Generational Wishes

It was a crisp fall day in the city of Cleveland. The wind was getting just a hint of the winter chill that was to come and the morning frost tended to linger on the blades of grass for some time after the sunrise. In a small unassuming house in the west park area, Martha DeWinters was addressing her children on a matter of some supreme importance. Or so she claimed to them anyway. Jonathan truthfully didn't know what was going on, nor did he have even the slightest inkling of what his mother thought was so important he needed to be dragged away from his video games.

Jon's mother had never been the warmest woman while he was growing up but recently she had been acting very squirrely. More so than even he thought was normal for her. Nervously checking calendars and clocks constantly, consulting articles online but then slamming the lid of her laptop and snapping at him when he tried to inquire or even when he dared to enter the same room as her.

However, he had attributed these changes in behavior due to the fact that his mother was recently diagnosed with troubling kidney disease. Her health these last few years could be described as weak at best. But she hadn't really seemed bothered by any of it before now. She had scoffed at the mention of surgery and only did the bare minimum to not aggravate the problem any further.

But ever since the start of October, she had been acting incredibly strange. Well, stranger-er, he reflected. His mother always maintained an air of secrecy about her. Where she went to school was a mystery and she seemed to have no extended family beyond them. Worst of all, though, was after his father had died a few years ago, she seemed almost not to care. She barely blinked when she heard the news that he had been killed in a car accident and she had informed both him and his sister Sarah of the fact over their morning breakfast as if she had been commenting on the weather. That had driven a wedge between them and there had been precious few conversations between the pair since then. Until today, when she had burst into his room and demanded a family meeting immediately.

Martha led Jon upstairs to the attic, where he saw his younger sister Sarah waiting, an annoyed look plastered on her face, tapping away on her phone furiously. Most likely stalking her latest crush, Jon thought to himself. Ricktor Ryanson, a big bad high-school football star and all around doofus in his opinion. Guy probably had a tiny dick and no brains, he had said to her after she wouldn't stop gushing about what a perfect man he was. But that was neither here nor there at the moment. Almost a year out of high school himself, the comings and goings of the local dramas there were of little import to him. He had much more pressing concerns, such as losing his virginity and getting a steady girlfriend of his own,

As soon as she walked through the door, Martha snapped her fingers in Sarah's face. "Get off your phone, Sarah," She said, her usual annoyed tone well in place. "This is very important to your future." She said in a sharp tone that brooked no argument.

Sarah scoffed at her mothers words but briskly shoved the phone into the back pocket of her jeans so that she might be able to better glare at Martha. As usual, Sarah was loath to spend any time away from her almost nonstop text chain of gossip that she and her friend reveled in.

Satisfied that her orders were being obeyed, Martha turned to Jon to confirm that he too was giving her his undivided attention, then she knelt down and carefully slid a panel on the floor back to reveal a small secret hiding place. Jon was surprised and more than a little curious about all of this; it felt very cloak and dagger, even for his strange maternal figure. When she stood back up, Martha was clutching a weathered wooden box in her hands. It looked positively ancient to Jon's eyes. Martha placed the box on a small wooden table she had evidently set up in the middle of the room beforehand and beckoned the pair of them to gather around it with her. Judging from the look on Sarah's face, she was just as curious about all this as he was, and more than a little intrigued at precisely what their mother was up to.

"Alright my children," she started, giving each of them a hard look. "It's time for me to show you our sacred family heirloom. One that has been passed down the family line for hundreds of years." She said with an air of reverence. With that, she pried open the lid of the box and showed them what was inside.

Jon had expected it to be something impressive like a diamond the size of a baseball or a ring that came from some kind of royal court or even a stack of gold coins. What was actually inside was a rather crude looking crystal that had three points on it. The base of the crystal was a dull orange color but each of the points were a different color, one purple, one blue and one green. Despite its unique color scheme, it was uncut and crude looking. The disappointment that he felt upon seeing this so-called 'heirloom' was matched only by the look of loathing he saw plastered on Sarah's face.

