The Wish

Her alarm went off with a steady buzz. It was 5:30 in the morning. The only redeeming thing about the day was that it was a Friday, the last day of work. Anne got slowly out of bed, her cat falling away from over her legs and made her way to the bathroom. She looked into the mirror and thought, "I'm 32 years old and if I weren't so plain looking I'd be happily married with at least two kids and I wouldn't be living in this stupid apartment." This had become almost a ritual for Anne. She probably would have stood there longer and berated herself except she had to get showered and ready if she were to make the 6:50 train into work.

Anne took off her bathrobe and was about to hang it up on the hook of the door when she stopped to look at herself in the mirror. As she did so often Anne looked at her body. Although she was only 135 pounds at five feet seven inches she was rather large breasted. There was a time she thought how nice it was to have them. When she was just thirteen she was a full C cup and lost her virginity between the seventh and eighth grades. She learned early how having large breasts attracted the attention of the boys and for a long time she liked that. From then on and most of the way through college she had been fairly popular. She knew she was popular with guys because she was large breasted but she rationalized that it was a lot better than having no dates at all. Even though she lost her virginity at a young age Anne was fairly conservative about having sex. She didn't allow for it in her life much at all.

As a freshman in college Anne had experimented with having sex with her roommate Karen. It was a lot of fun at first because she didn't think Karen wanted her because of her body. It was also a time of self discovery for the two young women so they looked upon their initial relationship as something they both wanted to explore a little bit. By the spring of that year they had ceased to be lovers but remained friends and roommates throughout their college years. Each had her share of boyfriends and each stopped dating during their senior year of college. Attending one of the Ivy League sister schools was a daunting task for even the best of students and Karen was one of the best of students. She and Anne were both invited into the Phi Beta Kappa Society and each graduated summa cum laude. Karen went on to Tufts Veterinary school and Anne went to Stanford and received her Ph.D. in cellular biology of humans. Anne was offered a job at a biotech company in the Boston area long before she had given her dissertation. With all this going on it had been four years since Anne had gone out on a date. At the age of 24 Anne had become something of a social recluse.

As she boarded the train that morning Anne thought back to her days in graduate school and how her friends had told her how she had it made in life. She wondered what that meant if this sort of life, a solitary existence, was good then what was not a good life. When Anne discovered herself dwelling on this subject, as she had so much lately, she scolded herself to stop. Still, she thought of the person in the mirror earlier that morning and how she looked so very average, so plain, so dull. Her social life had become spotty mostly because she suspected that every man who asked her out on a date only wanted her for her body. She had found herself envying a flat chested woman. She thought how that woman's life must be so much easier. She saw the woman had a ring on her finger which meant she was married and from the size of her belly she was also close to having a baby. So Anne was able to reassure herself that there were men who cared about women for more than just their physical appearance even though she couldn't seem to find any.

She stuck her face back into the newspaper and vanquished such thoughts from her mind. Anne loved her work. As a researcher she had gotten several prestigious awards for her work and one for a discovery she had made. She was one of the more highly respected workers at her company. In the eight years she had been there she had tripled her salary and knew she had it good where most things in life were concerned.

Anne was supposed to have lunch with a friend from work but at the last moment he had backed out. He said he had a report due that afternoon and said he'd have to work straight through lunch to be certain of finishing it. He asked Anne for a rain check and Anne, being the obliging person she was, said it was all right. She sometimes wondered if men found her unattractive and being large breasted was no longer holding its appeal to them. She considered her social life to be a mess. She kept that from bothering her by immersing herself in her work.

At lunch-time Anne took the subway to downtown Boston. She wasn't sure where she was going so she wandered about for a while looking in the store windows. It wasn't long before she found herself in front of a used book store. She had always liked this sort of a bookstore, particularly when they specialized in hard covered books as did this one. She went in. A small bell rang above her head as she opened and closed the door. She didn't know anyone still used such a device and found it to be quaint. An elderly man approached her and said, "May I help you miss?"

