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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!
After he and Abigail had finished gathering information for her article, Jadyn had promised her he would send the best photos to her once he'd gone through them later that night. But before he left, he wanted to see what kind of wish he could grant. He plucked a scrap of yellow paper from the tree and flipped it open to read it.
I wish there were more people who helped the elderly and disabled with lawn and household repairs.
The handwriting was elegant, if a little shaky. It seemed like the wish had been written by one of the elderly folks who might need lawn care assistance. Lawn care. He could do that. He just needed to slather on sun screen and make sure to wear a hat. Slipping the wish into his back pocket, Jadyn pulled out his phone and looked up a community service organization in Destiny City. There were a few, but it took a couple tries before he found one that offered lawn care as a service. Without waiting, he dialed the number before heading back to his bike.
The woman who answered was happy to receive a call from a new volunteer, and excitedly told him everything he would need to know about the organization and how to sign up officially. Once they hung up, Jadyn packed his camera in the cargo compartment under the seat of his bike and slid his helmet on before heading home.
The website for the organization looked like it could use an update, but coding was not his specialty. He left that up to the more technologically savvy. Despite the vintage look of the website, it was easy to find the form he needed to become a helper. He wasn't able to fill it out electronically, but he printed a copy of it and filled it out (carefully, because his handwriting usually left a lot to be desired). The next day, he would go down to the office and turn it in.
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It took a couple of days before he was official, but as soon as he got the call Jadyn was headed to the office to pick up his list of elderly and disabled folks who needed help around the house and lawn. He called the first number on his list, eager to begin. After a short conversation, the elderly gentleman who had answered said he needed someone to mow his lawn as his arthritis kept him from doing it himself. Jadyn assured the man that he would be able to help, and soon he was knocking on the man's door.
"The mower is right around here," the old man said, showing Jadyn to a little garden shed in the backyard. "If you wouldn't mind mowing both front and back, I sure would appreciate it, young man."
"Absolutely!" Jadyn said with a grin. "I'll have it done soon." Making sure to slather sunscreen on his face, neck, and arms, Jadyn pulled the mower out of the shed as the man wandered back into his house.
About an hour into his work, the old man came back out and brought him a cold glass of iced tea which Jadyn promptly downed half of before sipping it slower and chatting a bit with the man. He was a war veteran who had been honorably discharged following a near fatal wound in battle, and Jadyn felt he could listen to the man tell his stories all day. But when he'd finished the glass, the redhead handed it back and got back to work.
It wasn't much longer after their chat that he was done mowing both yards, but there were still some tall weeds he couldn't get with the mower. After putting the mower away, Jadyn found a weed whacker and put that to good use. By the time he was done, the lawn looked a lot better and the old man was much appreciative. Jadyn promised to stop by again, even to just sit and listen to old stories the man had no one left to tell to. He left the man his number, too, telling him to call if he needed help with anything.
The first thing he did after he left was go home and take a shower. But excitement wouldn't let him wait, so he put on some clean clothes and took the wish back to the park. He found an empty spot in which to bury it where it would get plenty of rain and sunshine, vowing to continue the volunteer work he'd started because of the wishing tree.
