The Wish.
Summer, 1984
Months and months had gone by and each time the weekend's missionary assignments were posted onto the Church notice board, Lucy groaned inwardly as she was never sent to the town she needed to be in order to execute her plan. It would be a tough ask of the circumstances anyway, but for it even to start, she needed to be where she could get the necessary supplies. Her palms went sweaty as she looked at the board:
Charlottesville: Lucy and Anna
Her heart sang for a moment until she felt a tap on her shoulder that made her jump out of her skin. She turned whirled round with a panicked look on her face to be greeted by the smiling face of Anna, thankful that it was not someone else, her Father maybe; the Church First Minister had an annoying way of seeing when she was keeping a secret or lying. Anna peered at the board.
"Seems we two are paired up for Saturday" she commented. "I'll pick you up from your parents' house at nine o'clock".
Lucy liked Anna. 10 years her senior, she was tall, with a round face and kind eyes that looked out on the world with a little sadness. She had married one of her cousins and had two rowdy children that she was always trying to keep in line, thought they were not hers, the couple having adopted, seemingly unable to have kids of their own. They appeared to be a burden on her nerves. The thought of having to marry one of the younger members of the congregation and make his babies made Lucy's stomach turn.
Of course, coming out was completely impossible in the Church, without being excommunicated or worse. One of the girls a couple of years older than her was now living with a woman in New York. She was never talked about, not even by her own family, and events involving her were a taboo subject. It was as if she had never existed. The 18 year old Lucy often fantasised about their lives together. Jobs, friends, other things.
She simply nodded, her plaited straw-blonde hair barely moving an inch under the square of cloth tied over the top of her head- her Mom was always quite strict with the arrangement to make sure it sat just right. She lined up with all the other missionaries to receive the box of flyers she was supposed to ensure she handed out in Charlottesville the next day.
She looked at her shoes as the line shuffled forward, round toed, sensible shoes. Her legs poked out of them, clad up to the knee in woollen socks, despite the fact it was the height of a stifling, burning summer. Her dress too, was a plain, grey fabric, done up to the neck where only a little white frill provided any sort of decoration. She pushed her glasses up her nose, bored, and took possession of her flyers.
Anna arrived at the door promptly on Saturday morning, her dark brown hair tied back in a bun. She was brushing her teeth when she heard the door being answered by her Mother who asked the same mind-numbing questions she always did of any of the other women she came into contact with in the Church. "How is Fred / Tom / Hank?" and "Aren't Billy / Sarah / Bobby" growing up fast? She rolled her eyes as she finished and whispered under her breath "It's like living in fucking Stepford". Her name was called up the stairs.
"Lucy! Come on dear, Anna here is waiting"
The train was hot, and the journey slow and dull. With nothing to read except a bible and the flyers in her bag, Lucy took to staring out of the window. At Richmond a girl around her age boarded the train, carrying a cloth bag slung over one shoulder. She wore cork-soled open sandals without socks so her painted toes poked out from the hem of her long white summer dress. The train was full so she simply stood in the space in the middle of the carriages where the sliding doors were. Every so often, the sunlight would catch her dress and show the outline of her legs. She had long brown hair and poked and swiped at her mobile phone every so often, some content or other making her smile with her very wide lips that somehow made her even more pretty when they lit up her face. Lucy caught Anna watching her as she stared at the beautiful girl and quickly turned her attention back to the window.
Charlottesville baked under a cruel sun that afternoon. As they emerged from the station, people cast hesitant, suspicious looks in their direction, mostly due to their attire before looking sharply away lest they be accosted by the proselytizing women in their severe garb. They went a little way towards where they intended to make their pitch that day before Lucy summoned up enough courage to vocalise her thoughts:
"Anna, why don't I go down to the University? That way we can cover both sides of the city".
Anna looked pained that she had been asked the question and put in a difficult position. "Your father is very clear that you should be chaperoned at all times." She said, before pausing a moment, some subtle change in her expression hinting at a thought, maybe a memory within the older woman. "But I can trust you I think, you're such a good girl" she said, lightly touching Lucy's shoulder. "I'll see you back here at four. Don't be a minute late though."
Lucy hoped that her joy at being let off the leash didn't show, but she tried to give Anna her sweetest smile and nodded before moving off at a normal pace down the street. When she turned the corner though, she picked up her feet, walking briskly towards her target despite the heat. The streets in this end of town were a little less well kept than elsewhere, litter collected in the gutters and music blared loudly from open windows.
She at last came to face the shop with its black painted frontage and a dark red window blind that completely obscured the interior. The window was painted with the words "Roslin's Occult Bookshop" and she bit her lip as she stood across the street nervously before she stepped off the kerb, crossed the road and up the other kerb, and opened the door, which gave a little tinkle as she did so. The cool interior of the shop was a welcome relief from the fierce summer outside.
