Suzie's Wish, Part 6

SUZIE'S WISH
by uciboy

PART VI - EPILOGUE

When Suzie finished her story, she looked at the Saratoga between her fingers
which had burned all the way down to the filter.  She dropped it into the
ashtray and gave a sigh as she looked down at the floor, then looked back up
at me with a forced smile.  There were no tears in her eyes, but rather just
an emptiness; a sadness that I had never seen before.

"What happened to your family," I asked as I handed her the pack of
cigarettes.

She pulled out a fresh 120 and tilted her head downwards as she lit it
freehanded.  Taking a cheek hallow puff as she moved her head back up, she
grabbed the cigarette with fingers and snapped back a ball of smoke.  "My
sister," she said after exhaling a stream towards the side, "jumped bail.  We
never heard from her again.  My parents got divorced soon afterwards."  She
took another puff and held the smoke in deep, as if the sensations alone from
the nicotine were enough to ease the heartache she clearly felt.  "I bounced
back and forth with my Mom and Dad until I finished high school.  I've been on
my own since starting college."

She bit her lip as she looked down at the ashtray, brimming now with
stubbed-out butts.  "I should go," she said as she stood up.

When we reached the front door of my apartment, I had one last question for
Suzie.  "Whatever happened to the wish granting company?" I asked as she
walked outside.

She took a final puff on her cigarette and blew a cone up to the porch light.
"I couldn't find any information on them afterwards," she replied.  "It was
like they never existed."  She threw the Saratoga on the pavement outside and
crushed it under her foot.  Then she quietly added, "I wish they never had."

END

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