The Playground

Three children sat around it in the damp sand. It was a crude thing, fashioned in a time of stonework and ancient lore. Placed in a precise circle around its exterior, a glowing ring of emerald runes emanated a calm glow in the darkness. It was a stone wheel, not much larger than a saucer. And it was quite heavy, requiring two children to safely haul it from place to place and another to keep watch. In a secluded playground under the wooden play structure, the children stared at the runes while a light drizzle pattered serenely on the structure above. The self-made orphans had brought it here dutifully, preparing themselves for another decision. Twins sat across from each other while their friend sat to the right, forming a semi-circle around the wheel. The park was void at this hour, and was hushed save the light rain falling from a charcoal sky.

They were safe, and would commence their meeting.

“The world hasn’t been exciting enough. We need to make some new discoveries,” the boy suggested. He looked at the twins earnestly with jade eyes that glowed vividly from the emerald runes on the wheel. He had toffee-brown hair and a constant watchfulness.

“Daylan, we can’t keep on doing this,” the smaller twin, Mia, said. “It’s too dangerous.” She sat farthest from the rune wheel and tucked her legs close to her chest. On that summer night, Mia wore a cherry-coloured dress and tattered sandals with cloth rosebuds.

“No,” Mia’s twin protested. “I want a war.”

Daylan shook his head. “It would be better if humans discovered a cure for cancer.”

“Look, we have to finish what we started. We’ve had the green wheel for over a century and still haven’t had a successful war,” the girl insisted.

“But so many people died, Adrianna. We can’t control all the deaths, just the major stuff,” Mia said. She looked down at the wheel with its ethereal light, giving eerie hues to her friends’ faces.

Adrianna had found the stone wheel when she and Mia had run away from their unruly family in the late 19^th century. While travelling through their neighbour’s wooded lot, Adrianna had seen the unearthly glowing runes on the green wheel. Little did she know that this stone wheel would have the power to change humanity in whichever way she pleased. At the time, she had not been able to guess at its power, but had an instant attraction to the mystical runes adorning the wheel. Adrianna had given Mia the honour of hauling it around wherever they went, but when they had met another child runaway, Daylan, he had shared the burden. He too had been intrigued by the green wheel. Living on the outskirts of towns, the children realized two remarkable things: first, that other people paid little or no attention to them, and second, that the three of them did not age. Their minds were filled with more knowledge and experience, yet it was all from the perspective of a child. Daylan had known it was the green wheel’s doing, and the twins had agreed. It offered a strange protection unless Adrianna or Daylan did something too outrageous. And, as children would never wish to die, the orphans protected the wheel as if it were an extension of their bodies. After all, it was now the 21^st century; what would happen to them if they abandoned the wheel?

A few years after the discovery, Daylan had found out that the green wheel had an ability to change things in quite enigmatic ways. He had realized that if he pressed on each of the runes once, making his way around the circle, any wish about humanity would be granted. His realization had been slow, as anything that did not involve the human mind, like weather events or extraterrestrial encounters, were sadly out of reach. Specific wishes were also worthless; it was only the general ones about the flow of humanity that could be granted.

Adrianna, overjoyed, had started World War I with a random desire for Germany to dominate. Mia, after deliberation for fear of her sister, had finally ended it. Despite her twin’s will for a unified world with no countries and conflicts, Mia did not think that combating the world through battle was right. Daylan had guessed that the green stone had a connection with all of the minds of humans, and was thus able to sway their thoughts, giving them ideas and courage that moulded to the children’s wishes. When he had wished for someone to advance the science of the universe, Albert Einstein was born within minutes. When Mia had wished for a cure for weak hearts, and the artificial heart was shortly invented. The only problems were the tenacious ripple effects. Daylan had tried to undo Adrianna’s start of Europe’s “unification,” but when the war started in 1914, it had to last for many more terrible years before Mia’s wish had started to become apparent. With the thoughts of war implanted in peoples’ minds, it was like Adrianna had pushed a colossal boulder down a hill that couldn’t be stopped after the initial push.

“Ever since we discovered the green wheel, we’ve been able to make humanity so much better,” Daylan said. “I was the one who decided that they would invent airplanes, gave them Einstein and his theories of relativity, and led people to the right spot to look for fossilized humans and dinosaurs. But the green wheel knows so much more. We can help the world when people don’t have the knowledge to help themselves.” He touched one of the glowing runes and the blood in his finger lit up spectrally.

“Get your hand off it,” Adrianna ordered.

Daylan reluctantly complied. They had recently agreed that using the green wheel would be a joint process"without a three-way agreement, none of them were allowed to change a thing.

“As I was saying,” Adrianna continued, twirling her tangled flaxen hair. “We need to have a successful war that Mia won’t ruin.” She gave her sister a sidelong glare, with impish indigo eyes that matched her twin’s frightened ones.

Mia frowned.

“She didn’t ruin it,” Daylan exclaimed. “She saved the lives of millions of people. You started World War I and could have learned your lesson.”

“World War II almost worked. The Germans could have taken over the world and there wouldn’t have been a problem if you and Mia hadn’t given the green wheel a different idea.”

“But Adrianna, don’t you care about the innocent people that died in the process?” Mia interjected.