"I don't think so, I'm just looking around thank you," she replied politely.

"Here, there's a book over here I think you might like," he persisted.

Anne was about to protest however he was already moving away from her so she followed him without saying a thing. This was another aspect of herself which she did not like. She was always giving into other people's wishes. From a shelf which was face high to the man he pulled out a thin book and handed it to her. She saw a gentle smile on his face and looked down at the book in her hands. It was entitled "Your Wishes." She thought it odd that the author was "Anonymous" and mentioned this to the old man.

"It's a reprint of a much older book. I have an original copy which no one ever sees and which I will never sell." He said.

She opened the book to see the copyright date. There was none. "No one knows when it was written," the old man offered as if he had read her mind, "however I have it on good word when it was first printed."

"How do you know that?" Anne asked.

"It's a secret," he whispered as if there were some sort of intrigue attached to the book. "You read this book. I think you will find it interesting."

She thought to herself "why not?" and indicated she would take it.

"Good!" the old man said almost gleefully. "That will be three dollars and seventy-five cents."

"Three seventy-five?" Jane asked as if he had made a mistake. "Certainly it is worth more than that."

"That's the price, take it or leave it."

Anne paid for the book. The old man placed it in a small paper bag and handed it to her and said, "Good luck." She thought this an odd thing for him to say but replied, "Thank you." She couldn't help but think that she'd take that sort of a thing whenever it was offered.

Anne worked hard the rest of the afternoon and just caught the 5:15 train for home with but a minute to spare. She found a seat toward the front of the train and settled down for the fifty minute ride home. She thought she'd take a nap, she was rather tired from the long hard week. Shortly after the train left the station the conductor came by and she showed him her rail pass. She was about to settle back into the seat when she thought of her purchase from earlier in the day. She pulled the book from her tote bag and opened it. The type of print and age of the pages reminded her of a set of books that had been in her parents house when she was a child. The books, a multi-volume series was called "The Spectator" and had been published in 1713 as she remembered. This book she was holding appeared to be of the same vintage. She wondered if that were true then how the old man could have sold it to her for such a small price.

She opened the book and began to read. The first sentence read, "Be ye careful ye who wilst read this book." What a strange way to start a book she thought. The admonishment went on further before it went into giving brief stories about angels, spirits, witches and evil. The last sentence of the chapter read equally as strongly as the first saying, "Now be ye warned that all that cometh from the nether regions cometh from the dark and all that cometh from the heavens above cometh from God." The paragraphs between these two sentences indicated that the book was strongly bent towards the latter and not the former. Anne read on, she had become intrigued.

II

By the time Anne reached her stop she had finished the book. Mostly it was a philosophical book however there was one portion toward the end which spoke of wishes and how the reader need be cautious of such things. Remembering how old she thought the book was she put that to superstition. Just before the end of the book there was a sentence which had said that once she was finished reading the book she would be granted the wishes of her heart but that she should be very careful for what she wish. "Be ye not of foolish mind or of foolish heart." She didn't know what it meant by "foolish." She thought for a moment. She could think of only one wish she'd really like to have, to be beautiful, but she was careful and did not wish for that. Then she admonished herself. She thought she was beginning to believe in the superstitions of the book and that was totally against her nature. She put the thoughts out of her mind although they kept creeping back in.

Anne got off the train and went to where her car was parked. Although she lived in an apartment, her choice, Anne was very secure financially. She had indulged herself one day into buying a 1955 baby blue Thunderbird convertible. It was one of the few things she had ever wanted. Even owning this car seemed to work against her, however. Men looked at her as she drove by in her car. She was certain that it was the car and not her that the men looked at. To say the least, Anne had a very bad self image.

Anne's apartment was a little over two miles from the station and took her about ten minutes to drive the route. As she drove she found her mind wandering about the many things she'd love to have and had wished for at one time or another. Mostly, however, she wished she were beautiful. She recognized this as being self serving and vain however her loneliness prevented her from being entirely rational on the point. As she pulled up in the parking lot in front of her apartment Anne found that she had become almost entirely involved in the thought of how nice it would be to be beautiful. She parked the car, put the thoughts of being beautiful out of her mind again, grabbed her handbag and the book and headed for the front door.

