The Wish From Heaven | ✓

chapter 13 : what we're afraid of

"I kinda brought it to school just to show it to you, but you're really giving more importance to frickin Geography?" Edgar asks, shaking his head in disbelief.

"If you would just let me skip the opening theme song, I would love to see it," I reply solemnly. He's been only talking about how precious it is to him for the past five minutes.

"Don't call it that!" he protests, "I'm just nervous! I haven't shown this to anyone but my sister."

"I wonder how I earned this privilege," I say, forcing a smile.

"Your fake smile is fucking ugly." He takes a deep breath and looks around him to make sure no one is watching, though I'm pretty sure there wouldn't even be a ghost interested in whatever he is about to show me in that diary. "Okay, here we go." He leans closer and opens the diary to the first page.

"Edgar's Phobia Journal?" I read the words written in bold calligraphy with a frown. Though the name is lame, I find myself to be instantly interested.

"That's right!" He grins, and turns to the next page. On top of the left page, Glossophobia is written, and below it is a cartoon illustration of a boy standing before a mic, sweating and panicking in front of a crowd. Fear of public speaking.

On the next page, a bunch of facts about the phobia is written beside bullet points. Some of them were quotes, perhaps from glossophobic people themselves.

"This is so cool," I say, really meaning it.

"Really? You think so?" he asks, sounding irrationally happy.

I nod. "I didn't know you were that good in drawing."

"Oh no, of course I am not. My sister drew them. Her name is Elysia."

"Oh, I see. Can I take a look?"

"No!" he replies immediately, as if on impulse. I raise my eyebrows at him. He shakes his head and says, "No, I mean, yes, you can." He hands the thick diary to me. I close the Geography book and start turning through the pages.

"You have all these names memorized?" I ask.

"Yeah, except the name for the phobia of long words and the number 666. I feel lazy even reading them out. Anyways, I found some more new ones and I am going to make a new diary for those. I want to discover more peculiar phobias and interview people with various fears to get to know some unique facts. So I have decided that I will first save up a lot of money and then start travelling the world interviewing people and at the end of my journey I will write a book about all my discoveries."

"Traveling the world takes a lot of money..."

"That's why I am hanging out with your rich ass."

"Huh?" I give him an incredulous look.

"It's a joke, idiot. I'd cut off all my hair if we remain in contact after high school. Anyways, about the journal, I arranged them from the most common and well-known ones in the begining and the uncommon and peculiar ones at the end, since there kinda isn't much info available on those. This is why the more people I interview the more I have a chance of knowing more. You know, the peculiar ones are really fun! There is a phobia for palindromes, which means—"

"Words spelled the same backwards."

"Forgot for a second that you are a nerd. Anyways, the phobia for palindromes is called Aibohphobia, which is a palindrome itself." He bursts into laughter. "There is a phobia of long words, which itself is a reaaaallyyyy long word. The irony! And there's a phobia for phobias, named Phobophobia. There's even a fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. And then there is one for..."