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Author's Note: Here is the project 11, "Careful what you wish for"from the Hercher’s. The idea of it was to write a story that would tell a tale of a careless wish that would lead into a catastrophe. And abling-bling is slang for a huge, shiny necklace rappers' usually wear.

The Girl Who Didn’t Cry

”Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight…”

A raspy voice whispered the words in a dimly-lit room. Sarah had spoken them in a nearly desperate way. It really was a stupid thing to do, she thought. She swiped angrily her eyes, as she lay on her bed and stared up the sky where she had just noticed the first star of the night. Sarah considered herself old enough to be past these childish beliefs. But old habits die hard, and she felt so very sad and lonely.

“I wish...” She whispered her desperate plea to the darkening twilight sky. “I wish that I wouldn’t be sad anymore. I just wish I’d never cry again.” She closed her eyes, trying to prevent the tears from falling down on her cheek, as the sadness overwhelmed her once again. “I wish I will never be sad again!”

She released her sadness and tears, as she rolled on her side on the bed, and cried out loud with all her heartache. It had been aching for so many weeks by now. She wept, lying on her bed, and finally fell asleep without seeing how that one, lonely star in the night sky flashed briefly, as giving its answer to her desperate prayers.

The next morning when Sarah woke up, she realized her heartache was gone. She actually felt good for the first time. The pain caused by the break up with her boyfriend several months ago had disappeared overnight.

“Well, it's about time!” The girl muttered getting up from her bed. “Who would have thought that superstitious beliefs hold truth after all,” Sarah glanced at bright morning sky, and smiled at the star she knew was up there, unseen. She practically sang on her way to a shower, which was very unlike her, since Sarah had no voice whatsoever. But she was just so happy her tears had come to an end that she couldn’t stop singing.

Her life continued to improve after that night. She attended classes like any normal teenager, and became one of the most popular girls in the school. She was always in a good mood and provided uplifting company, inventing all the best jokes, and creating great team spirit. She was even asked to become a cheerleader! Her family was amazed at these changes, since Sarah had always been a silent and introverted person, but they were happy to see her enjoying life and making more friends. Her life was rich and full of bliss, and she forgot she had ever been sad. And she completely forgot about the wish she had pleaded for from the night stars.

Then her old sheepdog died, and Sarah found out she couldn’t cry. She didn’t even feel bad about it. “Shit happens,” she shrugged her shoulders as if nothing important had occurred, and continued with her life. After all, her school’s team had an important match coming up, and she needed to practice her routines with the cheerleading squad.

Years passed, and Sarah moved out of her childhood home to start college. She became very popular there too, and soon she started to date again. George was a gorgeous bloke from her school - the most wanted boy actually. But soon catastrophe struck. George died tragically.

A gangsta youth with a shiny bling-bling, and many problems at home smuggled a gun into the school and started shooting wildly. He aimed his gun at Sarah, who stood some distance away from him , clustered with her friends.

“Die, you white bitch! Die!” The youth shouted, and he pulled the trigger.

But courageous George jumped in front of the bullet, taking the hit that was aimed at Sarah in his own chest. As she knelt down to stare into his handsome face, Sarah noticed her tears weren’t coming out.

“Sarah,” George coughed with bloodied lips, for the bullet had penetrated his lungs. “Don’t cry for me...” He whispered. Though he was in great pain, George didn't want to let Sarah see his fear. He was going to die, and he knew it.

Sarah gently stroked the blond locks of his hair, answering. “I won’t.” She smiled brightly. “I never cry.”

The school personnel and the policemen, who arrived there soon after the shooting scene, thought this was rather odd behavior, but they decided it was due to her initial shock. They sent Sarah to see a psychologist, someone who might help her deal with her trauma, and the loss of her boyfriend.

The psychologist spent many sessions with her, finally reaching the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with her. She wasn't suffering any trauma from her shocking experience. The doctor released Sarah from the counseling sessions, though somewhat unwillingly.

“There’s nothing wrong with her. She has no sign of trauma or shock. She’s absolutely happy and satisfied with her life.” The psychologist shivered as she gave her report, “It's rather scary, you know...”

After that episode in her life, Sarah's schoolmates didn’t want to be with her as much as before. They started to avoid her, whispering behind her back. “She didn’t even cry when her boyfriend was killed...” and they called her hard-hearted and cold. Then Sarah learned that her father had a lung cancer. He died very shortly after that, and still she couldn't cry. The rumors grew, and her friends withdrew from her life.

Life wasn't as much fun any more. There was no enjoyment or happiness in Sarah's heart. In Fact, she didn’t feel anything, which unnerved her family as much as it had her friends. But Sarah was very optimistic person. She decided that something better would come along someday, and in the meantime, she could study a bit more. Sarah put all her efforts into her books and lectures. She graduated at an accelerated rate and acquired a very good job at a large bank

Sarah was in her mid-twenties when she met a wonderful young man who worked with her. The man was called Tony, and he was a highly successful broker with a penthouse flat in the middle of the central. During a romantic candlelight dinner, he proposed to Sarah and she accepted. They were married, and Sarah felt she could be happy once again.

