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The Wishing Tree (2) : Your wish is only said to come true if you grant the wish of someone else; when you write your wish, you must also take one off of the tree and do your best to grant it. What wish do you pull off, and how do you intend to ‘grant’ it? Do you work with someone else to grant this wish, or do you work alone? You may get approval from another player to use the wish their character hung up, but no names are attached so your character may not ever know who wrote it!
He watched the girl with the long sapphire blue hair and bright silver eyes dart past him and down the path until she vanished among the trees and other people. Tavi found himself trying to place her, trying to figure out where in his previous live he might have known her. There was something about her, maybe the way she held herself, or her voice, that tugged at his memories. He definitely felt like he should know who she was, but he couldn't remember for the life of him.
There was a flash of a very small girl with blue hair and silver eyes, but it was gone before he could name her. Maybe he'd ask Olivia about it; if nothing else, she might know more? Or there might be some sort of picture he'd seen somewhere in the apartment. He found himself wondering if she'd placed a wish on the tree.
Octavian didn't really have any wish for the tree; nothing that followed the guidelines, at least. He sort of wanted to maybe broach the subject with Livi about children in the coming years, but they weren't exactly in a great place to try to do that now. Then he'd just be abandoning two of his loves for work and study. If he was gunna be a dad, he was going to be one, not just a sperm donor.
Tavi walked up to the tree, surveying the hung wishes before plucking one off that he felt like he could actually help with. Manual labor was something he could do without thinking, and he had been thinking the bushes on Center were looking a little overgrown anyway. He stopped at the hardware store on the way, picking up a cheap set of clippers and some gardening gloves, before heading out and finding some bushes to trim back.
Sidewalks were important, not just for able-bodied people, but for animals and those using wheelchairs, walkers or canes. The bushes had overtaken this portion of sidewalk though, preventing passage. It was in a less travelled side of the city, closer to the suburbs, and probably didn't see much foot traffic. The lots near it were either for sale or deserted, so no wonder the flora was left to over take it.
Most of the brush were weeds and tree shoots, but he found a small patch of jasmine and daisies once the mess of weeds were gone. He set aside a few daisies to bring home, and bagged up the rest of the weeds and plant matter to take to a compost bin... somewhere.
"Ah, I can take that for you," came a voice to his left. He turned to see an older man flagging him down with a red wagon filled with like bags. Gray threaded his faded blue hair - more of a steel blue, than Tavi's sapphire - and his gray eyes looked tired. The older man came up to him and tilted his head, frowning.
"You look like my late son," said the man after a moment. Tavi stood, equal to the man's height, and raised an eyebrow.
"...You're the second person today who's thought me someone else," he replied, hoisting the bag onto the wagon. The man chuckled and shrugged.
"You definitely could pass as his doppelganger, though he never wore his hair that long. I'm sorry; the summer heat doesn't always agree with me these days, and my daughter has hung onto the memory of her brother for several years now." Tavi blinked, putting the girl from earlier next to this older man. Ah, she must be his daughter then.
"If you don't mind... what happened to your son? I'll pull the wagon for a while?" asked Tavi, offering to take a bit of the load off him.
"Some years back he sort of just... vanished. We're not sure what happened, but officially the police think he drowned. Personally, I think he skipped town, after all the crazy stuff started to happen. I can't... blame him, ya know?" The older man gave him the handle and directed him down the sidewalk towards a house down the road. "Jen - that's my daughter - looked up to him like a hero, and took it really hard. I like to think he's happier, whereever he is though."
Tavi frowned, flashes of broken memories flitting in his head, but nothing seemed to stick. He must have run into Jen, then, at the tree. He knew that stepping into the light had messed with his memories, but had it altered other people's too? "Do you think he's still alive?" he asked, pausing to trim back a few stubborn weeds. The man glanced up at the sky for a moment, lost in thought.
"I... I think he found where's he's supposed to be, if that makes sense," he replied, glancing at Tavi as they began to move again. He chuckled again, and they stopped in front of the house he'd lead them too. "This is me." They were quiet as they deposited the plants into the compost bin near the fence line.
"One last question... what was his name?" asked Tavi. He found himself wanting to know, wanting to understand this man and his daughter and why they found him so familiar yet unknown. The older man raised his brows and smiled sadly.
"Merric. Merric Hollinger."
For a brief moment, something surged inside Tavi. He could see it, could see the family he'd left behind, could see the memories he'd forgotten and the light had taken from him. Recognition flashed in his face and mind of who this was, of who the girl he'd bumped into was.
It faded, leaving nothing behind, except a need to give this man the closure he deserved.
"I think, sir, I think that you're right. He's exactly where he's supposed to be," said Tavi, as his eyes burned. The older man frowned at him in confusion, but smiled at him.
"I think so too."
They parted with a wave and a nod, and Tavi finally said goodbye to the life he could no longer remember, and the family bound within it.
[ WC: 1021 ]