For a moment, no one spoke a word. It was Sarah that broke the silence. "This?" She spat out as she saw the contents of the box. "You dragged me up to this dusty crawlspace just to show me some stupid piece of junk that someone picked up from the fucking ground a hundred years ago?"

Martha opened her mouth to respond but Jon couldn't help himself as he voiced his opinion as well. "Yeah mom. No offense but this is... rather anticlimactic. I mean, it's kinda cool looking but it's far from some kind of priceless antique." Giving the crystal the once over, he added as an afterthought, "Bet you couldn't get ten bucks for it."

Sarah scoffed at that statement. "Ten? You'd be lucky to get a single dollar for that piece of crap." Her phone gave a loud buzz and she fished it out of her pocket. Frowning, she cursed suddenly. "Fuck. I've got better shit to do then stand here looking at the old crap you want to pawn off on us mom. I'm outta here."

Jon froze for a moment, not quite sure what to do. Sarah already had her back turned on them, but Jon could see a look of pure rage passing over his mothers features. She looked like a mad witch from an old fairy tale, he thought. Martha suddenly moved swiftly around Jon and grabbed Sarah by the shoulders, spinning her around to face her so fast that she nearly fell over.

"Mom, what the fu-" Sarah started to shout but was cut off as Martha snatched her phone out of her hand and smashed it on the ground. As Sarah watched with an open mouth, her eyes bulging out of her head in anger and disbelief, Martha stomped on the mobile device with the heel of her foot until it roughly resembled a metallic taco. Sarah, her own anger boiling over, pulled back a hand to slap the shit out of her mother, but Martha with uncanny speed and agility snagged her wrist and shoved her hand away.

"You are going to listen to what I have to say about that crystal! It's more than just a hunk of glass! Its..." Martha stopped as she saw Jon turning the crystal over in his hands. He was looking at it to try to see if it had some hidden value that he had missed. His mother seemed to think so...

Martha bellowed out, "PUT THAT CRYSTAL DOWN YOU NINCOMPOOP! YOU'LL RUIN EVERYTHING!"

The sound of his mothers voice screaming in a volume and tone he had never heard before scared Jon badly. He jumped and fumbled with his grip on the crystal for a second. Martha practically hurled herself at him and, wresting the crystal from his hands, shoved him so hard he toppled backwards and landed on his ass. Martha gave the crystal a thorough look over with a worried look on her face before gingerly set the crystal back in the box and then let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Mom, what the fucking hell is wrong with you?!" Sarah shouted out. She was holding the shattered remains of her phone and her face was flush with anger. Jon's butt hurt from where he landed on the floor but he didn't say anything out of fear. He didn't want to be the focus of another of his mothers insane outbursts and instead just tried to sink into the floor to avoid detection.

Martha favored her daughter with a look of almost pure disgust. "Oh, shut your mouth you little moron. By all the gods, if I didn't need you for this I'd have thrown you to the dogs ages ago." Sarah's mouth hung open in shock. Jon felt stunned by that statement as well. What the hell was going on here? His mother was acting in a way that he had never seen before.

Martha ignored their looks of shock and indignation. She cast a loving gaze at the crystal sitting in the box. "This 'worthless hunk of junk' is worth more money than even the most rich billionaire could afford. Men have gone to war for it. Quested for it. Died for it. Traded whole nations for just one glimpse of it. It's..." She hesitated for a moment, casting another look of disgust at her children. Jon was still sitting on the floor where she had pushed him. After she fixed both of them with a hard look that simply said she would brook no argument, she said the words that changed everything. "It is a wishing stone."

A heavy silence hung over the attic after their mothers proclamation. Neither Sarah nor Jon could think of anything to say in response to her revelation. Jon's mind felt like it was reeling. A wishing stone? For making wishes? Like with genies and stuff like that? He found himself wondering if it wasn't his mothers kidney that was the only thing failing. Sarah looked over at him and the pair of them were united in a single thought.

Martha waved a hand at the pair of them dismissively as they exchanged glances. "You two can think I'm crazy all you damn well want, but do it after we've used the crystal."

