I sat on the wall, holding the box and waiting for Jade to show up. I reflexively smoothed out my skirt for the tenth time. I had been holding onto the box all day, afraid to let it out of my sight. I had been keeping it in my purse, thankful that the school allowed bois to take them into class. I knew that it was unlikely that it would get stolen if I had left it in my locker. Finally, Jade showed up.
"Hey there, Jonatha," she said. "How was your break? I'm still tired. There's only so much you can do with two brothers." Jade lived down the block from me. She and I had been friends as long as we could remember—on the cheer squad together and everything. Jade was a boilie boi—long hair, cute outfits, and a giggly smile.
"I guess," I said.
"What's wrong, 'Natha?" Jade asked. "Having a bad period?" In fact, I had been having a bad period. My menstrual period was usually pretty bad, and the cramps made me irritable. But that wasn't what was worrying me. It was the box that mattered.
"No, I'm fine," I said. "I just have something else to show you, but not here. I want it to be private."
"Sure thing," Jade said. I slid off the wall, stopping to adjust my skirt quick. We went out behind school. "So what's this all about, Jonatha?"
"My grandmother died last weekend," I said.
"That's horrible. What happened?" Jade tilted his head. "He always seemed pretty healthy. Didn't he just go on an expedition?"
"Heart attack," I said.
"You don't seem too upset," Jade said.
"I'm...not sure he's dead."
"Why do you say that? They must have had a body."
"I'm not sure it was him."
"Then what makes you think that the coroner and stuff made that big of a mistake?"
"This," I said, pulling the box out of my purse. The box held a small rock in the shape of a cat paw, about a few inches large. "I got this from my grandma in the mail just before we were told that he died. Go ahead, open it."
Jade opened it up and pulled out a stylized animal. "What's this?" she asked.
"It's a cat paw," I answered. "They're for good luck or something like that. My grandmother could have told you more. Now that he's gone, I wish that I had studied this stuff more."
"There's a note," Jade said. "Can I read it?"
"Go ahead," I said.
Dear Jonatha,
If you're reading this, it means that I've passed on. I know that you'll miss me, but just look at this as my next big adventure.
I want you to have this as part of your inheritance. I acquired this cat paw many years ago when I was doing archeological research in China. This cat paw may not look like much, but it has great power. It can grant wishes. Simply hold the paw in your hand and begin your wish with the words 'I wish.' Once the wish is made, it will be as if it had always been true. Only people who have heard the wish will remember the way things had been before.
But be careful with this power. Wishes, once made, cannot be reversed. They can be modified or reinterpreted, so with difficulty, it may be possible to return reality to the way it was before. But be careful, for as I found out myself, poorly thought-out attempts to change reality back may be worse than the original changes. Use this power well.
Grandma*
"So what," Jade added dismissively. "Your grandmother may or may not have faked his own death and given you a wish-granting cat paw rock?"
"That's what I think."
"So you could make anything change, and people who didn't hear the wish would think that it had always been that way?" Jade was starting to figure it out.
"As far as I can tell, yes," I said. "Check this out." We walked over to the school. "I wish the school was painted blue." The paint job changed from a dull gray to sky blue. Jade was impressed.
"So no one but us will know that the paint changed. They'll always think that it was blue."
"Yes, Jade."
"So you could do anything you wanted. Even something like, say, have gurls give birth to babies instead of bois and people would accept it as normal?" Jade asked, incredulous.
"You think I haven't already considered doing something like that?" I asked. Irrationally, I got upset. I could always blame my period (I told you—it was bad), but it was more than that. My grandmother had 'died'. Jade was my best friend and had just seen the cat paw work, and she was still questioning it. "Gurls have it so easy. They get the fun job, getting bois pregnant. They don't have to deal with everything that comes next. They don't have to deal with cramps. They don't have to deal with pregnancy, childbirth and doing most of the parenting. They don't have to nurse the babies. And then gurls act like they're better than us bois because of what they don't have between their legs. If it weren't for the irreversible part, I just might have done it."
"Alright, alright," Jade sighed, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Don't get all tumbled over."
"I'm sorry," I said, calming down. Jade was right. I was overreacting.
"So, can I make a wish?"
"Maybe," I said. "I was thinking that we could make a few small wishes, just to test it out and have a little fun. Nothing that could hurt anyone. Like Grandma wrote, wishes are irreversible, and even if we figure out a way to get things back to normal, it may make things worse for us."
Jade sat and thought about what she wanted to do. Suddenly, another student exited the school and got in his car. It was Ash Miller, the school's best basketball player. His short hair and chiseled feminine figure made him the envy of half the bois in school who drooled over his abs. Even if he was a jerk and a hothead prone to exploding. He had pretended to like Jade just long enough to knock him up and ditch her. Luckily, Jade didn't get pregnant, but if she had, she would have been out of cheerleading for months.
"Goddess," Jade sighed. "Why do guys have to go drooling after Ash, just because he's so muscular? I wish he'd be knocked down a peg. Maybe bois wouldn't go so gaga for him then." Suddenly, the cat paw, still in Jade's hand, flashed. We realized that, intentionally or not, Jade had made a wish, and the cat paw had granted it.
Suddenly, Ash was four inches shorter, looking far less trim than he had just a few moments ago. He went from being one of the school's premier athletes to barely making the team. His clothes seemed too large for him, his gray T-shirt hanging a little long off his body.
"I suppose that I should be grateful that I didn't make things worse," Jade sighed, looking at Ash. "And I can't reverse this, correct? I can only 'modify' it back to the way it was before? How are we supposed to do that?"
"Got me," I said. "At least everyone will think he's always been this way. Maybe if we sleep on it, we can come up with something." Thankfully, Jade agreed to go home rather than try and fix it right there. I could only hope that we could come up with something.
