The Island of Wishes

“That’s not true,” I said, rolling my eyes, even if the teenage boy in front of me couldn’t see them turn.

“It is so,” Jim insisted, stretching his lanky self taller for two steps before he had to duck under a limb, the grey draping moss skimming across his back. “Phil said so. Yesterday, after our baseball game.”

“Phil is full of it. You know that.” I ducked under the same moss, being sure to let it trail my spine, collar to waist, to receive its full blessing. I’d find bits of it in my pony tail later, but I didn’t mind.

I stretched a step long, picking my way across the over saturated ground, waving a buzz away from my ear. A chorus of frogs sang off to the left, the smell of stale water and decaying plants still light in the warm morning air, the July sky peeking pale blue-grey between the trees. “Swamp fairies don’t grant wishes, Jim Toovy.”

“They do on the island.”

I rolled my eyes again, and this time Jim glanced over his shoulder in time to catch it.

“If you don’t believe me, then why ‘r you comin’ along, Ruby?” He stopped, turning halfway.

“Cause who else is going to drag your sorry butt home after the fairies curse it?” I snapped, stepping onto the same dry clump he stood on, my sunburnt nose only inches from his.

He huffed, and moved off ahead again, his cheeks turning pink.

Was he getting winded already? I couldn’t tell from behind, but his steps sped up, so I brushed the though aside and we continued in silence for a time.

Most called the swamp fairies nothing but hooey. Yet, there was something about this place. It wasn’t exactly pleasant¾the mosquito squealing in my face one of the many creepy crawlies that lived within this waterlogged piece of land. But my thought was, anywhere with this much nature all heaped up on itself, there just had to be something extra special there. Might as well be fairies. And if it was, well, maybe Jim was right, and there was an island at the center where you could get your wishes answered.

I glanced up from picking my path to watch the boy in front of me, something tingling in my chest.

“What ‘r you gonna ask for?” I asked quietly, following Jim’s steps across a log half submerged in brown water.

He didn’t answer and I felt a burn creep up the back of my neck.

I shouldn’t have asked. Wishes were sacred, only to be spoken aloud in the moment they were cast and never voiced again. I knew that. Even if he was my best friend, I had no right to be askin’.

I swiped viciously at the buzz hovering around my head, itches growing across my neck and arms from previous bites, or sweat, or my own irritated mind.

Jim spun suddenly, and I couldn’t stop in time. I thumped into his chest, stepping back quickly and sinking the heel of my rubber boot into the sludge.

“Maybe I don’t gotta wish for it,” he said quickly, his freckled cheeks fairly glowing. “Not if I knew it’s gonna happen anyway.”

I shouldn’t ask again, not a second time, but withholding my curiosity had never been my strong suit. Still, the words came out breathy, filling the small space between us. “What… what’re you wishing will happen?”

Jim’s mouth twitched and wiggled. And then he whispered. “For you to marry me someday.”

I stared at him, ignoring the buzz in both ears, the bead of sweat that slipped down the side of my face, feeling only his fingers catching hold of mine. I couldn’t help the smirk that tugged at my cheeks.

“I ain’t promising nothin’, Jim Toovy, fairies or no.” I tightened my hold on his fingers. “But it’s stupid to waste a wish on somethin’ so likely to happen anyway.”  

[This is an updated/edited version of my original story from July 2021.]