Everyone gets a wish granted to them once in a lifetime. 

 

Manifesting as a shooting star in the night sky, it lasts for a total of three days before it fades away into obscurity, forgotten and lost. 

 

Many try to use this wish to obtain fortune, undiscovered knowledge, or even world peace, but it took many wasted wishes, a tedious process of trial and error, to learn that even these miracles had their limitations. 

 

Nevertheless, these wishes still have the potential to change someone's life.

 

Enter our indecisive main character, Beatrice, who found herself looking at a streak of light over the horizon, burning, blinding against the darkness of the night. Amongst the other shooting stars in the sky, she could recognise her own with an instinctive yearning, as a once-in-a lifetime opportunity fell into her hands.  

 

Now, she had a wish waiting to be granted. 

 

The problem? She doesn't know what she wants to wish for. 

 

-

 

"So, you haven't figured out what you're going to wish for?" Anastasia, her best friend, asks her. Beatrice sighs, as she continues to tidy up her room. She decided that she needed to clean things up before the clutter actively became a fire hazard.

 

"I'm cursed with indecisiveness. You know how much I hate making decisions on the fly. I like to go with the flow, so I don't get too stressed out or disappointed when things don't go my way. I didn't think it would come so early either."

 

Anastasia turns to look at her, incredulous.

 

"This is a wish we're talking about! Some people don't get to make a wish because they don't live long enough for their wish to manifest itself. Others use it up on something they eventually regret, and you...don't know what to use it on? I've already planned to use mine to help me ace my job interview for a top tech company so that I can use it to secure my future."

 

Beatrice yawns from where she was lying down on her bed. "Doesn't that violate some of the rules established by the wishes?"

 

Anastasia huffs, as she pulls out a stack of old textbooks from the shelf, and sets them into a box.

 

"This is what happens when you don't pay attention in class. These wishes exist solely for our own benefit, though it can have some spillover effects to help the people around us. My mom had to use up her wish a few years back, when she was out of a job and had to support me and my brother alone. She prayed for a job, and she got it the next day. It's a job she still keeps to this day, by the way."

 

Beatrice lies down on her bed, staring at the ceiling lazily. 

 

"Right. So no wishing for anything like world peace, ending world hunger, so and so. Still, I don't really know what I myself want. I know people use it to help them find a partner but I'm not really particularly keen on that idea. At least not now." 

 

Why was it so hard to think of something she wanted now? 

 

As a kid, it would have been so easy. She wanted so many things then, like endless amounts of cake, tasty pastries, to own a pet penguin, or to time travel into the past to revisit the mediaeval ages. 

 

Now, being caught up in the life of a university student, she felt like all of those innocent wishes were either forgotten or replaced with other needs. Needs like doing well in school, earning money, getting a good job, and eventually getting married and settling down. 

 

Her friend waved a hand over her face, "You know, you could always wish for the usual things. Like getting a high paying, stable job opening, or to do well in the upcoming finals."

 

Sure, she could, and she probably would, but all of it sounded so bland. Plus, wasn't that what most people used their wishes on anyways? 

 

"Hey, look at what I found! Says here that its ‘B's Diary, do not touch.'" 

 

Beatrice startles, sitting up as she turns to look sharply at her friend. 

 

That was her diary!

 

Anastasia looks at her with a mischievous glint in her eye. "I'm going to read it!"

 

No! 

 

Standing up from where she was, she lunged at Anastasia, before the other could open the book and look at the cringiest things she wrote when she was a ten year old kid. 

 

She refused to be embarrassed by her past self!

 

Anastasia evades her easily, lifting the book high and out of her reach. She opens it up while Beatrice curses her shorter height, only for scraps and pieces of paper to fall out from the journal. 

 

The papers landed on the wooden floor of her room in a mass of graphite coloured sheets. Sketched characters, clothing, mediaeval weapons, short profiles littered the floor, as Anastasia gawked at the sight, leaning down to pick one up as she returned the journal to her friend, pitying her struggle. 

 

Beatrice feels her face heat up, stuttering as she tries to choke out an explanation. 

 

"It's uh-"

 

How was she supposed to explain that she used to create original characters back in her younger days? It had been something of a hobby, when she was inspired by characters from her favourite books, and she ended up wanting to create a vast world of her own, filled with a cast and their own unique abilities and backstories. 

 

"Woah, this is really good! Now I know why your doodles are impressive. You had this talent all along? It would be a shame if no one else got to see and appreciate this!"

 

Yeah, thought Beatrice, because she'd always been too shy and worried of how others would judge her work, but never got around to. How long had it been since she once dreamt of being a comic artist? 

 

She admitted that she still thought of her story and characters frequently, even sketching them when she was free or simply caught up in a few particularly inspiring ideas. However, her dreams of doing more were always pushed back and relegated to a future version of her to fulfil. The years went by, and until now, it remained where it was.

 

A realisation dawns on her. 

 

"Ana, I think I know what I'm gonna wish for."

 

Anastasia, having picked up all of the drawings on the floor and set them back into the journal, handed it back to her. 

 

"Yeah, I can definitely tell. Rekindling an old dream? Go for it!"

 

That night, after consulting her parents about what she wanted to do with her wish, Beatrice sat by the window of her room, looked up at the shooting star, which streaked high above the skyscrapers, and made her wish.

 

It burns brighter for an instant, the iridescent starlight exploding into a myriad of colours. What followed was fading light, melding into the shadows cast by dozens of other streaking stars in the sky. 

 

-

 

A few days later, Beatrice accidentally runs into a woman. Well, it was closer to a full-on body collision, as she apologised profusely to her. 

 

The journal in her hand is sent flying from her grasp.

 

Almost comically, it slides across the floor, pages opening and spilling papers everywhere.This was a repeat of an incident she swears should not have happened again. 

 

The lady helps her to pick up the papers scattered across the ground, and Beatrice tries her best not to betray any nervousness or embarrassment at how much trouble she had caused the other.

 

"Your drawings and character profiles are fascinating. This may be something out of the blue, but I've been looking for youths who are interested in starting their own comics. If you're interested, here's my namecard. Your drawings show that you fit the bill of who we are looking for." The lady smiles at her, holding a name card out to her.

 

Looking down at the opportunity that had just seemingly appeared from thin air, Beatrice takes the card, still in a daze. 

 

Her wish had manifested itself.