The Wish Worth Saving

April was the month of wishes. That’s what Lucas’ mother had told him. And by now, Lucas knew that she was usually right. She’d said that losing his loose tooth wasn’t a bad thing; he’d found a five dollar bill under his pillow the day after he’d lost it. She’d said that Santa would come if he was good; he’d gotten that Pokemon game he’d really wanted on Christmas after picking up his Power Ranger figurines when he was done playing with them. But now Lucas wanted something different, and Christmas was too far away to wait. He needed it now. That’s why he went to the Wishing Tree.

The Wishing Tree was the heart of the park. Every April, the neighborhood kids and even some adults would buy a kite from the Latino merchant who sat on one of the park benches. They would write their wishes with a Sharpie on the two-dollar kites and swing them up into the Wishing Tree’s branches. The local lore went that if your kite got caught in the Wishing Tree in its first flight, your wish would come true.
Lucas carefully wrote his wish on his little kite after paying the merchant with eight quarters. He’d stolen the coins from his mother’s purse the night before. Eyebrows drawn together in concentration, he unraveled some of the kite’s string and used it to swing the butterfly-shaped instrument with all his strength. The kite soared up in an arc and brushed the Wishing Tree’s lowest branch but fell back to the grass. It hadn’t made it. Lucas nearly cried right then, but he couldn’t because there were big kids around, and he didn’t want to look like a baby. So he turned on his heel and marched back home, blinking rapidly to stop the onset of tears.
At the end of the day, the Latino merchant went around and picked up the fallen kites to deposit them in the garbage bin. He read the wishes scrawled on the plastic bodies of the toys and laughed under his breath at some, wrinkled his nose at others. He came upon the butterfly kite and scanned the neat black writing. His lips thinned into a line. This one deserved to be saved.
With practiced precision, the merchant launched the butterfly kite toward the sky, where it hovered for a second, before gravity pulled it back down and lodged it at the intersection of two of the Wishing Tree’s branches.