Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ A Wish ❯ A Wish ( One-Shot )

[ A - All Readers ]

By: cathyc

A wish…

She stared languidly into space. She wished that she would hear from him. She needed to know where he was, how it was going.

Her eyes wandered around the room until they landed on the bowl that was the centerpiece of her small dining room table. It contained one large floating candle as well as several smaller ones that contained not the sweet scent of vanilla or lavender that was so popular, but the clean fresh scent of cloves and oranges. She smiled as she looked into the bowl, for while the candles were floating in the water, there were seashells in the bottom. While many used marbles or a large flower to decorate their bowl in addition to the candles it contained, she had put seashells in hers.

Remembering the day they had found them brought a smile to her face. They had been at one of those crafty type fairs, looking at artwork and vases and jewelry, but what had caught her eye was the vendor that had items made from the shells. And while the vendor had all kinds of objects from jewelry to candle bases and picture frames adorned with the objects from the sea, what Ann wanted was a bag of the seashells that were being sold a la natural, supposedly so the artistic could make their own creations from them. One seashell in particular was her favorite; it looked like a tall, narrowing spiral, elegant and delicate, amongst the more common rounder and flatter shells.

Ton had laughed and bought her the bag of seashells. He said it was a promise of things to come, where he would take her on their honeymoon. He was going to take her somewhere that they could watch the brilliant colors of the sun reflect off of the water of the ocean as it disappeared into the horizon and the blues and purples of the sea overtook it. For here, in Ontario, even the summers could be chilly though the days were extremely long. She sighed heavily as she thought again, `I wish I would hear from him.'

He watched from the distance, and he could tell she was slipping into a deep depression. Ton asked his companion, “Can I not go to her? Can I not tell her what has happened?”

His companion shook his head. “Not yet. You will know when the time is right. Then you can go to her.”

Ton gasped as he watched Ann stumble and lose her footing. She had not noticed where the piece of sidewalk had split and been pushed up, and had walked right into the segment jutting upwards, tripping over it. He tried to run to her as she cried out when she hit the ground, but his companion held him back, and again shook his head. “No, not yet. You will know when.”

A lone tear trailed down Ton's cheek as he watch Ann get back up, and winced as he saw that her hands had been scraped and were quickly beginning to bruise. He longed to run to her and comfort her, but the time was not right. He sighed and looked at the ground. It just was not fair.

They faded into the background again as Ann shook herself off and continued home from work, lost deep in thought. How she wished she would hear from him; she was becoming so worried.

The days turned into weeks and it had now been two months. Ton left in early June to fly home to Thailand to tell his family he was taking a wife. He had told her that his parents were very traditional, and that he could not tell them something like this over the phone. He would fly to Bangkok and then take a private plane to the smaller, remote province that his family resided in. It would be a long journey, and he told her that communication would be difficult once he arrived there. But still, she wished she would hear something from him. Had he changed his mind and left her? Had his family told him she was not acceptable? For while her parents were from Thailand, she had been born in Canada. Was she not suitable? She wished he would contact her. She needed to know.

It was now mid-August and Ann had just verified that she was pregnant. She was excited and scared; no terrified was a better word. They had not used protection because Ton thought he was sterile. He was a little older than her and had split up with his previous fiancé just before he was to be married because she wanted her own children, and adoption was not acceptable. Ann loved him, and told Ton that she did not care. If they could not have their own children, then they would adopt orphans from Thailand and love them as their own. The orphanages over there were full of unwanted children. She wished she would hear from him, she needed to let him know he was going to be a father.

As she stared at the bowl on the table, she suddenly began to cry. As the tears poured down her cheeks she reached out and swept the bowl off of the table in anger. It hit the floor and shattered, sending water, glass, candles, and seashells everywhere.

“Oh my god, what have I done!” She screamed as she looked at the scattered shells amongst the fragments of glass. “Ton, where are you! Why haven't you come home? Why haven't you contacted me? Oh, Ton, please, let me hear from you!”

