Overdue
Amanda was surprised when she looked up and saw that it had gotten dark outside. How long had she been working on her Master’s thesis? She looked at her computer’s clock and saw that it was 1 AM. Okay, she had clearly earned herself a break—writing math papers into the wee hours of the night took its toll. She went downstairs and grabbed a Monster from the fridge. Her New Years resolution to cut back on the energy drinks had lasted less than a week into the semester. As she stood in her kitchen listening to the hum of the heater, she heard a loud crash upstairs.
Was someone breaking in? Amanda’s mind raced at what to do. She lived on her own—should she get out of there and call the police? Seconds passed with her standing frozen with indecision, but as she didn’t hear any additional sounds she started to wonder if the crash hadn’t been in her head. She grabbed a large knife from the drawer, and crept back up to her room. She opened the door a crack and peered inside.
The cool breeze and billowing curtains seemed to confirm that something had indeed broken the window. She looked around expecting to see a rock or bird, but was surprised when she saw what looked like a faintly glowing Barbie doll lying among the debris from the window. Throwing all caution to the wind, she opened the door and walked in to get a better look at the strange object. As she drew closer, she came the startling conclusion that it wasn’t a doll at all—the tiny person had wings like a dragonfly and was clearly breathing.
“This has to be a dream,” Amanda said.
“Oh it’s no dream,” a tiny voice said, causing Amanda to jump. “Sorry about the damage I’ll fix it right up.” The tiny figure got up and waved a wand over the broken glass which returned to the window.
Amanda watched this happening in disbelief.
Brushing herself off, the creature spoke again. “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Lindwiss and I am here to grant your wish, Amanda!”
“Come again?”
“Your wish. Your heart’s desire. I’m going to make it happen!”
Amanda frowned. She really wanted to be done with school, and to be able to put “Doctor” in front of her name, but it didn’t feel right to take a shortcut straight to it. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to decline.”
Lindwiss started jumping up and down. “Oh, but you can’t! Once a wish is made, it can never be unmade. I know you’ve had to wait a long time for me, but I really couldn’t help it—Alpha Centauri is a loooong way away.”
Amanda shook her head. “Lindwiss, you’re a really nice dream, but you’re not making any sense. I haven’t been waiting for you, and fairies don’t come from Alpha Centauri.”
Lindwiss sighed. “Well, you’re half-right. ‘Fairy’ is just what you humans took to calling us, we’re just advanced aliens trying to make the galaxy a better place by granting wishes with our technology.” She motioned to the wand. “And you have been waiting for me, it took about 5 years for your wish to reach Alpha Centauri, and about 5 years for me to get here as fast as we could—even our tech can’t make us go faster than the speed of light.”
“So, wait. You’re not here to grant the wish I have now... You’re here to grant a wish I made when I was 14?”
“Yep, I’ve got it right here.” Lindwiss twirled her wand in the air and a holographic image of Amanda from 10 years ago appeared.
The young Amanda’s eyes were filled with tears, and she was audibly sobbing. She looked up and said, “Star light, star bright, The first star I see tonight; I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight. I want to be happy like the other girls in my class—I don’t want to be so smart that I get picked on and nobody wants to date me. I just want to dress pretty and talk about stupid stuff and be happy!”
Amanda cringed watching this past version of herself. “Look, Lindwiss. I was really young when I made that wish. I don’t feel that way anymore—I’ve grown—”
A pink beam of energy shot out of Lindwiss’ wand and hit Amanda square in the face. “You’re overthinking this! I’m going to make your dreams come true, you should be happy!”
Amanda felt like her mind was full of cotton candy. Her thoughts were starting to slow down, and as she realized what was happening she tried to hold on. What was she studying again? Wasn’t it... math? But math is super boring! “No,” she tried to convince herself, “you like math because it’s challenging and beautiful.” She tried to focus on the deep beauty she found when studying mathematics. She loved the elegance of Euler’s identity. She loved how Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory neatly solved Russell’s paradox. She loved... She loved... She loved shopping. She loved painting her nails. She loved doing her make-up. And she loved sex. What more did a girl need in life?
Lindwiss smiled. “See, now you’re getting the idea! Now to just adjust your wardrobe...” Lindwiss pointed her wand at Amanda’s closet, which tripled in size and filled up with clothes. “And some make-up on the house!” She waved her wand and the room filled with bags. “Check it out, let me know what you think!”
Amanda blinked and got up. She walked into her closet, and smiled. “I totally love it! Like, thank you so much miss fairy!”
Lindwiss bowed. “You’re very welcome, Amanda!”
And with that, Lindwiss disappeared in a flash of light. Amanda started excitedly going through all the bags. So many cute colors! There was only one thing that bothered her. “Amanda” felt too long. She liked Mandy better.