The Next Morning

Toby was awakened the next morning by a loud clattering above him. Thinking that something was wrong he rolled out of bed and quickly jogged up the stairs, sparing only a moment to rub the sleep from his bleary eyes.

However, rather than a problem, he found his father hurried bouncing around the room, grabbing various snack foods such as granola bars which he stuffed into a small bag on the table. Upon seeing his son, he paused, turning to greet the awakening boy.

"Morning son. Hey, I got some good news and some bad news," his father said quietly as if he were trying not to make a lot of noise, which was ridiculous because he was literally making enough noise to wake Toby up mere moments earlier.

"Oh really?" Toby actually didn't care at this point, walking over to the fridge as he pulled out the milk before searching through the cabinets for his preferred choice of cereal.

"Yeah, um, so I don't know if you heard the phone start ringing last night, it was my boss at work. Uh, he said he was looking at the records and found out I'd been with them for nearly 20 years, and I'd never used any of my sick leave or paid vacation days, so he told me to take a vacation, in fact he told me to take a whole month long vacation."

Toby's dad was sounding more excited by the second, though with a hint of confusion. But Toby didn't notice any of that. He'd found his box of cereal halfway through the talk, only to drop it on to the floor in stunned silence as his father finished his explanation.

"But, uh, the bad news is the vacation's only for two, so only me and your mother can go. I hope you don't mind son, but we'll need you to watch the house while we're gone. I know we've never done this kind of thing before and that this is all a bit sudden, but we're trusting you okay? We don't want any wild parties, no drinking, no ****... and if you have a girl over, use protection." His dad could probably see the expression on his face, and had added that last part as a joke since Toby had never had a female over period, much less one he intended to have sex with.

But Toby was already shuffling back towards the stairs, eager to get back to his room where he'd left the ring sitting on his nightstand, "Hmm, yeah Dad, sure."

Leaving the kitchen, he ran back downstairs to his room, leaping across the bed to grab the ring still laying on his nightstand. He felt sick for a moment. If his parents were going on the vacation he'd wished for last night, that meant he hadn't been dreaming which meant that girl. He thought for a moment to remember her name, having never been formally introduced...

Jessica! Jessica was telling the truth, she really is a genie, and I'm the one who gets to make all the wishes!

Then his stomach flipped again. He'd left this all powerful wish granting ring in his room, completely unguarded! What if his mom had come down to wake him up and saw it and tried it on, or he'd accidentally knocked it off in his sleep? It could've been lost forever! From now on he'd make sure he always had the ring with him, and if he was right all it would take would be a few well worded wishes and he'd never have to worry about losing the ring again!

So with those thoughts in mind, he quickly got dressed, not bothering with appearances. He just threw on what was comfortable as he raced up the stairs and out his front door, the ring now back on his finger, which he'd promptly shoved into his pocket to keep anyone from spotting the ring.

As he came around the fence line to Jessica's house the first thing he noticed was the large abundance of trash scattered and strewn about the yard, probably the remnants from the previous night's party. The second thing he noticed was that Jessica didn't appear to be home. After knocking on all the doors, first floor windows, and even shouting her name, he got no response and could only assume she'd already headed to school.

Glancing down at his watch, he saw it was nearly 7 o'clock. Who went to school at this time? So he turned around and went back to his house, content to eat a piece of toast smeared with jelly for breakfast as he helped his parents get ready to leave on their vacation.

As he turned to leave, a red plastic cup was picked up by the wind and tossed lightly at him. He danced out of the way, not because he was afraid of getting hit with a cup that would probably crumple on impact, but because he didn't want to chance getting beer on his clothes, since he both hated the smell as well as not needing to go to school smelling like he'd been drinking.

"I wish those idiots would clean up after themselves if they're going to have a party," he said, finding the various pieces of garbage disgusting.

He went back around the fence line, just as all the cups, bottles, and numerous others pieces of refuse seemingly vanished from existence.