Adrianna sighed, watching the green wheel longingly. “Wars aren’t all that bad.”

Mia buried her head in her dress. She could see how her twin was changing ever since she had found the wheel. Her eyes had flickered with a mystic intrigue that frightened Mia, though she dared not admit it to her twin.

“So I say we wish again. We tell the green wheel something a little different than before. I’ll tell it that we want the whole world to be run by... I don’t know... how about India?” Adrianna proposed.

“India? Why?” asked Daylan.

Adrianna shrugged. “You can choose some other place, as long as there’s another war that will unite the world. But successfully this time.”

“No, let’s go to another planet,” Daylan suggested. “I was the one who found out how the green wheel worked. I should be the one to decide.”

Adrianna pounded her tiny fist in the sand. “I found it in the first place! If it wasn’t for me, there would be no green wheel!”

“And if it wasn’t for Mia lugging it around for years, you wouldn’t have kept it.”

Mia nodded.

“Either way,” Daylan continued, “people are doing many things on their own now. After the green wheel gave them the idea of computers, much more technology has been invented. They’ve come up with so much more after we had the first Russian and then Americans in space, though I still think you should have agreed to let the Americans go first, Adrianna.

“But people are only expanding on the same ideas. Let’s give them new ones.” He swung his legs around to lie on his stomach and looked at the green wheel close up, squinting at the ethereal radiance while kicking his feet back and forth. Adrianna did the same, lowering herself to look into Daylan’s eyes.

“It wouldn’t hurt anyone to give the world more knowledge,” Daylan muttered.

“There would be less killing if we had one big war. It would stop all the little ones,” Adrianna insisted. She grinned at Daylan, but he was focusing on the emerald runes.

“Mia wouldn’t like it,” he murmured.

Mia, huddled away from the green wheel, chimed in. “You wouldn’t like it either, right Daylan?” She trusted Daylan more than she trusted her own sister, but did not know how far he would go in order to advance the world. When he had sneaked into a restaurant in the 1960s, Daylan watched the first man walking on the moon on the television. He was prouder than the president, knowing that this would have probably never happened if he had not asked the green wheel to put humans on another planet.

“No, I don’t want any more wars,” Daylan said.

“Then let’s compromise,” Adrianna stated. Across the wheel, Daylan saw the green light giving her face a lime hue. “We will have a war. Mia will decide who will take over the world, and you will send people all over the universe. Okay?”

Daylan crinkled his nose, but was silent, deliberating.

Adrianna sat back up and waited for his answer. “It will be good in the long run,” she added.

“Then why were you so happy when Communism fell and the Soviet Union was divided? That created more countries and there were lots of people dying,” Mia said.

“That was an exception. The Soviet Union wasn’t any good,” Adrianna said, brushing some damp sand off her dress.

Daylan sat up and crossed his legs. “If I agree, will this be the very last war?” he asked.

“Daylan!” Mia cried, at the verge of tears.

Adrianna nodded to Daylan. “Of course. People might make their own, but we won’t do it.”

Daylan sighed. “Fine.” He glanced at Mia awkwardly, knowing that she would not argue with him. “Which country will rule the world?”

Mia started to cry, envisioning another mass murder that she could have stopped.

“Adrianna might be right. Maybe the world would be better if we had one last war to unite everyone. And with people travelling around the universe, it wouldn’t matter much,” Daylan said.

“Certainly. It would have worked before if you two didn’t foil my plans,” Adrianna blurted.

“While Mia thinks of a country to rule, I’ll start with my request,” said Daylan. Energetically, he tapped each rune and they all glowed much more vibrantly. “I want humans to travel all over the universe soon,” he announced, beaming. The runes returned to a lesser glow as they normally did when a wish was accepted, unlike requests that were too specific where the runes burned brighter until a proper one was supplied.

“So what will it be Mia?” Adrianna demanded.

Mia could not believe it"why had Daylan agreed? Surely this war would be terrible, worse than World War I and II combined. With their agreement, she would not be able to stop it, for Adrianna would surely see her war diminishing and might say something more horrible to the green wheel. Mia also realized that people would start many other wars to rebel, making the “last war” a delusion. Yet she had no choice; Daylan had given his request successfully, and Adrianna was anxiously waiting for hers.

In a fluster, Mia said, “Daylan, you decide. I don’t care.”

 “Pick a place that has never had a big impact on the world,” Adrianna urged him. “The United States is boring; too many places are like them.”

After a brief thought, Daylan said, “How about Turkey?”

“Sure,” Adrianna said. Adrianna had heard very little of Turkey. If asked, she would take many minutes to search for it on a map. “Is that okay Mia?” she asked her twin.

“I don’t care!” Mia cried. She left the play structure and sat on the teeter-totter, isolated in the rain.

Adrianna shook her head in annoyance and immediately tapped the runes as Daylan had done. “I want Turkey to soon conquer the world so everyone will be part of the same country.”

The runes faded, accepting the request. The green wheel will continue to mould human minds.

Reviews

[Kat]

I really like the idea of this. It would make for an interesting Doctor Who episode or something. Kind of has that feel to it. Creepy, slightly alien, and history-altering.

I liked this a lot. I noticed a few mistakes, but otherwise it's awesome.