Jon couldn't help himself as he blurted out, "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Martha smirked at him. It was not a warm smile. "I'm talking about us using the crystal. It can only be used once every twenty years and guess what kiddos, today's the day." She turned back to the box, casting that same awestruck look at the contents. She continued in a breathless voice, "Yes, only once every twenty years and only with three people. One person for each of the points, one wish for each of them."

Sarah spoke up, her tone more curious than rebellious. She didn't look totally unconvinced. In fact, she looked at the very least curious about the possibility of the wish stone. "Why twenty years? And why three people? And... Why us?"

Martha chuckled darkly at the last question. "Because I don't have a choice. Who else would believe me?" She then frowned as she contemplated her next answer. "As for the other two questions... I don't know. I don't think anyone has ever known, just that three people making three wishes on a specific date activate the stone." Her face softened for a moment and then she cocked an eyebrow at Sarah. "What does it matter? It works. I've seen it work." She caught her children's unbelieving gazes and smiled at them again. "Oh yes, I've seen it work. My mother showed me when she gave it to me. Made a wish of my own back then. That's how I know it works."

Jon considered what his mother was telling him. Part of him was convinced she had finally gone round the bend but... The possibility that she was telling the truth was mind boggling. A wish. A real honest to god wish. For anything he wanted. Anything. Riches, fame, the perfect girlfriend. The possibilities were endless. He was unaware of it, but as his mind started to drift, thinking of all the wondrous things that he could suddenly have. A line of drool started to dribble from his mouth as his mind wondered.

Martha smirked at the dreamy slack jawed expressions of her children. However, she began snapping her fingers to bring them back to the present. "Now, before you two get any grand ideas, there are a few time tested rules to be able to use this heirloom properly." She paused for a moment, partly for dramatic effect and partly because she wanted to be sure she had their undivided attention. "There are three rules about this crystal that you must know about before we use it. First off..."

Martha was cut off by a cell phone ringing loudly. Her head snapped over to Sarah and she opened her mouth to shout at her again, until she remembered that she had already destroyed Sarah's phone. She turned her gaze on Jon but he quickly pulled out the insides of his pockets to show that he didn't have his phone on him at the moment. She looked around at the pair furiously for a few seconds before a dawning look came over her face. Reaching into her own pocket, she pulled out her own loudly ringing phone. Her cheeks flushed as she quickly silenced the device and jammed it back in her own pocket.

Sarah was glaring at her mother and if looks could kill, Martha would be ten feet under by now. Martha cleared her throat and continued, her face still bright red from embarrassment. "Er... yes well. Now the... um... The first rule of the crystal is that..." With a surprisingly loud sound, her phone started ringing again. This time she yanked the device out of her pocket and madly jammed several buttons in an effort to silence the device. Sarah stood with her arms crossed in front of her chest, tapping one foot in front of her own destroyed cellular device. Martha ignored the death glare her daughter was giving her and plowed on.

"Yes! Well! The first rule is that you need three people to make the crystal work." She stared pointedly at her children with a look that plainly said 'If I had any other choice, it would not be you two' before she continued. "Also, two of the wishers must not have used the crystal in the last twenty year cycle. Each person gets one, and only one, wish. And..."

A loud buzzing sound emanated from her pants. Martha plowed on like she couldn't feel the device trying to vibrate her whole thigh. "You can't wish for more wishes! Don't even try it! It won't..." The loud sound of her landline phone ringing from down stairs cut off Martha once again. "Oh for fucks sake!" She bellowed out and ripped her phone out of her pocket. Punching some inputs, she then jammed it into her ear before rounding on the pair of them. "Don't you say a fucking word, either of you." Her voice was dripping with malice.

While Sarah looked like she was going to lose her shit and actually punch her mother, Jon was just frightened by all of this. He always felt like Martha was just pretending to be a good mother growing up. She had never hit him or abused him in any way, but she was always very cool with the pair of them. Never showing anything more than a passing interest in either of their lives. It was almost like she was just killing time. Privately, Jon always felt that she never wanted children, though he never directly confronted her with this theory.

