The Wishing Well Blues

     "Jazz, I highly doubt that you'll get your wish after 27 times," I said reasonably.

     "Come on, Mirage! Just one more time! I know YOU want a Faerie Queen Doll as much as I do!" she complained.

     "All right, all right! ONE last time; but then we're going home, Jazz," I said. "Do you hear me?"

     She nodded excitedly and turned back to the Wishing Well so fast that her mane whipped my face. She put her front legs on the rim of the well and looked down eagerly. You know little sisters; always excited at every darn thing you throw at 'em.

     "I wish we had a Faerie Queen Doll," she said to it, and threw down some Neopoints. Then she hopped up on the edge to watch them go down.

     "Jazz, get down from there!" I barked (literally, since I'm a Gelert), making her jump. In fact, she jumped so high she fell into the Wishing Well! "Jazz!" I cried. She appeared seconds later, beating her sopping Yellow wings and spluttering. She trotted towards me and shook the water from her eyes.

     "Okay," she said. "I am NOT doing that again." I agreed, nodding vigorously so that my long ears flopped around.

     So we headed home. Jazz contented herself by flying in the air and using the wind to dry off. Once we got home, I opened the door and stepped back in surprise at the Red Gelert standing at the end of the hall. Then I remembered, 'Duh, Mirage. It's your reflection.'

     Mom had just refurnished the hall and I still hadn't gotten used to the floor-length mirror she had put at the end. I followed Jazz into the kitchen. She plopped down at the table and reached for a cookie.

     "So was the water cold?" I teased. She chewed thoughtfully.

     "No, I guess," she said. "It seemed to be warm and cold at the same time. Kinda like liquid air." I shrugged as Mom stepped through the door.

     "Hi, girls," she said as she dropped the Cucumber Eye Cream she had gotten from Illusen on the table. She pulled up a chair and nibbled a cookie. "So what'd you do today?" she asked.

     "We went to the Wishing Well," said Jazz.

     "Hmmm, did you get your wish?" asked Mom.

     "No, but I fell in the Wishing Well," Jazz sighed.

     "Oh, I wish we had a Faerie Queen Doll!" I said, placing my paw on Jazz's shoulder. That was when things started getting weird. I heard a sound like rushing water. Then there was a PLOP like something dropping into water. And almost like it had always been there, a Faerie Queen Doll lay on the table!

     We all gasped. Jazz made a move to touch it, but drew back, then reached out and touched it. "It's real," she breathed.

     "Do you think the Wishing Well made our wish come true?" I asked. Why were we all whispering? Mom shook her head.

     "We would've gotten a Neomail about it," she said.

     "So-how did that happen?" asked Jazz. I touched the doll's hair. It was real, if you could call anything so soft and pure real. Mom pushed back her curly strawberry-blond hair and got up from the table. She placed each hand on one of Jazz's shoulders, all the while staring at the doll.

     "I wish I knew what caused this," she muttered. Then I heard it again. The rushing water, the PLOP, but this time nothing appeared on the table. But Mom had a funny look on her face.

     "Ohh, Jazz!" she said. "When you fell into the Wishing Well, you didn't fall in water. You fell in WISHES!"

     "Wishes?" I asked, confused. She nodded vigorously.

     "Mirage," she said to me. "When you stated you wished for a Faerie Queen Doll while you had your paw on Jazz's shoulder, the wish came true. And here it is!" she waved the doll. "And when I said I wished I knew what was happening, the wish came true and I know what happened!"

     We sat there as we all took in the shocking truth. Then I said in a small voice, "Are we going to tell anyone?"

     Jazz shook her head abruptly. She said, "This is my secret. I intend to keep it that way."

      ~*~

     Unfortunately, like with most secrets, the secret didn't stay secret for long. You think it'd be cool to be able to make wishes come true? Think again. I mean, I just LIVE with Jazz and it's bad! I can only imagine how it is for her.

     Picture this: people and Neopets alike rushing towards Jazz and trying to get a grip on anything they can reach. They excitedly make their wish, and the throng is so big you can barely see your little sister. The sound of light rushing water roars to a crescendo while there's this continuous PLOP sound everywhere. Hidden Tower Items and expensive paint brushes fall from the sky. Jazz can't stop it because she can't make her own wishes come true. I can't do it because I can't find her in the chaos to touch her.

     We needed to stay confined to the house. We needed boarded up windows, nails in all the doors, and taking down the mirror in the hallway and putting it on the hill outside the house so that for some of the less bright Neopians, they'd think that the reflection was our house. With that as a distraction, though, it barely amounted to anything; I mean, compared the sound of breaking glass and greedy shrieks and generally the roar of chaos.

     Mom and I remained in the house one day. We couldn't find Jazz. Then we heard quick footsteps and we tensed up, preparing for another mob. The door rattled behind the nails and we heard a frightened, frustrated voice, "It's me, open up!"

     I rushed over and opened the door to a bedraggled Yellow Uni. Jazz walked in wearily and I quickly shut the door and reattached the nails. "Oh, Mom, Mirage," groaned Jazz as she plopped down on the couch. "This is the worst. At first it sounded cool that I could make wishes come true. But now-well, just look at me!" She gestured at herself. Indeed, she was muddy and didn't look like she'd had much sleep. "I just want it to stop," she whispered.

     All too soon the mob attacked. Thousands of voices, all saying different things surrounded us. Somehow we got out of the house. We sprinted past the mirror and into the woods. We heard them all around. As I ran, for one wild and crazy moment, I considered leaving Jazz behind. They didn't want me or Mom. But I quickly brushed that thought away and scolded myself for thinking it.

     We came to a clearing and took this opportunity to catch our breath. I leaned over double, panting, as the throng got nearer. "Please," I heard Jazz say in a small voice close to tears. "Just make it stop."

     I looked at her. This was not the excited, stunned Jazz that I had seen a few weeks back when she first discovered she was a somewhat "genie". This was a Jazz that was horrified at her newfound curse and one of the most important things she wanted were silence and just five minutes of sleep. So I walked over, placed my paw on her hoof, and said the words that she had been longing to hear:

     "I wish everything was back to normal."

The End