"Alright," she said, breaking the visual hold the two of us had formed in Jill's absence. "Now we head home." We drove in silence again, and about fifteen minutes and a cigarette later, we pulled into Jill's neighborhood. I felt my heart sink even further as I looked around.
I knew this place
There were two, I guess you could say Mobile Home Communities in our town. One of them was actually rather nice. There was an indoor pool in the management office and most of the residents ranged between elderly people looking for a home that entailed less maintenance, and young adults and couples who were making a go at turning their lives into something. People who had to start out near the bottom, but felt that they were destined for greatness. For mobile homes, most of them looked pretty descent, and the yards were kept well groomed. I'd had several friends who'd lived there growing up, and while they'd dealt with some of the stereotypes associated with their homes growing up, they'd never really deserved them.
The other one was the one that we were driving into. If ever there was a trailer park that screamed well, trailer park, this was it. Most of the homes, as well as the people we saw walking the streets, looked like they were on their last legs. I'd always been pretty sure that if you went on the internet searching for the origin of the term Trailer Trash, you'd find that it had began here. The lawns ran the gambit from overgrown to nonexistent. This was where the burnouts, druggies, and rumor had it, gang members lived. Sometimes on our daily walk to school, Karyn and I would cross to the other side of the street when we walked by this place. There was a rumor going around that a few months ago, somebody had been shot in one of these homes.
And now, thanks to me, My sister lived here. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You are so stupid Jon! Aside from being relatively annoyed that my mind hadn't adjusted to referring to me by my new name, I felt an intense regret as I sank into my seat. Jill glanced over at me for a moment as we rounded a corner and slowed down for a speed bump, but she didn't say anything. Because she's not worrying about me, I thought bitterly. I'd spent the better part of the last couple of hours trying to rationalize the wish I'd let her make. Maybe things had turned out for the best, I'd tried to tell myself. Okay, so she's not on her way to graduating anymore, but maybe having a daughter made her even happier than her education every would have, that one had at least seemed plausible. But now I knew that we had ruined her life.
And what about Chloe? A sudden wave of revulsion came over me as I thought about my niece growing up in a place like this. There were things here that no adult should be exposed to, let alone an innocent little toddler. All I'd wanted to do was help her. Since making my original wish, the one in which I said goodbye to my manhood, I'd felt better than ever. I'd wanted to do the same for her. And look what happened! I thought. I'd effectively done the opposite.
Maybe I can fix this! I realized. I had the rock after all. I knew I couldn't reverse any of the wishes that had been made, but maybe I could augment them, find a way to give Jill and Chloe a little less of a hellish life. It was a risk though. I'd thought every wish I was making was a good idea when I'd made it. What if I tried to fix this and only ended up making it worse? If I was going to make a wish, try and fix this mess, it was going to be a thought out wish. I was going to make absolutely sure that nothing went wrong. Besides, I thought, feeling a little better, It's okay if it takes me a little while. Once I make a wish to fix this, this hellhole will never have existed for Jill. Best to play along for the moment until I'm sure I can make things better.
Finally, the car pulled into the driveway behind one of the nicer looking trailer homes. Trust me, calling it nicer in this environment wasn't really saying much. It was the typical single wide with ugly yellow paint and white trim. A couple of the panels on the bottom were missing, exposing the underbelly, and the black wrought-iron stairs leading up to the door were speckled in rust.
"Home sweet home," Jill said as she passed me, heading for the door with her key out.
I felt Rick come up behind me. I turned to face him and saw the smile on his face start to fade as he looked at me. "Is something wrong?" he asked. "You look unsettled."
I shook my head, trying to force a smile. "I'm fine," I lied. It's been a long day."
He nodded as though that explained everything. He didn't seem the least bit put off by this place. I had to wonder whether it really didn't bother him, or if it had something to do with the wish I'd made earlier: The wish that he would come home with us. Either way I guess it really didn't matter. The fact that he still looked so happy, so eager made me feel a little bit better. Once again, thoughts of what we might do tonight started to flood my mind.
