A page from AA

John lay on his bed, deep in thought, for quite some time. The sun set. Most days, Eli would have come back and broken him out of his reverie, but he had late fencing practice today, and so it wouldn't be until 10 or later that he put in an appearance. Despite the somewhat glib way he had treated his first couple wishes, given time to consider, the full weight of what he now possessed was considerable. Some thought and questioning had revealed that his hasty wishes had changed things even before he had gotten this power. It had not occurred to him at the time, but his wish to have a good day had echoed backwards months, touching many other people, resulting in his winning a scholarship and getting a job, and perhaps a host of other unrelated events. It was all quite heavy.

By the time Eli returned, John had come to a decision about what to do. The whole cascading mess of things made him very nervous. He had no idea what kinds of side effects any of his wishes could cause. Therefore, it was best to take things slowly, to feel out his power in gradual steps until he reached a point he was comfortable with. He spent some time thinking up possible wishes, when his train of thought was interrupted...

The lock in the door turned over with a click, and John's roommate, Eli, came in, slinging his fencing bag into his closet. "Yo, what's up? How'd the award ceremony go?" he asked, plopping down in his desk chair and queuing up his e-mail.

"It went fine," John replied, still slightly thoughtful.

"Gee, man, for someone who just got the award and job offer that he's been working on foir a year, you seem down. Hey, did you hear what happened to Mike? I know he's been bothering you, but from what I hear you're lucky. They say he and his friends were killing smart kids. Good thing they got caught when they did." Eli looked thoughtful for a minute. He had an unfortunate tendency to rattle on a bit ahead of his thought process, and he had hit home on this one. "Are you Ok," he asked, looking concerned. "Nothing happened did it?"

John grimaced slightly. He knew that Eli was just trying to be a good friend, but John just wished he could never hear about Mike again. He wanted the whole affair over and done. He quickly confirmed it, still not in stride with how things now worked but getting there, and the topic of conversation shifted to lighter things. He continued to make smalltalk with Eli, silently wishing his homework done, and by the time they went to sleep, he felt much better. John fell asleep resolving to put the Mike thing behind him and dreaming of what he would do tomorrow.