Patreon Preview - Return to the Well (Patreon)

(Had hoped to be posting a full story, but not quite done yet so enjoy this preview!)

After all of the stress from the last nine months, Peyton and Addison just wanted to take a break from life as a whole. After the last appointment had been disappointing, they booked the trip they had been putting off during the IVF treatments. That was a week ago.

Now, they were staying at a cute little bed and breakfast in the Irish country. The proprietors were a kindly old woman and her husband, who seemed to spend most of his time keeping the grounds maintained.  Agnes was her name and she sat with them at breakfast the first morning.

They asked if there were any local sights to go enjoy. She mentioned a few things and then, after a moment, seemed to remember a story about a well nearby that apparently granted wishes. 

From how she spoke in a whisper about it, they had a feeling there was more to the story. When pressed however, she would only say that too many wishes would result in a situation completely different than what might have been intended. Sure that she was just being cryptic to pique their interest, the couple made a bee-line for the well. 

It was on a hill a few miles from the house. Its squat stone body was well maintained. The crank and frame were a polished, light colored wood. Peyton was pretty sure he knew what Addison was going to wish for, but was at a loss for what he wanted.

“I’m still not sure I believe this actually works,” Addison said, standing next to the well and peering down into its depths. “Can’t hurt to try, right?”

He agreed and then thought of a wish. Knowing that the well had granted their wishes seemed like a reasonable thing. “Mind if I throw first, Ads?”

“Sure, I’m still trying to figure out how to phrase mine.”

Peyton pitched a single quarter into the well and thought hard about knowing that the well worked. The coin’s decent ended with a plop after a couple seconds. He did not feel any different, though he supposed that nothing else had happened yet for him to know about it.

“Okay, here goes!” Addison tossed a couple of coins down. As they sailed through the air, he could see something glimmering around them. When coins hit the water, the resulting ripples glowed green. The glow grew brighter as the waves crashed into each other until the water was so bright he had to look away.

Turning to Addison, he expected to see something around her middle changing, the wish fixing whatever issue was preventing them from conceiving. She glanced back, the expression on her pointed face one he had seen many times. That small smile even as she looked down and away from the dread. She had given so many doctors that expression. The ones who told her to gain some weight because she was too thin to bear children. The ones who implied there was something amiss with her genetics. The ones who said he might the issue.

As he kept watching, something about her was slowly becoming different. It felt like she had stepped onto an escalator as she rose up in his view. Had she just gotten taller? They had always been a few inches apart, but now it seemed like he was looking right into her eyes the way he could when she wore those four-inch heels.