Joey scooted into his chair and wheeled behind the library. Roger struggled to keep up.
“How do you do that so fast?” Roger asked.
“Seriously? We’re about to get scooped up by the Wish Patrol and you’re worried about how the crippled kid can move so fast?” Joey said, through clenched teeth.
They paused and looked back to where the two goons were standing. They looked toward the library, then up and down the street. They walked across to a shop and went in.
Joey let out a long sigh, “Wow, that was scary.”
“Really?” Roger asked. He still believed Joey was overreacting.
“Watch,” Joey said.
The two men came out as quickly as they had gone in. They had the shop’s owner between them. He looked scared. They hustled the man into the back seat of their dark sedan and sped away. Along the street people ducked into doorways and turned the other direction.
“What the heck was that?” Roger said.
“What I’ve been telling you,” Joey said. “They know, so we’ve got to be more careful if you want to ask about that.”
“Okay, my house should be safe,” Roger said.
Joey scoffed, “Not likely.”
“Why?”
“You know that thing that looks like an Amazon bot in your kitchen?” Joey asked.
“Yeah, Dad said it was for the town watch, and volunteer fire department,” Roger said.
“Right, well, it does that, but, it’s also the mostly likely way for them to listen in,” Joey said.
“This is crazy. You know you sound like one of those flat earthers, or something, right?” Roger said.
Joey shook his head. “If only. It’s two way communication, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, watch it, it comes on sometimes without you asking,” Joey said. “The best way is for us to stay moving, so let’s go.”
Roger decided to accept it for now, “Okay, but what about the fountain? Where does that come in?”
They moved up the street toward Roger’s house.
Joey looked around again, “After the settlers came back, Wishful became a kind of tourist attraction. People from all over started hearing about the wish. After a while the water from the spring became almost undrinkable, because of all the visitors trampling mud in it trying to make their wishes. No one wanted the visitors to leave because they provided a lot of business for the town, but something had to change.”
“So, what did they do?” Roger asked.
“Jeremiah had been elected mayor,so he approached the town council with a plan. They could build a fountain above the spring, and channel the spring water through pipes to supply the city. That way the town had clean water and the tourist business could continue, so they built the fountain,” Joey said.
“If it was such a good thing why did they destroy it?” Roger asked.
Joey leaned in close, “I heard they didn’t.”
Roger listened intently as Joey explained.
“Two years ago I spent the night at Wishful General Hospital for some tests. There was this old man, everyone called him Old Man Winters, he said he knew where the fountain was. See, everyone thought it was destroyed…” Joey finished his tale as the two headed for home.
Roger had promised to be back in time for dinner and as he and Joey walked in the door two ladies were in the process of emptying the last box of kitchen wares. Jeanie sat in a chair at the kitchen table with a tall glass of lemonade. It was beginning to feel like home.
The pizza was still steaming as Roger opened the box to help himself to a slice. It was thick and cheesy with just the right amount of sauce. Any place that had pizza like this would be all right, Roger decided. The two boys took their pizza and lemonade out to the front porch and talked well into the evening when Joey’s mother called to say it was time for him to come home.
“I just live two blocks away, so I can come over any time. I’ve got to go to out of town tomorrow, we’re getting my new chair fitted. But I’ll be back the next day,” Joey said.
Roger smiled, “Cool, we have three days of Summer left. That ought to give you enough time to teach me all I need to know about Wishful.” The two boys shook hands and Joey headed for home. Roger bathed and fell straight into bed.
The town of Wishful was beautiful in moonlight. Everyone said so. It gleamed off the bronze dome of the town hall. It pooled on the lawn behind the library filling the bandstand gazebo with soft, pale light. It glinted off the steely bayonets of the rifles held by the steadfast soldiers of the war memorial.
In short, it pointed out all of the things Wishful should have been, a sleepy Victorian village, peaceful and serene. But there are things that moonlight will never reveal, places it cannot go, for instance; the dark, dank, basement below the library where blackout curtains forbid its entrance or the back room at the Wishful Thinking Billiard Parlor. And let’s not forget the darkened heart of one man who stood on a hill overlooking the town.
He was dressed all in black and even in the darkness a tight-fitting pair of dark glasses hid his eyes. His shadow seemed to dim the moon as it stretched out over the sleeping town below. He smiled icily.
What moonlight escaped the shadow, filtered through the branches of the giant elm at the corner of Wish and Coin streets. It was just enough to light the room where Roger Pine lay wrapped in sweat-soaked silence. His breathing was ragged. His limbs flailed aimlessly. He was dreaming. He dreamed of a fountain. Not just any fountain, the fountain.
He stood as he had so many times before at its edge. In his sweaty palm a golden coin glistened. As he waited a new face appeared. On the other side of the fountain an old man with a beard stood watching Roger.
He waited for the sound he knew he would hear. First came the screaming of the frightened town’s people as the giant monster took to the air. Then the whoosh of the scaly wings beating the air as it circled. He waited for just the right moment, closed his eyes, wished for the terror to stop and hurled the coin into the foaming fountain.
Or, he meant to at least, but he hesitated, the fear had gripped him hard, his hand frozen in mid throw. He looked to the old man for an answer, “You can, and you must destroy the dragon, you are our only hope.” The man smiled, winked, then turned and walked away into the night.
The great dark shadow of the monstrous winged lizard grew larger as he fell in a daring dive straight toward the helpless town, his nostrils trailing tendrils of smoke. He bellowed, sucked in a great breath of air and, with a whoosh, breathed it out as fire.
Roger held his breath as the creature came straight at him. Just as it seemed the column of flame would kindle the entire city of Wishful, he tossed the coin into the fountain, great white jets of water blew out of the fountain extinguishing the flame with a hiss.
The dragon’s charge continued on until it plowed full force into the hillside with a thud that shook the town to its very foundation. It’s great horned snout lay at Roger’s feet. It breathed heavily, its milky white eyes turned to Roger. He moved, there was no reaction. He reached out as if to touch the giant white orb, no blink, nothing, the dragon was blind!
Roger didn’t wait for the creature to recover. He ran in the direction the old man had gone. Branches whipped at his face as he entered a grove of trees. On the other side he came out in a clearing, calliope music rang through the night from a carousel.
The people of the town were no longer afraid. Children walked by with cotton candy and ice cream. It was a carnival, and there on the other side of the clearing, sitting on a stool, in front of an audience, was the man, he appeared to be telling a story!
When Roger opened his eyes everything had gone dark. He sat up slowly and looked around. As his eyes adjusted to the moonlight he realized he was sitting in his own room, in his own bed. Wow!
He unwrapped himself from the bed sheet and padded quietly down the stairs to the bathroom. Roger closed the door and turned on the light.
He studied himself in the mirror. Was there something slightly wiser in his eyes? He wasn’t sure. His hand was shaking as he moved it from the light switch and reached over to turn on the cold water. He could see his pulse throbbing in his neck.
He took the washcloth from its holder and bathed his face in the cool water. There was something calming in the fresh feel of it on his skin and the rush of the water in the tap. His pulse gradually slowed to normal and his breathing became regular. He took one last look at himself in the mirror, “I wonder”, he thought.