Addison's Odd Wish
by Lodylodylody
******'******
Addison leaned against the railing and looked out over the dark sea. On a ship as large as the S.S. Tipton there was no way for her to see her tears impact in the waters so far below.
Why me? she thought as the tears continued to fall. Why doesn't anything ever work out for me? Stupid Woody. Stupid Janice!
While she had some anger in her heart at both of those individuals, the greater portion was definitely directed towards the latter. The striking young British girl seemed to have everything: poise, grace, beauty…and a successful modeling career that was taking off while she was still a teen.
So with all that…why did the girl have to come back to the ship, on a private helicopter no less, just to lay claim to Woody as well?
Of course, it's not like Addison had ever laid a strong claim on Woody. They had played at dating a bit…but nothing serious. So nobody could accuse Janice of stealing the boy away. Still, this didn't make Addison feel any better. Unlike the young model, Addison didn't consider herself a great beauty. And she wasn't that great at talking to boys either. No…Woody was probably the best she ever could have done for herself…and now he was no longer an option.
The girl wasn't aware how long she stood at the railing alone feeling sorry for herself. Eventually though her solitary sadness was ended by the arrival of an unexpected friend.
"Addison, have you…?" Zack Martin began before seeing her red eyes and tear stained cheeks. He quickly put aside whatever query he'd had for her and instead turned his focus to her emotional distress. He proved a good listener. Addison was grateful to be able to vent about her feelings. After she'd had her say Zack even provided some friendly advice.
"Try not to think about Woody or Janice. You know what they say, there are plenty of fish in the sea."
"Yeah, but only the pretty girls catch them," she replied.
"Oh, come on." Zack gave her a winning smile. "You're pretty."
The twinkle in his eye almost made Addison smile. He seemed sincere. But even if he were, it did her no good. Zack was totally devoted to his new girlfriend Maya. Addison had no chance with him. She had no chance with any hot guys.
"Odds are I'll be an old maid," she said sadly. "Living alone with a dozen cats."
"Odds shmodds," Zack said dismissively.
"No, seriously," she insisted. "The odds of me finding a boyfriend are a thousand to one. A million to one."
Zack raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Remember when I did that report in class about Las Vegas?"
"When you dropped the paying cards everywhere? Yeah, I remember."
"Well, I actually did learn a thing or two about gambling back then. Take poker for instance. You know much about the game?"
She did not, so Zack took some time explaining about different hands and which combinations of cards were the most desirable, concentrating at length about the desirability of a straight flush.
"Now, guess what the odds are of a being dealt a straight flush are?" he asked.
"One in a thousand?" she guessed. "One in a million?"
His smile grew wider. "I have no idea of the numbers, but that doesn't matter."
She looked at him in confusion.
"You see Addison, the odds of being dealt a straight flush…are EXACTLY the same as being dealt every other possible combination of cards."
She pondered this for a moment. "Wow, that's weird. I never thought of it that way…but that's true."
Zack nodded. "I read about this one famous gambler that said odds are meaningless. He said that everything in life can be boiled down to one rule: either something happens…or it doesn't." He paused. "So really, you could say that everything in life has a fifty-fifty chance. Heads or tails…yes or no…it happens, or it doesn't."
"I think that's oversimplifying things."
"Maybe it is," Zack offered. "Or maybe it isn't. But think about it like this Addison. Every second of every day you have a shot of something good happening to you. Maybe it will…maybe it won't…but you've got a fifty-fifty shot. Even if your luck totally stinks…you're still going to come out a winner sometimes. So don't go thinking you're never going to find the right guy."
"Because I've always got a fifty-fifty shot?"
"Exactly."
While not entirely convinced of this, Addison did appreciate Zack distracting her from her sadness. She thanked him before he went on his way to find Maya. Addison stayed out on the deck only a few minutes more…but now she looked up towards the stars instead of down at the water.
I wish things were that simple, she thought. That everything in life came down to a coin toss…fifty-fifty.
She thought this and then lowered her gaze as she turned to return to her cabin. If she'd have been just a fraction of a second slower in doing so, she wouldn't have missed the dozens of shooting stars streaking across the night sky.
******'******
Addison was almost late for breakfast the next day. This annoyed her, because it was only the students that got to the cafeteria early that had a chance at snagging the blueberry pancakes. Addison loved those.
But, much to her shock, as she picked up her tray and began looking through what food choices were still available one of the kitchen workers arrived with a tray full of fresh pancakes and sat them down right in front of Addison. There were plenty of the blueberry variety for her to choose from.
