Wish

The water was cold. The stones hurt his feet and the water was cold. He stopped walking to look out at the horizon. Grey sky reflecting a grey sea with hardly a line to separate them. The next step was backward and his foot landed on something sharp. He looked at the small blood drip and down at the broken edge of a glass bulb. He picked it up thinking bad thoughts about somebody who would throw a light bulb into the sea. But, it wasn’t a light bulb.

It was the small top of a rounded glass container. He dug the sand away and pulled it up. There was a little top that was secured and the container had no liquid so it was a good cork stopper. The edge had a tiny break that ran a bit around the top. He could see a drop of his blood where the stopper met the glass. The stopper was a little to deep for him to get his fingers on it to pull it out, so he washed it in the cold water and carried it back to the beach towel. He lay in the the towel and dug into this pack and retrieved his Swiss Army knife. He pulled out the corkscrew and stuck it in the cork twisting it until he got it out and felt successful at his logic and resourcefulness to think of having the knife.

He woke up with his face on the towel. There was a dream. He shook his head in thought. How, why was his face on the towel. He did not remember laying down. He stretched out from his foetal position and looked out at the sun about to set. The air was chilly and he was thinking that maybe this was the way a heart attach happens or something? He began to worry and the dream re-appeared. He looked around the beach. He was still alone and had no reason to be embarrassed or of any kind of manly weakness. The dream was talking to him and he looked around again but nobody was on the beach. He was completely alone the dream told him. Maybe he was going nuts, he thought but the dream said that he was perfectly sane or at least thinking in his normal state with everything normal.This made no sense to him sense he was clearly listening to what he knew was a dream.

One wish.

What? he asked aloud, looking around again and out to the horizon that was a feint amber tinted grey of sky and sea. Did his dream just say, one wish? Is this a genie kind of thing?

Yes. I grant you one wish but think wisely because all wishes like dreams have consequences when the wrong path is chosen.

What did that mean? He was talking aloud again and since nobody was around did it matter? Okay, he said to the horizon, you say I have one wish but how do I know this is not just a dream and I am asleep? He pinched his arm and felt it but maybe you could feel pains when you are dreaming? He sat up, pulling his knees to his chest in the chill of sunset. The round bottle was at his side and the Swiss Army knife was holding the cork stopper on top of the towel. He thought, at least I thought to keep it out of the sand before I conked out. That thought became a puzzle but he decided that this was not the time for solving puzzles with this big puzzle that he was finding himself in. Or was he asleep and this is just a dream?

Okay, since this is probably a dream I will wish for something that I always wanted. He thought and the first thought was of a boat which made sense and then he went into detail and thought up a wide beam thirty-two foot, old Burma teak, edge planked, bronze fastened, double-ended gaff rigged ketch along the lines of the Colin Archer designs of Norwegian lifeboats. Yes, that would be a wish to have but my dream said to think carefully and he had always thought of himself as a careful thinker. So, before he said his wish aloud in his dreaming he would give it careful thought. First, he wanted the boat to be in perfect condition and sitting at a marina ready to sail with all the food he would need to cross any ocean. It would have all the equipment that he would need to sail anywhere and new ochre sails so his eyes would not be blinded by white sails. The boat would have two sets of sails and all the lines needed to tend them all led back to the self-draining cockpit.

This was beginning to be fun, he thought in his dream. Okay, his boat would be named, Happi, with an i. And aboard the boat, under the chart table would be all the money he would need to live for twenty or thirty years. And the boat would sail him for twenty or thirty years without health problems and without storms or calms.

He addressed the almost gone horizon, are you recording all of this, dream?

Yes.

That answer shocked him a bit but of course, he remembered, it is a dream so why not answer me since it is my dream…? Okay, he said, a stainless diesel heating stove, four inch marine cushions, an oven and hob gimballed cooking stove. Leak proof opening skylights. A new 4-cylinder diesel engine, two 50 gallon fuel tanks and two 50 gallon water tanks. An extensive tool kit. Plus anything else that would make me happy with Happi. There must be something else he was missing but nothing was registering for his perfect boat. Okay, he smiled at the horizon and the dream, if you have included everything that I have ordered I will have that as a wish.

Is this what you wish? the dream asked, I will repeat it to be sure, okay?

Okay, please do.

A wide beam thirty-two foot, old Burma teak, edge planked, bronze fastened, double-ended gaff rigged ketch along the lines of the Colin Archer designs of Norwegian lifeboats; n perfect condition and sitting at a marina ready to sail with all the food he would need to cross any ocean; it would have all the equipment that he would need to sail anywhere and new ochre sails; two sets of sails and all the lines needed to tend them all led back to the self-draining cockpit; under the chart table would be all the money he would need to live for twenty or thirty years; the boat would sail him for twenty or thirty years without health problems and without storms or calms; a stainless diesel heating stove, four-inch marine cushions; a new 4-cylinder diesel engine; two 50-gallon fuel tanks; two 50-gallon water tanks; an extensive tool kit. I am afraid that I cannot grant you ‘anything else that makes you happy’ for that would mean a separate conjecture by me which could be termed as a wish. Oh, and the boat would be named, Happi, with an i. Now, aside for the last thing, is that your wish?

Oh, yes.

Okay, you just have to sign this agreement. It is just an ordinary contract that entitles you to have your wish granted and allows me to travel on to grant others their wishes.

He thought, I knew there had to be some glitch to this like selling my soul or something. But, he responded, I will have to read it.

Of course. That is the wise thing to do, but…

There is a but?

Yes. There is a time limit in making the wish. You have three minute left before the wish goes away, so you should read fast.

On the blanket, unnoticed before was a single slip of paper. At the top of the sheet are the words: One Wish Agreement and below that was the date and the hour to begin the Wish. Below that the words were as the dream had said that it would release the Wish Giver his obligation to the Wishee at the hour appointed or with the signature of the Wishee. He looked in his pack to find the pen that he always had in the extra pocket but it wasn’t there. He searched the pack getting frantic thinking of the time ticking away. Dream, do you have a pen?