Day 3 – Wish

It was the night of the Fire Festival on Fry-Pan Mountain, as it was every year. All the residents of the mountain gathered in a festival filled with food, music, games, and activities. It was a time to celebrate the sacred flames and the riches of the kingdom provided by mother nature.

As usual, Chichi attended like every year. After she married Goku, he also began to accompany her to these festivals, and even though he was gone, Chichi didn't stop attending. After all, even though she had given up her title of princess, she was still the daughter of Ox King, and a much loved and respected person among the mountain dwellers.

She arrived together with Goten and Gohan, who from afar could already observe the colorful lights of the festival. They were excited about the night, because not only could they eat lots of goodies, but they also had many attractions and toys to enjoy, such as a ferris wheel, carousel, bumper car, shooting game and so on... In other words, it was a full plate for two energetic half-sayan boys.

Of course she couldn't hold them back for long, so after greeting their grandfather, the two boys ran straight to the first food booth. Chichi had already passed on all the directions and rules, and she trusted Gohan not only to follow the instructions, but also to take care of Goten. Her youngest was growing up very fast, but he was a good boy and didn't usually cause trouble.

After a while, they returned to the table where she was, together with her father and some of his friends.

"Look mommy!" smiling, Goten shouted as he approached, carrying several toys he had won in different games. "Look what I got!"

"Wow!" Chichi widened her eyes in surprise.

The smaller boy put all the toys on the table and continued:

"This one I won in shooting game... This one I won in the strength test... This one I won in the balloon and dart..." he kept saying and showing one by one. There was a toy robot, a stuffed dog, and a rubber dragon.

"Very good, sweetie, congratulations!" she stroked the top of his head, shaking his unruly hair. "And how about you, what did you get?" she looked at Gohan.

"Oh, I got 500-piece jigsaw puzzles." he held out the box with the picture of a beautiful landscape. "I had to hold Goten back because if it were up to him, he would finish all the prizes in the booths." Gohan laughed. Unlike his brother, he only played one of the games and opted for a more interesting prize, although he probably would finish the puzzle within an hour or two.

"Congratulations!" Chichi praised.

"Mommy, can we ride that one?" Goten pointed to the illuminated ferris wheel. Every year he wanted to go, but Chichi never let him, always saying he was too small to ride on it.

"Hmmmm..." she pondered for a moment, not sure if it was a good idea to let her 4-year-old son ride on a toy like that, but at the same time, he was a sayan and Gohan would go with him, he wouldn't let anything bad happen. "Okay, you can go. But be careful!" she warned.

"Why don't you go with them?" suggested Ox King before the boys left.

"What? Me?" she turned to face her father with a frown.

"Yeah, of course! You always used to ride it with Goku and Gohan. Isn't that right, Gohan? Do you remember?"

Gohan smiled sideways and shook his head affirmatively. A hint of sadness, however, crossed his heart as he remembered those outings with his father.

"Yes, I remember, Grandpa. Mom used to love riding on the Ferris wheel!"

"Ahhh, mommy, come on, let's go!"

"Oh, but I'm too old for these things..."

"What nonsense!" Ox King patted her on the back. "Since when are you old enough to have fun?! Go on, enjoy the ride with your kids!"

"Come on mom, please, please! I want to ride it with you!" Goten exclaimed. He had wanted to ride it before, but knowing that she always went along with Gohan and his father, whom he didn't know, made him jealous. He also wanted her to ride it with him, even if Goku couldn't be there.

"Yeah, mom, come on, it'll be great!"

Surrendered to the pressure from her family, Chichi took a deep breath and decided to go.

"Okay, okay, but only once!" she sounded serious and raised her index finger for emphasis.

"Yaaay!" Goten and Gohan celebrated and pulled her by the hand towards the ferris wheel.

The room is normally meant for two people, but since Chichi had a petite body and Goten was still very small, it was possible for the three of them to go together. First of all, Chichi made sure that the ferris wheel was in good condition and that they were safe, Gohan just giggled, finding her concern funny. It wasn't as if they could fall from up there, after all, he could fly and was strong enough to carry both his brother and his mother without any difficulty, he was strong enough to carry that entire Ferris wheel with all the people inside, but that didn't stop Chichi from feeling that little chill in her stomach when the wheel started to move. It was funny, especially for someone who used to ride the flying nimbus constantly in the past, but it was inevitable.

Goten and Gohan were smiling openly as the wheel went higher and higher, and Chichi couldn't help but smile too. It was always good to see her boys happy.

