The Third Wish

by Simon Archer

“Why the hell is it doing that?” he asked. I stopped the screen share and brought him back up on the screen so we could see each other.

  “I have no fucking clue, but knowing that it is doing something predictable is enough for me at the moment!” I told him. Jack leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. He started swiveling his chair back and forth and tilted his head slightly.

  “What made you look for that?” he finally asked.

  “I dropped my coffee,” I laughed. “Vila kept the cup from hitting the ground, and I saw the coffee wait until the cup was stopped before it spilled out. Then I had her do it again, with a less-sudden stop to mimic a lower-powered opposing force, and less coffee spilled out.”

  “You’re a complete whack-job, you know that, Anders?” Jack chuckled, shaking his head slowly.

  “You’re just jealous you didn’t figure it out first,” I joked.

  “Nah, not my job. I leave the figuring of things out to you while I sell incomplete programs for millions on faith that you’ll pull through!” he shot back.

  “You’re not wrong,” I agreed, still laughing.

  “Now go figure the rest out, boy-genius,” Jack said. He nodded and ended the video call.

  I smirked at his lack of any sort of ‘goodbye.’ The man apparently didn’t know any etiquette when it came to telephone or video communication. I leaned forward in my chair and went to work running new data configurations with the new knowledge about the mysterious energy. My small discovery had breathed new determination into me, and I spent the next three hours writing new programs, reconfiguring old ones, generating, and processing new data. I barely noticed the time pass and didn’t look up from my computer until Vila showed up at my office door with food.

  “Hey, here’s a sandwich,” she said. “I will bring your dinner in later, as I assume you won’t be coming out anytime soon?” She had seen me in the zone before when it came to working on programming issues.

  “Probably,” I smiled at her. “Thank you.” She smiled, turned on her heel to go, and then spun back around.

  “I’ll be certain to tell Lottie you asked where she was,” she said mischievously. I looked up at her.

  “She’s at work, isn’t she?” I got a sudden, dreadful feeling. It was the same one you get when you realize you have forgotten somebody’s birthday.

  “Yes, but you just assumed she was going to work,” Vila answered dramatically. “She didn’t want to bother you on your call earlier with Jack, so she slipped out. She wanted me to tell you to have a nice day. I don’t think I should, though… since you didn’t ask where she was.” Her rambling made no sense to me, and I got the immediate impression that was her purpose.

  “Don’t make me send you back into the money clip for being a snot!” I threatened humorously. She smiled, stuck her tongue out at me, and walked away. I kicked my shoes off and went back to my analytics, more motivated than ever.

  There was something about this weird energy that I felt I should see but just wasn’t.

  5

  I didn’t leave the house until three days later. In fact, I barely left my office at that time. I would have been happy to work straight through, but being engaged meant not leaving Lottie to sleep by herself just because I got obsessed with a program. While I had been programming, the girls and Lottie had been working on getting the house ready for the housewarming party Lottie thought would be a good kickoff for her business and for our acceptance into such a tight-knit community. Each time I’d exit my office, another room in the house would be decorated.

  By the time the day of the party arrived, the place looked amazing. Everything was lit up with tiny twinkling lights accenting seashell nick-knacks and Lottie’s collection of historical figurines. The décor was understated and airy, with just enough warmth to make the place feel homey. There were a couple of tables that Lottie wanted centerpieces for still, and time was running out because she needed to make it to the spa appointments she’d set to get ready for the party, so I volunteered to go into town and see what I could find. The four of us were finishing our morning coffee in the kitchen when Lottie glanced at her watch and jumped up out of her chair.

  “I swear, I thought moving somewhere tropical would make time go by slower, for some reason! Instead, it feels as though it has sped up, and I’ve ended up moving along at double-speed!” she mumbled as she looked through her purse to make sure she had everything she wanted to take to the spa with her.

  “It will slow down after the party, don’t worry,” I told her, standing up to kiss her on the cheek. “Now, use this spa appointment to relax and calm down. Everything is going to be perfect tonight, including you.”

  She smiled and put her arms around my neck, pressing her lips to mine. “Thank you for taking care of the centerpieces for me. I really appreciate it,” she whispered. She let go and swung her purse over her shoulder. “I’m on my way. You three have fun, and I’ll see you all tonight!” Like a tropical breeze, she whisked out of the room. Vila smiled over at me once Lottie was gone.

  “She will relax, right?” she asked, chuckling.

  “Yeah, she will be fine. She’s a perfectionist is all,” I assured Vila. “Please tell me you have some idea of what she is looking for with regard to the centerpieces I am supposed to go get.” Andi and Vila both started giggling.

  “Yes, we do,” Andi replied. “And, we’ve already looked up where to go in town to look for them.” A thought crossed my mind, and I wondered if the girls would go for it.

  “Any chance we can just make them here?” I asked as nicely as I could, knowing my chances of getting out of going shopping was slim.

  “You really want to avoid town so much as to have us magically make centerpieces?” Andi put her hand on her hip and raised a brow at me. A tiny bit of guilt washed over me.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to go into town. I just thought I could get a little more work done, so my head would be clear for the party tonight,” I answered, trying not to sound like the lie I was telling. I really just wanted to go back to work.

