A Birthday Wish Come True

I woke up with the overwhelming feeling I had done something wrong. The wish. The wish was wrong. I’m talking about my birthday wish. Now I’m an adult. Believe me when I say I’m not one to go in for wishes coming true or ghosts or black cats or any of that stuff. And the birthday wish that I made yesterday was completely un-extraordinary like the forty-three birthday wishes that had come before it. Julie and the kids were sitting around the table after dinner singing me a perfect version of Happy Birthday. Samantha had baked the cake and decorated it. At twelve, she was proud of herself and I have to say it was really a pretty good job. She’d written Happy Birthday Dad and drawn golf clubs with blue icing. Forty-four candles had been lovingly and tightly arranged in the left over space. When the song finished I had done my duty. “Make a wish and blow out the candles, Daddy,” Joe had said. Blake was there to help make sure they all went out.

I couldn’t make any sense of the fact that I was lying awake in bed at three in the morning in a cold sweat with a huge sense of dread over such a trivial thing. To make matters worse, what I had wished for was a year of good health for my family. What could be wrong with that? Eventually, I fell back into a fitful sleep.

I drove to the office and the world continued to behave strangely, like everything in the universe was trying to send me a message. It didn’t seem like a friendly one. The children’s faces on the huge Make-a-Wish Foundation billboard had changed from their usual happy smiles to mocking, accusatory frowns. The WISH TV logo on the studio building was lined with black crows all screeching in unison, seemingly at me, and sounding eerily like the Happy Birthday song.

Two hours into the work day I found myself staring at my monitor, trying to focus, but reading the same sentence of an e-mail for the sixth time. Giving up, I walked to the break room. I grabbed a coke from the vending machine, popped it open, and got lost in another melancholy day dream while gazing out the window.

“Wow, you look like you’re in another world.” Charlie’s words roused me from the trance. Charlie’s a good guy. The kind you can complain to about the politics in the office and know it won’t go anywhere it shouldn’t.

“I am,” I replied. “Didn’t sleep well at all.” I turned to look at him, knowing I needed to get this off my chest and Charlie was the perfect person. “It’s this really weird feeling I have about the silly birthday wish I made yesterday.” I proceeded to confess my whole story.

“It’s Karma,” he said. “I’m seriously telling you that you blew your chance.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“What I mean is sometimes life lobs you an easy pitch. Birthday wishes are nothing to sneeze at. They’re the one time you can wish for the moon and get away with it.” Charlie was smiling but I got the feeling on this one he actually took his own advise. “You could have wished for something really cool, something life-changing. Nothing wrong with a healthy family, but really, you could have done better. The world's letting you know. Simple as that.”

From across the room, Ginger let out a high-pitched, “I can’t believe it!” She looked up at us. “I just won an instant hundred bucks in this bottle cap.” Charlie looked over at the coke in her hand, then the one in my hand and gave me a wink.

It’s late in the day now and I could just about put this one behind me. As we sat in the department meeting, my boss surveyed the room for a moment and then he spoke.

“I have an announcement to make. We’ve decided who will take over the OmniServe account. You all should know that each of you was considered and each of you would have brought something special to the table. Please congratulate your newest Sr. Relationship Manager, Chris.” There was the appropriate applause and smiles although everyone including myself knew what it meant to have that account or not to have it. Chris just smiled awkwardly.

I couldn’t wait to get home. I turned into my driveway and was just about to cut the engine when the radio caught my attention.

“And now some good news for a change,” the radio guy said. “After twelve weeks of no matches, a Mr. James Madison from Jennings has won the seventy-seven million dollar Powerball. Congratulations also goes to the Seven Eleven on Downy Street which will receive $100,000 for selling the winning ticket.” I glanced over at my Powerball ticket, collecting dust on the dash. The one I bought on my birthday. At the Seven Eleven on Downy Street.

It was almost too much to handle and Charlie’s words were haunting me as I walked in the door. Could there be something to the Karma he was so certain about? Inside the living room, Julie was laughing on the phone, probably with her sister. Blake, Wii remote in hand, was twisting and jumping causing Mario to pounce on a purple mushroom on the TV. Suddenly, Joe came running in from the hall, waving a paper in his hand.

“Daddy, guess what,” he said with the special kind of excitement only a six year old can produce.

“What’s up Joe?” I said as he flew into my arms.

“I went to the dentist and got my tooth report card today,” he exclaimed. “I got an A plus! Not one single cavity.”

“Well that’s terrific, Joe.” I said, and I thought to myself, “Charlie, you were right about one thing. Life does throw you some easy pitches. This time, I actually hit mine out of the park.”