For awhile everything went very well. Within the first year of their marriage, Sarah became pregnant, and she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Her husband was ecstatic, and together they decided that Sarah would stay home with the baby for a year before returning to work. They would have just enough money to afford giving up her paycheck.

Then the bank announced that it would merge with another company, and they fired most of their employees, including Sarah’s husband. Living became a little harder, and they decided that it was time to move away from the central.

Tony tried to find another job, however it was very hard. The country was in a deep recession, and the struggle to find good posts in the financial world was highly competitive. He didn’t want to leave the city, and Sarah trusted her husband to make the right choice. Tony had been born and raised in the city, whereas she had moved from a small, countryside village.

But months passed and he didn’t get a job. He became more and more depressed, despite the efforts Sarah made to cheer him up. It almost seemed as though her cheerful attitude made him even more miserable, and he started to snap angrily at her. So Sarah left him alone, reasoning he would soon come to his senses. He didn’t. Instead, Tony stopped searching for a job and bought a gun. Sarah argued that she didn’t like to have a handgun in the proximity of their son, but he took up target-practice anyway. He explained he needed a release for his frustration over his current unemployment. Many nights, he sat alone next to his desk, drinking whiskey and caressing the gun with trembling hands. Sarah silently accepted this, and began looking for a job herself. Someone needed to earn a living for their small family.

One night Sarah was awakened by a feeling that something was amiss. She got up, listening intently. Her husband was nowhere to be seen and neither was their son. Feeling troubled, Sarah began to search the house.

She found out Tony slumped against the table, snoring lightly with an empty glass still in his hands. Their infant son sat in the floor by his feet. Apparently the boy had succeeded in crawling out of his cradle.

"Hey, hon," Sarah whispered to the toddler, trying not to awaken her husband. She knelt down and smiled fondly at her baby boy. He lifted his eyes to his young mother, and she noticed something in his hands. "Whatcha got there, my little sweetie?" Sarah cooed at him.

As if he understood her question, the boy raised his hand, and Sarah gasped in fright. The child was holding Tony's gun in his hands. Frozen, Sarah stared straight into the eyes of her son, and watched in horror as the boy lowered his gaze to the weapon's mouth. It was like watching a movie in slow-motion. Sarah had time to shout "No!", as her two-year-old son fired the pistol he was holding in his hands.

Tony jumped on his feet, a hazy look in his eyes. At first he didn't understand what had happened. His wife was knelt in the floor next to his feet, amidst a cloud of smoke and a pool of blood.

"What happened?" He cried frantically, as he collapsed in the floor next to Sarah. She didn't need to answer. He saw the body of their son, and he shouted in terror and in pain.

Tony gently took his son in his arms, rocking his lifeless body against his own, as tears fell from his eyes. "My son, my son..." He repeated over and over again, and Sarah sat like a stone beside him, unable to cry or feel anything.

Time passed before Sarah got up. Reaching for the phone, she called for the ambulance. She felt oddly calm, and she vaguely wondered why her husband was in so much in pain. After all, Sarah thought, death's a natural thing.

"We'll have another son," she told him gently as she returned to Tony. She tried to comfort him, but he turned on her in fury.

"I don't want another son!" He raged. "I want him back! He was special and he's our son! Don't you have a heart?!"

Sarah stared at him and shrugged. "Of course I do."

"So why aren't you crying?!" Tony shouted at her, weeping desperately. "Why aren't you grieving. You're a cold woman, and I don't understand why you don't cry!"

"I don't know," Sarah whispered, as a shiver of fear raced up her spine. She had never seen her husband this way, and for the first time, Sarah started to feel there might be something wrong with her.

“You’re scary as hell, you know, Sarah?” He shouted with a blurry, desperate voice. Tony took a step away from Sarah, who stood still, staring numbly at her once-so-loving husband. She didn't understand what had happened to him, or why he was screaming in pain. “You’re always so damned cheery and optimistic. It's freaking me out!” The man shouted as he waved his hands, tears falling from his eyes. “You don’t even know how to cry, and our son is dead!”

That was the moment when he actually seemed to realize what had happened. A glacial look disappeared from his eyes, and they turned dark with pain. Tony shrieked again, his voice high-pitched and his face a mask of despair. Turning around, he flung open the window. Sarah stared in shock as he climbed out on the windowsill, and jumped. Sarah was left alone, to wait for the ambulance that would pick up their dead son from the floor in the study, and the father of that son lying dead on the street.

Sarah didn't pay much attention to the months that followed. She did what was necessary to deal with their property and the inheritance. After that, she returned home to her mother, who was very happy to have her daughter back from the big city. For awhile, Sarah was content again.

Years passed, and her mother grew old. Sarah noticed the signs of aging infirmity in her mother, and when her death finally came, she wasn’t surprised at all. She just didn’t feel anything anymore. Her life was empty, and she wondered if there truly was something wrong with her. Her husband's words echoed in her head as she stood by her mother’s grave, still unable to cry. She didn’t feel sad, but she felt so empty. All her enjoyment of life was gone.

