Allison always made a wish when it was 11:11, morning or night.

Her father had told her that her dreams would come true if she wished at 11:11, every single day, for thirty days. If it had to be at both times, she didn’t know, but she did know that she couldn’t set an alarm for it or anxiously stare at a clock until it was time because that made the magic work less.

Or so she was told, and happened to believe wholeheartedly.

She didn’t have a lot she wanted to wish for, but every now and then when she thought of something she would like, she would clasp her hands together as if in prayer and wish for that thing to come true. Usually it was for an ice cream or for the rain to come or for an extra nice morning on exam days— and usually it came to fruition without the full waiting period having passed.

She didn’t have to wish for thirty days for her wishes to come true, but she knew it was at its most powerful if she thought on it long and hard for the right amount of time.

Ever the scientist, Allison wanted to test out whether or not her wishes would come true if it was on a larger scale and she started asking for larger and larger things, hoping for more and more out of her never ending wishing.

After a month of trying and trying and nothing to show for her efforts, Allison concluded that the wish only came true if she really wanted it, and seeing as she was only mildly interested in winning the lottery and vaguely aware of the concept of “world peace,” she knew it would have to be something overwhelmingly important to herself.

Those other things would become important to her eventually, she reasoned to herself. But as of right now, not really, not fully.

Allison thought long and hard about what she really wanted when she alighted upon a picture of her and her father taped to her bedroom desk and basking in the moonlight. In the photo she was a little younger, hugging his black bootstraps with her sausagey fingers and standing on his duffel and helmet to make herself taller. He was kneeling down next to her, clean shaven and smiling.

She knew what she wanted to wish for.

The clock hit 11:11 and she put her hands together and furrowed her brow and started sending her wish out into the universe. It couldn’t deny her this one wish, especially because this is what she really wanted beyond anything in the whole world. Her other wishes were just trial runs, she was reasoning. Small wishes to get ready for the big one and this one had to come true for sure.

Eyes closed and nose twitching, Allison repeated her wish over and over and over:

Please bring papa home.