Three Wishes: This didn't go as planned!

Into The Sock Drawer

Jake made his way into the kitchen with us.  The lamp, which had been sitting on the countertop, had disappeared. In it's place was an LED lantern-- the big kind that you take camping with you.  On the top was engraved, in rough strokes of some whittler's knife, a snake eating it's tail. 

My heart nearly stopped for a moment.  Then it dropped again when Jake put his hand on the lantern, examining the carving.

I cleared my throat.  "That was our grandparents.  Please take your hand off it."

Kate frowned.  "Don't be rude."  She took the lantern and made as if to hand it to Jeanie, but the genie put her hands behind her back.  I took it instead. 

Glancing back at the small group, I walked upstairs.  We had mostly cleared the upstairs, by now.  Some of the stuff was going into the blank spaces in the basement, not to be seen until Chris grew old, but a lot of it had just been sold or given away.  It made my heart hurt a little to see how barren the floors were. 

I looked down at the lantern.  "You've changed forms."  I said to it quietly.  It and I were out of hearing range of the kitchen. 

It didn't respond.

I set it down on a bedside table.  "Now where to hide you?"

The problem was, as my grandpa had once said, that all human beings think similarly.  The architecture of our brains doesn't allow for much variation when it comes to hiding things.  All they'd have to do to find the lantern was think of the most secure place possible. 

Frustrated, I put it in my sock drawer.

Going downstairs, I entered in the middle of Kate and Jake's expected argument.  Jeanie was standing to one side, watching with a kind of sick fascination.   She scuttled over to my side as I came into the room. 

"Do they always do this?"  Jeanie whispered. 

I sighed, watching them for a moment.  Kate's long hair, which had been tied up for cleaning, was straggling loose.  It'd been more bedraggled ever since she'd broke with Jake-- perhaps she couldn't afford the hair care she'd been used to.  Her green eyes were calmer than they had been in the past, when arguing with Jake, and the tone of the fight was more subdued.  Still, Kate's scarred hands (She'd chewed them to pieces in high school.  A nervous habit that she'd kicked.) were clenched into fists. 

"I just think that I have a right to a regular schedule with Chris."  She said desperately.  "I'm feeling better now.  I can be a good mom."

"I just think everybody needs a little more time, okay?"  Jake replied. 

"He's my son!"

"And you're getting to have him overnight this weekend!  Isn't that enough?"

Her hands unclenched, eyes going dull.  She looked a bit limp, like a discarded doll.  "Fine."

He looked surprised.  "I just think we need a little more time, that's all."

I cleared my throat.  "I think it's maybe time you leave."  I told Jake. 

"Okay, if that's how it's going to be."  Jake left in a bit of a huff.

"You're not helping anything."  Kate snapped at me. 

I shrugged, turning to Jeanie.  "Jeanie, I feel like buying some eggs.  Would you like to go to town with me?"

She smiled.