  “Let’s go. Get out!” Vila hollered at me as though I was a stubborn child. She raised her arm and pointed toward the front door. “You are not getting out of this, so you can go play with some computer program again!”

  “Some computer program? Really? This program—”

  “No arguments, and no, we don’t need a speech on the importance of your project! We know!” Vila interrupted me. “Now, out!” I lowered my head in mock-defeat and headed towards the door, the girls trailing after me. Once we were outside, I turned to walk to the side of the house where my car was parked. Before I could make it further than a couple of steps, Andi took me by the arm.

  “Over here,” she said, a smile in her voice. I turned around and saw a black Lincoln Towncar pulling into the drive.

  “You ordered a car to take us into town?” I asked, wondering what motivated her to do so.

  “Yes, I did. Just get in, would you,” she replied, assuming I was still stubborn. I followed her and Vila to the car and was reaching for the handle to the back passenger door when the driver’s door opened up. An older gentleman, balding and bright-eyed, stepped out of the car.

  “Glen!” I yelled at the man. Glen had been my driver for more than a year before I decided to move. I asked him to make the move with me, even offered to buy him and his wife a house, but they had declined. “What the hell are you doing here?” I strolled around the car and shook his hand while slapping him on the back.

  “I live here!” he answered nonchalantly.

  “What?” I stood back and looked at him, thinking that perhaps I heard him incorrectly.

  “I said, I live here. It’s a good thing by the looks of it, with you going deaf and all!” he laughed.

  I looked at Vila and Andi, who were watching with amused smiles from the other side of the car. “What is he talking about?” I asked them, knowing I was not going to get a straight answer out of Glen. He was an endlessly
sarcastic, but hilarious, man.

  “You bought him a house,” Vila answered casually.

  “Jesus, people! Will somebody please tell me how this man is standing in front of me saying that he lives here when two weeks ago he assured me he was not going to move here!” I hollered in mock-frustration.

  The three of them broke out laughing.

  “Relax, Bennett,” Glen said, still chuckling. “We were always coming. Lottie just thought it would be a nice surprise if you didn’t know about it.”

  “You are all sneaky little shits!” I yelled. I shook his hand again, happy that he was there. Glen had become one of my closest friends.

  “Yeah, well, that’s what you get for being so preoccupied with your tinker toys. You bought an entire house and didn’t know it!” Vila piped up.

  “Computers are not tinker toys. The house part, though, I do believe I probably should have noticed that at least!” I agreed.

  “You basically got a two-for-one deal. When you closed the deal on this house, a second came with it along with a commitment of a two-hundred-thousand dollar donation to the island restoration fund,” Andi informed me.

  “How did I not know about this?” I asked, beginning to worry about my affairs a bit.

  “Lottie arranged it. She had everyone in on it, including the realtors, and your lawyers who signed the paperwork,” she explained.

  “Well, hell. With friends like you around, who needs accountants?” I joked. I turned back to Glen and smiled.

  “It’s really fucking good to see you, man,” I told him.

  “You too, Bennett,” he replied. “Now, am I taking you somewhere, or are we going to stand here, flapping our gums?” He reached beside me and opened the rear car door and gestured for me to get in.

  “Yeah, yeah. We’re going. Vila will give you the address of the store she found that supposedly has centerpieces that my fiancé will like,” I told him as I climbed in the car which was blissfully air-conditioned. He closed the door behind me, went around to let the girls in, and moments later, we were headed to town.

  The drive was short, and Glen didn’t have any trouble finding the store. We had to park a couple of blocks away, however, due to a lack of parking spaces available. Glen stayed with the car while Vila, Andi, and I got out and walked back to the store. It was a small boutique-type place tucked in a run-down building that, at one time, used to be white but had greyed with age and weathering. There was not an actual door, but a beaded curtain instead. It took several moments for my eyes to adjust to the dim interior. Once I could see more clearly, I found myself amongst rows and rows of different types of pottery.

  “She wants pots for centerpieces?” I asked Andi, referring to Lottie.

  “These aren’t just pots,” Andi whispered. “They are different types of hurricane lanterns.”

  “What makes a pot a hurricane lantern?” I asked, not seeing anything lantern-like on the shelves.

  “See the dish each piece sits in?” Andi asked. I looked at the nearest shelf and noticed that each pot-looking piece did indeed sit on a matching dish that curved up at the sides.

  “Yeah,” I answered her.

  “You put sand in the dish to weigh it down, and a candle goes in the middle. Then you put the top piece over it, and the light shines through the holes. The cover makes it nearly impossible to blow the candle out,” Andi explained. I pulled one of the lanterns off the shelf, careful to make sure its dish came along with it without falling. I held it up and examined it closely. There were hundreds, if not thousands of needle-tip size holes all over the top portion alongside some larger holes carved out in decorative designs.

  “I thought hurricane lanterns were glass,” I told her.

  “A lot of them are,” she confirmed. “Different places use different materials.”

  “And this is what Lottie wants for centerpieces?” I asked, skeptical. The lanterns were interesting enough, but I wanted to be sure my fiancé got exactly what she wanted.

