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 it from the start, click here.

Not caring whether he lived or died, Zack entered a strange cottage while his sister Gina waited outside. There he encountered the mysterious Rhema.

“Will you have tea, dear?” she asked, gesturing toward a pumpkin-shaped pot. Her voice was so kind, and the smell of the tea so bracing, that Zack could not bear to accept.

“I don’t deserve it.”

“Of course you don’t. That’s why I’m offering it to you. It’s made from the berries of the kharis bush, which many believe does not exist, but look.” She pointed at the tiny blood red berries on her skirt.

——————-

Gina stood watching from the doorway. What was her brother doing? He’d settled into a weird little booth and was talking to the empty space before him. She called his name, but he didn’t seem to hear her. She put her foot forward, but it stopped as if it were in a dream or a video game and refused to believe there was any there there. So all she could do was watch. Zack continued to gesture and speak to the air. Had despair sent him over the edge?

——————-

Rhema poured some of the kharis into an ivory cup and slid it over to Zack. “Are you sure you won’t accept?” It smelled like…like it contained all of his favorite flavors combined into one. No, Zack suddenly realized, it was more like all of his favorite flavors were mere echoes of this tea, at best, and at worst, imitations of it. Zack’s mind was suddenly flooded with memories…

Of Dad telling scary stories in their backyard tent… Of Mom running her fingers through his hair, making him almost glad he was sick… He also “remembered” things that hadn’t happened yet…gliding across a frozen sea on the back of a sail-winged dragon…Dark Tinkurs ripping the last of the Thirteen Objects from his hands…

And then he looked up. Tears were running from Rhema’s eyes.

“I started a war,” he confessed.

“I know.”

“And I turned friends against friends.”

“I know.”

“Bud got shot with an arrow, and now his mother and father hate me. It’s my fault Naimian is ruined.”

“True, but not your fault alone. You’re anxious to move forward, but the naims have chosen to remain children, so they only see black and white. You showed them gray.”

“They made me their leader, which is insane because I totally suck at being a leader!”

“No, you totally failed.”

“Same thing.”

“No, it’s not. In fact, it’s nearly the exact opposite. You failed to understand the people you led, which always ends bitterly. But beyond the end it may produce sweeter fruit. You’ve left something out. Finish it.”

“Tuber. He died because of me.”

“Yes.”

Zack dropped his forehead onto the table and wept.”

“I know, dear. Now, have some tea.”

φ

Thoughts: A true healer helps us see beyond the present.

To read the next episode, click here.