{"id":237,"date":"2026-08-20T04:27:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/?p=237"},"modified":"2026-08-20T04:27:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:27:21","slug":"i-became-a-wish-granter-for-my-high-school-sweethearts-12-year-old-daughter-when-she-told-me-her-final-wish-i-couldnt-hold-back-my-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/?p=237","title":{"rendered":"I Became a Wish Granter for My High School Sweetheart’s 12-Year-Old Daughter \u2013 When She Told Me Her Final Wish, I Couldn’t Hold Back My Tears"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I\u2019d granted wishes for sick children for years. Then one application stopped me cold: my high school sweetheart\u2019s 12-year-old daughter. Rebecca had vanished from my life without a word\u2014and when Sophie finally told me her real wish, I realized her mother had been hiding the reason why.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The application sat third from the top of my afternoon stack.<\/p>\n

The name printed across it made me set down my coffee.<\/p>\n

Rebecca.<\/p>\n

The girl I had planned to marry, the one who vanished without a single warning twelve years ago.<\/p>\n

Now her name was on a foundation form, under a child’s diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

The application sat third from the top<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The daughter’s name was Sophie.<\/p>\n

Twelve years old.<\/p>\n

Seriously ill.<\/p>\n

Twelve\u2026 the number stuck in my mind.<\/p>\n

Had Rebecca run off because she was pregnant with my daughter?<\/i><\/p>\n

I never visited applicant homes personally.<\/p>\n

That afternoon I drove across town with my hands tight on the wheel.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

I never visited applicant homes personally.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

When Rebecca opened the door, every trace of color left her face.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“Daniel,” she whispered. “What are you doing here?”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“I came because of Sophie.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

She shook her head before I even finished.<\/p>\n

“No. Absolutely not.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“What are you doing here?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“Rebecca.”<\/p>\n

“I know what your foundation does. I’m not letting you spend thousands of dollars on us. We’re fine.”<\/p>\n

They were not fine.<\/p>\n

I could see it in the shadows under her eyes and the way she gripped the door like it was holding her up.<\/p>\n

And I still needed to know if her daughter was mine.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

They were not fine.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I thought Rebecca wanted to keep me away from her daughter.<\/p>\n

It would take me weeks to understand what she was actually afraid I\u2019d discover.<\/p>\n

Before I could say anything else, a small voice floated down the hallway.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“Mom?”<\/p>\n

A girl stepped into view.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

It would take me weeks to understand what she was actually afraid I\u2019d discover.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

She was thin and pale, but smiled so openly it caught me somewhere I didn’t expect.<\/p>\n

But I didn’t see myself in her at all.<\/p>\n

She wasn’t mine.<\/p>\n

I crouched down to her level.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“You must be Sophie.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“You’re the wish man?”<\/p>\n

I nodded.<\/p>\n

“I’m here to grant your biggest wish.”<\/p>\n

She thought about it seriously, chewing her lip.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“I’m here to grant your biggest wish.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“Can I have pancakes at midnight?”<\/p>\n

I laughed before I could stop myself.<\/p>\n

“Sophie, you can ask for anything. Disney World. Meeting someone famous. Anything at all.”<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“I know.” She nodded. “But I’ve never had pancakes at midnight.”<\/p>\n

I looked up at Rebecca, expecting her to shut the whole thing down again.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Can I have pancakes at midnight?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Instead she just stood there, arms folded, her gaze somewhere far away.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

So that night, at exactly 12:01 a.m., I found myself sitting on Rebecca’s kitchen floor, eating pancakes.<\/p>\n

“Why the floor?” I asked.<\/p>\n

“They taste better down here,” Sophie said, entirely certain.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t argue with her.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“They taste better down here,”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

We ate strawberry pancakes with our plates on our knees.<\/p>\n

Sophie hummed between bites like it was the best meal of her life.<\/p>\n

Rebecca watched her daughter with a soft, tired kind of love.<\/p>\n

“Thank you,” she said quietly, not quite meeting my eyes.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“I didn’t do anything. It was flour and strawberries.”<\/p>\n

“You know that isn’t what I mean.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“You know that isn’t what I mean.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I did know.<\/p>\n

But I let it sit there between us, unspoken.<\/p>\n

Sophie leaned her head against my arm and yawned.<\/p>\n

“Can he come back?” she asked her mother.<\/p>\n

Rebecca hesitated.<\/p>\n

I watched something flicker across her face, hope and fear tangled together.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Can he come back?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“We’ll see,” she said.<\/p>\n