Another late arriving classmate who was in line behind Addison voiced her happiness at their good fortune. "Awesome! It's like they had this batch just for us."
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting this," Addison replied.
"I know," the other girl said. "I'd have laid odds that we'd be stuck with cold cereal."
Hmm, thought Addison. Odds.
Yes, that simple choice of words had taken her mind back to the conversation with Zack. A bit of lighthearted musing on the idea that anything and everything Addison wanted had a fair chance of happening. Life could be so much fun if only things worked that way.
Addison decided, just for a laugh, that she'd approach everything that happened that day as if the odds were fifty-fifty. She wondered how long she could maintain that affectation before reality set in.
But she soon learned that reality was strangely cooperative.
******'******
The quiz was cancelled.
No homework was assigned.
There was no line in the rec room for the pool table when Addison arrived…usually there was always a wait when she got there.
It seemed everything was going her way. And why shouldn't it? She had a one in two chance of always getting what she wanted, didn't she?
But when Holden came up to her after she finished her last game of pool…when he asked her if she'd like to hang out with him later that night on the sky deck…that was when Addison began to think that her little game of pretend might be more than just a game.
Were the odds really stacked in her favor?
She tried to think of something truly unlikely happening. Perhaps London would suddenly walk up to her and give her some priceless diamonds. Now that would PROVE something magical was going on.
"Hey, Addison," the young heiress called out a moment later as she flounced into the room. "I was going to throw last season's jewelry overboard…but I'm too tired to carry this all the way to the guard rail." She pushed a decent sized box filled with gold, silver, and assorted gemstones into Addison's hands. "You take them, okay?"
"To throw them overboard for you?" the stunned girl asked.
London shrugged. "Do whatever you want with them. I just want them off my hands." She smiled excitedly. "Now I'm going to go shopping for some new jewelry. Yay me!"
******'******
It was from that point onward that Addison decided she was queen of the world.
Everything she wanted…every whim…all she had to do was think about it to make it happen…well, sort of. She only had a fifty-fifty chance of getting her way…but it seemed to her that things were working out for her more often than not. And besides…if something she wanted didn't happen instantly…she just had to think about it again and again and before too long the 'coin toss' would go in her favor.
Certainly, that seemed to work out when Holden asked her out for a second date.
Yes, the next few days were quite enjoyable for Addison. Schoolwork was light…meals featured her favorite foods…a hot guy was pursuing her ardently (and she was more than happy to let him catch her).
It wasn't until the fourth day when she realized that her 'new power' had a more dangerous side.
******'******
Janice was leaning against the ship's railing and striking some fashionable poses. With her long blond hair blowing in the wind, sparkling eyes and beaming smile, it was easy to see why her modeling career was taking off. A number of young men were watching her playful poses and snapping pictures.
The English beauty was enjoying the attention but her warmest smiles were directed towards her unlikely boyfriend, Woody.
The whole scene annoyed Addison greatly.
While it was true that she felt she'd 'traded up' now that she had Holden, the fact that Woody had lost all interest in her in favor of the willowy blonde girl was still a source of irritation to Addison.
Look at her…making a spectacle of herself in front of all those guys, she thought as she glared over towards Janice. What an egomaniac. She's lucky the railing doesn't collapse from the weight of her big head.
Less than an instant later the guard rail snapped like a twig and Janice screamed as she tumbled backwards.
It was something of a miracle that tragedy was averted. Janice's leg caught in the bottom of the broken railing…and Mr. Moseby, passing by at just the right time, had exhibited catlike reflexes as he'd leapt to grab hold of the girl before she could plunge to her doom. All onlookers had let out gasps of shock and then sighs of relief followed by gratified cheers for the hero of the hour.
All onlookers except for Addison. The only thing she could do was rush to her cabin to prevent anyone from seeing the expression of horror on her face.
******'******
It had taken no time at all for the gravity of the situation to overwhelm Addison. She'd already given so much thought to the way her 'powers' worked in a positive context that she could easily grasp the negative side.
Anything she imagined…ANYTHING…had a fifty-fifty chance of happening.
For things she wanted to happen…if they didn't happen immediately she could keep concentrating on them until they did occur.
But for things she didn't want to happen, things she'd never wish on anyone, if those notions crossed her mind for even a second…there was a one in two chance of them coming to pass.
Disaster was just a coin toss away.
