[ WP ] In this world , everyone gets one wish granted a year

It was his birthday again, and she knew what was coming. Each of the last three years, she tried to tell herself that this year would be different, that this year the boy would be old enough to understand. That sure, you can wish people back together, but it does n't mean they'll be happy, it does n't make problems go away. That he would understand that after a month or two it would be unbearable for her to go on, that the abuse would get bad enough to overcome her guilt and she'd use her own wish to undo it. 
 
 But he would do it again, she could see it in his eyes. The steely resolve every time he got back from a weekend with his father, devastated from having to say goodbye to the bastard again. He wanted his daddy in his life all the time, and would n't use up that fucking wish on anything else. 
 
 She knew the party would n't work, but she had to try anyway. When he got back from his father's the week before, she sat him down, wiping away his tears. 
 
 `` Did you tell him about the party next week?'' 
 
 He nodded slowly, head low and arms crossed. 
 
 `` And did he say he would come?'' 
 
 The same gesture, like always, the same indefatigable hope, the undeserved trust in the one who disappointed him over and over. She put him to bed and started working on the invites to his friends' parents. 
 
 The party came and went, the presents and the silly hats and the football game on the lawn, and then the time for everyone to go home, and with it the tears, as it sinks in to his little heart that his dad could n't be bothered to show up to his only son's birthday party. Just as she expected. 
 
 She tries to comfort him as always and as always he turns away, projecting his anger on to her, the only one there to take it. He runs to his room and slams the door. This time she does n't even bother knocking. Maybe the anger will find its true target, and he'll wish for something more reasonable. 
 
 But probably not. 
 
 She puts her hand on the boy's door for a moment, then turns to ready herself for bed. She lies in bed awake for a long time, knowing that when she wakes up she will be sharing it once again with that awful man. 

