Disclaimer: Boondocks is owned by Aaron McGruder and Sony Pictures Digital Inc. All the copyrights associated with Boondocks belong to them. Only the ideas contained within this story are the property of the author. No profit is being earned by the writer of this story.
Chapter One: The Wish
"There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.
The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
1 John 4:18
. . .
Jazmine Dubois wished she could stay in bed, just ten seconds longer to enjoy her dream filled with cute puppies, flying ponies, and delicious cookies, pies and cakes that smelled and tasted so good. Okay, maybe another hour would be more like it. The point is: she wanted more sleep. She hoped her eyelids could remain closed, her body could remain protected and kept warm by her soft, pink comforter that made her feel like she could sleep forever. But her mommy's voice accompanied by firm hands rubbing her shoulder couldn't be ignored for long.
Everything that happened that morning was a big blur. Her mommy rushed her through everything. They made her quickly but carefully brush her teeth, take her shower, change into multiple layers of clothing except her undergarments, embarrassingly walking around like a drunken astronaut on the moon to the kitchen table to eat only a few bites of pancakes and turkey bacon and a swallow of orange juice before she had to make it outside or else she would miss the bus.
Jazmine stood at the corner of Timid Deer Lane many houses down from the Freemans, waiting for the school bus to hastily snatch her away from the freezing cold wind that nipped at her neck, the thin ice under her boots, the frozen snow showing no mercy as it rained down upon her. Her eyes and nose burned with numbness so great they felt like they were about to fall off. She grumbled, unable to wipe her face because of the thick gloves that engulfed her hands, and there was no way she would take them off in this cold weather. She hugged herself and squeezed tight, her teeth chattering, her lips trembling, her giant, purple coat making noises comparable to a carpenter sawing wood. The wind whistling through the air and the trees hit her like a freezing cold hand slapping across her face. Jazmine grimaced through the shrill, acute pain until the wind died down. She felt like she was trapped in a human shaped box, her clothes covering her body so well that if it wasn't for her two large peach colored puffs of hair, no one could identify her. Through the small window of vision allowed by her eyes that were almost covered completely by her hood and the part of her jacket that concealed her chin, made even more tight by the brown scarf her mother wrapped around her neck, she finally spotted the bright, large, yellow school bus that carefully maneuvered through the thick patches of snow on the pavement with its almost blindingly white lights piercing through the light fog. The whirring motor grew louder as it approached until it felt like it was directly in front of her ears and came to a complete, hissing stop. The bus's twin doors parted ways, the upbeat country music from the speakers in the cabin making things more uneasy for the young girl. Jazmine shuddered as she observed the burly driver's old, eerie smile that was completely the opposite of his bushy eyebrows furrowed together, his right eye much larger than the other. It wasn't that she had never seen him before. Something just didn't seem altogether, almost like a glow appeared around him, but she pushed that thought to the back of her mind.
"Why hello there, lil' half and half," he said with a small smile. "I've been expecting you. Come on in."
Jazmine hesitated at first, but eventually climbed up the steps. She looked behind over her shoulder as the doors slammed shut, causing her to let out a gasp, completely off guard. Walking down the aisle, she couldn't believe what she saw. The bus was completely empty, except for her and Uncle Ruckus. She took the seat behind him with her Hannah Montana lunch box in her lap and her matching Hannah Montana backpack in the nearby seat. She placed her hands on top, clasped together, watching her breath form puffy smoke that floated in the air until it disappeared like magic.
"You'll enjoy your ride this morning. Know why?" Ruckus asked, looking at her in the rear view mirror. He pulled the bus away from the curb with a rickety start and began to travel up the street. "Cause I ain't have to pick up no niggas," he said. He laughed. "Guess they got into a rap beef and shot each other."
Jazmine sighed, her head in her hands, ignoring Ruckus's usual racist remarks, glad she was able to discern them at ten years old which was necessary since he was the only grade school bus driver in Woodcrest. The eerie whistling of the wind returned, banging on her temples like a hammer. The steel guitar and southern twang of the singing from the music was starting to get on her nerves, but what could she do?
Jazmine ignored the rumbling of the bus engine as best as she could and put her head in her hands, trapped in her thoughts until a light bulb suddenly went off in her head. Her head snapped to the right, finding no one occupied any seats. Looking behind her gave her the same results: no one, not even in the very back. She let out a low "hmmm" and scratched her chin.
Where was Huey? How come he wasn't here? What about Riley, who had to be dragged along with him or else get punished by Mr. Freeman? What happened to him? And where was Cindy? The four kids routinely met at the bus stop, but this time, Jazmine was alone. How silly was she to gloss over that detail like it meant nothing!
Jazmine forced a glob of saliva down her throat. She peeked at Uncle Ruckus's beaming face in the rear view mirror. Unable to fix her eyes on his face, she looked back down at her lunch box. "Where is everybody? How come I'm the only one here?"
