Feeling Foolish

I took my finger off the glowing dot on my computer monitor, feeling silly. 'Congratulations! You have been selected as the lucky winner! Touch here and make any one wish', said the website. It was utterly ridiculous, but it was the weekend and I was bored, so why not?

Surprisingly, the page changed to 'Thank you for submitting your request. Processing' and displayed a spinning circle. I had no idea how they managed that; my monitor wasn't a touch screen and I keep my web cam and mic physically disconnected, so they couldn't have seen me touching the screen. How did they know I had even touched the screen, let alone finished talking?

'Your wish has been processed and approved!' the screen now read, and (silently because I had sound off) played embarrassingly outdated confetti gun graphics. The circle was replaced with a countdown clock and 'Please wait 30s for your wish to take effect,' which began counting down.

"Well that was a big bit of nothing. I didn't expect much, but I haven't seen graphics this bad since mom made me watch some of classic 90s movies," I thought. I stood up and went downstairs to get a drink as the timer counted down behind me.

I was pouring a glass of water when suddenly I knew, just knew with absolute certainty, that I had the power of freeuse. One second boredom and then BAM, I had the power. I mean, it even felt ridiculous to think about it, but at the same time it was all I could think about. I suddenly had visions about my sisters, my friends, all the stuff from the internet... and the glass began to overflow, suddenly bringing me back to reality. I gulped down the water, threw the pitcher back in the fridge, and rushed back upstairs.

'Enjoy your wish' was flashing in bright neon text. Below that 'Dr. Wonder...' there was more, but before I could read it, the window closed itself, and I was staring at my desktop. And I still knew, just knew, that as impossible as it seemed, I had the power now. It was like an itch in my skull, the contradicting certainty that this was impossible and the absolute belief it was true. I had to find out.