The Wish Bone

Hello.

My name is Richard, and what you are about to read is my story. I am putting it here on this website so that hopefully you will not make the same mistakes I did.

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I was a boy once a long time ago... young, foolish, with little knowledge or wisdom, and yet believing that I knew everything, as most children do. I have a brother about a year older than me named Barric (it's a name! Or so my parents claimed). We lived with our parents in a rather average looking house at the edge of the town of Acton. My parents moved there in their younger years when the town was just starting out, and have become as much a part of the town as the buildings that make it.

Now, one day, the town was abuzz with rumors of a gypsy woman who had parked her caravan on the road leading out of town. Of course at the time, many gypsies were equated with the likes of witches and warlocks, so right off all the children were told to stay away, lest they be turned into frogs... Naturally, there were children milling about the caravan almost all hours of the day, trying to find some of her (the gypsy's) magical secrets.

Me and my brother in particular were interested in this gypsy, and spent almost all of our free time talking to her and trying to weasel any secrets we could out of her... One day, we actually managed to get something from her, and boy were we thrilled!

She told of the legend of the wish bone... of course, we all know the legend, if two people break a wish bone, the one with the longest end will get their wish, but the one with the shortest will live longer; and we all know it's a complete load of BS. However, she said that through some old ritual, she could make the legend come true! For fifty dollars, or what equated to it, we could have our very own magical wish bone!

It was a month later... finally the children tired of the gypsy, for through that whole time, nobody was found to be turned into a toad. Though a couple people did vanish from the town, it was assumed by everyone they simply left. The parents eventually settled and all but forgot about the gypsy... but we hadn't. We remembered the deal she made, and we were determined to find out if she wasn't just blowing smoke, no matter the cost.

Through the whole month, we'd been especially good; doing our chores for our weekly allowance, as well as any jobs we could find around the town... we'd made a whole fifty-one dollars and ten cents! We were rich, on top of the world! But we never spent a cent.

Finally, Saturday came! We chose this day to go and get our wish bone. We ran as fast as we could to the wagon, making great time as we knew the way by heart. As we arrived, breathless, in front of the gypsy's wagon, she beckoned us inside with a smile... perhaps, a little too wide of a smile, but we thought nothing of it at the time.

As it turns out, she knew we were coming back, and had prepared the bone in advance, so it took no time at all to finish the transaction and run off with our prize... fifty dollars gone, but it was worth it! Or so we thought...

It was late at night that we did it... we stood in our room, holding the wish bone between us at each end. We'd discussed what we were going to wish for, and oh we thought ourselves so clever!

We'd pulled until it broke, and made our wish... mine was longest, and despite our plan, I was so happy I would get to execute it. I closed my eyes, a smile almost splitting my face in half, and spoke the words that burn in my mind to this day...

"I wish I would live forever."

Live forever! Pah! What a bloody fool I was! Of course the plan worked... I live forever, and since my brother is to live longer than me, so does he!

I knew nothing of the term "loop hole"... and apparently, that's what magic is all about. If you are not incredibly precise, your words will turn around and bite you right where it hurts the most. Sure, I live forever, and so does my brother... if you can call this living.

I am the living dead... a rotted corpse... and I did this to myself. I have no muscle, I can not move... I am stuck, stinking, in a hole.

So, when you have that bone before you, and you want to make a wish... choose your words carefully. Eternal life is at your fingertips... but to live forever... is to age forever.