Quote:
The Wishing Tree (1): A Destiny City Star Festival Tradition to be held every year; In Town Square, there is a beautiful tree with spreading branches. It is tall, but the lowest branches are easily reached. The city has decorated the tree with small, starlike ornaments and glistening lights. Thick leaves and beautiful purple flowers dangle from the branches, along with a myriad of different colored papers with handwritten wishes. Next to the tree is a stack of blank paper with twine attached, and a handwritten sign that explains:
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.
Yukio had always loved Destiny City's Star Festival. Even as a little boy, he had run around to the various stalls and booths set up in the downtown area to collect all the star tokens; he still had quite a few of them, too, as an adult. His favorite Star Festival tradition, however, was The Wishing Tree. On it people anonymously pinned their hopes and wishes, and in exchange someone would try to grant your wish. He tried to grant wishes every year that he tied a wish to the tree, but some of them were too big for one person, like "I wish for world peace." It was luck of the draw, really.
This year was no exception. Yukio made his way in the evening hours to the Town Square, where the large Wishing Tree was located. He had a lot of things to wish for on his mind, but a few things nagged at him – not the least of which was his ongoing deception of his parents. It was really coming down to cases now that he was approaching 22 years of age; he would be in his final year of college and looking to graduate soon if he hadn't dropped out in his freshman year over a girl who had broken his heart. He had taken it much harder than is reasonable, even for a 17-year old, and he knew it. That hadn't stopped him from lying to his long-distance parents about it. And now it was coming down to it. Graduation would be approaching, and he'd have to either continue the deception somehow or confess to the lie.
Lost in thought, he approached the table next to the tree, where blank wish paper waited for those who wanted to tie a wish to a branch. What could he wish for? He knew what he wanted to wish for, but no-one would be able to grant it: the courage to come clean to his parents. That was something he'd have to find in himself. The other thing would be equally impossible to grant: a graceful way of resolving this that didn't involve telling his parents anything about the truth. He had some ideas, but he didn't know if he could pull them off. In either case, it did nothing to solve the present issue of what to wish for.
He picked up a piece of paper and a pen and studied them as he thought, the gentle breeze blowing the twine used to tie the wish to the tree. Maybe he could wish for something like "more live music events," but that would be rather self-serving, since he was a DJ by trade. It also meant he'd have to remove a wish and try his best to grant it, and he wasn't sure he was up for that this year.
So what to do…
There was an option for a personal wish, only you wouldn't tie it to the tree but bury it in the ground. Yukio decided that would probably be the best way to go. Resting the paper on the table, he wrote, "I wish that I could find the courage or the cleverness to tell my parents the truth," then he set down the pen and folded the paper tightly five times into a small bundle. He hadn't brought anything to make a hole in the ground with, so he used his hands to dig a shallow hole near the roots of the great tree. Placing the wish in the hole, he closed his eyes and said a silent prayer to whatever powers that be granted such wishes, then he carefully buried it, putting bits of grass over the top of it to conceal it.
He stood then and regarded his handiwork, deciding that it would do. Then he turned and walked away.
(wc: 643)