Martha began shouting at whoever was on the other line as soon as they picked the phone up. "What!? What the fuck is it Walter?! I thought we were all set! You promised me everything was good, you fat fuck! Why the fuck are you blowing up my phone now, of all time!?" She paused to take a breath but it was enough of a gap for whoever this Walter was to get a few words in, which was apparently more than enough to get Martha to stop yelling. She pinched the bridge of her nose, a vein throbbing in her head. "Goddamn it. You told me it was good! It's not that hard to set up..."

With a sudden look of realization on her face, Martha glanced back at Sarah and Jon, both of whom were casting suspicious gazes at her direction. She quickly said, "Hold on a moment Walter." Then cupping the microphone on her phone, she rounded on them. "I have to deal with this. Do not touch that crystal! I have more to tell you! DO NOT TOUCH THE CRYSTAL! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" Her eyes were wild and Jon did not recognize the women they belonged to.

Sarah had been bouncing from hatred of her mother to curiosity to outright shock over her frankly insane behavior. She had never been a saint, but she had always been sane. But now she was acting like a total loony, though part of Sarah felt she understood why. If this crystal thingy could really do what she said it could do, she felt that she'd be acting a little nutty about the thing too. Jon was nodding numbly, looking like a scared rabbit. He always was a placid little bitch, she thought bitterly, looking at him.

Martha's burning eyes were boring a hole into Sarah's head, so she too gave the affirmative towards her mothers command with a nod of her head. Satisfied, Martha scrambled down stairs, loudlying shouting into her phone. The moment the door to the attic slammed shut, Sarah strode over the crystal and yanked it out of the box. Turning the object over in her hands she started to mutter to herself, "Ok where's the 'on' button on this thingamajig."

Jon loudly whispered, "Sarah!" at her but she just ignored his shocked outburst. She turned the crystal over several times, observing every facet of its surface, looking for any kind of clue on how the thing worked. Jon timidly approached her, uncertainty and fear written all over his face. "Sarah! Don't play with that thing! You heard..."

Sarah scoffed at her brother and cast a scornful look at him. "God you're so fucking stupid Jon." She paused, smirking as a look of anger finally crossed over his usually meek features. "You do know that Walter is the family lawyer right?"

Jon blinked, his face now blank as he tried to process this information. Sarah swore she could hear the wheels turning in his brain. Finally she filled in the blanks for him. "Walter handles all the financials. Now why would mom be so concerned about the finances, hmmm?"

Jon continued to look blankly at her. Sarah rolled her eyes and placed the crystal back into the box before turning to face him. She gripped Jon with both of her hands on his shoulders. "She is going to ditch us, Jon. She'll wish for youth or something and take off. That's why she's conspiring with Walter behind our backs."

Jon got a stubborn look on his face. "Mom wouldn't ditch us!" he said indignantly. Sarah snorted again and dropped her arms. "Ok, Jon. You believe in what you want to believe. As for me..." She turned back to the crystal, "I'm going to look out for number one."

She then considered for a moment, before reaching out a hand and touching one of the three points. "Maybe it's as simple as..." Her voice trailed off as she thought for a second. Then, still touching one of the crystal points, she said out loud in a clear voice, "I wish that I was the ideal woman for Ricktor Ryanson, one he desired above all else and would never leave!"

As soon as she stopped speaking, the point of the crystal she was touching lit up with a bright green light in the center of the point. It glowed very brightly for a second then faded back to nothing. Sarah excitedly looked down at herself, expecting her body to morph out of the stick figure form she always had into something more sexy. But nothing else happened.

She frowned, confused and upset over this turn of events. "What's the deal with this..."

She was cut off by an indignant outburst from Jon. "You want to change yourself for some fucking guy? THAT'S what you wished for?"

Sarah glared back at Jon and was pleased to see him flinch away like he always did. "Not just any 'guy', you jackass. Ricktor is filthy rich and hot as all fucking hell. If we get married, I'd be set for life!" Her eyes seemed to sparkle as she imagined it. The beautiful wedding, the honeymoon to an exotic island, the easy living of being a sexy little wife. She was still waiting for something to happen to her but nothing did. "Dang it. It must have changed his ideal woman to fit how I look." She sighed. "I was really hoping to get some more curves but oh well..."