"Wow! We can see everything from up here!" Goten exclaimed in amazement. This shouldn't have been news to him, since he had also flown in the flying nimbus to much higher heights than that, but seeing the festival all colored from above was something that totally delighted him.

"That's right. Look at Grandpa over there!" commented Gohan, smiling and waving at Ox King who smiled in response and waved at them.

Chichi and Goten smiled as they watched the giant king waving at them and taking several pictures of them.

When their seat stopped exactly at the highest point of the wheel, Chichi closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the cool evening breeze gently blow over her face. It felt good; it had been a long time since she had felt a sensation like this. She was always too busy with her life as a mother and housewife that she often forgot to have fun too. She always took some time off to take care of herself, but she no longer enjoyed life in this way, as she did when Goku was alive. Everything now came down to her home and children.

Things were crazy back then, she had no doubt, but she missed this mess in her life immensely. Now things were a little too quiet, even with two half-saiyan boys living with her, life didn't have the same color as when Goku was alive...

She opened her eyes and stared up at the stars, contemplating at the multitude of beautiful bright points in the sky. Her sons were babbling something that she wasn't paying much attention to. Gohan then nudged her.

"Hey mom, do you remember the last time we rode on the ferris wheel with Dad?" Gohan asked in a sweet, affectionate tone of voice.

Goten, who seemed too amused by the bustle of people down at the festival, turned to them with a curious look. Anything about his father was a subject that interested him immensely.

"Yes, yes, I remember..." Chichi answered, but without taking her eyes off the starry sky.

"It was just before the Cell games..." murmured Gohan, who was now also looking at the stars. "I remember there was a shooting star in the sky that night and I wished that we could beat that monster..."

Chichi smiled sweetly. She remembered that night very well. It had been a very special night, even if Gohan and Goku had been in that ridiculous super saiyan form – something that had attracted a lot of attention from the villagers, by the way – but it had been a special family time. Goten, on the other hand, pouted, upset that he didn't have any memories with his father to be able to share as well.

"It was a good wish, sweetheart, a good wish that come true!" Chichi smiled and put his hand on his eldest son's head.

"And what did you wish for, mommy?" Goten asked.

"That night, sweetie, I wished ..." Chichi turned to the little boy and touched the tip of his little nose with her index finger. "... you!"

Goten stared at her, surprised and amazed. His little black eyes were shining and his "o" shaped mouth was turning into a wide smile.

"Is it serious?"

"Yes, it is!" Chichi then stroked his unruly hair. "I wished the shooting star a second son, and just like your brother's wish, mine came true too!"

Goten opened the brightest smile in the world, and Chichi realized that this moment was simply priceless. Good thing she agreed to go on this ferris wheel ride with her children.

"I wonder what dad wished for…!?" Gohan wondered aloud and Chichi shrugged her shoulders, turning back to stare at the stars as the wheel began to descend slowly.

"Hm... I don't know... Maybe something to do with fighting or eating..." she commented and the three of them laughed, amused.

"I miss him so much." murmured the older boy.

"Me too, sweetheart, me too." Chichi whispered the answer so low that if her children hadn't had such good hearing, they wouldn't have been able to hear it.

Then she wrapped her arms around their necks and squeezed them tenderly in a loving embrace. She alternately looked at them both, proud of her two boys, and Gohan closed his eyes, allowing himself to remember that night.

Before the starry sky left their field of vision as the wheel descended, Goten caught a brief glimpse of a shooting star passing by again, and knowing how it worked, he closed his eyes quickly and made a wish, a wish with all his will and conviction, feeling deep in his heart that just like his brother's and his mother's wish, his would also come true one day.

When they reached dry land again, he asked:

"So, is this where the babies come from, mommy? Do you have to wish for a shooting star?" his innocent and naïve gaze stared at her, waiting for an answer.

Chichi stared at him in surprise and felt her face burn with shame at the question. Gohan raised his eyebrows in his brother's direction but said nothing.

"Hmmm..." she pondered for a moment. Oh, boy. What to say? She then smiled at Goten and continued: "You know what? Yes, that's exactly right!" she decided to go with that idea and let Goten believe it for now, it was better than that stork's nonsense, anyway. And besides, she's pretty sure that it was that very night, after they got back from the festival, that he had been conceived, so in a way it was true.

Gohan just squeezed out a smile. His brother was really too young to really know where babies came from, something he only came to learn recently, with his studies, and which also made him understand a lot of weird things that happened when he was a kid, like noises at night and some strange behavior from his parents.

"Cool!" Goten exclaimed. "I was a wish for a shooting star."

Now he no longer felt so excluded from the memories with his father, after all, he, or the idea of him, was already there with them at that moment.