Cassie and Geri walked into the kitchen and could smell the wonderful fragrance of ham and sweet potatoes, as well as the interesting smell of a cake baking.
“Ooh, what kind of cake is that?” Cassie asked, breathing in the best fragrance of all.
“It’s a surprise, Cassie,” Marion looked up. “I can’t let you know right now, but you’ll find out before midnight. If you like, you and Geri can write down your wishes. I don’t need any help right now.”
“Come on, Cassie, I’ll get the paper and pens, and we can get to work.”
Cassie followed Geri into the living room and each sat down to write out the secrets they wanted to come true, all their personal horrors they wanted to end, and never want to come true.
Justin and Chris walked into the living room and joined Geri and Cassie. Then Justin walked to a locked drawer under the mantle of the fireplace and brought out the most beautiful slips of paper. They were so delicate looking and Cassie couldn’t believe they could write on them.
Geri saw her face, “Don’t worry, it just looks like it may dissolve in the hand.”
Justin put the slips of paper on the desk and everyone took their favorite color paper, and they each took a pen.
For some strange feeling, Cassie felt happy and safe, but she couldn’t stop the thoughts going back to her parents. After a while, Cassie looked up and said she was finished. “What do we do now?”
“Well,” Chris started, “we each have a box to put them in, with a little key.” He pulled out one of the large drawer in the desk and gave her a small box with her name on it.
“What’s with all the names on everything?” Cassie asked.
“Didn’t you do that in the city?” Geri asked. “Of course, we only have our names on the special stuff, like holidays. Maybe you didn’t do that, but we do.”
Cassie nodded, but still thought it was a little odd. She put her wishes in her personal box, locked it, and stood up.
“I think I’d like to go up to my room and listen to some music, if that’s okay? I’m guessing we have a while before dinner is ready, so is there anything else I need to do right now?”
“No,” Justin laughed a little, “Sure, you can go to your room, if you want. We’ll call you when we need you to come down.”
Cassie was eager to get away. Gosh, what else are they going to do? Some of this stuff is just too weird . . . but it is a little sweet.
She walked into her room and went over to her bay window. She sat down on the pillow on the large windowsill and turned on her radio, leaning against the wall. She listened to the music and advertisings, but she was praying for a voice to talk to her.