The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 114: The Most Terrifying Wish

Up in Heaven:

"Hey, Flicker! Flicker Flicker Flicker! People are sending up sky lanterns! You gotta come see them!"

The Star of Reflected Brightness' favorite runner, Sparkle, came tearing into the cafeteria, excited beyond all reason over a not-uncommon occurrence on Earth. The star child was still young, and the sight of human lanterns still novel to her, Flicker supposed, although he had to suppress a groan. After a particularly painful workday (which had involved a surprise inspection, so it was by definition painful), he'd miraculously secured an entire table for himself. Now he was nursing a cup of tea and his usual eyestrain headache.

Sparkle tugged on his arm – luckily not the one with the cup of tea. Laundry day in the dorm wasn't for another two days, and since Flicker had been working overtime last laundry day, he'd missed putting out his robes. This was his last clean set.

"Flickeeeer! You're not excited at all!"

No, no, he really wasn't. Not after centuries of watching paper lanterns float up from below. "Just wait until the next Lantern Festival," he advised. "Then you'll be really excited."

"Oy! Keep it down over there!" growled Wink from across the cafeteria. The other clerk had earned an official reprimand after the inspection for "excessive verbiage on reports leading to unacceptably high consumption of office resources, including but not limited to paper, inksticks, and brushes." The cost would be docked from his next several paychecks, and he was not in a good mood. (Not that he ever was.) "Some of us are trying to rest after work."

Which was precisely what Flicker had been trying to do too.

The star child pouted. "But he's not coming to see the lanterns. They're gonna hit the net soon. I don't want to miss it, but he won't come."

The handful of other clerks in the cafeteria gave her weary smiles.

One sighed to no one in particular, "Remember when we got excited over lanterns?"

"Come now, Flicker, you can't blame her for wanting to see them, can you?" another pointed out.

He noted that none of them were offering to drag themselves to their feet and take her lantern-gazing.

Mournfully, he drained the rest of his tea, took the cup over to the window where a surly dishwasher imp snatched it out of his hand, and allowed Sparkle to tug him out of the cafeteria. His colleagues might at least have acknowledged his self-sacrifice, he thought, but of course no one appreciated it.

Since star sprites almost never took the main boulevards, she dragged him along the back paths and out a side gate, where she stopped short. Below, a crowd of star children and imps had already claimed the puffiest clouds. Flicker supposed that the gardeners, cleaning staff, and boatmen of Heaven had to seize their entertainment where they could find it.

"Oh no! They took all the best seats!" Sparkle's tone accused him of causing this tragedy with his dawdling.

"You could have come without me."

Without deigning to comment, the star child hopped from cloud wisp to cloud wisp until she came to one that was large enough to hold both of them. She flopped down on her belly. Flicker followed more with more decorum, hitching up his robes so the hem wouldn't pick up bits of stray cloud – they weren't dirty, per se, but they clung like lint and just would not come off. Clasping his hands in front of him, he stood behind her, just in case.