Untitled | Teen Ink

Untitled

February 20, 2012
By ghostbones BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
ghostbones BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 3 comments

Oscar was not particularity heroic, he did not speak in class unless spoken too, his sole friend in life was his grandfather, and he certainly didn't have all the members of the opposite gender falling over him. He was, in all aspects, just another member of society that was left to be ignored by those who were of higher caste than him. However this all changed during one fateful day in late June.

He had, as he always had after school, been walking home. His feet dragging at the thought of having to repeat the whole tedious process of education next year, as a Junior. While he didn't hate school, he found the act of going to the same classes, getting homework in these same classes, and walking home after these said classes a horridly boring affair. Due to his social shyness, he never even had friends who he could share these thoughts with, and his grandfather had been out of school too long to understand. He was still sighing at the thought when he spotted a old woman ahead of him, buried under a countless number of grocery bags and teetering on her cane. She was crossing the street at a painstakingly slow pace, surely to hold up traffic if any came by. Being the relatively nice gentleman he was, he offered her help in the form of taking some of the bags off her hands. She agreed to his act of generosity and they set off the conquer the act of crossing the street. After about a minute and a half, the act was finished. The old woman, who's name as he had been told, was Eve. Dug into her purse to bring out five dollars, offering the sum of money to him. Oscar politely refused, bid her on her way, and started to continue his task of walking home.

Halfway down the block from Eve her creaky voice called out "Wait!" Oscar turned to see the woman tottering after him, waving her cane around in the air. As she walked, she seemed to get younger with each step. Wrinkles falling away, the stoop in her back shrinking, arthritis disappearing. He gasped and stepped backwards at the sight of her. When she was less than three feet in front of him, he even considered running away. But something kept him tethered to the spot on the sidewalk, what kind of something it was he didn't know. She spoke again, the creaking in her voice gone. "Don't look at me like that! Haven't you ever seen a witch!? Goodness, if the contract didn't tether me here I would have been gone already at the sight of that face!" Oscar gulped, taking another step back and doing his best to return his facial expression to normal. "There you go kid! Now, because you didn't take the money I offered you I need to grant you one wish. One wish you hear? And none of that I wish for five more wishes junk. No killing people with your wish either, that's a big N O." He nodded, wondering if she was pulling a prank on him. Deciding that this would be a good question to ask at the moment, he raised a brow and said "This isn't a joke is it? You can't - I mean... you were old just a second ago and now you're telling me that you're a witch lady here to grant me a single wish because I didn't take your money?" Eve responded by tapping her foot on the sidewalk and saying, "Did you not just hear the words out of my mouth? Of course this isn't a joke...god kid, no wonder why you have no friends. You don't trust anybody. But yeah, you...get...a...wish." She tapped her foot with increasing speed, and he wasn't sure if he should feel offended or happy at the thought of getting a wish.

He spent awhile thinking about this and ended up being offended due to the way she had drawn out her words like he was a three year old at the end of her little speech. "I don't have all day kid. What will it be?" He glanced up at her, and saw over her shoulder a group of boys who where frequent enemies of his. "Uh okay, so wish. I wish..." He gulped. "I wish to be popular!" She looked at him, rolled her eyes, and said "Alright kid. But first ya gotta go someplace for me and uh...do some things." He adjusted his backpack, looking at the girl er...Eve, and nodded. "Good job kid. Now imma put some magical timey wimey dust on you and you're gonna go to this uber magical place that everyone knows about and is totally cool. Than you're going to knock out this guy who can totally do this said job that yer supposed to be doing 10x better than you, and pick up his axe as well as his clothes in the process." She smiled, acting absolutely cheery as she said "Then you get to kill the big bad wolf! And be popular...forever! As long as you don't die, of course."

Oscar stared wide eyed at her, trying to piece together what she had just said. Apparently he was to be dropped back in time, mug a huntsman for his clothes and axe, then slay the most well known villain of all time to free granny and little red. This was not what he had meant by popular, but at least he would get a role in something famous. She smiled and offered him her hand, he took it. The air around them started to turn, he felt a pulling sensation and suddenly he was smack dab in the middle of some forest. Eve was no where in sight, but ahead of him was the hunched over form of The Huntsman. Oscar gulped and grabbed a nearby rock, walking forward a few paces with as much stealth he could muster, he than dropped the rock on the mans head. The Huntsman made a groaning sound and dropped. Oscar poked him a bit and assumed he would be fine, than commenced to take his clothes and grab the axe. Assuring himself that following orders would be the best thing to do in this situation.

He crept forward to the cottage window, peeking through the bottom pane, he saw a wolf with its back to him, chewing on something. Oscar's stomach turned at the sight, but he kept watching, waiting until the wolf finished eating what he supposed was Little Red and Grandma. After a while of staring at the knit work placed conveniently above the scene, the noises of eating stopped. He slipped through the window, the axe in his hand giving him splinters as he went. The Wolf lay on the floor sleeping in a pile of blood, Oscar hefted his borrowed axe and swung. But all did not go his way, for instead of him hitting his target, his target hit him. Oscar fell to the floor in a writhing mass of pain, and within seconds he was gone. The Wolf growled at the sight of the dead boy, than at the female girl that popped up out of nowhere. His latter growl was cut short though, as the girl snapped her fingers and he disappeared. A Little Red and Granny filling the place where he once stood.

Eve smiled at the two as they quickly left the scene, and her smile dropped to a frown at the sight of her wishee. Her foot tapped in the puddle of blood as she said, "Popularity wasn't worth it dear, now was it?"

The author's comments:
A piece written for English class about a lad who does a good deed and gets rewarded(?) for it.

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