prompt
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.

Nataniel jogged by this tree nearly every day during his workout. There weren't typically people around it when he passed (being quite early in the morning), and without the cluster of intrigue, it may have looked almost entirely normal. It was decorated sure, but many trees in Destiny City were strung with lights or banners during this festival. It should not have been more interesting than any other tree.

Besides the sign that leaned against the trunk.

Nataniel remembered the gimmick from last year and had even participated in it, himself. He'd called it 'cute' and 'nice' to a boy from his old high school, who had caught Nat staring up at the branches, as if bewildered. And he had been, to some extent- still was. A lot of things people did were bewildering. What good did wishing for something do when you could just do yourself whatever activity you wanted to write down? If people wanted less litter in the park, then go pick it up. If they wanted graffiti cleaned away, then wash it off. He didn't fully understand the concept of writing down a chore you wanted done just so that you could go and fulfill someone else's task.

Maybe it was simply to establish a sense of community, or maybe it was expected that having someone else ask for something was more likely to be accomplished than doing something for yourself... Nataniel wasn't so sure. People were selfish creatures. 'Things for yourself' were valued higher than 'things for others.'

But the whole gimmick of the wishes was supposed to be 'things for others:' whatever benefited the community.

He paused in his usual route, taking a moment to circle around the tree to see how many of its branches were hung with wishes: a good many. Lots of people wanted things. People always wanted things. Realistically, there should be no wishes on the tree, if someone took one every time they hung one. But that was expecting too much. As he'd thought, because they were not directly benefiting the individual, so many wishes were left behind. Nataniel didn't think it wise or necessary to add to them, though he did take a pretty pink star ornament that had been hung among the branches.

He did select a paper from the blank stack for himself, though.

Over the summer break, he had been able to meet with one of the academic advisors for the University (incidentally, it was the same woman who had found him over Halloween, a general in the Negaverse). She had done her actual job and helped him select classes that would round out his degree and get him finished with University by next summer. He should be pleased, she'd said. He didn't want to be in his late twenties and still in class. It was time to get a move on with life, it was time for progress, for better. It was not time to stagnate.

...Nataniel did like better. He disliked the idea of such a monumentous change in his life and routine, but... he liked better. He had, somewhat reluctantly, signed up for the classes she'd suggested.

And then, once satisfied with that, she had given him the contact for a general he could look to for more structured guidance, someone that could push him for better in combat and tactics. It was time for progress in more ways than one. Nataniel did have goals, after all. It felt uncomfortable to be inciting this change in his life, but it was in the name of progress, for the sake of betterment. He couldn't just ignore the opportunity because of something as asinine as discomfort.

He took the slip of paper from the waiting stack, and scratched in his tidy, tight script, all capital letters, 'Whatever it takes.' It wasn't a wish, and certainly nothing anyone else could grant. But it was something he could do for himself, a promise he could fulfill on his own.

Whatever it takes to be better. Whatever it takes to succeed. Whatever it takes to show his dedication to anything he'd given himself to.

When Nataniel made it back to his apartment, he folded the paper, and stuck it in the ground in the small courtyard area in front of his building. If he was very lucky, perhaps it would grow into a tree that would block his balcony from any passerby's eyes.

(WC: 736)