“Emerald Fields!” the robotic voice in the bus said, waking me up from my nap. My heart rate quickened as I realized I’d miss my stop if I kept snoozing. I grabbed my bag, got out of my seat, squeezed past the passengers, and finally got through the doors just before they shut behind me. Phew, I could’ve gotten lost. I breathed a sigh of relief.

The bright sun beat down on me. I scanned the stop I got off on. The town was called Emerald Fields but I didn’t see any greenery. The fields were all dry cracked mud and some dried up plants poked their heads out of the ground. Just as the news said, this farmtown had been hit hard by a drought for quite some time with no forecast of rain anytime soon. This sucks but it’s perfect for my plan. I walked towards the town, passing by the bright green town sign covered in a thin layer of dust.

I wiped the sweat off my brow and took a swig from my bottle. My shirt clung to my sweaty back. I really shouldn’t wear such dark clothes all the time. I could make out some vultures circling above and waves of heat rising from the asphalt. No sign of a random cow skull though. The town seemed small. A few houses here, some shops there, and sunburned farm folk everywhere. It was obvious everyone was aware of my presence with their stares and hushed whispers amongst each other but they seemed friendly enough. I went to the local park, which was as cracked and dried as the rest of town, and sat down at a bench under the shade of a dead tree in front of an empty pond with some dead fish.

“What now?” asked a voice from behind, startling me. I turned around to see Xiz.

“Jeez, can anyone else see you?” I asked as I looked around to see if anyone was staring at him.

“Nope, just you.”

“Well I need some intel on the Mayor before I meet her, could you get some for me?” I asked while popping in my ear buds so I’d look like I was on my phone instead of talking to myself like a crazy person. “I’ll get you something you want to pay you back.”

“Hmm” Xiz said thoughtfully. ”Fine, I love snooping anyways. Get me some bones.”

“... what are you gonna do with the bones? Some dark magic?”

“What? No, I’m hungry and they taste great! Bone marrow is amazing.”

“Uhhh… Sure, you’ve got yourself a deal. I’ll get you your bones, you get me some dirt on her, we’ll meet back here later and trade.” Xiz disappeared while I went over to a local fried chicken place. I went back to the park at the same bench from before, eating the meat and saving the bones for Xiz. Xiz reached soon after so we made some exchanges. He told me more info than I probably should’ve known, like some dark secrets, but maybe it could come in handy. I didn’t want to ask too many questions. Xiz munched away at the bones. I took out my phone and used Graham’s Maps to find City Hall after Xiz was done and disappeared into the paw.

At city hall, I booked a meeting with the mayor, saying I could help with the drought situation. Reception got me to my meeting with her pretty quickly. They must be desperate.

I walked into the mayor’s office when the receptionist let me through. There was a table in front of the door with the elderly mayor sat in a comfortable chair, a picture of a snow white cat on her table, a computer to the side, and phone to her left, with sunlight pouring through the open windows behind her. She had white hair, circular glasses on, and wore a light blue cardigan.

“Hi Mayor Beatrice. My name is Rumey. Thanks for meeting with me on such short notice.”

“Welcome to our small town. Please make this quick, I was told you can help with our situation?”

“Straight to business, I like that.” I said as I sat down in a chair in front of her. “Well, I’ve heard of what’s been going on with the town on the news, a record heat wave with all of the rivers dried up. Crops can’t grow and there’s no business at all since it’s mostly just farming. I was just at the park earlier and saw the empty pond. Your economy has taken a big hit. Well, you guys are in luck, I’ve come to help.”

“Well we’d take any help that we can get. How would you get water here? Lakes dried up and not much groundwater left as well.”

“Don’t worry about the how. For a million dollars I can make the drought go away.”

“What, are we just supposed to believe you? We can’t just give you that kind of money without any proof…”

“Have a town hall with the farmers, see what they think, and then we can plan something out that way. They’ll want to see some proof too so I’ll just show everyone then.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

She appeared thoughtful for a second before she gave a stern “No.”

“What?”

“I will not call everyone in town to come just for their time to be wasted. Prove to me there’s some substance to what you’re saying now or leave.” She replied, sounding a bit annoyed.

“Everyone else will want to see proof anyways so I’ll just show it then.”