Ann tiptoed across an area of the floor not covered in broken glass and the contents of the smashed bowl and put on her shoes. She normally did not wear them inside, but did not want to cut her feet on the broken shards that were now scattered everywhere. She did not try to stop the sobs as she set about cleaning up the glass, picking out the precious seashells and the candles that were relatively undamaged from the rest that would be put in the trash. Weary, once the floor was dry and she was certain she had swept up all of the glass fragments, she kicked off her shoes and went to lay down on the couch. As she drifted off to sleep clutching the shells in her hands she wished, `Ton, please let me hear from you. Please.'

Ton was near, watching over her though she did not know it. As he turned to his companion, he nodded.

Ton went and kneeled next to Ann as she was stretched out on the couch. He reached up to brush her hair out of her face before he spoke. “Ann, I have wanted so badly to see you. They told me I could not approach you until it was time. I had no way before to let you hear from me.”

“Ton,” Ann whispered in her sleep, her face wet with her tears. “You came, you answered my wish. You are going to be a father, Ton. I hope we do not have to wait long to get married. It was supposed to be impossible. It is a miracle, our miracle. Oh Ton, I have been so worried.”

“Ann, just remember I love you. I have loved you since we first met, and I will never love another. My parents are coming, they want to meet you. They will help with the child.” Ton reached over and kissed her gently. As his companion nodded to him, they faded away.

Ann wiped the tears away from her face as she slowly woke up. “Ton?” she said out loud as she looked around her apartment. “It seemed so real, I guess it was only a dream. I wished so hard to hear from him. Oh Ton, where are you?”

The next day was Saturday and Ann was cleaning her apartment as she did every weekend. It had to be tidy in case Ton arrived home. She stopped when she heard a dream interpreter on the radio. While she knew many thought the whole idea was ludicrous, she found it interesting. Coming from a heritage with many myths and legends, Ann was willing to accept that not all things could be explained by math and science.

She sat down at the table with a cup of tea as the lady speaker interpreted dreams. Ann set down her mug and listened intently when a person asked about a dream where her grandmother had come to visit her. The caller's grandmother had passed away the year before, but it had seemed so real, she would have sworn she was in the room with her.

Ann did not realize she was holding her breath as the interpreter told the caller that if she dreamed that a person who has passed on visited her that they had, in fact, done so. These dreams would seem much more vivid than ordinary ones, and were usually recalled when others were forgotten.

Ann reached up to touch her mouth with her fingers where she would have sworn she felt Ton kiss her the night before. She remembered his words, that he loved her, and his parents were coming. No, it couldn't be true. It could not have been real. But she also remembered her begging for him to let her hear from him right before she drifted into an uneasy sleep. It couldn't be. What had happened to her Ton? Why had she not heard anything?

As if to answer her question, the doorbell rang. Not expecting anyone, she cautiously opened the door to reveal an older Asian couple.

“Ann?” the woman asked.

“Yes?” Ann answered.

“We are Ton's father and mother,” the woman replied.

Ann knew then what had happened. Bursting into tears, she left the couple standing in the doorway as she ran and grabbed her shells; clutching them to her chest, she sat on her couch and cried as she rocked back and forth. “He was here, he was here, I wished to hear from him and he came.”

The couple let themselves in and closed the door behind them. Ton's mother came over and sat down next to Ann and gently rubbed her back. Tears were leaking from her eyes as well.

“Ton was here?” She asked softly.

“I know you think I am crazy. Something happened to him, didn't it,” Ann replied.

The older woman nodded. “His small plane crashed in the jungle as he tried to return to you. He was coming to tell you that he loved you and that we approved of you.”

“I know, I know. He told me in my dream. He said you would help with our child. I just found out I am pregnant. I so needed to hear from him, to talk to him, to tell him that he was going to be a father. It was going to be our miracle. I have wished every day to hear from him, but he said he could not contact me until the time was right. Oh, Ton!”

Ann broke completely down and cried on the shoulder of the total stranger sitting next to her, the woman who would have been her mother-in-law. Her wish had come true. Even in death, her Ton had let her hear from him.