“That means yes,” Sophie whispered to me like a secret.<\/p>\n

I thought Sophie’s request was simple.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t realize she was pulling me toward a truth her mother had spent twelve years hiding.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“That means yes,”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

When I finally stood to leave, Rebecca walked me to the door.<\/p>\n

“You really don’t have to do this,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I want to.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Why?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I didn’t have a clean answer.<\/p>\n

Twelve years of silence stood between us, and a hundred questions I had never gotten to ask.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

I didn’t have a clean answer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“Because she asked me to,” I said finally.<\/p>\n

She nodded and looked away.<\/p>\n

I drove home under a sky going pale at the edges, telling myself this was one wish, one family, one closed chapter briefly reopened.<\/p>\n

I had no idea that Sophie’s final wish would shatter that belief.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Because she asked me to,”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

A few days later, I came back with a red convertible, its top already down.<\/p>\n

Sophie’s face lit up like a summer sky.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“You actually found one,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You asked, didn’t you?”<\/p>\n

We drove around the block a dozen times while she stretched her arms into the wind and laughed until her cheeks turned pink.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“You actually found one,”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

After that wish, something shifted in me.<\/p>\n

I stopped visiting on behalf of the foundation.<\/p>\n

I came because Sophie would text, “Are you busy?” and somehow I never was.<\/p>\n

We fed ducks at the pond.<\/p>\n

We built a blanket fort in the living room and watched the worst movies we could find.<\/p>\n

And every time, I caught Rebecca watching us from the doorway with an emotion I couldn’t name.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

After that official wish, something shifted in me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

At first I thought she was afraid Sophie was getting too attached to me.<\/p>\n

I was wrong.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Sophie wasn\u2019t the one Rebecca was afraid for.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

One evening, Sophie asked me to come upstairs alone.<\/p>\n

She sat against her pillows, clutching an old photograph to her chest.<\/p>\n

“Daniel,” she whispered, “I finally figured out my real wish.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Sophie wasn\u2019t the one Rebecca was afraid for.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I pulled the chair closer.<\/p>\n

“Then tell me. Whatever it is, I’ll make it happen.”<\/p>\n

But she didn’t smile.<\/p>\n

Her eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n

“If I tell you, you might be angry at Mom. You might walk out and never come back.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

But she didn’t smile.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“Sophie, nothing you could say would make me do that.”<\/p>\n

She studied me for a long moment.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Mom cries at night. She says she did something terrible to you a long time ago.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

My blood ran cold.<\/p>\n

“That was between me and your mom. It won’t change how I feel about you.”<\/p>\n

“But my next wish is about Mom.” She looked up at me with fear in her eyes. “And you can’t refuse, even if she did something terrible to you. Please.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“She says she did something terrible to you a long time ago.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Something in the way she said it made my stomach tighten.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did she tell you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cNothing. But I know she’s scared that you’ll go away if you know the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I should have asked more questions.<\/p>\n

Instead, I looked at this little girl who had never asked me for anything bigger than pancakes and a car ride and made a promise I wasn\u2019t sure I could keep.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cWhat did she tell you?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI promise I won\u2019t refuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

She let out a shaky breath.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Then here’s my real wish. Can you be Mom’s wish granter too?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

I blinked, confused.<\/p>\n

“You want me to buy her something?”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cI promise I won\u2019t refuse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

She shook her head firmly.<\/p>\n

“No. Not that.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Everybody asks what I want. Doctors, nurses, you. Nobody helps Mom anymore.”<\/p>\n

“Sophie…”<\/p>\n

“She sleeps in that chair beside my bed. She only eats when I eat. She hasn’t seen her friends in months.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“No. Not that.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“She sold her guitar,” Sophie continued. “She used to play it every morning.”<\/p>\n

Sophie stopped to catch her breath.<\/p>\n

I reached automatically for the water beside her bed.<\/p>\n

She took two small sips before continuing, as determined to finish this conversation as if it mattered more than whatever her body was putting her through.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

It mattered more than whatever her body was putting her through.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

“She said we needed the money, but I know she just stopped being herself.”<\/p>\n

I didn’t say anything.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t.<\/p>\n

Then she reached under her pillow and pulled out a folded piece of paper.<\/p>\n

“I made a list,” she said. “Things Mommy used to like.”<\/p>\n

She handed it to me like it was something sacred.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“I made a list,”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I unfolded the paper expecting a list of things I could easily arrange.<\/p>\n

By the time I reached the last line, I understood why Sophie had made me promise not to refuse.<\/p>\n

