“Well, about that,” Dan said. “I don’t want to have to keep leaning on you guys.”
Allen put up a hand. “I don’t want to hear another word, Dan. You’ve been my best friend all my life, you literally brought me to the party where I met Scarlet. We’ll help as long as you get back on your feet.”
Dan sighed, grateful, yet also a little irritated. “I just . . . I just wish I had the lives you guys have.”
Scarlet gave a sympathetic smile as she hung on her husband’s arm.
“There’s someone out there for you, tiger. You’ll catch her.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Things will improve,” Allen said. “I know it.”
Dan sighed again, nodded, and gave several more pitiful thanks.
“All the best you two,” he said, “not that you need it.”
And with that, he walked out the door.
“Yeah, I know.”
“Things will improve,” Allen said. “I know it.”
Dan sighed again, nodded, and gave several more pitiful thanks.
“All the best you two,” he said, “not that you need it.”
And with that, he walked out the door.
Dan entered his ratty apartment, feeling utterly exhausted. He’d walked home rather than cost himself the cab. He didn’t want Allen or Scarlet to know he’d had to sell his cheap-ass vehicle just to get by. He swatted a spider and got rid of its nest, and then decided to unwind with a beer. After a couple of drinks, he visited the bathroom to take a piss, and he took a heavy breath at his reflection. He wasn’t ugly. In fact, he had an innate rugged handsomeness, with his dark hair and square jaw. But he looked beaten down by life, which he felt.
“I wish I had their life,” he said to himself. “I wish I had a hot lady like Scarlet on my arm. God, just to fuck someone like her would give me the energy I need. At least enough to make it through another day of being a fucking loser.”
As he said this, he stepped past a stack of hand-me-downs that had been given to him by his late great aunt, and nearly tripped over them. He just managed to catch his beer in time, but as he righted himself, he saw a strange little red rock fall from the pile, one that was glowing softly.
“Hello there,” he said. “I remember you.”
He picked up the warm little rock and examined it. It sparkled a little, almost unnaturally.
“You’re that wishing rock that Great Aunt Janice was always going on about. The one that could supposedly change my destiny.” He chuckled lightly. “She used to have several of them, the crazy rich old bat. How did she manage to live to one hundred and twelve anyway? Or get so rich? She claimed it was because when she was little, that she’d found the site of a fallen shooting star and collected dozens of its glowing rocks. Each of them, allegedly, contained the power to grant a single irreversible wish. One that would be permanent and could not be overridden. No one in the family believed her, but as a kid, Ben had loved her stories, and so once she passed she had imparted one of her treasures to him. He had packed it away as a nice memory and not thought about it.
Until now.
“Huh, the old wishing rock. Damn if I don’t want you to be real.”
It really did look supernatural, with its soft glow and strangely smooth surface.
“Ah, what the hell,” he said to himself. “Can’t get much lower than I am. How about this then? I wish I had everything that my friend Allen has. There!”
He scoffed at the ridiculousness of it all, and the fact that he’d been privately hoping.
And then the stone glowed ever brighter. It became hot in his hand, and he became startled as it glowed so bright it was almost impossible to see. He was about to yell for help when suddenly it exploded, dissipated in a puff of red mist.
And then it was gone.
“Holy crap,” he said. “That . . . does that mean it’s real?”
His mind reeled with possibilities. What if it was real? He’d just made the perfect wish!
At least, he thought so.
Ben will be rich but not in the way he thought...
Next morning Dan woke up
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