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TITLE: Wishes By Jeremy Iman 03/22/06 |
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He walked in through the dark hospital doorway as I lied there, cold and lonely in the last room I’d ever see. There was a soft smile on his face, a smile that almost gave hope that everything would be alright. He approached the bed slowly and placed his ageless hand on mine.
“Mr. Delorian, how have you been?”
I tried to fake a smile. I tried to think of some sarcastic reply as I usually did, but I couldn’t. Truth found its way through it all.
“Afraid,” I whispered.
The man nodded warmly. “Well don’t worry, I’m here to comfort you. What exactly are you afraid of?”
“Dying of course! But I don’t expect you to understand that. We’ve known each other for what, sixty years now? And you still look the same as you did the first day I laid eyes on you. I suppose now, on my death bed, I hate you a little for that, for your immunity, but I don’t really. You’ve been the greatest friend anyone could ever ask for. Too bad I didn’t ask for more like you, eh?”
He laughed gently out loud and then leaned in close. “Speaking of which, Mr. Delorian, out of everything I gave you in the past, of all the choices you’ve made resulting from my wishes, do you think you’ve made any mistakes?”
“All of them,” I breathed roughly, not taking my eyes off his, “were mistakes.”
“How so?” he asked gently.
“Everything is meaningless now. All that I’ve ever done, every day that I ever lived, it was all leading up to this day. Even with the wishes, I now find myself unprepared and afraid. It was all…worthless. All of it.” I paused briefly. “But I’m the one who made it that way.”
He pulled over a chair and sat down beside me. I knew what he was going to say next, and I was ready.
“You still have your memories.”
“Memories? You mean those things that haunt me every night, reminding me without end, of all that I once had but never will again?” I grew strength from the anger I spoke and my voice grew in intensity. “What good are they to me? Can they save my life now? Memories to an eighty-year-old man are like… beautiful landscapes to the blind. They’re comforting to most, but to those who can’t experience them, they’re nothing more than needless pain.”
“No Mr. Delorian, they can’t save your life, but they can help change your future.” He looked away from me, appearing nervous, perhaps anxious, and I was concerned. It wasn’t like him. “If you had saved one of your wishes and could use it now, what would your request be?”
“What a thought. I wasted them all so quickly didn’t I? All on myself too. All that I gained, all that I hoped and dreamed for and received or didn’t receive, I’d give it all up now for more time. That would be my wish, my friend, more time.”
He smiled and shook his head sympathetically. “That is always the fourth wish.” After a long silent period in which we sat in deep thought, he spoke again. “Luckily for you I’m now in the business of granting fourth wishes.”
It took only seconds to process what he was saying. If anyone could ever give me hope, it was him. “What do you mean? You said I could only have three wishes, and I used those up sixty years ago, you know that!”
He laughed, “I’m not a genie Mr. Delorian. I’m not bound by three wishes. I offer three, and when they are used and misused and then regretted, I will sometimes consider offering a fourth…if it is deserved.”
My heart pounded with the thought. It was alive and beating again, really beating, for the first time in years.
“So your wish is to cancel out the effects of all the other wishes. To have it all taken back and erased. You request the fourth wish, the wish of more time?”
I nodded with my teary eyes closed.
“So shall it be.”
With the snap of his fingers, we were gone. Gone from death to life, and it took less than a second. It all happened literally in the blink of an eye. Suddenly I was in a new place, a new world, and not sure if the reality I knew even existed anymore. I was no longer in my death bed, I was standing, standing, on my own without the aid of a walker or cane or anything. My skin was smooth and soft, no longer wrapped in wrinkles, and it amazed me to no end. I held my hand out and examined it, switched sides and did the same again. But this new sensation wasn’t limited to the physical world. I had a new feeling inside of me, a new energy burned through my veins. It was the energy of youth. I didn’t believe it, I couldn’t, but it was true. I was young again.
“So what do you think Mr. Delorian? You’re twenty years old and you have your whole life ahead of you. Time is a thing of the past, at least for awhile.”
I opened my mouth but only dead silence came out. It was strange, I thought my mind would have been racing, but it wasn’t. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say, I couldn’t even force my brain to think anything. I just stood there, mouth open and eyes bright.
He chuckled, “I thought you’d say that. Of course I’ll have to change a few things, erase most of your memory up until now, rewire your brain to accept and recall your new past, you know, just standard procedures. But,” he stressed, “you will remember this one thing. You’ll remember that you now have time.”
I finally snapped out of the awe and wonder I was sucked into. “Will I remember anything of my past?”
“Your past is now your future, there is nothing to remember. Only memories to make.”
“You’ll be here right? I’ll at least remember you?”
He sighed, “Sadly no, I have to leave this place. My time has almost expired.”
“What?” I breathed the words in despair. “This is madness, you can’t just leave!”
He smiled a faint, forced smile and placed his gentle hands on my shoulder. “I have no choice in the matter.”
I didn’t understand, perhaps it was because everything was happening so quickly. This man could do anything: grant wishes, defy time and nature, make old things young again, restore life and hope, and now he says he has no choice? Why? What had changed?
And then I realized the answer.
“It’s because of me isn’t it? Because of what you did for me?”
“I granted the fourth wish, the gift of time and new life, something I’ve never done before. That means I’m trading my time for yours. So I have to go.”
I was devastated to say the least. His life was ending because of me and my stupid mistakes. “I…I don’t know what to say. If you have to go because of me, then I don’t want this. Take it back, I don’t deserve it.”
“I’ll be the judge of that Mr. Delorian, you didn’t ask me to do this in the first place remember? I chose to. Everything is now back to the way it was sixty years ago, what’s done is done. There is no going back,” he paused, “you have no more wishes left.”
“Why did you do this for me?”
“Because you’re my friend. And I hope that if you could, you would do the same for me.”
“Well, will I ever see you again?”
“I truly hope so, I really do. When you find yourself where you were ten minutes ago, this time around, make sure you’re prepared so you’re not afraid. There’s no need to be afraid of dying if you make the right decision early on. This is your only second chance. After which, if you do make the right decision, we’ll meet again. But for now, it is time for the ways of old to pass away.”
He offered me one last handshake, and then a hug. “Have a good life Mr. Delorian.”
He lifted his hands as he spoke, and the moments that followed I can’t explain. I was dizzy, and then I wasn’t. I was dazed, and then I wasn’t. I was confused, and then I wasn’t.
I was afraid, and then I wasn’t.
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