The handwriting was small and careful.<\/p>\n

Dancing in the kitchen.<\/i><\/p>\n

Wearing lipstick.<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

I unfolded the paper expecting a list of things I could easily arrange.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Having coffee with a friend.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Laughing so hard she snorts.<\/i><\/p>\n

A picture Mom doesn’t take.<\/i><\/p>\n

Playing music again.<\/i><\/p>\n

None of it cost a thing.<\/p>\n

“Sophie,” I said quietly, “these are all so small.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

None of it cost a thing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“They’re not small to her. Daniel, everyone keeps waiting for me to get better. And I want to. But if I don’t…”<\/p>\n

“Don’t say that.”<\/p>\n

She gave me a tired little smile.<\/p>\n

“If I don’t,” she pressed on gently, “Mom will have nothing left. She’s forgotten how to be a person who isn’t just my mom.”<\/p>\n

I set the list down on the blanket, my hand not quite steady.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“She’s forgotten how to be a person who isn’t just my mom.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The words landed somewhere deep, in a place no wish had ever reached before.<\/p>\n

I swallowed hard.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Then I tucked the list into my pocket, close to my heart.<\/p>\n

“Okay,” I whispered. “I’ll try.”<\/p>\n

“You have to promise.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

I tucked the list into my pocket<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“I promise.”<\/p>\n

She finally smiled, and it broke something open in me.<\/p>\n

“But Daniel?” she added. “Don’t tell her I asked you. She’d be embarrassed.”<\/p>\n

I nodded.<\/p>\n

But I already knew keeping that secret would be the hardest part.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Don’t tell her I asked you.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Because the moment I started chasing coffee and lipstick and kitchen dancing, Rebecca was going to know exactly who had sent me.<\/p>\n

And I had no idea whether she’d thank me for it or slam the door in my face.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The next morning, I arrived at their house with two coffees and a small paper bag.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Sophie’s list sat in my pocket like a secret mission I had sworn to complete.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Rebecca was going to know exactly who had sent me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I lasted less than five minutes before Rebecca realized exactly what we had done.<\/p>\n

“What’s all this?” Rebecca asked, eyeing the bag as I stepped inside.<\/p>\n

“Coffee. The good kind, not the instant stuff you keep hiding in the cabinet.”<\/p>\n

She almost smiled.<\/p>\n

I pulled out my phone and played an old song, one Sophie swore her mother used to dance to while cooking.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

I lasted less than five minutes<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“Come on,” I said. “Dance with me in the kitchen.”<\/p>\n

Rebecca froze.<\/p>\n

The warmth drained from her face, replaced by something sharp.<\/p>\n

“Sophie put you up to this, didn’t she? God, that’s what that list under her pillow was about.”<\/p>\n

“Rebecca, listen to me\u2014”<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

“No.” Her voice cracked.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Sophie put you up to this, didn’t she?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“I don’t need your charity, Daniel. I don’t need you looking at my life like it’s broken.”<\/p>\n

I set the coffee down slowly.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“This isn’t charity. And it isn’t pity.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“Then what is it?” she snapped. “What am I to you, another wish to grant?”<\/p>\n

The words stung because\u00a0I still didn\u2019t know the answer.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“What am I to you, another wish to grant?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“Sophie told me nobody ever asks what you want anymore. Everyone asks about her. She feels like you gave up everything for her when she got sick.”<\/p>\n

Rebecca turned away, her hand pressed to her mouth.<\/p>\n

“I’m not here to fix you,” I said. “I’m here to remind you who you were before every single day became about being Sophie’s mother.”<\/p>\n

For a long moment, neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“I’m here to remind you who you were.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

“That’s not fair,” she finally murmured. “You can’t just walk back into my life and make me feel things I buried a long time ago.”<\/p>\n

Those words made my heart beat faster.<\/p>\n

“I’m not asking you to feel anything. I’m asking you to remember.”<\/p>\n

Her eyes snapped to mine.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Those words made my heart beat faster.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Her eyes were filled with guilt and longing.<\/p>\n

“Remember\u2026” she whispered.<\/p>\n

Then she shook her head.<\/p>\n

She wiped her eyes and looked at the coffee, then at me.<\/p>\n

“One song,” she said. “That’s it.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Her eyes were filled with guilt and longing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I wanted to ask her then why she’d left me all those years ago.<\/p>\n

But the guilt in her face stopped me.<\/p>\n

Whatever the answer was, Rebecca already believed it could destroy whatever was starting between us.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

***<\/p>\n

We danced badly.<\/p>\n

She laughed once, quietly, and it was the first real sound of joy I had heard from her since I’d walked back into her life.<\/p>\n

