Chapters (13)
Yet if I did it, nothing would ever be the same. Rinsing away the toothpaste foam, I whispered Melvin’s name.
“At your service!” he said, shimmering into existence behind me. “Ooooh, what a tacky bathroom. Where was your mother brought up, in a Kmart?”
“Leave my mother out of this,” I snapped. “I want to make my second wish.”
“And it is?”
“Gay fantasy number three, coast to coast.”
He looked at me for a second, then began to smile. “How’s midnight for a starting point?”
“Twenty-four hours should do the trick, don’t you think?” I replied.
He rubbed his hands, chuckled, and disappeared.
I went to bed, but not to sleep. I kept thinking about what it would mean when the rest of the world could see what I had seen today.
I turned on my radio, planning to listen to the news every hour. I had figured the first reports would come in on the one o’clock news, but I was wrong. It was about 12:30 when special bulletins started announcing a strange phenomenon. By one o’clock, every station I could pick up was on full alert. Thanks to the wonders of modern communication, it had become obvious in a matter of minutes that people were turning blue from coast to coast.
It didn’t take much longer for people to start figuring out what the blue stood for. The reaction ranged from panic to hysterical denial to dancing in the streets. National Public Radio had quickly summoned a panel of experts to discuss what was going to happen when people had to go to work the next day.
“Or school,” I muttered to myself. Which was when I got my next idea.
“Melvin!” I shouted.
“You rang?” he asked, shimmering into sight at the foot of my bed.
“I just figured out my third wish.” I took a breath. “I want you to turn Butch Carrigan blue.”
He looked at me for a moment. Then his eyes went wide. “Vincent,” he said, “I like the way you think. I’ll be back in a flash.”
When he returned he was grinning like a cat.
“You’ve still got one wish left, kiddo,” he said with a chuckle. “Butch Carrigan was already blue as a summer sky when I got there.”
If I caused you any trouble with Blueday, I’m sorry. But not much. Because things are never going to be the same now that it happened. Never.
And my third wish?
I’ve decided to save it for when I really need it—maybe when I meet the girl of my dreams.
Or Prince Charming.
Whichever.