Chapter
8
Three
Wishes
“Avery!
Jess! Kellie! Come here, quickly!”
Zac’s
yells sent the three of us running from the upstairs study, into the living
room downstairs. The evening news was playing, and Zac was standing stock-still,
staring at the TV. It was two days before the new school year began. We skidded
to a stop next to him and watched the news report.
“In
major news tonight, Stefan Andrews, of Little Rock Arkansas, has been found
guilty of the 2002 murder of 19 year old musician Taylor Hanson. The verdict
has sent shockwaves through the American music industry. Previous reports
indicated that the 19 year old had taken his life in July 2002, but thanks to
the efforts of three Anaheim youths a Supreme Court jury has found Andrews
guilty of murder. Andrews has been remanded in custody until sentencing on
August 23.”
“We
did it,” Avery said slowly. “We found out what happened.”
“Thanks
to Kellie,” Jessica reminded her. She looked at me. “Thank you so much, Kellie.
We could never have done it without you.”
“Oh,
I think you could have managed it,” I said. “Avery has pretty good detective
skills herself. She just needed a little prompting.”
Avery
grinned. Then her smile faded. “But I still wish Tay was still alive,” she said
softly. “Nothing is ever going to bring him back.”
“You
never know, Avery,” I said. “My brother said that wishes can come true,
but you have to be careful what you wish for.”
“That’s
true,” Jessica said slowly. “You know, I think there’s supposed to be a comet
going past tonight, at around eleven. It’s going to be a clear night. I say we
write down one wish each, then we sit in different parts of the house, where we
can see the comet, and we make our wishes. But we have to word them carefully, or
we’ll get something we didn’t exactly want.”
“That’s
a great idea!” Avery said.
We
spent the rest of the evening writing down our wishes. I sat in the living
room, while Jessica took over the study and Avery stayed in her room. It took
more than an hour to write my wish out, since I kept making spelling mistakes.
But in the end my wish went a little like this.
“I
wish that Stefan Andrews had never killed Taylor, and that Hanson was still
together, and I wish that Avery, Elissa, Jessica, Cassie and I were in a band
of our own, in Tulsa.”
The
three of us debated about whether to reveal our wishes to each other, but in
the end we decided not to. So, at around eleven, I moved into the backyard and
fixed my gaze on the night sky.
A
bright star burst into life and started to speed across the sky. I shut my eyes
tightly and whispered my wish. When I had opened my eyes again, the comet was
gone.