"Good evening Miss MacArthur," Mrs. Stein said to her. Mrs. Stein was a very kindly elderly woman who lived in one of the apartments with her apartment. "You're looking very beautiful this evening, are you going someplace special?" The elderly lady asked her. Anne could not imagine what she meant.

"No, I have a little laundry to do, a few papers to work on, that's all," she replied in a resigned voice.

"Such a pretty girl, you should be out with some nice young man," Mrs. Stein continued. Mrs. Stein always said this so Anne took nothing from it and thanked her as she always did.

Once in her apartment Anne immediately put what she was carrying down upon the couch and headed for the bathroom to wash her face. The day had been a hot humid one and she thought how nice it would be to get the day's dirt off her face with a nice cooling face cloth. She turned on the cold water and allowed the water to run a few seconds before she wet the face cloth. Once the cloth was dripping wet she turned off the water and lifted the cloth to her face. She was about to wash her face when she looked into the mirror. Had some other circumstance that she couldn't think of existed she would not have believe that it was her face she was looking at. The features were definitely hers but she was no long plain, she was, and Anne thought slowly before she said the word to herself, beautiful. How had this happened? "I must be hallucinating," she thought. "This is some sort of trick or I'm dreaming." It was at that moment the phone rang and startled her. She knew she wasn't dreaming.

Anne quickly dried her face and rushed to answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Anne, it's Jodi. I hope I didn't catch you in the middle of something," Jodi said ready to apologize if she had.

"No, no, you didn't. I was just . . .," Anne's voice trailed off as she remember what had just happened.

Noting the change in her voice Jodi asked, "Are you all right Anne?"

"Oh yes, I'm fine, why?"

"Your voice sounded a bit strange, that's all. Anyway, I'm at the Oak Tree Mall and I was hoping you'd go shopping with me since it's just a few minutes from you."

"I'd love to!" Anne said, thinking of how nice it was someone cared to ask her out that evening. Then Anne remembered again what happened a few moments ago.

"Great!" Jodi exclaimed. "Don't eat, don't change, don't do anything but get into your car and come over here. I'll be sitting in front of Walden Books. See you in a few minutes okay? Bye!" Jodi said this in her usual stream of consciousness and hung up before Anne could protest. She had agreed to go but a sudden fear crossed her mind of what Jodi would think when she saw her. "As long as I were wishing for things I wish I had wished for a size smaller breasts." Anne thought to herself.

Anne rushed to her bedroom to change into jeans and a clean blouse in spite of Jodi asking her not to change. She quickly removed her dress and then her blouse. She went to her closet a pulled out a sheer white blouse and a pair of jeans which were hanging there. She quickly pulled on the blouse and turned to her dresser mirror as she was about to button up the blouse. Again she was not only startled by how pretty her face was but something new now. Her breasts were smaller. They were so much smaller that her bra hung away from them. Slowly Anne took off her bra, put her hands underneath her breasts and raised them slightly. They were smaller. "I don't believe this is happening." Anne thought to herself. Then she remember that Jodi was waiting for her so she threw on the blouse without a bra, a bra size she did not own anyway. She felt she had no choice. She quickly pulled on her jeans and a pair of tennis shoes rushing to get over to the mall. As she stood up Anne looked into the mirror to she how she looked. She was a bit surprised that though the blouse was sheer her breasts were not obviously unbridled beneath it. This much pleased her. She quickly put on some lipstick and ran a brush though her straight shoulder length hair. "Now if I were only a blonde I'd be perfect." Anne said in an almost audible voice. "I wish that were true but I'd better be careful or I'll end up with something I don't want." As Anne began to leave her room she noted she had become a blonde. "It figures," Anne thought to herself and left without giving another thought to the things that had happened.