She tried to think of nothing but nice things, but human nature wouldn't allow this. Naturally the more she tried to avoid thinking about certain things, the more they popped up in her mind. A twisted and frightening game of 'what-if?'…with consequences that could be all too real.
She feigned sickness for as long as she could to avoid leaving her cabin.
******'******
The day she'd finally returned to class, things had gone as well as could be expected. She was miserable and trying to zone out as much as possible, which would no doubt hurt her grades…but at least she'd kept from thinking about anything dangerous.
And then science class had started.
Cody and Bailey were doing oral reports on theories of the origins of the universe. Though Addison wasn't big on science, she couldn't help but become engaged in the duo's presentation. It was an odd dynamic between the two. Cody and Bailey had always been competitive with one another, and this had only intensified since the romance between them had ended. But in this particular instance, both of them were very much in agreement on the subject matter. So instead of debating one another, they poured their energy into trying to communicate as clearly as possible to the rest of the class. The result of their cooperation had captured the class's interest rather handily.
"The thing that most people don't understand about the 'Big Bang' is that they misunderstand what it implies," Cody explained. "Before the creation of the universe….there was nothing."
"People tend to think of that 'nothing' as a big empty infinite space," Bailey continued. "Like an infinite sea of darkness. But that's NOT nothing. An infinite blackness, as empty as it might be, is still something."
A student named Sasha, who was more than a bit outspoken about her religion, began trying to bring Creationist theories into the discussion but Cody and Bailey presented a united front in refuting her arguments.
"We're not talking about religion here," Bailey insisted. "I go to church and I know what I believe…but this is about science and not belief. And scientifically speaking, you do not need any guiding force or entity to cause the universe to spring into existence."
"You see, before the 'Big Bang', time didn't exist," Cody went on. "So it wasn't a matter of waiting a million years or a billion years or a billion-billion years for the universe to spring into existence…there was an infinite amount of opportunity for it to happen. If somebody had been there to observe it, it might have taken more time than we could possibly imagine…but that's the thing…there was no time."
"The odds of the entire universe just 'happening' spontaneously without any cause may seem to be astronomically small," Bailey said. "But remember, there was no time limit for it to happen…and it only had to happen ONCE."
"I've read comic books that make more sense," Zack commented sarcastically.
"It might seem crazy to you," Cody admonished his twin, "but this is the theory held by many of the world's leading scientists."
Addison had gotten nervous for a moment when the subject of 'odds' had been broached…but she saw nothing to worry greatly about. The origin of the universe seemed distant and remote enough that it could be thought about without risking peril.
"So everything in the whole universe just appeared one day?" London asked in a puzzled tone. "Could it just disappear too?"
"Well…theoretically something worse than that could happen," Bailey answered. "There's an idea called 'Bubble Nucleation' which basically says that if the 'Big Bang' happened spontaneously with no cause…another one could happen even though there's already a whole universe full of matter already in existence."
"If that were to happen, everything in our universe, including all of us, would basically be ripped apart atom by atom," Cody said dramatically.
"But it's nothing to get too worried about," Bailey was quick to add. "The odds of that happening are estimated to be-"
"NO!" Addison screamed as she leapt from her seat and charged towards the other girl. "Don't tell me the odds! Don't tell me!"
And then Addison heard nothing else…for the universe ended.
Or…at least hers did.
Four months later…
"So what's the deal with that kid in room 74?" Tom asked.
Riley shook his head. "What did I tell you last week when you started? Asking questions here is just a way to get nightmares."
"If I was afraid of nightmares I wouldn't have taken a job in a mental institution in the first place," the younger man answered. "I just want to know about the kind in 74. She's so young."
"Yeah, it's pretty sad," Riley replied. "No history of anything abnormal, except for an aversion to ping pong balls…pretty harmless. Then one day she attacks and kills a classmate."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, she grabbed a compass off a desk, one of those drafting compasses they use to draw circles in geometry, stabbed another kid right through in the chest with it."
"Any idea why?"
"Nope. The way I heard it, the kid that died wasn't even who she was after. She was charging at another girl and that girl's boyfriend tried to get between them. Got himself dead for his efforts."
"Wow. That's terrible."
"Yeah," Riley went on. "Anyway, number 74 went catatonic right away…and she's been that way ever since. No response to anyone. Just mumbles to herself constantly whenever she's awake."
"It's disturbing," Tom said. "Does she always repeat the same words like that?"
"Yep. Over and over," Riley answered. "All she says is: don't tell me the odds…don't tell me the odds."
The End
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