Fiction

The Girl Who Couldn’t be Harmed

Be careful what you wish for

Photo by Jisca Lucia on Unsplash

It was a joyous day.

After the screaming and praying, both parents welcomed a little girl intp the world.

They handed the little girl to the mother. The parents smiled and awww’ed.They counted fingers and toes and mostly did what all new parents do.

They went home, exhausted, they took turns watching over the baby.

A few weeks later they walked down to the park.

It started as a nice day, but on their way home a texting driver nearly clipped them as they crossed the street giving them quite a scare.

The baby was fine but it was all they could think about on the way home.

But other things eventually took precedent. The young parents didn’t have much time to ponder the what-ifs as they tried to keep up with the child.

But one day, they went back to the park.

They sat in the sunshine, and listened to the birds. They let the baby watch the world around her.

Eventually a nice older woman came up to them wanting to see the baby.

The parents showed off their little girl. The old woman talked softly to the baby as one does when they see such a small child.

“She’s lovely,” the old woman said.

“Awww thank you,” the mother said.

The old woman pulled out a small artifact, “My mother gave me this. It grants wishes.”

“Does it now?” the father said.

“Yes, what do you wish for?”

The mother thought for a second and remembered their scare on the road.

“I wish no harm would come to her.”

“Oh what a lovely wish,” the old woman said.

The old woman whispered something and gave them the talisman.

“Have a lovely day.”

After the old woman was gone, the father said, “That was a bit weird wasn’t it?”

“Yes but she seemed nice. Besides, what could it hurt?”

As the years went by the parents started noticing something strange.

It started one day when the girl was a toddler. She was running around the house when she ran into the table.

The girl fell down, the parents expected her to start crying, instead the dad held his shoulder.

“That was weird,” the dad said.

“What?”

“My shoulder hurts.”

“Haha must be sympathy pain.”

But they noticed more and more that their little girl never seemed to get hurt.

Worse, often the injury happened to someone else.

The girl got a paper cut, but it was the mother’s finger that would bleed.

On one hand, the parents were happy that their little girl would get hurt, but it also worried them, as they couldn’t quite explain the injuries to others.

In elementary school, the little girl went to a birthday party at a skating rink.

It went fine until she fell and another girl’s arm broke.

After that the parents did their best to keep her out of harm’s way. They didn’t let her play sports or do anything too dangerous.

The parents were racking their brains trying to figure out what happened when the father came across the small talisman.

“Honey what’s this?”

“Remember that old woman in the park? She….”

“What?”

“Oh god, remember the wish? I wished she wouldn’t be harmed?”

“You think that’s why this keeps happening?”

“Yes I mean, nothing else explains it.”

“What if we break it? Or burn it?”

“We could but what if something happens to Chloe?”

They decided to keep the talisman safe and try to find the woman. After an exhaustive search around town, they couldn’t find the woman.

Many years passed. In high school the parents eventually explained the wish to the girl. She understood and tried to be as careful as possible.

Eventually the girl was married. A couple weeks after the wedding she went on a hike with her husband. Hiking was one of her favorite things to do as it was relatively safe, and often she was all alone in the forest.

By chance the mother walked by a store only to see the old woman from all those years ago. She ran in.

The mother noticed the old woman hadn’t aged a day.

“You’re her!” the mother yelled.

The old woman smiled, “I’ve been called worse.”

“You cursed my child.”

“I believe it was you who made the wish. Has she been harmed?”

“No but other people get hurt.”

“Well that energy has to go somewhere, everything has a cost.”

“Can you reverse it?”

“I’m afraid I can’t?”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Be more specific when you make a wish.”

The woman and her husband hiked through the forest smiling thinking about the future ahead. Suddenly they heard a giant crack, as a dead limb above them broke free.

Not thinking the girl pushed her husband to safety letting the branch hit her.

The woman was knocked to the ground and then screamed in horror as the girl who couldn’t be harmed looked at the face of her dead husband.