  “Yes, she does, but not the ones on that shelf. The ones she prefers are over on the other side of the store,” Andi told me. She took my hand, and the three of us walked the fifteen feet to the opposite wall of the tiny shop. The lanterns there were different in that they were crafted with various colors of ceramic and polished to an amazing shine.

  “These look a lot more like her taste,” I commented.

  “Now look for colors that match the house. You’ll need to select four lanterns.” Vila instructed as she took a step back so I could have a clear view.

  “You’re not going to pick any out?” I asked her. Decorating was something that both the girls loved to do, and I was slightly confused as to why I would need to pick out the lanterns that went home with us.

  “This is your job. Consider it your contribution to the party planning committee!” Vila laughed. I rolled my eyes at her and shifted my attention back to the rows of shelves in front of me. The house was already trimmed with various shades of blue, so I honed-in on lanterns containing the same colored ceramic. The process took much less time than I expected it to. I found a set of four lanterns that had a mix of blues and greens but were each original to itself.

  “How about these?” I asked the girls, pointing at my selection. They looked at the ones I’d chosen and back at me.

  “Really?” Andi asked me sarcastically.

  “What?” I responded. “They look like they would go just fine in the house!” Vila glared at me alongside Andi.

  “It seriously only took you sixty seconds to pick out the ones that are absolutely perfect,” Andi said, sounding irritated.

  “Is that a bad thing?” I was thoroughly confused.

  “It’s annoying!” Vila chimed in. “We could have shopped an entire day before deciding!” I instantly laughed at the two of them.

  “I guess we have the perfect example of male versus female efficiency,” I spouted out through my laughter. Neither of them looked amused. “Oh, come on! It’s a little funny, don’t you think?” I looked from one to the other, and their straight faces didn’t budge. Instead, they both crossed their arms and pouted. I was beginning to think they were seriously upset when Andi finally looked back at me and grinned.

  “Can’t argue with that, I suppose,” she admitted. Vila looked back and smirked in agreement.

  “Good, you’ve lightened up,” I responded jokingly. The girls both shrugged their shoulders and nodded to each other.

  “Let’s get those paid for and get out of here. It is starting to get crowded,” Vila noted.

  I looked around, and sure enough, the store had gotten much busier than it was when we walked in. We made our way past several people and up to the counter. There was a kindly looking woman who carefully wrapped all four lanterns for me. She handed me the bag, and we started out of the store. Andi led the way, and Vila followed behind us as we flattened ourselves against a row of shelves to let some new customers pass by.

  There was a weathered old man at the end of the line of people who’d just walked in. He was about to pass Andi when he stopped in his tracks, turned, and looked her dead in the eye. His hand darted out, and he grabbed her arm. I instantly started to reach forward to make him take his hand off her when Vila wrapped her arm around my shoulder and pulled me back.

  “He’s not himself,” she whispered in my ear as we stood by. I struggled against her hold, so she added some magical strength to her grip. “She’s not in any danger. Now, just listen.”

  I returned my attention to Andi and the old man, just as he started talking.

  “The weather technology is not the only thing looking for something undetected in this place,” the man growled in a low voice. “If evil puts the wall up, there will be no more perfect weather.”

  The moment the last word left his lips, the old man straightened up and looked around as though he had no idea where he was. He looked forward at his hand on Andi’s arm and jerked it back.

  “I’m so sorry, miss. I must h
ave stumbled,” he apologized for his supposed clumsiness.

  “It’s perfectly alright, sir,” Andi replied sweetly. She smiled at the old man as he shuffled away. Vila released her hold on me, and I leaned forward and put my arm around Andi.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. I was caught between being concerned for Andi and pissed at Vila for holding me back. Andi nodded quickly, took hold of my hand, and led Vila and me out of the store.

  “Did you hear what he said?” she asked once we were on the sidewalk and away from the doorway.

  “Yes,” Vila answered. “What was it?”

  “Why the hell did you hold me from getting that creep off of her?” I seethed at Vila.

  “I told you that she wasn’t in any danger. That man was simply a messenger of some sort,” she replied and turned back to Andi.

  “What kind of message was it?” Vila asked her as I looked at Andi too.

  She put her hand up and grinned. “I appreciate your gesture of protection, but Vila is right. I was never in any danger. Something ensorcelled him.”

  “Like a witch’s spell?” I asked quietly, looking around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping on our conversation.

  “Kind of like that, but a witch didn’t cause whatever got into him,” Andi replied. “In fact, I don’t think the magic that took him over was cast at all. It was almost like he was just hit with magic all of a sudden.”

  “What do you know that can do that?” I glanced around again, getting progressively more uneasy about this particular type of conversation being had out in public.

  “Nothing comes to mind right away,” Vila said, shaking her head slowly while racking her memory.

  “Let’s get back to the car. We can figure it out there. I don’t like talking out in the open like this,” I instructed. The three of us walked back to the car where Glen was waiting, leaning up against the hood, reading a local newspaper.

  “Hey! You guys are back awful quick!” he hollered when he saw us. He tossed his newspaper through the driver’s door window and opened the rear door.