Page 41 of The Wish

B ack at the ward, Luke and Ryan stand looking into the empty room of Jesse and Amy. Sandy has just told them Jesse won’t be back in today, she’s home now and will stay there for the time being – her dad has phoned to let the team know. The boys know all too well what this means.

‘Do you think she’s going to get her wish?’ Luke asks Ryan.

‘Dunno. She’d better,’ Ryan tells him.

‘If only there was something we could do to make sure it happens,’ Luke says wistfully.

Ryan taps his foot, staring off into nothing.

‘Have you got your phone with you?’

‘Nope, it’s by my bed.’

‘Let’s go, we need to make a phone call.’

With both boys sitting on Luke’s bed, Ryan scrolls through the recent calls looking for one without a name. Finding it, he hits dial, the phone on speaker.

‘Hello, is that TriOptic Studios?’ he asks, trying to sound as grown-up as possible, before the person on the other end can speak. Luke stifles a giggle.

‘Good. Can I speak to the person in charge, please, I think his name is Steve, I’ve spoken to him before.’

‘No, Steve’s not really in charge, he covers for Ian, the manager, when he’s not here,’ the voice on the end of the line tells him.

‘Well, if Ian is in charge, can I speak to him, please?’

‘Well, Ian’s the manager but he’s out. However, the owner is Frank and he’s in the building today, would you like to speak to him?’

‘Yes, please.’

The boys look at each other in a mixture of fear and hilarity.

A few moments later a gruff voice comes on the line.

‘Who is this?’

‘Are you Frank? Are you the owner of TriOptic Studios?’ Ryan stammers.

‘And who are you, young man?’ the voice answers.

‘Hi, Frank, my name is Ryan. I’m a friend of Alex who works for you, I’m in hospital with Jesse.’

‘Ah, OK. Well then, how can I help you, Ryan?’

The gruff voice sounds more friendly now.

‘Can you come to the hospital and see me and Luke? We need to talk to you about Alex and Jesse.’

‘Who’s Luke?’

‘He’s my friend, we’re both friends of Jesse.’

‘And you want me to come to the hospital to see you?’

‘Yes, please, and it needs to be soon, now, if you can? We can’t come to you as we’re receiving treatment.’

Ryan gets all of this out in a rush. Luke has his hand clapped over his mouth as he listens in amazement. There is a long pause. Clearly the gruff voice is giving the proposal some thought. After a long pause:

‘Well, young man, I like your nerve, guess you’d better tell me where I find you. You’re at the children’s hospital, right?’

Ryan gives slightly garbled and breathless instructions.

There’s another long pause.

‘I’ll see you in about an hour,’ the voice says, warm now. He ends the call.

Luke and Ryan sit on the bed in silence for a long time.

‘What are we going to say to him?’ Luke asks finally.

‘Dunno. Guess we just have to ask him to tell Alex to make Jesse’s wish.’

‘OK. You can do all the talking.’

‘Think we better go and tell Sandy what we’ve done and that Frank’s coming here.’

‘You can do all the talking to her too,’ Luke says, sliding off the bed.

Briefed by the boys, Sandy keeps an eye on the door, looking for a stranger.

She’s given up worrying about what is and isn’t appropriate for the time being.

Frank is easy to spot when he walks in, stops just inside the ward, and looks around at the vibrant chaos.

She smiles to herself at the reactions flitting across Frank’s face.

Worried, scared, upset, lost, he looks at the activity of patients, families, staff bustling around him. She decides to rescue him.

‘Hello, you must be Frank. I’m Sandy, charge nurse on this ward.’

Frank looks at Sandy and the outstretched hand.

‘Hello, that’s right. Not sure what I’m doing here but a young man asked me to come and see him.’

‘That was Ryan. He and Luke are waiting to see you. I’ve given them my office to use, follow me.’

Sandy leads Frank into her office, where Ryan and Luke are standing in front of her desk.

‘I’m sorry Mr . . . I don’t know your surname?’

‘It’s Wallace, but please call me Frank.’

‘Thank you. Frank, this is Ryan and Luke, they are patients on my ward, and unbeknown to any of us they asked you to come here. I hope you don’t mind but I will need to stay with you, as they are minors. Precocious ones but minors all the same.’

Frank’s face is amused.

‘Of course not. Well, gentlemen, how can I help you?’

‘Let’s just grab some chairs and sit down, we may as well

be comfortable,’ Sandy says, noticing that Ryan and Luke are uncharacteristically tongue-tied. She brings chairs from the side of her office together with the two in front of her desk and forms a circle.

‘OK Ryan, I believe you are going to be doing the talking, over to you.’

Ryan shuffles in his chair before looking directly at Frank. He clears his throat.

‘Firstly, thank you for coming here so quickly, as this is urgent.’

‘It’s about Alex, right?’

‘Yeah, we know Alex because he’s making Jesse’s wish . . .’

‘And we’ve been helping him,’ Luke jumps in.

‘Yeah, we’ve been helping him. Anyway, we know he’s been having some problems with it, something about his boss giving him a hard time, and not being able to do what he wants with your technology . . .’

‘And don’t forget the problems he’s having with Jesse’s dad,’ Luke again chimes in.

‘He’s having trouble with the girl’s father?’ Frank asks, concerned.

Sandy decides it’s time for her to say something.

‘It’s difficult for parents when their children are as sick as Jesse and yes, her father has not been helpful, but I believe they’ve sorted that out. I had a call from Jesse’s father only this morning, and he was full of praise for Alex.’

‘Well, that’s good. So how can I help?’ Frank asks.

‘Is that right, has Jesse’s dad decided he’s OK with her wish now?’ Ryan asks Sandy.

