RELEASE DATE: 15 December 2021
Dreams-Come-True Coordinator at the Merriton Pediatric Hospital: an emotional job at the best of times. But with Christmas fast approaching, Andrea needs help even more desperately than usual.
In particular, she needs someone willing to cosplay The Polar Terror, Yukon’s only home-grown supervillain—or super anything, for that matter.
What she gets?
Just a bit more than she expected…
A heart-warming addition to Brooks’s popular Heroes & Villains series that reminds readers that even villains can grant wishes.
Even Villains Grant Wishes
As a cold Yukon wind howled outside, Andrea scrolled through Tumblr—hashtag supervillains—looking for a cosplayer who would fit the bill. Her desktop computer screen was the only glow in the dark office where the scent of chamomile tea and candy canes lingered long after the holiday party had ended.
It was heartbreaking working with the Dreams Come True program at the pediatric hospital. Sure, it was wonderful when she could help the kids make a dream come true, but sometimes… sometimes it was all too much.
Everett Jones was a special one. His parents had been in a car wreck when he was four months old and an improperly fitted car seat had thrown him from the wreckage. It had saved his life—the semitruck behind their car hadn’t been able to stop in time—but it had left Everett broken and orphaned. He’d been in and out of the foster care system until his aunt had graduated from college.
At seven, he should have been okay. But a little cold turned into bronchitis, and then they’d found abnormal growths along the tibia. And then the doctors at Merriton Pediatric Hospital, the premiere children’s hospital in the Yukon Territory, found out that the donor from Everett’s last surgery had not been screened correctly.
The bone cancer was sinking in.
Everett was seven and suicidal.
His adoptive mother was a wreck.
Andrea wanted to do nothing more than make sure Everett had one dream come true. She’d gone to his hospital room with binders, folders, and brochures.
Disneyland. Cruises. The Stanley Cup playoffs. She would make sure he got what he wanted.
And then Everett had asked for the absolutely impossible: a day with the Polar Terror, the only supervillain north of the 66th Parallel.
Andrea glanced at the clock. It was already two in the morning and she had her first meeting tomorrow at eight. Tanya Nothstien from the third floor (burn victims) was meeting with the Whitehorse Huskies and going to three days of hockey training camp, a reward for finally hitting her physical therapy milestone and being able to walk without braces. Tanya had a long road ahead, and at least one more surgery to repair her arm, but she could be a hockey goalie as she was.
The Huskies had even invited her to come play goalie at one of their home games once the season was in full swing.
In the afternoon, Andrea had to meet with the Jenwa family. Three-year-old Doug was terminal. Dreams Come True was getting the whole family together—grandmas and grandpas too—and flying them to Hawaii to celebrate what was expected to be Doug’s last birthday.
Staring unthinkingly at the screen in front of her, Andrea grabbed a kleenex and wiped away the tears.
Tomorrow was going to be rough. She needed sleep. But…
Blurry-eyed, she hit the pencil icon on Tumblr and wrote a post.
WANTED: The Polar Terror for a day of fun and crime with 7yo Everett at the Merriton Pediatric Hospital.
Everett is a sweet boy who has had a bad run of luck. He wants to conquer the mountains with his favorite villain, and maybe rob a candy store.
If you’re available, please email me at: andrea@canada.dreamcometrue.org
She posted it with a sigh and turned the computer off. Yukon Territory was not a geek hub with ten thousand cosplayers. But, who knew? Maybe she’d get lucky and some rich American who could afford his own batmobile would feel like dressing up in traditional Yukon furs and flying up here.