This week’s winner of the Tuesday: Picture Poll is:

Once upon a time, there was a young girl called Emily.

Emily had quite the imagination, and was a little bit of an oddball compared to the rest of the kids in her class. It never bothered her much though. It’s not that she didn’t have friends. Of course she did. It’s just that she had always been a bit of a loner and she was content with that. She knew that she was different and she flourished with that knowledge.

Little did she know, however, that she also possessed the power to invoke a certain wish spirit, called Bee-Bee.

One sunny June afternoon, Emily was playing with her dolls and Star Wars figures outside. While usually quite content with this regular scenario, this time her eye wandered across the street over to two girls about her age.. One was eating an ice cream cone and the other a fudgesicle, while walking their bikes down the street. For the first time in her life, she looked upon them with envy. Her imagination started to get the best of her and she wondered why no one had ever asked to ride bikes or eat ice cream with her. Then she tried to remember if perhaps they had, but she had been too busy in her own mind to even realize it.

Whatever the reason, she wanted what they had, and she wanted it now. She muttered to herself, “I wish I could have a friend just for me. Someone who will never leave me and follow me through the good times and the bad. Someone to eat ice cream and ride bikes with. Someone who will always have my back.”

She looked down at the Luke Skywalker action figure in her hand and couldn’t believe what she saw. Luke dusted himself off and said, “You fucking got it kiddo. Damn, it took you long enough. I’ve been waiting 8 years for you to make a wish.”

Emily’s jaw dropped.

“Luke?”

“Wow, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are ya kid?”

Emily looked at her Planet Hoth Luke action figure, thoroughly flabbergasted.

“Wait,” she started, “What?”

“Ugh. My name is Bee-Bee. I’m your designated wish spirit.”

Emily just stared blankly at her talking Luke.

Bee-Bee took a long sigh, “You speak English, kid? I know you do. Can you not HEAR ME???”

“Yes I can hear you,” Emily started. Then she mumbled under her breath, “Asshole,” as she thew Bee-Bee on the ground.

“Hey wait up kid, I’m sorry. I guess I can see how this could be a bit of a shock. Sit down here a minute,” Bee-Bee said, with a change of heart.

Emily turned around and went to sit down when Bee-Bee stopped her.

“Hey, think you can grab me a beer? I’ve been waiting inside of the Luke doll for 3 years. Before that I was in your Raggedy Andy doll for 5 years. You finally made a wish, and now I’d like to celebrate, so a beer would be great.”

“I’m eight,” Emily said with a bit of sass, “and Luke is an action figure. Not a doll.”

“Oh right… well, skip the beer then. I know where your dad hides the liquor. Sit down, Emily.”

Bee-Bee went on to explain how 100 years ago, Emily’s great-grandmother had been a powerful woman who arranged with the underground government for her first female heir to inherit her wish spirit. This was Emily.

“So you see kid, I’m here to grant your wish. You get three of them to use however you choose, for your whole life, so use them wisely and be careful what you wish for,” Bee-Bee said.

“So how does it work?” Emily said more intrigued than ever.

“Simple,” Bee-Bee started as he stood up and wiped the dirt off his Hoth uniform, “When you’re ready, just start the sentence with I wish and I’ll show up and grant it.”

Emily’s eyes lit up with wonder.

“Now, think you can walk me over to your Dad’s liquor cabinet now? I need something strong before I hibernate back in that Luke doll,” Bee-Bee said with his hands on his hips.

“Action figure,” Emily corrected him.

“Yeah, whatever.”

Emily dropped Bee-Bee off inside and then she remembered, “Hey what about my wish?”

“You’ll see, kid. You’ll see. Now go…you know play or whatever the fuck you kids do.”

Emily headed back outside and stood on the porch for a minute, squinting skeptically at the rest of her dolls and action figures on the ground to see if they were moving. She still wasn’t sure if what happened was even real.

She stepped into the sun, and that’s when it happened.

She felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see who it was, but no one was there.

“I think I am actually going crazy,” she muttered to herself.

“Well that would mean that I’m crazy, too,” she heard a voice say. It almost sounded like it was coming from inside her head.

She turned to look again, but no one was there.

“Bee-Bee, what is this? Are you messing with me?” Emily yelled out in desperation to no one in particular. She could feel her heart racing. What had he done?

“Hey Emily, relax. It’s just me.”

“Who? Who are you!!?? ”

“It’s me, silly! I’m your shadow. I’m here just for you to be your friend. I’ll never leave you and I’ll follow you through the good times and bad. Just like you wished for.”

Emily looked down at her shadow on the grass.

“You’re my new friend?” she asked as she bent down and reached out to the shadow of her hand on the ground. As she did, her shadow reached back and touched her actual hand.

“I sure am. And I’ll always have your back.”

Thirty Years Later…..

So that’s my story.

That’s how I got here, and that’s why you now have a sword in your chest. Any questions?

**** Part Two is up. Scroll to the bottom of the post for the link :-D!

***I’m not going to lie folks, this week’s smoke-long story of the picture poll (flash fiction, based on the winning photo from here) was kind of challenging and I kind of liked it. So much so, that there’s another story within the story, but as this is flash fiction, I am limited to 1000 words. So let me hear it… Do you want to hear what happened to cause Emily’s shadow to stab some poor sucker? 

I had also thought of writing the whole story in the first person, but then I took a peek at today’s Daily Prompt (to write a dialogue between two or more people, not including yourself) and my story took a different twist, hence the story within the story. Too bad this challenge didn’t come up last Sunday. Lots of dialect between multiple characters in that one. And blood. Lots of blood.  

*****************Update:******************

Part two is up. You can read it here.