The Wishing Game

The narrative changes to an excerpt from Jack Masterson’s first book, The House on Clock Island. In the excerpt, a girl named Astrid wakes up because her room is flooded with light from a lighthouse. Knowing what that light means, she wakes her younger brother and tells him that the Mastermind has returned to Clock Island.

A year after Jack began to write again, Lucy Hart is clearing up the mess made by the children she oversees in Ms. Theresa’s classroom. Christopher, a student, comes to find her and helps clean the classroom. Lucy notices that he’s exhausted and asks whether he’s sleeping well. He tells her that he still has the same nightmares about the phone ringing and finding his parents dead on the floor. Lucy distracts him from these bad thoughts by asking him if he wants to help her wrap a scarf that she has sold. He agrees and writes the thank-you note, wondering why “Carrie” is spelled with two Rs instead of just one. As Lucy explains where the scarf is going (Detroit, Michigan), she shows Christopher where Clock Island is located on the map. Christopher asks why there haven’t been any more books, and Lucy explains that no one knows why. As they finish wrapping up the scarf, Christopher understands that at the rate Lucy is saving money, she won’t be able to adopt him for another two years. They play their wishing game, where they wish for things because Lucy believes their wishes matter and inspire hope. Christopher wishes for it to be cold, so Lucy will sell a lot of scarves.

Hugo meanders around Greenwich Village as he reminisces about how he used to romanticize living in the Village when he was younger. He makes his way to the 12th Street Art Station gallery, where a few of his art pieces are on display and where Piper, his ex-girlfriend, still works. They catch up. Now that Jack is writing again, Piper asks whether Hugo will finally move from Clock Island to the Village, but he remains undecided. Recognizing Hugo’s conflicted feelings, Piper confronts him about what he gave up to stay with Jack—an art career outside the island, their possible marriage—and his inability to be happy since he still struggles with survivor’s guilt, which he calls “thriver’s guilt.” They call a truce, and Piper offers him an art exhibition deal while they grab coffee. At the coffee shop, the barista tells him of the game Jack has issued on his website through a riddle. The winner will receive an unusual prize: the only copy of his latest book. Hugo rushes back to the train station to go find Jack.

In California, Lucy borrows her roommate’s car to go to the Children’s Service Center, where the waiting room is full of struggling families, mostly women with children. Lucy meets with Mrs. Costa, the social worker in charge of Christopher’s case, who confirms that no family relatives have come forward to claim him. She reminds Lucy, however, that she doesn’t meet the financial stability or housing requirements to foster Christopher with the intent to adopt him. Lucy argues that love, which Christopher desperately needs, is a vital component of a family home, but to no avail. Mrs. Costa recommends that Lucy contact her own family for support, but Lucy staunchly refuses because they abandoned her to her grandparents when she was young. Mrs. Costa then recommends telling Christopher that the adoption simply won’t happen and that it will be a relief to Lucy in the end. Insulted, Lucy leaves.

On her way back to work, Lucy recalls her past and all the wild experiences she had as a young adult. She knows she’d trade all those experiences to be Christopher’s mother for a single day. When she goes into The Purple Turtle, a high-end children’s toy store, she’s uncomfortable when she sees the high prices. Since she can’t afford much else (at the risk of wasting all her savings), she buys Christopher three small sharks—his current obsession—to try to soften the blow of telling him that the adoption won’t go through. She meets with Miss Theresa, who, like Mrs. Costa, recommends that Lucy contact her sister before giving up. Once again, Lucy vehemently refuses, though she looks up her sister online when she’s alone. Angie, her sister, is a successful retail agent for Weatherby’s International Realty and recently sold a $2 million property. Lucy is tempted to ask her for financial help but decides against it. When she next sees Christopher, he tells her that his reading levels are so high that he’s being given fourth grade reading assignments. As they chat, Theresa comes in and asks the riddle Jack Masterson has posted on his website: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” (49). She informs them of Jack’s competition, and Lucy, excited after seeing the website, says she knows the answer to the riddle.

Lucy takes Christopher to the computer lab, where they look up more information on Jack’s contest. She tells him how she once visited Clock Island as a child. She ran away from home to meet Jack because she believed then, as she does now, that her parents loved her sister more since her sister was sick and wanted to get their attention. Lucy first found the Clock Island books when she was eight and her parents left her alone in the waiting room for hours. She wanted to have the main character of the first book, Astrid, as her older sister instead of Angie, and she began to write Jack Masterson letters about what was happening to her, how she was sent to live with her grandparents instead of her immediate family, and how she was treated at home when she came to visit. When she eventually told Jack how many words her parents had spoken to her during a week’s visit (under 40 combined), how many minutes they spent in the same room (15 combined), and how many times they told her they loved her (zero), Jack answered.

In his letter to Lucy, Jack described the monster in his house (his editor) and how horrid he was with Jack about deadlines. He told Lucy how terrible and awful it was for her parents to ignore her so blatantly and how lovingly he’d treat her if she were his daughter. He told her that she was a very brave child and that her future would be more promising if she wanted it to be.

Back in the present, Lucy explains to Christopher how, at 13, she took all the money she had and ran away to Clock Island by taking a bus to Portland and then a ferry to the island. She wasn’t meant to get off, but when the mailman descended from the ferry, she followed him and found herself in front of the mythical house that had inspired most of Jack’s books. She rang the doorbell and came face-to-face with Jack, who greeted her as if he’d been expecting her. He brought her inside his home, gave her tea, let her meet his pet raven, Thurl, and showed her why a raven was like a writing desk: His lap desk had been fitted with helicopter rotors and could fly, just like a raven. Lucy didn’t stay for long because Jack had contacted the authorities. Before she left, he told her she could come back when she was older and gave her a signed copy of one of his books. As Lucy finished telling the story to Christopher, Theresa came to find them, a blue envelope from Jack in her hand.