A few days later, I found the strangest item on Sophie’s list.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

I wanted to ask her then why she’d left me all those years ago.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“A picture Mom doesn’t take.”<\/p>\n

I didn’t understand it until I looked through the frames on their walls.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of photos of Sophie, but Rebecca was in almost none of them.<\/p>\n

“You’re always behind the camera,” I said that evening.<\/p>\n

She shrugged. “Someone has to be.”<\/p>\n

“Not tonight.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“A picture Mom doesn’t take.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

I set up in the living room.<\/p>\n

Rebecca protested the whole time.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“I look exhausted, Daniel. I haven’t slept properly in months.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

“You look like her mother,” I said. “That’s exactly what she wants to see.”<\/p>\n

\n

Sophie beamed, thinner than she\u2019d been even a few weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

We were checking things off her list, but none of us knew how much time we had to finish it.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Rebecca protested the whole time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Just as I raised the camera, she reached out and grabbed my sleeve.<\/p>\n

“No. You too, Daniel. Get in.”<\/p>\n

“Sophie, this is for you and your mom.”<\/p>\n

“You’re in our good days too,” she said simply.<\/p>\n

Rebecca stiffened.<\/p>\n

“Sophie, he doesn’t need to be in the picture.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“You’re in our good days too,”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“Yes, he does. You’re happy when he’s here. I’m not blind, Mom.”<\/p>\n

“Fine,” she whispered. “One picture.”<\/p>\n

I set the timer and hurried into the frame.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

When I looked at the screen afterward, my chest tightened in a way that had nothing to do with the foundation.<\/p>\n

We looked like a family.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“One picture.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Rebecca saw it too.<\/p>\n

I watched the wall she had built for twelve years develop a single, dangerous crack.<\/p>\n

Something had shifted between us, and we both felt it.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Sophie had tired earlier than usual that night.<\/p>\n

By eight, Rebecca had helped her upstairs, and I watched the easy smile she\u2019d worn for the photograph disappear the moment her daughter turned away.<\/p>\n

None of us said it, but Sophie’s good days were becoming more precious.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Something had shifted between us, and we both felt it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The house went quiet once Sophie’s breathing settled into sleep.<\/p>\n

Rebecca sank onto the couch.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

And I finally asked the question I had carried for twelve years.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“Why did you leave, Rebecca? Not one word. Not one letter. You just vanished.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

She would not look at me.<\/p>\n

“Because I didn’t deserve to stay.”<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

I finally asked the question I had carried for twelve years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“That’s not an answer.”<\/p>\n

“Daniel.” Her voice cracked. “I cheated on you. Once. Right before graduation. With a boy from school. He’s Sophie’s father.\u201d<\/p>\n

For twelve years, I\u2019d wondered what could have made Rebecca disappear without even saying goodbye.<\/p>\n

Now I knew that the girl who’d brought us back together was also the reason we’d broken apart.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

“That’s not an answer.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“I couldn’t face you,” she whispered. “I ruined everything we planned. So I ran. I thought disappearing was kinder than watching your heart break in front of me.”<\/p>\n

I sat there, the betrayal and the tenderness fighting inside my chest.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Sophie was upstairs fighting for a future none of us could take for granted, and somehow life had put Rebecca and me in the same room again.<\/p>\n

I could be angry about a mistake Rebecca made twelve years ago.<\/p>\n

But I didn’t want anger deciding what happened to the days we still had.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

But twelve years had passed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“You could have told me any of this a hundred times these past weeks.”<\/p>\n

“I know. But I never expected\u2026” she sighed heavily. “What does it matter now, Daniel? It’s not like you’ll be staying.”<\/p>\n

The words cut.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if I want to?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebecca looked up sharply.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cWhat if I want to?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

“Then I guess we have a lot of talking to do,” she said.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Six months later, Rebecca and I were taking things slowly.<\/p>\n

Sophie was doing better too.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Her doctors warned us not to get ahead of ourselves, but the treatment was working.<\/p>\n

And Rebecca had started playing her guitar again.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\n

The treatment was working.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

One Saturday, I found Sophie on the couch listening while Rebecca played guitar in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s happy.\u201d Sophie gave me a tired little grin. \u201cYou know, you’re pretty good at this wish thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

I laughed.<\/p>\n

“I think I’m the one who got my wish granted this time.”<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d granted wishes for sick children for years. Then one application stopped me cold: my high school sweetheart\u2019s 12-year-old daughter. Rebecca had vanished from my life without a word\u2014and when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metropolitantimeshock.pics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}