "a little kid". All he could do today was walk along this beach, bored and wishing he was back home with his friends, or that his friends were here with him. Alone as a twelve-year-old, Hawaii kinda sucked.
Even the beach, the thing he was looking forward to the most before the trip started, was sort of a drag. He wanted to go swimming, but his parents specifically told him not to go into the ocean without them or one of his siblings around. He thought about disobeying and going anyway, but he feared what would happen if he got caught: he would be grounded until he turned eighteen, have his allowance revoked permanently, or any one of dozens of other equally severe punishments. Even if he didn't get caught, he knew enough about rip-tides and strong currents to know it wasn't a good idea to go without someone he knew. He had thought about trying to build a sand-castle, but that seemed like a little kiddie thing (at least his brothers had said so the other day), and besides, the sand wasn't stable enough on this beach for that to be successful.
As he looked out at the crowds, the group of twenty-somethings playing beach-volleyball, the old ladies looking for seashells, and the families horsing around and having a good time, Julian cursed to himself. "Fuckin' family. Why can't I be like one of these kids and have parents and brothers and sisters who want to do stuff together?" Disgusted by the crowds (or rather, by how lonely they made him feel), he headed away from the resort areas, down to a more private part of the beach.
He had to hike a bit to get away from the din of the crowds, but when he finally got to a secluded area where no one else was around, he sat down and looked out onto the waters. The waves rose high above the surface, crashing onto the beach, then being pulled back out and doing the whole thing over again. "At least this is pretty peaceful," he said to himself. As the minutes passed by, he slowly began to let free his stress, and he felt a little better about the day.
Watching the waves, Julian saw something get washed up onto the shore about a hundred yards from him, glistening in the sun. He wasn't sure what it was, but it looked interesting enough to warrant further attention, so he got up and jogged over to investigate. When he got within thirty feet, he determined it was a rather large bottle of some sort, perhaps a wine bottle or something similar.
Once he got to the bottle, he picked it up and tried to make out what was inside. The glass was greenish and translucent, and he could make out what looked like a piece of paper as well as a large, somewhat heavy circular object. His curiosity piqued, he ran to the edge of the beach where some boulders stood. Raising the bottle high above his head, he smashed it down onto the rock, sending the glass shattering but freeing the contents.
The circular object turned out to be some sort of pendant with a thin ribbon threaded through it, sort of like the medals given out at the Olympics. He picked it up and examined it closely. By color, at least, it looked like it had been made of gold, but it felt surprisingly lightweight. One side was completely smooth, while the other side had an engraved picture of an arm flexing.
"What in the world is this?" he asked aloud. Picking up the paper, he examined it for answers. The writing on it was very faded, but still seemed to be legible. In ornate script, it read: "When you wear this pendant, it can provide you with seemingly unlimited power, and whatever you wish becomes truth. But beware: power comes with a price. It has caused our people too much havoc and distress. I hope you find it more beneficial than we did."
"Seemingly unlimited power?" Julian repeated aloud. This was too good to be true. It definitely sounded like someone was playing a prank on him; that he'd try it out and someone would come out of the water or behind a palm tree and laugh at him, or worse. He started to throw it back to the ground, but before he could, he thought: "What if…" What if it were true? What if, somehow, this would be his ticket to changing his life? It was a ludicrous and entirely unrealistic idea, he knew, but he had always had an active imagination, so part of him wanted to believe that it might, just might, be real. Besides, he couldn't help but thinking that if he didn't try it out, he'd spend the rest of his life wondering about it.
Shaking his head and quieting the voice inside telling him he was being childish, he still knew he just had to try. "It can't hurt," he reasoned. He put the ribbon around his neck and let the pendant fall to his bare chest, jumping in shock as he did so. Whereas it felt somewhat cold and metallic in his hands, against his chest it felt warm, almost as if something inside it had caused it to start emitting heat. "Must be the Hawaii sun," he said.
He thought about how to use it. "Whatever you wish becomes truth," he repeated from the paper. "I guess I should test it out with something small first." Looking around, the only thing on the horizon that caught his eye was the shards of glass from the bottle he had broken. "That should do," he said to himself. "Okay, I guess I just have to say it aloud." He cleared his throat. "I… I wish this bottle was whole again."
At first it looked like nothing had happened, and Julian closed his eyes, shaking his head in disappointment. When he opened them, however, he was shocked to see that the bottle had been completely restored to its former unbroken state! Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, he looked back only to see, sure enough, the bottle was still there. As he examined the ground closer, he noticed there wasn't a shard of glass anywhere to be found. Somehow, someway, the bottle had been fixed.
"Oh my god," he said. "The pendant works!"
He had to test it out on something else to be sure. It might have been a fluke, and besides, the bottle was an inanimate object. Julian knew that the only way he would believe in the pendant's power was if he tried it out on himself. He thought for a second of what he should try, then came to a decision. Taking a deep breath, he whispered aloud, "I wish I was six inches taller."
After a moment, he felt his entire body begin to tingle, and he noticed his swimming trunks were beginning to feel more restrictive. Looking down, he saw the ground getting further and further away, and his torso and legs were lengthening, stretching out, almost like putty but more firm. "Holy crap!" he said aloud as the tingling stopped, his trunks stretched nearly skin-tight against his legs and crotch. "I… I can't believe it!" He couldn't quite tell how much taller he had grown, but it was significant. He felt that he was nearly as tall as his 14-year-old brother Christian.
Growing so quickly felt amazing, but Julian wanted to see if he could reverse it, to make sure that if anything ever got out of hand he'd have a failsafe. With a slight bit of disappointment in his voice, he said, "I wish to cancel the last wish." Instantly, without any kind of sensation or sudden rush, he felt shorter, and his swimming trunks returned to their normal loose fit. "Huh," he mused aloud, "I guess reversing a wish is quicker than making the wish in the first place. Interesting."
All sorts of possibilities of how to use the pendant rushed through his mind. He could change himself in any way imaginable, or mess with his family, or even have some fun with his friends back home. As he thought of these things, he realized something. With this pendant, his power seemed truly limitless. With this pendant, he was a god.
A wry smile formed across Julian's face. Hawaii wasn't going to be so boring after all.
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