One night, Ben woke to an unfamiliar sound. Cell phone. His groggy mind walked through his programmed alerts, but none of them registered. Frowning, he fumbled for the elusive device, finally capturing it from his nightstand, while squinting at the blurry clock readout. Jesus! Two o’clock!

“Hello?”

“Benjamin Aesop?”

He didn’t recognize the female voice, with the heavy Jersey accent.

“Uh, yeah. Who is this?”

“This is your Fairy Godmotha. You can call me Adrian.”

“Oh, okay. Adrian?”

“Yeah?”

“Screw you!” He snapped the phone closed, but it rang again instantly.

How the hell? “Who is this?”

“Ben, look at your feet.”

“Huh?”

“For heaven sakes, look at your damn feet.”

Ben frowned, pulling his blanket aside revealing huge bird feet, complete with talons. He screamed.

“What the hell have you done to me? Arrrrgghh!?”

“Ben? Ben, relax! Okay, they’re back.” Adrian laughed. “Sheez, bet you’d have fun tryin’ ta get socks on those babies, huh?” She chuckled some more.

Ben was choking, trying to catch his breath. He examined his restored toes, sweat pouring from his body.

“What, …what do you want?” he finally managed.

“One wish.”

“Huh?”

“You get one wish.”

He forgot his feet for the moment. “Wait, don’t I have to rub a bottle, or somethin’?”

“Nah, that’s old stuff. Computers.”

“What?”

“Random drawings. Lottery. You need to get with it, Ben.”

“Oh. So how’s this work?”

“Make a wish. Go back to sleep, and when you wake up, your wish will come true .   Gotta run.” Click.

He double checked his feet. Good.

He dozed off about four.

He woke up at ten, confused and disoriented.

I wish I could remember what the hell happened.

Ben is still screaming.