May 06, 2018, 11:34:12 AM by Jim Statton
Endless Wishes
by Jolene Wilkerson
"How come your arms and legs don't work anymore?" the inquisitive young girl asked Japhet, who was in the same room as her grandfather at the veterans hospital, where she and her mother visited every week.
“Penelope don’t bother that man,” her mother interrupted.
“It's okay momma,” she said, "he's my friend."
"I decided I was not going to kill anymore," Japhet said from his hospital bed. "All I had to do was draw my weapon, but I just couldn't. So I got hit."
"You could have been killed," Penelope said sympathetically.
"Well that was kind of the idea. It would have been a lot easier than this," he said.
"There is still a lot you can do. Your body may be broken but your mind is still strong," said the little girl. "I brought you something." Penelope pulled out some flowers she had hidden behind her back. They were wild purple flowers with bright green leaves. "I picked them myself."
“I used to talk to flowers just like that when I was a boy!” he said in amazement.
Japhet remembered how as a child he could hear the crickets laugh and he talked with the guavo plants that grew in pots on his patio. He climbed trees in his back yard and conversed with the short winged finches about his hopes and dreams for the future.
His parents did not care that he was gifted with a vivid imagination. They gave him special medication to help him pay attention in school. Then, Japhet could no longer hear the crickets laugh or talk to the guavo plants or finches. When the military of Saven II sent him his draft notice, they didn't care that Japhet had a very special mind. Soon, he came face to face with the cruelties of war, when he was hit by a laser blast which severed his spinal chord and left him paralyzed from the neck down.
Japhet shared a small, crowded room with four other patients. There were drab kaki colored walls and a television blared in the background. It was a room in the “Hopeless Wing” of the military hospital. No one ever called it that even though, everyone knew it was true.
“Why don’t you talk?” Penelope asked Japhet, who laid listless on his bed.
“I haven't had anything to say, Japhet said without moving his lips.
He wondered why the little girl always tried to talk to him. But he was glad for it.
"How come you are not spending time with your grandfather?" he asked.
The little girl put the purple flowers in a tall water glass on the night stand by Japhet's bed.
"He is always so grumpy. All he does is complain," Penelope said looking over at the next bed where her grandfather and mother were talking.
"He is probably in a lot of pain, that makes people grumpy, you know," Japhet explained.
“I know. But I like to talk to you too. I thought the flowers would cheer you up. They are very special flowers you know," Penelope said with a playful grin.
"I know. I remember," he said.
Penelope adjusted the night stand, where Japhet could see the flowers. "They want you to make a wish," she said.
“A wish, huh? Let me see,” he said, as he stared at the blaring television. The TV news announcer said, “The threat of war seems imminent now, as President Jamal prepares to meet with Emperor Jung. The meeting will take place any minute now, however there is little hope that it will do anything to halt the certainty of war.”
“Well okay,” Japhet said. “I wish they would both show up in their pajamas so both nations could see what loons they are,” Japhet said to the flower, still not moving his lips.
Within minutes, the announcer said abruptly, “Breaking news! It seems President Jamal is now wearing what looks like his pajamas! The pajamas are blue with green dragons and purple flowers. Staff members report that the president was insistent on wearing them. It seems the two world leaders are now both in their pajamas playing with toy trucks on the presidential lawn. Onlookers here are aghast!”
There was a commotion outside the room as people gathered around a television at the nurses station.
Japhet smiled, but only Penelope could see it. To everyone else in the room, his face was without expression.
“See!” Penelope said laughing. “Now the flowers want you to wish for something else.”
“Okay," he said., playing along, "For my next wish, I wish the walls to be painted something bright and cheery."
Instantaneously, the walls began to come alive with color. First pale pink, then very slowly, brighter and brighter until it morphed into a royal purple, just like the flowers. Penelope clapped.
“Nice touch,” Japhet said.
The Hopeless Wing suddenly did not feel so hopeless. Penelope's grandfather began to smile, and then laugh.
As Penelope and her mother prepared to leave, a nurse walked into the room, with an intern following close behind her.
“Wow! Someone has painted this place while I was off duty,” she said, as they walked over to Japhet’s bed. "How are we doing today," she asked Japhet in a patronizing tone.
“Now this one is non responsive,” the nurse told the intern, as she checked the monitors and feeding tube. “He has been here five years. He has not spoken a word or responded to anything since he has been here. Sad case, really, combat wounded. Not a lot we can do."
Penelope waved bye to Japhet. "Go ahead, make another wish,” she whispered.
Japhet looked at the flowers and winked at the child, as she left. He knew that they were not magic. They just help you remember who you really are inside.
The End