FLASH FICTION
If Wishes Were Sisters
The two sisters sat huddled together at the tall, dusty table, a clay urn between them.
“Has she done it yet?” one of them sniffed, pushing her thick glasses against the beads of sweat collecting on her nose.
“Not yet,” the other sister replied gruffly.
“At this rate, he’ll never leave,” her sister sighed wearily.
“She probably doesn’t want him to leave. She was always the favourite, after all.”
The sisters shared a meaningful look. It had been a week since their father’s cremation, and as per his will, the two of them had written their wishes and dropped them into the urn. For such a selfish, controlling man, his final request had come as a shock to the three women who always assumed he would leave everything to his mistress of the moment.
But when the man from SoulSpirit Inc. had dropped by the funeral, it set their heads spinning. He had, in fact, left the three wishes he was entitled to, to his three children — one for each sister.
Of course, there was a catch.
“Your father has chosen the Eternal package,” the man from
SoulSpirit Inc. explained. “All three wishes must be entered in order for him to leave this plane.”
The oldest sister retorted about how her father never had problems leaving any planes at any time, and that, in fact, he held the record in the country for not allowing the most number of planes from taking off.
“Ironic,” the SoulSpirit Inc. man remarked drolly before taking their signatures and being on his way.
“He’ll never leave,” the middle sister reiterated again, on the verge of tears this time. “And, as usual, she’s late. Again.”
“Why don’t we just write it for her? He’ll never know,” her older sister said slowly, her eyes indicating the upstairs bedroom.
Her sister looked at her and blinked. “You’re right. Wishes are wishes, no matter who writes them. We just have to think like her.”
“That’s not too hard,” the shrewd one replied. “Just set your mind aside and think only with your feelings.”
“That sounds like an oxymoron.”
“That sounds like our sister.”
The two sisters cackled together. A loud, booming noise suddenly rang out from the room upstairs.
“QUIET! I’m trying to sleep!” A booming voice echoed through the house.
The sisters shuddered. “Still the same, spirit or not.”
“I need him out,” the middle sister’s voice choked up. “I can’t keep making food that just falls through his stomach. Do you know how hard it is to get sauce out of silk sheets?”
“Write,” her sister commanded, handing her the golden piece of paper.
“I hope my father is comfortable and happy in Eternity,” the middle sister mockingly scribbled.
“And lets me have a bigger chunk of the fortune,” the older one added.
“A bit much, don’t you think?” the middle sister raised her eyebrows. “Do you really want her to get more than us?”
The older sister thought it over for a moment, then agreed. “I think I thought like her a little too much.”
But no matter how hard they tried to erase it, the ink wouldn’t budge.
“Get it off!” the middle sister panicked.
“I’m trying!” the older one snapped.
“QUIET!” the ghostly voice boomed.
“He’ll never leave!” the middle sister sobbed, breaking down completely.
“We just need another piece of paper, we can order another one from SoulSpirit…” the older sister rambled, her eyes wide and unblinking. “Yes, when she gets here, we’ll ask her to ask for another…”
The middle sister looked up from her tears. “Yes, I think that should be
all right.”
“Where the hell is she?” The older sister sounded angry. She picked up her phone and finally decided to check on her youngest sister.
But it wasn’t her sister who answered.
After listening to the paramedic on the other end of the line, she had but one thing to say.
“He’ll never leave.”
