【超短篇】第三个愿望
来自: 削其骨为笛(一位普通的都市丽人)
The Third Wish
作者：Hugh_Jidiot
原文：
My first wish was for a glass of water. Something simple to make sure that the man wreathed in glowing smoke who’d appeared out of that old lamp wasn’t just an extremely vivid hallucination.
“Granted,” the genie said with a nod, and a glass of water appeared on my kitchen table. The glass was cool to the touch, the liquid refreshing as it poured down my throat.
Real. It was all real.
Right away I knew what my second wish would be. The Mega Lotto jackpot had just reached a record high. Since genies in fiction were always twisting your wishes around (something my genie would neither confirm nor deny), I considered my words carefully.
Finally I said; “I wish that the numbers on the next Mega Lotto ticket I buy will all come up in the next drawing.”
“Granted,” the genie said with a nod.
I went down to the gas station to buy my ticket. I clutched my ticket as I watched the live drawing that night. My heart jackhammered in my chest as the numbers came up one by one.
Three weeks later, after all of the paperwork was signed and the promotional pictures had been taken, I was seven-hundred million dollars richer. And that was after giving Uncle Sam his cut. I used my new wealth to buy myself a nice little cabin out in the wilderness, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city and filled with entertainment and amenities.
The whole time my genie watched patiently, waiting for my final wish.
I thought about it for a long time. I could afford just about anything I wanted now, but I wanted to be able to enjoy it for as long as possible. Immortality was out of the question; it would draw too much attention if I never died, and it’s not like I wanted to truly live forever anyways.
Finally I said; “I wish to die peacefully in my sleep at age eighty.”
“Granted,” the genie said with a nod, and he was gone.
The bombs fell less than a month later.
I was out far enough to avoid the initial blasts, but I remember how the ground shook as if the Earth itself was fracturing. All electronics have been down since that day, so there’s no way to tell how bad things are. The skies are choked with ash, and all around me plants and animals are keeling over from radiation poisoning.
As for me, I feel so weak. My head is throbbing, my hair is thinning. I have plenty of food and water stockpiled for now, but hardly anything is staying down. And what comes up is usually spotted with blood.
That was six months ago.
And as I lay in bed on what should be my birthday, I use what little strength I have to carve a mark on the wall.
Seven months down.
Forty-seven years to go.
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