As she returned home from her mother's funeral, Sarah noticed a colorful tent near her home bearing a sign “Madame Iris, the world famous clairvoyant”. Sarah didn’t usually feel any interest towards those people who called themselves mediums, but she now found her feet had involuntary turned toward the tent. Before she knew it, she had stepped inside.

It was dark inside, and the air was heavy with the strange scent of burning incense. The wind-bells were chiming outside, and the atmosphere was odd; unearthly, and ominous.

The madam in question was a middle-aged, eccentric looking lady with colorful clothes and layers of jewelry on her neck.

"Sit down on the chair." She advised Sarah without looking at her. Madam Iris' attention was fixed on the glass orb on the table in front of her.

Sarah did as told, and coughed little uncertainly. "I..." She started, but the clairvoyant interrupted her.

"Yes, yes..." She spoke absently, still looking intently in the crystal ball. "I know why you're here. So many deaths and so little tears...” Madame Iris whispered, her gaze still transfixed at the glass ball in front of her. She lifted her eyes, and Sarah shivered as she saw the wild expression in them. There was no question about it - this woman was half-mad. “You feel empty inside!” Madam Iris whispered, and Sarah nodded.

“I think you are right.” Sarah considered her life for a moment. She wasn’t sad, she wasn’t really happy anymore either. She felt like her heart would blow apart, or fly out of her chest; and her dreams had become restless and grey in these past few years.

The medium's stare was uncomfortable, and Sarah squirmed beneath her intense scrutiny. “What is your secret?” The woman mused, and her eyes drilled into Sarah’s skulls as if she was seeing into the very depths of her soul. “Why can’t you cry?”

“I thought it was your job to tell me these things,” Sarah snapped. The woman graced her with a brief smile.

“Oh no...” She answered, that half-smile still on her face. “I see it clearly, but I asked you, for it seems you don’t know the reason yourself.” She leaned closer to Sarah and her pale eyes turned even paler than they had been before. “You don’t seem to understand the seriousness of your situation. I fear I can’t help you anymore, for you’ve traveled this road for far too long.”

“Quit playing with me.” Sarah crossed her arms on her chest, but the clairvoyant laughed wickedly at her.

“Don’t you remember?” The woman asked, still sneering. “Don’t you remember the night when you talked to the sky?” Sarah stiffened, remembering that night long ago when she was a child.

“I did make a wish...” she whispered, recalling the last time she had been heartbroken and devastated. “I wished for the stars to take my sadness away...”

“Are you stupid ? Or didn’t you know not to make just any wish at the night sky?” The woman hissed at Sarah, suddenly furiously. Her previous amused, and somewhat senile, appearance was replaced by an unforgiving and callous leer “Wishes have power. I think you’ve finally learned that for yourself!”

“I just wanted to feel happy!” Sarah said defensively, as she shied away from the raging medium. The woman shook her head so viciously her earrings clinked ominously in the silence.

“Stupid girl!” she mocked Sarah. “You wished never to be sad, and now you’ve lost all that you’ve loved and yearned for!” Her face turned bitter, as she spat her words at Sarah, “And all because you denied your humanity!” Then she calmed down, and gave Sarah a look that was full of pity. “Tears are part of every human life. Denying grief and sadness can destroy all that’s valuable to you.” She sighed,” Even though I think it might be too late, I still suggest that you reverse your wish with all haste. Take it back...”

She glanced again in the ball then held out her hand to Sarah. "That'll be ten bucks," she told her. With trembling hands, Sarah pulled the requested amount from her wallet, and stumbled out of the tent.

That night when Sarah went to bed, she crossed her fingers the way she had done long ago as a child, and gazed at the evening sky. And just like that time so long ago, she saw an early star lighting up in the darkening sky. Sarah lowered her head, and whispered the old childish rhyme from her past.

"Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight…" she started hesitantly, "I wish...I wish that I could cry again. I wish I could feel sadness and grief. I wish to feel all those feelings again, the good and the bad."

After she had spoken the words, she lay still and looked at the night sky. She noticed how that early evening star became brighter, and suddenly flashed. . All the world stopped for a moment, and Sarah felt very lonely and lost. She didn't recognize this feeling. She felt like her heart would blow apart, and her throat ached so much, she couldn't breathe. Sarah closed her eyes, and felt the tears well up in her eyes. Then she finally started to cry.

As she sobbed hysterically, Sarah understood what she had denied herself. She lay alone in her bed, and cried for all that she had gained and lost. She was alone; she had no one left. And all the heartache she had denied before, the pain coming from the death of her dog and the murder of her boyfriend, the deaths of her parents, and the tragic loss of her son and husband, came crashing down on her, as she wept.

Sarah cried for all those moments in her life when she hadn't been able to cry before. Waves of sadness washed over her, and she wished that she had never made that stupid wish. She cried until she felt like dying, for the sadness she had tried to escape all her life had finally found her.