Artwork by Alayna

The Wishing Map is a full-length fantasy that is being posted episodically at this site. To read the previous episode, click here. To read the entire novel, begin here.

Aunt Aloysia shook off her remorse. She suddenly grabbed Zack and Gina by the arms and pulled them to their knees in front of the big rolled-up carpet. Zack instinctively reached out to touch it, but the unpredictable woman shot out her hand and swatted his away.

“Ow?”

“You no touch ‘til Aloysia say you touch,” she admonished in stern Pidgin. “Question is, who may touch. Yes, yes, who may touch? Hmmmmm. Aloysia not know, yet Aloysia must choose. Is most difficult question for big woman with crazy hair. Ahhhhhhh!” she proclaimed, “If Aloysia not have answer, then Aloysia must not choose. You must choose. Yes, you choose.” She looked back and forth at Gina and Zack as if they were supposed to know what she was talking about.

“Well…” Gina began.

“No! No talk! Choose!”

There was silence for nearly a minute, and then, as if drawn by an unseen force—for indeed they were—Zack and Gina reached out and touched the ragged edges of the carpet at the exact same moment. It was as if they had grabbed an electric fence. Their fingers locked down and they couldn’t let go.

“Ahhhhhh!” they cried as one.

“Ahhhhhh,” Aloysia responded, and then reverted to Oxford English. “Both of you, then, eh? Dare say I’d not anticipated that, but of course it would have to be, wouldn’t it? Hah. Both of you it is, then.”

Gina and Zack hadn’t heard a word she’d said, for the moment their hands touched the carpet everything had changed. The air around them had begun to shimmer. And not just around them, but inside them as well. It was as if they were being transformed into a different substance, the same substance as the carpet—no, not carpet, the…

Map.

It was a map. They knew this, because the moment the transformation began their minds were deluged with images and words. Countries, cities, deserts, oceans, even languages were poured into them—almost as if they were memories. But how could they remember places they’d never been? Unless they were remembering places they would go, but that made even less sense.

Meanwhile, Mom came down the attic steps flushed from the heat. “Kids? Where on earth could they be?” She headed back to the bottom floor. “Gina? Zacky? Aloysia? Hello?”

“It’s time!” Aloysia’s voice jerked Gina and Zack back out of the Map. They could hear Mom in the distance. Aloysia stared at the Map, a look of longing in her sad beautiful eyes. She started to touch it, but then pulled away.

“Hello? Anyone down there?”

Zack and Gina froze. Why? How silly. It was just Mom. Gina started to answer, but Aloysia suddenly grabbed her hand, and Zack’s as well.

“It’s time,” she whispered. Odd. Regarding all of the other Objects, she’d always said they would know when it was time. Now she simply said, “It’s time.”

“Hello?” Mom called.

Zack and Gina were about to answer when Aloysia put one finger to each of their mouths and said, “No one else must know.” Then she turned and hailed up the stairs, “Dear child, hello. Yes, ‘tis we…

Here in the nether regions!”

To read the next episode, click here.

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Thoughts: Have you ever been called to do something largely unknown, something you sensed would fundamentally change who you are?