‘I believe so, yes, they’re sorting it out. You better tell Mr Wallace, Frank, what you want him for, I’m sure he’s a busy man,’ Sandy tells the boys.

‘We want you to talk to Alex and tell him he has to keep going and finish the wish, he’s so close. And you have to tell him that you will let him have whatever he needs from your company to make it happen, we – well, Jesse – don’t have much time,’ Ryan blurts out.

Frank leans back in his chair and studies Ryan and Luke. ‘You really care for Jesse, I can tell.’

‘She’s the best, Frank, the absolute best,’ Ryan says, looking Frank squarely in the eyes.

‘We love her,’ Luke adds.

‘Well, I guess I’d better go and have a chat with Alex then.’

‘You mean you will let him finish Jesse’s wish?’ Ryan asks. He needs to be sure that’s what Frank is saying.

‘I’ll tell him he has my blessing, and that he can use TriOptic Studios, the staff and facilities – whatever he needs to make it happen. How does that sound?’

The boys impulsively stand, staring at Frank. ‘You really mean it?’ Luke says.

Frank stands and extends his hand to Ryan and Luke They both shake it vigorously.

‘Thank you, thank you,’ is all Ryan can mutter.

‘No, thank you for getting me here and telling me about your friend Jesse. I’ll go and see Alex now, I think he’s at home, I didn’t see him in the office this morning.’

‘This is so kind of you, Frank. I’ll see you out,’ Sandy says.

‘Bye, boys, I hope to see you again.’

As the door shuts behind Frank and Sandy, Ryan and Luke slump back in their chairs. They can only look at each other and grin.

Max’s barking alerts Alex to a visitor. He opens the door as Frank is raising his hand to knock.

Frank is the type of guy who always looks dishevelled, his stubble unkempt, his hair in need of a comb.

He’s always given Alex the impression that he’s too busy to look after the little stuff, like himself. He’s got bigger things on his plate.

‘Frank, what are you doing here?’ he says utterly surprised.

He hasn’t seen him for weeks.

‘Can I come in?’

‘Yeah, sure, come in. It’s OK, Max, he’s a friend.’

Max leads the way into the kitchen, having decided that’s where the two men should be, in case they’d like to offer him a treat.

‘Can I get you something, coffee? Oh, I don’t have any milk, it will have to be black.’

‘Water will be fine,’ Frank says, sitting down at the kitchen table.

Alex gets Frank a glass of water and sits opposite him. He runs his hands through his hair, making it stand out completely around his head in a mad halo.

‘Look, Frank, I know Ian’s pissed off with me for spending too much time out of the office, but . . .’

‘It’s OK, we’ll get to Ian. I’ve just come from the hospital where I met two young men, I believe you know them: Ryan and Luke.’

‘What! Yes, I know them, what were you doing with them?’

‘I had a call from Ryan this morning, he asked me to come to the hospital to talk to him and Luke about you.’

Not knowing where this is going, Alex involuntarily stands.

‘Sit down, Alex, you’re not in trouble. Somebody else in the office might be, but not you. Now tell me what you’re doing and how I can help.’

Gathering his thoughts, Alex is quiet for a while.

‘You’d better come into my office, it’s confession time.’

Frank follows Alex and Max into his office. As he walks in, he stops, surveying the equipment in front of him, half the monitors are black, others are lit up with images of Jesse.

‘What the hell have you got here?’ Frank asks.

‘Sit down, I’ll show you what we’ve done.’

They both pull chairs up to the monitors and Alex runs the program he and the others have created. It requires no explanation from Alex, this is also Frank’s domain as creator of TriOptic Studios. As the last video finishes and the music fades out, he turns to Alex.

‘And now you need the studio to create the wish.’

‘Yeah, what we’ve got is great, but it needs everyone in the studio to complete it.’

‘Well then, lucky for you we have some time between projects.’

‘You mean it? We can go ahead with your knowledge, not behind your back?’

Frank laughs. ‘You could have come to me, you know?’

‘I’m sorry, I should have, it’s just you gave me a brief to make a game for Jesse, but I’ve gone a bit beyond that.’

‘A bit! You’ve got a bloody feature film here.’

‘Can I show you something I’ve been working on?’

‘Go ahead.’

‘In my own time I’ve been developing a product we could market to the public. It could be made affordable for budding filmmakers and game creators, allowing them to take their projects to the next level.’

‘Let’s see it.’

Alex shows Frank a film he has created using Max. He has him under water in a submersible, flying a light aircraft, running through a forest and emerging in a desert. Real-life Max looks on proudly.

Frank whistles. ‘This could be just what TriOptics needs to keep the wolves from our door. It could subsidise the company in between the big projects. How much do you want for the IP? I can help with marketing and the contacts to get this worldwide.’

‘Make me an offer.’ Alex forces himself to sound more confident than he’s feeling. Half an hour ago, he was waiting for Frank to give him the sack.

‘Seventy-five, twenty-five. You keep seventy-five. I demote that useless son-in-law, and you take over.’

Alex waits for a moment. ‘What do you think, Max?’

Max thumps his tail enthusiastically.

‘You’re asking your dog?’ Frank says.

‘Yeah, he’s never steered me wrong yet.’

‘So, what did he say?’

‘You’ve got a deal with one change.’

‘Name it.’

‘Put Steve in charge. He’s better with people, and everyone listens to him and respects him.’

‘And what do you want?’

‘Call me his deputy if you want to give me a title, he knows I won’t interfere and will accept his leadership.’

Frank extends his hand.

‘I knew my instincts were right when I hired you. Partner.’