“No, I’m calling the sheriff to escort you out of here if you won’t leave now. We’ve already seen someone come and do a ‘powerful’ rain dance promising it would rain the very next day with nothing happening. Then there was also a supposed priest who said he’d organize a massive prayer for it to rain for donations. The next day it just became even hotter. We don’t need more con men tricking us out of more money” said the mayor as she started entering numbers on the phone beside her.

I was starting to get annoyed at the accusations. “That’s rich, coming from you,” I replied while crossing my arms and leaning back into my chair.

She paused right as she was about to dial the number. “What do you mean?” She said as she turned her head towards me.

“Well, the stuff you did to become mayor. You’ve got some skeletons in your closet, or would a body in the backyard be more accurate?”

“H-huh,” she stuttered, face turning pale and eyes widening.

“Yeah, I know you killed your husband. You buried him deep and vertically to make it harder to find him. Added a rose garden on top because of how blood and rotten corpses work great as fertilizer for those. Also the smell would be masked by your dead dog you buried above him. You even left his severed hand in front of a coyote den for them to chew on it a bit to make it look like they ate him. No one suspects you.”

“W-wha - H-how?” She stuttered as her hands started to tremble.

“All, just so you could sway the voters to elect you once more out of pity for losing your husband and becoming a sweet old widow. It really worked, look at where you are now in your fancy office.”

“...” She stared at me in silence.

“The audacity, calling me a con man when you did this. Anyways, I feel like that should be enough proof for you since there is no way for me to learn all of this info after I entered town for the first time, right? Or should I go on, explain how you cruelly took his life?”

“...” She continued to stare with her hands down by her side. Then, she broke her silence by asking, “What do you want?”

“Well, it’s simple. I just want an audience with the townsfolk about the situation you guys are facing. I want to help deal with it. I’ll even show proof to the whole town and then let them make the choice of whether they want my services or not. Whatever they vote for, I’ll abide by their decision. You won’t have to worry about me exposing your secret as well. Although, if you have me followed, try anything like moving the body, or coming after me, I will know instantly and make sure everyone in town knows your deep dark secret. Am I clear?”

“... Crystal” she said through gritted teeth. “We’ll meet with you at sunset in the town square. Give us proof and then we’ll give you our decision.”

“I look forward to it,” I said with a smile as I stood up and left the room.

“That was ice cold, Rumey. You actually said all that straight to her face.” A voice behind me startled me once more as I stepped out. I turned around to see Xiz floating as if reclined in a pool. “So, you’re selling the wishes? Why not just wish for a lot of money instead?”

“Damnit Xiz, quit doing that. You were listening the whole time?”

“Yup, it gets boring inside it.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna sell the wishes,” I said while popping in my ear buds again. “I read online what happens to people who wish with a paw. They get what they want but suffer from consequences for messing with fate. I’m just gonna sell ‘em to make a lot of money. I’ll give them a fair warning of the outcome. They learn whatever lesson you’re trying to teach ‘em and I get paid.”

“Why not just sell the paw then?” he asked as he floated down to the ground then started walking backwards in front of me. I noticed I didn’t see his reflection on the shop windows as we passed a thrift store.

“And risk dropping this thing into the hands of someone evil? No thanks, too much power. At least, I think it is. I haven’t seen you grant any wishes yet.”

“You have a strange moral code, man.” We walked in silence for a few seconds. Xiz was checking out the shops as we passed by them. “What’s your proof gonna be?”

“Well, I was thinking we can put on a bit of a magic show for them, show’em what you can do. Everything we do will be undone of course so no wishes will be used. And could you just make sure the mayor doesn’t do anything sketchy?”

“Hmm” thought Xiz out loud as he scratched his chin. “Sounds like a lot of work…”

“More bones?”

“Hell yeah!”

“Sweet.”

“What are you gonna do about the mayor after this?”

“I’m gonna leave an anonymous tip to the sheriff for sure. I know I said I would keep her secret but I don’t mind lying to killers. Now, for the magic show…”

While discussing our plan for the show, I bought some more cheap fried chicken and gave the bones to Xiz while saving the meat for later; I was already full from earlier. He interjected with his own suggestions on what to do so I added what I liked and ignored everything that would mentally scar the townsfolk, typing our ideas into my note app. Xiz munched away at the bones while we went and wandered around the local park. Before we knew it, sunset arrived so we headed to the town square where the farmers and mayor were waiting.