The Café-on-Mainstreet expanded their back garden seating. The oversized witch hat that the Envoy gave me as a gag-gift is still hanging on the wall as decoration. It’s now a “wish hat”, where people write their wishes on a slip of paper and sneak it into the hat. Jill said [the staff] empties it every night, but sometimes one of the faction members will pull slips out and make the benign and benevolent wishes come true but attributing the granted wish to “Weaver Wishbringer”. Jill suggested I allow the hat to remain, and to continue taking the “blame” for the fulfilled wishes.
I donned it to see if it would fit, and my appearance changed from raven-feather blue-black to brilliant and gleaming white. Jill bit her tongue to keep from laughing at my very surprised face. “Fuck! People are going to think I’m cosplaying Gandalf the White up in here!” I took the hat off and returned to my usual unnoticeable self.
When I went to hang the hat back on the wall, a small girl ran up to me with a folded piece of paper covered in crayon. She was very shy, and her face was full of purpose and close to tears for not being able to reach that far up. So I lowered the hat for her to reach and looked away in that way people do when they want you to know they are only pretending to look away. She quickly stuffed her wish as far into the witch hat as she could reach and hugged my leg in gratitude before running off.
“The superstition is, if you say anything about putting a wish in the hat, the wish won’t come true. If you have to ask for help, it won’t come true. You have to be absolutely silent about the entire affair.” Jill took the hat from me and hung it as she explained. “And if you notice someone putting a wish in the hat, you can’t say anything, or not only will you jinx the wisher, you’ll bring bad luck on your own head for it.”
“Do I want to know the story that prompted that superstition?”
“In time. Don’t you want to know her wish?”
I thought about it. “No. The moment I touch it, I’ll own the whole damn thing. I have enough on my head and my conscious as it is. Let things go as they have been. I’ll take the heat as Weaver Wishbringer if the outcomes are beneficial.”
I sat in the corner and reviewed some notes for the rest of the night. I may have to start veiling my face, though. It was so hard not to smile every time I watched someone plant a wish in the hat.