Jazmine coughed, embarrassed by how weak, nervous and raspy her voice sounded, still trying to wake up from her interrupted sleep. Uncle Ruckus kept his eyes on the road, a signal that he either ignored her or chose not to answer, or his ears just didn't catch what she said. Jazmine exhaled, tapping her fingers on Hannah Montana's smiling face, her lunch box providing a place to exert her nervousness. She figured it was useless to ask where Huey, Riley and Cindy were, especially because the school was only a few minutes away.
A block up the street, she could spot the J. Edgar Hoover Elementary School buildings. Maybe Huey, Riley and Cindy were already there? Maybe she missed the bus like she thought? But that couldn't be, because this was the only bus available to take kids to school on time. No kid in their right mind would take the bus an hour early. How foolish! Besides a breakfast meal they gave you, you still had to wait forever until you were allowed to go to your classroom, so going early was out of the question.
Jazmine looked up as the bus made a sharp left turn instead of its usual right to head to the school's drop off zone. She watched the school fade farther in the background. First it was two blocks away. Then it became three, four and then five.
"Wait, school is back that way," Jazmine pointed behind her. "Where are we going?"
Uncle Ruckus took off his hat and nodded. The bus came to a halt at the four way stop. Even the music stopped. "Somewhere you wished to go."
Jazmine stared at him, mouth hanging slightly open, her eyes dilated. Uncle Ruckus's voice sounded so calm, but also so dark and so eerie. "Wh—what?" she asked, completely astonished by his answer. "I want to go to school," she said. "Not where you're taking me."
Uncle Ruckus chuckled at first, holding his stomach. His laughs grew louder and more intense. He doubled over so far he almost smashed his face into the steering wheel as he let out a few snorts between his laughs. A few moments went by before he finally stopped, taking a moment to catch his breath and exhale a deep breath. "Oh my, that was a good one," he said. "Listen lil' half and half, you can't change your mind now," he checked both ways before he moved across the street and into the residential area. "Once a wish is made, it can't be broken."
Jazmine watched the houses lining the streets whiz by, unable to grasp what Uncle Ruckus meant. "Wh – what wish?"
"The wish you made last night after you ate dinner," he said. "I believe it was 7:25 pm. You was watchin' one of them girly lil' cartoons you love, cryin' your poor lil' eyes out about what happened to your parents."
Jazmine shuddered at that word. Parents. She shook her head, wishing she could block the thoughts out about her mommy and daddy getting into their usual argument after dinner. But this time, things went too far. She remembered how devastated she felt when she watched her daddy take her mommy's yelling directly in his face, followed by a hard slap on his cheek, saying something about a lady she caught him with at the office. Her heart crumbled as she watched her daddy leave the house, carrying a large bag full of stuff and the melancholy look on his face as he stared deeply into Jazmine's eyes before he walked out the front door.
"And now, lil' girl, your wish will be granted."
Jazmine snapped out of her memories and returned to the real world, or what she tried to believe was the real world. There was no way he could know about what she wished for.
The wish.
Something gnawed at her stomach, unable to come to grips with what was going on. She wished for plenty of things and they didn't come true. Santa only returned on Christmas, and that was almost a month ago. It couldn't be the Great Santa playing a trick on her, could it? But Santa wouldn't do that. She remembered He was all loving, all caring and would forgive your sins because you loved and cared for Him and trusted Him.
The wish.
Maybe Santa would understand. Maybe He could forgive her for acting so foolish. Her body trembled uncontrollably, not only from the deep cold, but from remembering her wish. It was the only one she made that night. But she didn't really mean to wish for what she asked for. It was only out of anger, out of fear, out of total helplessness of being trapped in a situation completely out of her control and she found no other way to express those feelings. She stared at Uncle Ruckus one more time, and gasped at the sight of glowing, white wings that protruded from the back of his coat, folded comfortably as he leaned back in his seat and hummed a little tune. She now figured it out. Things were starting to make sense.
"Oh my Santa!"
She screamed as the bus tilted backward and she started to feel the weightlessness feeling she had whenever she rode an airplane with her parents. Jazmine bolted up from her seat, her lunch box falling from her lap onto the floor. She lost footing and fell backward, thankful that she hit the seat and not the floor. Jazmine turned to her left and looked out the window, scared and amazed at the same time as she looked down on Woodcrest, a large block of identical homes. It was only seconds before she swore she saw the entire United States, and soon, the entire Earth surrounded by blackness, like a large marker colored everything around it, and made white dots to mark the stars.
Uncle Ruckus stopped his humming and nodded, as if he were able to read Jazmine's thoughts. "We'll be there in one more minute."
Jazmine sniffed and bowed her head, trying to conceal the tears flowing from her face. The fact her wish was coming true hit her like a ton of bricks. It was happening and she couldn't do a thing about it. She leaned back in her seat, folding her hands, mouthing prayers she heard in Sunday School, trying anything to make Uncle Ruckus, or whoever it really was in the driver's seat, turn them around and go back to her school. But she knew there was no turning back now.
Once you die and you're on the one-way trip to Heaven, you never come back.