Lit. Device Short Story

On the morning of the 21st of September, the air was chilly. The temperature dropped 27 degrees from the norm, which was unusual for the small town of Eleanor, always staying the same temperature. The birds seemed to be strangely quiet, as their normal squawking could be heard all over the town.  The trees were a beautiful array of colors though, as it was autumn, they contrasted over the seemingly dull gray the town was projecting. People were always trying to go to one place to the next, never looking around their town, never noticing how they birds were quiet today, or how the trees appeared to be lighting up their boring and monotonous town.

Well, that's at least what Kaitlyn thinks.

Kaitlyn was walking to school, probably going to be late but not caring. Her homeroom teacher,Mr Joshigtion, always started class out with a game that took at least 10 minutes. Though, she also was trying to avoid class because honestly,  the teacher just sucked.

Suddenly, she bumps into someone. I guess being lost in your own thoughts does have some disadvantages.

“Hey, watch where you’re going! Kids have no respect these days.” a old man said, holding a newspaper and a umbrella, with a blue raincoat on, though it was slightly tattered, and one pocket had a hole in it, though Kaitlyn didn’t think much of it.  

“I’m sorry, but it's just that i'm late for my classes that I didn’t see where I was going.” What she said was pretty much true, she just wasn’t paying attention.

“Heh, it's fine, I have better places to be anyway, wait before I go, can you throw this away for me? I found it on a bench on the park and I think someone glued the pages together, it useless to me.” The man said, somewhat distractedly.

Kaitlyn took the newspaper from the man, thinking that it was the least she could have done for bumping into him.

She started walking, the air getting more chiller as she went. She definitely knew that she was late for school now.

Kate started trying opening up the newspaper, surprisingly, the paper opened effortlessly. She scanned through the pages and noticed that strangely the paper didn't have a date or author. The stories seemed to be written in gibberish,not making any sense.

When she flipped through the pages, a map fell though. It was a map of the city, and frankly, it was a little creepy to be honest. A random map in a newspaper without a date or author, and the person who gave it to her couldn’t seem to open it? Anyone would be a little freaked out in the situation.

Though, Kaitlyn really didn’t want to go to her class, and following a random map seemed better than going, so Kaitlyn went off in the direction of the map in a beeline.

-***-

Kaitlyn was honestly the most stupidest person in the world right now. She’s ditching class, holding a random newspaper that was given to her my an angry old man, and followed a map that lead her to a bench. A bench. She followed an unpredictable, unreliable map which took up 20 minutes of her time and lead her to a bench. She was honestly done. Done. In a fit of rage, she took the map and threw it, which landed behind a tree. Kaitlyn tried to calm down, and went in the direction of where she threw the map. She picked the slightly yellow paper up, and astonishingly, there were five marbles underneath. Each of them a dazzling shade of blue, shining brightly. They just seemed to be calling for her to pick them up.  She put them in her pocket and wish that no one at school would be mad or notice that she skipped class.

-888-

Surprisingly,Mr Joshigtion didn’t even comment on how she was late. No one did. All   Mr.Joshigtion  did was give her a worksheet and tell her to sit down. She was grateful, but this was out of the ordinary. Mr. Joshigtion once yelled at her for coming three minutes late, how will she not yell at her for coming 40 minutes late? All Kaitlyn did was just go with it, there's nothing that she could do now.

-888-

Katyiln forgot her lunch today. It was probably because she was in a rush, but she still came late. Though, she was starving.She could probably ask her friends for some food though. Ugh, Kaitlyn wished she had a lunch. She sat down at her lunch table, and then out of the blue, a teacher told her that her mom dropped off her lunch because she came home early.  Her mom usually never comes home early. Still she was happy that she now had a lunch.

-888-

There was a pop quiz and social studies today that no one was expecting, and it was hard. Some things were things they haven’t even learned yet. Though, apparently you need to do good on the test as it would count as part of her grade. As she kept looking at a question she couldn’t figure out the answer to, she thought of one thing. I wish I was one of the most smartest person in the world. Suddenly, the question made sense. She looked at all the other questions. All of them seemed easy, surprisingly. Social studies wasn’t her strong suit, but somehow, she knew she could ace this test.

-888-

After school, she started talking about the test with her friend, Rebecca, while walking home.

“The test was so hard! We didn’t have time to study, and there was stuff that we didn’t have on the test!” Rebecca said, with a exaggerated look on her face.

Katyiln looked at her with a confused look on her face. “Really? I thought it was quite easy.”

Rebecca had a disbelieving look on her face. “No way was it easy. I know for sure that I got at least four wrong. Well, i’m at my house, see you around Kaitlyn!” And with that, Rebecca ran into her house.

Kaitlyn knew something was up. There’s no possible way that no one noticed that she was late, her mom came home suspiciously early, and she somehow aced a quiz that her friend said was very hard. Things like this don’t happen all the time. Slowly, she finally remembered what happened before school. She put the five random marbles from the map in her pocket. Were they doing anything?

Kaitlyn checked her pocket. There were only two out of the five marbles were left. Then she realized, that she said the word “wish” three times today, and the things she wished for came true. These weren’t just random marbles, they were all wishes.  And now Kaitlyn felt stupid. She wished that she could have a lunch, and that she wouldn’t be late. But suddenly, she realized that she wished that she was one of the smartest people in the world. She could do so much with that. She was also grateful that she didn’t accidently wish all of them. So right here, right now, she made sure she wouldn’t wish accidentally again.

-888-

Turns out, saying the word wish is really easy to do. It was a week later after she found the marbles, and her grades increased significantly. Her parents were proud of her, so that's a plus. She's also planning to make an app so she could make some money to go places. Though, she may have accidentally used her fourth wish. There was a cat in a tree, and this boy was underneath who was trying to get the cat to come down.

“Hey! Do you think you can help me getting my cat out of the tree? My mom called the fire station but I'm scared because my cat doesn't like meeting new people so he might get hurt when they try to get them out.”

“Awe, I don't think there is anything I can do, but I wish he gets down safely!” Suddenly, the cat jumped down, without a scratch on him. Then she realized, she accidentally used her fourth wish.

-888-

A year had passed when she got the five marbles, and she only has 1 left. She made sure to never say the word wish, and she even tried not to think of it. She's at Rebecca's house again, though she seems really sad, and she noticed her younger brother which was 5, wasn’t there. He usually always tried to see who was in the living room, and say hi. He was a good kid.

Kaitlyn decided to ask. “Hey, why isn't Peter here? And also are you ok? You seem down.”

“Please don't tell anyone, but it turns out Peter is really sick. I don't know if he's going to get better.” Rebecca said, her eyes tearing up.

Kaitlyn was devastated. Peter was like a little bundle of joy, and it would ruin Rebecca if he died. She knew that she had the power to help, but she didn’t know if she could. With this wish, she could have whatever she wanted, and she doesn’t know if she's ready to give that up. But it's Peter, and she knew that she should do something. She wasn’t even supposed to have this, and she already got something good from it, the least she can do is to help someone else.

“I’m so sorry about that Rebecca! I wish he gets better!” Suddenly, she felt a weight drop off her shoulders. She reached into her pocket and felt a strange emptiness, and she knew what she had just did. Though, she knew she did the right thing.