III

Anne saw Jodi sitting on a bench in front of Walden Books just as she said she'd be. Jodi was a stunningly attractive auburn haired woman of 29. Every man in the world seemed to desire her and Jodi brushed off almost all of them as well. Secretly Anne had wished she'd had one or two of Jodi's cast-offs. She had been at the company only a year less than Anne but Anne considered her her equal in everyone and superior in others. She envied Jodi her beauty.

"You're looking particularly beautiful today Anne," Jodi said in her usual cheerful voice. "Got a hot date tonight you didn't tell me about?"

"Don't I wish. If I weren't such a plain Jane I probably would have a date but . . "

Jodi butted in, "What are you talking about Anne? You're one of the most beautiful women in the company and you know it. I see the men flirting with you all the time, don't think I haven't noticed. It's like I always tell you Anne, you've got to slow down on your work and get a life. Why do you always turn everyone down anyway?"

"Jodi, what are you talking about?" Anne asked rather confused by what Jodi had just said.

"Oh, playing coy this evening are you? Come on Anne, isn't it time you got out? You're so intelligent and so beautiful any man would be proud to be with you. Anne, you aren't gay and have been keeping it from me all these years have you?"

"No, I'm not gay and I'm not beautiful and no one ever asks me out. Jodi, what has gotten into you?" Anne asked a little upset.

"Lord you're a tough case Anne. Come with me." Jodi took Anne's hand and took her into a nearby Victoria's Secret. She pulled Anne in front of a mirror and said, "Now, tell me, what do you see?" Anne looked and still shocked by what had happened she did see a beautiful woman in the mirror but it was not her. Why was Jodi acting like this is how she's always looked she wondered.

"Jodi, why are you acting like I've always been beautiful and aren't you even a little bit curious about how I changed so much since this afternoon?"

"Anne, you are burning out. Have you seen your therapist lately? The only thing changed about you since I saw you at work is your clothes. Speaking of clothes, don't you think it's time we got you something just a bit sexy for you to wear? You always wear these, well, straight clothes."

"What do you mean straight?"

"Anne, I don't think I've ever seen you in sexy clothes. Well, since we are here at least we can get you started. Now, let's try one of those Wonder Bras on you." Anne pulled a white lacy bra from a hook and said, "Yes, let's try this one on. You're a C cup right?"

"No, I'm a double D cup," Anne said forgetting that she had changed there.

"Anne honey, the last thing I think you'd want to be is that big. If anything, knowing you, you'd like to be a size smaller than you are now. Now, here, take this in the fitting room over there and try it on and come back out wearing it so I can see it." Jodi said in a demanding voice.

"Jodi, I'm too shy to come out wearing something like this, you know that. Come with me and you can see it in the dressing room."

"All right," Jodi gave in and followed Anne into the dressing room. Anne was not an overly modest woman so she didn't mind changing in front of another woman particularly when that other woman was her best friend. Anne quickly unbuttoned her blouse and revealed her unrestrained breasts. She had completely forgotten she'd left the apartment that way.

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you that I didn't put on a bra," Anne said sheepishly.

"Oh come Anne, I'm your best friend, it's no big deal." Jodi said reassuringly, "and besides, if I knew you preferred that look I might not have suggested the bra in the first place. Anne, when did you start going braless? I didn't know you were the type."

"I don't usually, you know that, I just couldn't find anything to put on before I left. Nothing seemed to fit right."

"Well then, all the more reason we should get you fitted. Here, put this one on." Jodi said holding out the bra. Anne slipped her hands through the bra straps and over her shoulders. Its snap was on the front so she quickly snapped it up.

"Very nice!" Jodi said in obvious admiration. Anne looked down at herself and saw the bra did the desired effect. As a double D cup Anne had always had good cleavage and now that was true again with a little extra help. She surprised herself in liking the look.

"I like it!" Anne exclaimed. "It's really comfortable too. I didn't think it would be but it is. Maybe I'll get a few more, what do you think?"

"Sounds like a plan to me." Jodi responded.