Maybe He Could

“You need a wish.”

Buttons looked up from the campfire, at Jacke. Behind him, stripes of pink and gold were just fading from the cloudless twilight sky. The breeze played with the tassels on his vest and swept his messy brown hair this way and that.

“What?”

“You need a wish. From the king of crows.”

Silence from the whole group. Jacke rolled his eyes.

“Look.” The boy said, leaning forward, “You said you’re missing something, right? You’ve lost something? Why not find the king of crows and ask him for it?”

Sira waved her arms in her wild way, pointing at Jacke and buttons, eyes jumping back and forth between them. “Yes! You should! It would be fun.”

“Um. Well, I don’t think—”

“While we’re on the topic of what you’re missing," Sira continued, "what exactly are you missing?”

Buttons looked back at the flames. “It’s complicated.”

“How complicated?”

“Pretty complicated. Maybe not as complicated as I think, but…”

Jacke nodded. “Yeah, things are pretty simple here. Was it an item? Keepsake of some sort?”

Buttons grasped the wispy fabric of her spotted cape, drawing it tighter around her even though it did nothing to keep out the cold. Her foot tapped the padded ground at an increasing rate. The wind seemed to pick up, sending sparks up into the dark. Sira grimaced and turned her head as a cloud of smoke drifted in her direction.

“No,” Buttons said after a long moment, “It wasn’t.”

Shadows shifted on Jacke’s face as his brow furrowed.

“It was something more important,” Buttons said before he could make another guess. “I don’t want to speak of it.”

Realization dawned on his face. He looked like he might say something, but stopped himself.

“Does it have to do with your buttons?” Sira asked.

Jacke picked up a stick and stirred the coals. “Sira, let’s not talk about it—”

“No, it’s fine.” Buttons said. “It doesn’t really have to do with my buttons. And I don’t know if even the king of crows could help me.”

Sira scooted closer to Buttons. “But maybe he could?”

“Maybe he could.”

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