by Kay Parsons

Created on: May 20, 2008

If Wishes Were Fishes

With his back hunched, Alan Wright sat on a bench overlooking the calm fish pond in the center of the park. His spine ached, as it usually did in those days and he felt tired from his skin to his bones. He wasn't even the one tired of life; his body was.

"If wishes were fishes!" The shout of the little boy across the pond didn't even startle him anymore. The brat had been going on like that for the better part of an hour now. Where his mother was, Alan didn't know. She was probably gabbing on a cell phone, like everyone seemed to be doing these days.

The little boy started along the side of the pond, his arms stretched out like wings, as if he thought he could fly. Sighing, Alan closed his eyes, picturing the top of the apartment building he and his daughter used to live in. He was too late. Her arms had been spread out in the same manner, as if she thought she was flying. Except all she did was fall.

If wishes were fishes, she would have drowned instead.

Alan's eyes flew open as he felt a hard tap on his bony knee. The little boy, brown-haired and wide-eyed, gazed up at him, holding out one hand. In the center of the boy's palm was a penny, shiny and new.

"Wishes for the fishes!" he said in pure delight. Alan set his jaw in irritation.

"Fishes don't need wishes," he replied curtly. The boy giggled and pushed the coin in Alan's face. Blowing air through his nostrils heavily, Alan took the coin. It was just to make the boy go away. He didn't think it would work that easily, but it did. The boy skipped towards the pond and flicked a different coin deep into the water, causing the fish to scatter and ripples to wrinkle the once glassy surface.

The boy would only be disappointed in the end. Wishes never came true. Making them only ever cost you something: a penny, a breath held in, all of the hope you had left.

If wishes were fishes...

What would a child so young have to wish for anyway? The future seemed so sure when you were young. Life so pure...wishing was pointless then because you thought everything would turn out alright anyway. Wishing was pointless later because by then, you knew it wouldn't work anyway. All it ever did was make you feel like a fool.

Alan's body gave a unanimous lurch of pain as he forced himself to his feet. All of his weight went into his cane, clutched by one, wrinkled, bony hand. In his other hand was the coin. Just that: a coin. Not a wish as this boy believed. Not a lost life restored. Not a happy wife. Not a day without pain. Not anything but a slim disk of copper.

Besides, it would only give the fish copper poisoning.

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