Chapter 22: Wish One Hundred

Nobody on the pier breathed while my mother stood in front of me.

She still had the paper in her hand, and her handbag sat on her arm, the same one that had taken my folder on the first night.

"The wish is mine to make," she said to the clerk, quietly. "Is that right?"

The boy looked at his clicker, then at the supervisor, who stood against the rail.

"A household may add a yes at any time before zero," the supervisor said. "Yes."

"Then I'd like it counted by whoever's counting."

"Wait," Cora said. She had come up beside me, white to the lips. "Mother. If you say it to me, you win. You know that. Say it to me and it's over."

"I know," said my mother.

"Say it to her, and..."

"I know what happens, Cora."

She set the handbag down on the planks.

She opened it, took out a worn manila folder, and laid it in my lap.

It was my medical file from the first day, with the clinic's stamp.

The pages were soft from being handled.

"I read it every night," she said. "I read it in the bathroom with the door locked, so nobody would know I couldn't stop."

"Then you knew every word," I said. My voice was hoarse.

"I did."

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