A moment later, Jill opened the door and stepped inside. I followed with Rick closely behind. I knew he was watching me walk up the steps, I could practically feel his eyes glued to my ass as I stepped into the home. Maybe home was a bit strong a word for this. We came into the main room, and again maybe room was a bit strong. I supposed it qualified because it was a space enclosed by walls and a ceiling, but that was about where the similarities ended. The old brown carpet was completely torn up in almost as many places as it was stained, and the couch against the wall opposite us looked to be equal parts polyester and duct-tape. There was an old wooden coffee table in front of it, and to our left was, quite naturally, a wide screen forty-six inch LCD television. Actually the entire entertainment center was probably worth two or three times as much as the trailer home itself. I wondered why people who were flat broke, living on the lower rungs of civilized society, always seemed to have plenty of money when it came to electronics. Along another wall was one of those tacky fake fireplaces that use clever lighting to make it look like there's well, a fake fire going.
To our right, immediately off of the living room was the kitchen. The tile floor was dark and probably hadn't been cleaned effectively in some time. There was an old grey table in the center of the room with three chairs. The fridge was one of the old lime green numbers that had probably been ancient the year I was born.
I didn't even want to think about what I might find if I followed the long hallway on the other side of the living room. I saw some of my sister's clothing just draped across the furniture, and on the floor. In the air I could detect the stale odor of tobacco mixed with something else I didn't quite recognize. The thought of Jill living here was bad enough, but when I thought about what it must be like for Chloe, growing up in an environment like this
"You two make yourselves comfortable," Jill said as she put several bottles and a couple of small cases of something into the fridge. "The others should be here soon, and I've really got to piss." She smiled and walked off down the hallway. For my part, I walked over, found a section of couch that didn't look to stained, and sat down, pressing my knees together, and continuing to take everything in. As I watched Rick make his way over to join me, I realized that part of me wanted to make some kind of wish now, improve her quality of life. Another, much more in control part of me, was worried that doing something like that might ruin my planned night with Rick. I really didn't want that to happen.
I scooted over a little as he sat down beside me. I didn't even flinch as he wrapped his arm around me and leaned back in the couch. "Nice place your sister has here," he said in a rather conversational tone of voice.
I turned and shot him a surprised look. "You can't be serious," I whispered. "Are we in the same place here?"
"Trust me," he said, "I've seen worse." I definitely wanted to press him on that, but I decided against it. What the hell could be worse than this?
I turned to look at him, and realized that I didn't really want to talk about it, or much of anything anymore. I was feeling those impulses again, and all I really wanted to do was kiss him. That's exactly what I did. I leaned in, took his chin between my fingers to turn his face toward mine and planted my lips on his. Of course, he didn't fight it. He leaned into the kiss, and as he shifted the upper half of his body, I felt his hand slide up and down my back. It felt good. I wanted him so badly right now. As we kissed, I parted my lips and he was able to take the hint. I felt his tongue slide into my mouth as I felt his wandering hand slide around my body.
"Oh," I gasped as I felt it on my breast. They'd been sensitive when I'd touched them in the bathroom, but that had been nothing compared to this. I felt a tingle travel all the way down my spine, all the way down to the central focus of my urges. The space between my legs. "Mm," I gasped between kisses.
"For God's sake, get a fucking room," I reluctantly pulled away from the kiss to see that Jill had returned. There was a twinkle in her eye. For a moment I thought about using the rock to just wish Jill would go away, but showing amazing restraint, I didn't. She was smirking. "There'll be plenty of time for the groping later," she said with a chuckle.
That was when we heard the knocking on the door. Jill walked over and opened it. Five people walked in. Three women, probably about Jill's age, and a couple of guys that might have been a few years older. They all smiled at Jill, and brought bags into the kitchen. Rick and I both waved from the couch, which earned us a nod from each of them. I didn't mind admitting that I was becoming a little more concerned. I'd never been really comfortable in groups of people I didn't know.
Maybe there was a way I could fix that though without doing too much damage. I leaned over, caught one of the guys looking down my blouse, and reached into my purse. The rock was in there, and I decided that maybe I could use it to help break the ice.
Gripping it, I whispered my wish, "I wish "
