Ficorpio
Chapter 1
At five that afternoon, my daughter came home from kindergarten and pulled a wooden wand covered in strange symbols from her backpack.
“Look, Mom! The teacher gave everyone in class a Wish Talisman. She said we have to burn it tonight and make a wish!”
“Why would your kindergarten hand out something like this?”
Even so, I helped her burn it.
At three in the morning, I jolted awake to a noise in the living room.
I slipped on my shoes and went to investigate. Lily stood there without a trace of expression on her face. A white ritual plate sat on the floor in front of her.
The moment I saw what was on it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Lily… what exactly did you wish for?”
The next morning, I took Lily to kindergarten.
We had barely reached the entrance when we heard chaos erupting inside.
“What the hell did your kindergarten give our kids? My son wished his mother would bake him all the cake he could eat. My wife stayed up all night baking until she broke both hands. Even during her CT scan this morning, she wouldn’t let go of the mixer!”
“Exactly! My daughter wished her grandmother’s back would be straight again. Now the poor woman’s spine is stiffer than a steel plate. She couldn’t lie down, so she spent the entire night standing beside my bed!”
Nearby, two mothers were arguing.
“Your son ought to be ashamed of himself! What kind of spell did he put on my Nora?”
Nora, normally the quietest girl in the class, had wrapped herself around a boy and was kissing him over and over. The boy looked as though he was enjoying every second of it.
Rachel Morgan, their homeroom teacher, finally raised her voice over the uproar.
“Everyone, please calm down! The Wish Talismans did not come from the kindergarten. Yesterday afternoon, someone posing as a substitute teacher entered the classroom and gave one to every child. The authorities are investigating.
“The entire kindergarten will be closed today, so please take your children home. I promise these abnormal effects are temporary. Everything will be resolved very soon.”
The parents continued talking over one another as they gradually led their children away.
Claire Hayes hurriedly tore Nora away from the boy. As she passed the entrance, she spotted Lily and me.
“Wait. Nothing happened to Lily? She didn’t make a wish?”
I gave her an awkward smile.
“No. She didn’t.”
When Lily and I reached home, I was about to take out my key when the door opened by itself.
A man wearing gray loungewear stood on the other side, smiling at my daughter and me.
He was my husband, Marcus Carter.
And this was what Lily’s Wish Talisman had brought back.
Last night, at three in the morning.
“Lily… what did you wish for?”
She didn’t answer me.
Instead, she slowly raised her hand and pointed behind me.
“Lily, what are you pointing at?” I asked, panic rising in my voice.
Then I caught the faint, familiar smell of tobacco.
Lily’s usual expression suddenly returned. She smiled at whatever stood behind me.
“Dad, you’re home.”
Chapter 2
A pair of arms slid around my waist from behind.
My legs gave out beneath me. I collapsed in terror, only to be caught securely by those arms.
——
A year and a half earlier.
My husband, Marcus Carter, had gone diving alone at a remote site called Dunton Sinkhole when an accident occurred.
The rescue team searched for him day and night for an entire week, but they never found him. In the end, the authorities could only classify him as missing.
After that, it was just Lily and me, clinging to each other and trying to survive. With our only source of income gone, I worked during the day and ran a stall at the night market in the evenings. Raising Lily alone, I pushed myself until I barely felt human anymore.
Lily must have seen how hard I was struggling.
That had to be why she made a wish—to bring her dad back.
But last night, when Lily stood in the living room, why was there Red Double-Happiness Paper pasted across the wall behind her?
And what was the thing sitting on the White Ritual Plate in front of her?
What did any of it mean?
The next few days were so happy they felt unreal.
Marcus kept the house running like clockwork.
Every morning at seven, he carried steaming noodles and eggs sizzling in their oil into the bedroom and gently called us awake.
Lily’s backpack was always packed and waiting neatly by the door.
While we were out during the day, he cleaned every corner of the house. By the time I picked Lily up after work and brought her home, the table was already covered with delicious food.
In the evenings, he made me rest while he patiently read picture books with Lily and helped her put together her toys.
I watched them from the side, feeling happy.
But more than happiness, I felt afraid.
I didn’t dare think about it or ask questions. I didn’t even dare look at him for too long.
I was terrified that if I asked one question too many, this dream would shatter.
Even if he was a ghost, a hallucination, or an illusion conjured by the Wish Talisman—
I prayed to heaven that, even if this happiness was short-lived, it could last one more day.
Just one more day.
But that night, I had a nightmare.
Once again, I dreamed of that night—the living room at three in the morning.
Lily was still standing there.
The Red Double-Happiness Paper on the wall had turned so dark a red it looked black, as if blood were seeping through it.
I slowly moved closer, and once again, I saw what was inside the White Ritual Plate.
It was a mass of black, grotesque, still-wet cement.
I jolted awake, drenched in sweat. My clothes were soaked through.
Beside me, Marcus was sleeping deeply. I could hear his faint snoring.
I quietly slipped out of bed and went to Lily’s room.
Chapter 3
She was sleeping on her side, completely unaware.
I crouched beside her and gently shook her awake.
“Lily, wake up.”
She opened her eyes blearily.
“Tell Mommy the truth,” I whispered. “The wish you made with the Wish Talisman… Did you wish for Dad to come back?”
Lily looked at me and slowly shook her head.
“Mommy, I can’t tell you.”
“If I do, the wish won’t come true.”
I wanted to question her again, but she turned over and faced away from me.
The following night, I had the exact same dream…
The white wall.
The Red Double-Happiness Paper.
The plate.
The cement.
This time, my sudden awakening disturbed Marcus, too.
He reached over and stroked my hair.
“Bad dream?”
I turned around and held him tightly.
His body was cold, but I could hear his heartbeat.
Clinging to him, I began to cry. At last, I couldn’t hold the question back any longer.
“Marcus, how did you get out of that skylight?
“Why did you suddenly appear at home in the middle of the night?
“Why did it take you so long to come back?”
He was silent for a while before finally telling me what had happened.
“That night, when I was diving at Nine-Ton Skylight, I ran into an undercurrent at a fork on the way back. I took the wrong passage by mistake and ended up in an air pocket no one had ever discovered.
“I was trapped in there for who knows how long. Eventually, I passed out from lack of oxygen.
“When I woke up, I was lying on the shore. Maybe it was because my brain had been deprived of oxygen for so long, but my memory was damaged. I couldn’t remember anything.
“I had no identification on me, so I wandered from place to place, taking under-the-table jobs at construction sites just to earn enough to eat.
“Then, a few nights ago, I was walking along the road in the middle of the night when I suddenly collapsed.
“In my dream, all my memories came back.
“After I woke up, I found my way here by following what I remembered and used my key to open the door.”
When he finished, he took something from his jacket pocket and placed it in my palm.
It was his old brass house key.
“I kept this key in the pocket closest to my body. For the past year and a half, whenever I felt I couldn’t go on, I would take it out and look at it. I kept thinking that one day my memories would return and I would come home.
“And now I finally have. I’m back with you and Lily.”
So that was what had happened.
He hadn’t come back from the dead. He had only lost his memory!
The Wish Talisman hadn’t summoned a ghost. It had simply helped him recover his memories and find his way home!
He was real. All of it was real!
I threw my arms around him and wept with joy.
The next afternoon, I received a call from Lily’s kindergarten.