Chapter 2

I felt her hand tightly gripping mine, now even harder than before.

I do not recall what was running through my head very much after Kathy said she loved me.

Damn. Since that first time I had seen her riding that bike past my door I just knew she was special. Asking her to help, first to shop then cook had been an unconscious way for me to be around her, to see her, even talk to her or to wipe away a tear or two when she was unhappy. I knew there was no way she would ever want to be anything more to me. In my mind, even her being around was more than I might ask for. Now she was saying that ‘L’ word. A 14-year old girl, her entire life ahead of her and she said that she loved me.

I am not certain how many times the voice in my head had been saying something. In my mind, what Kathy had said kept repeating over and over again. My hand was now tightly gripping her. I raised it to my lips and held it there, never wanting or daring that it had just been a dream and it that I would wake up if I kissed it.

Pretty much once, I had been hurt and left Hospital, my days and nights had been pretty much the same. At those good times, I wore my legs, other times a wheelchair. When Kathy started coming around, more each week it seemed, I usually waited in my bed, which, if I used the mechanics of it just right could look like a sort of longue chair or sofa if I sat up and leaned back just so.

Now she had said that she loved me. Isn’t that rich? Hell, I was like a dog with a bone if I even got a recorded call telling me I won a ‘free’ vacation or that new car. Yeah, right, and Mars was made of green cheese too. The ‘She loved me’ was a double-edged sword.

I looked at the waif and she now raised her head and looked back, right into my eyes. The shooting pain cleared my mind and more thought was coming through.

“Now that I have your attention human, answer me, if you were given one wish what would it be?”

It was only Kathy and me in the trailer, and her sweet little lips were not moving, so ... I was delusional or dreaming. It was those meds, must be them. The first part of the dream was just fine, Kathy could say she loved me 24/7 and it would not bother me a bit. Maybe if I got on with the wish thing, the dream would go back to the good part; you know, where she professes her undying devotion, her desire to marry me, have out 2.5 children and, oh yeah, that she only looks like a kid.

“Me, shit, my legs back might just do it as long as I get a choice here. I want to ‘walk’ down an aisle if the little lady here is serious.”

This was some dream, it had to be and Kathy seemed to have a ‘death’ grip on my hand now. Water of some kind was streaming from her eyes and as she buried her face on me, damn, it must be catching, mine were wet too.

“You have a quaint saying or two on your world human. I like them. One goes like, ‘you don’t get something for nothing’, the Princess wishes you as her champion in order to fulfill her challenges before she may claim the planet. If you survive, your wish will be granted. You may each take one thing and one thing only. Think of it as your ‘last’ wish, for either or both of you may not be successful. What would you have, and then let the test begin!”