“That’s adorable and it fits you like a dream,” Anna exclaimed with enough enthusiasm to equal her reaction to the last twelve dresses Tammy had tried on.
Tammy was not as easy to convince. “I just wish I weren’t a size 16.”
“What does the size on the label have to do with how it looks?”
Tammy rolled her eyes. “Easy for your child-less body to say. I’d still be a size 8 if I had stopped at two.”
“And miss out on the incomparable Miss Bliss? What would the world be without her!” Anna was often in the position of cheerleading for Tammy. “Some cause happiness, others impede it,” Anna’s mother used to say. Tammy was of the impeding nature. She would seek misery and wallow in it for as long as she could. Anna always prayed for a change in Tammy, or an end to their friendship that wouldn’t require Anna to do the dumping, whichever came first.
Tammy frowned at her reflection. “Bliss gave me an apron of fat…”
Anna had grown tired of her friend’s dour mood. She had offered to take Tammy shopping and buy her a new dress for her birthday. Anna had even hired a sitter. She hadn’t expected her generosity to be repaid with complaints.
She decided to move away from Tammy and walk about the store before she said something she would regret. She stopped at the rack that was the furthest from the dressing room and pushed through the hangers to alleviate her frustration. When she felt her composure return, she grabbed a handful of dresses in size 16 and returned to the dressing room.
“Maybe one of these?” Anna held her breath, hoping that Tammy would find something suitable so they could leave.
Tammy rifled through the garments, barely glancing at any of them. She was scowling and muttering and Anna feared they would be stuck in the store all afternoon.
Anna’s fears dissipated when Tammy gasped. “Where did you find this? I’ve been through every rack in here.”
“I know,” Anna muttered as Tammy hurried behind the curtain to try on the dress. When Tammy emerged, she had a large grin on her face.
“This one, right Anna? It’s perfect.” She ran her hands over her hips and squealed, “Pockets! It even has pockets!”
“That’s convenient.” Anna agreed. Pockets were indeed the Holy Grail of women’s fashion. Anna was currently rocking a fanny pack due to wearing jeans that had decorative stitching in place of pouches for stashing a debit card and cell phone.
“It’s so slimming.” Tammy continued to admire herself and Anna didn’t have the heart to tell her that the color was hideous and that it looked like a shapeless sack on her body. She was so relieved to finally be done with the shopping excursion that she believed there was no harm in allowing Tammy to see something different in the mirror.
***
The next time they met, Tammy was wearing the dress. They ran some errands at the mall and decided to grab lunch in the food court. Tammy stood in the middle of the horseshoe of food stands, hands stuffed in her pockets and said, “I don’t know what I want.” Anna was accustomed to this ritual, it usually consisted of a discussion of calories over flavor and a list of the prior month of meals Tammy had eaten. This was followed by wallowing in misery that they could no longer eat whatever they wanted. This time, Tammy added, “I wish someone would just tell me what to eat.”
The moment she finished speaking, a man from the kabob stand approached with a tray containing two plates full of food. “Excuse me, ladies,” he said, “we need to swap out our grill; this is what was left. We have to discard the food that no one has ordered, but I was wondering if you would like it…on the house.”
Anna’s jaw dropped as Tammy thanked the man and took the tray. “You just wished for food.”
Tammy nodded. “It’s been happening a lot. I put my hands in my pockets and then I get what I wish for.”
“Have you tried asking for money?” Anna joked.
Tammy’s expression changed. “I did. But I got something else, instead.” She nodded toward an empty table. “Let’s eat before it gets cold.”
When it was time to leave, they could not find their vehicle. Tammy had driven so Anna had relinquished responsibility of remembering where they had parked.
“Don’t worry,” Tammy assured Anna and then put her hands in her pockets. “I wish I didn’t have to be bothered.”
Anna was about to remark on the vagueness of the wish when a man pulled up. “You called an Uber?” he asked.
“—No,” Anna began but Tammy was already climbing into the vehicle.
Instead of being her usual, miserable self, Tammy proceeded to flirt with the driver the entire trip. Anna was fed up and ready to leave once they arrived at Tammy’s house, but Tammy insisted she come in.
“Your behavior was crazy,” Anna scolded as she stepped over the threshold.
“What? That was harmless.”
Anna was about to remind Tammy that she was married when she saw the inside of Tammy’s house. There was a new large screen TV and a full-wall fish tank with exotic fish. The furniture was also new and clearly expensive.
“Where did this come from?” It was no secret that Tammy usually struggled to pay her bills.
“John.”
“He got a raise?”
“He died.”
For the second time that day, Anna’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean, he died?”
“I told you I wished for money, but then…”
Anna could not believe what she was hearing. “You made a wish and he died. And you did nothing? You told no one? You didn’t even have a funeral?”
Tammy shrugged. “I didn’t have to. I just put my hands in my pockets—”
Anna had heard enough. She went down the hall to the kids’ rooms, expecting to see luxury there as well. Instead, the rooms were cleaned out as if no one had ever lived there.
“Tammy…where are the kids?”
Tammy blushed. “It’s not really my fault. I made a wish…”
“To get rid of them?” Anna felt sick.
Tammy shook her head. “To be free of this burden.” She gestured to her body, circling her abdomen.
“You have to be careful! Your wishes are horrible. Stop wishing, and get your hands out of those pockets!”
Tammy’s face grew red with anger. She yelled, “For once I wish I could just be left alone! I wish you would go away so I could be as miserable as I want to be.”
Anna did not get the chance to look before she hit the floor, but she guessed that Tammy’s hands had been in her pockets.
∼ Elaine Pascale
© Copyright Elaine Pascale. All Rights Reserved.