My Magical Mystery Button

Since the moment I noticed it, the mystery button had been a great, magical button that could brighten my whole day. I was hesitant to push it, unsure if I wanted to know what it did, or if I was even allowed to know. I wondered for days if it was something I was allowed to touch and, if I did, what it would do. Maybe it didn’t do anything at all. But I refused to believe that. I stared at it and struggled with the urge to reach out and press it. It was the only way to find out what it did instead of sitting here contemplating the mystery. 

Then, one day, out of nowhere, the button had the power to deliver a massive banana split topped with chocolate, caramel, peanuts, whipped cream, and even a cherry with just a single press. That banana split was exactly what I needed and the button could give it to me. I decided that it was the best button on the planet just for that. A banana-split button! What a genius idea! 

For a week or so, all the button had the power to do was deliver banana splits. Not that I was complaining. They were incredible banana splits and I was thrilled to have a button that could bring me ice cream on demand. I thought I was in heaven and the button was a part of the experience. But it only got better from there. One day, instead of delivering the banana split to me, the button was able to deliver me to the best ice cream parlor in the world, with the best banana split in the world. The parlor was apparently in some European city. At least that was my guess since I didn’t understand a word the people around me were saying. And when I looked around, the buildings were breathtaking. It looked exactly like I pictured Europe from the pictures I had seen. The button would let me spend all day there, eating ice cream and taking in the scenery. I could even wander the city and take in the sights. It was like a dream come true, but better. 

The button would let me return to that ice cream parlor any day I wanted and for days I did just that. Then, one day, the ice cream parlor was old news. This time, the button had a new power to transport me to a white-sand beach, surrounded by people frolicking in pure joy. With a single push of a button, I could be transported to a game of touch football with beautiful strangers and feel the ocean rushing over my feet as I ran the ball up the coast. The button’s power included the ability to only take me to a beach with perfect weather and happy, kind people so I could have a perfect day every day. 

As time passed, I grew exhausted and the journeys started to become too much for me. One day, I didn’t think I could take the button’s gifts at all. But somehow, the button knew I was tired and found a new way to put me in a happy place. A single press would transport me to a private theater, watching my favorite show, Brooklyn 99, with Andy Samberg himself. And the button must’ve done its research because Andy Samberg was just as cool and funny in person as he is on screen. We could barely watch the show because we were talking so much. Luckily, we’ve both seen it countless times. It was another perfect day.

I didn’t think the button could top itself, but after a while, it took my adventure a step further. A single press and I’d become John McClane himself, living out the plot of Die Hard with all the abilities to carry out the impossible, just as he did. I was a badass and a hero. I could do anything. It was unbelievable. A button on my wall and it could take me on adventure after adventure with a single touch, giving my life the adventure I so needed. It provided me an escape from my own depressing life. 

As time went on, the button could take me anywhere, make me anyone. The limit was my imagination. I would look at the button and know that with a single push, I’d be transported to paradise and the best part was that paradise changed every day. It was an incredible button. 

Then, today, it all came crashing down. I was staring at the button, thinking about what it might have in store for me today when my sister came in. “What does that do?” she asked. “I never know,” I answered, still staring. “Well let’s find out then,” she said, reaching for the button that could make all my dreams come true with a single push. A button that could do anything, take me anywhere. But not if she pushed it. “NO!” But I was too late. She’d already pressed it.

By the time the nurse came in to respond to the call button, I was hysterical. The nurse tried to get the problem from my sister, but she genuinely didn’t know what had me so upset. I couldn’t compose myself enough to form actual words, and even if I could I didn’t have the words to explain what my sister had just done. 

Before, I’d had a mystery button that could do anything, take me anywhere. I had never pressed it, but I would look at it and think of all the amazing places it could take me, the escapes it could offer me. It was an endless list of possibilities that button could offer me. But with a single push, a tiny press, it had lost all its power. More nurses gathered as I sobbed, trying to discern what was wrong with me, besides the obvious. Through the tears, I could see the blurry forms all staring at me wondering what was so wrong with my sister pushing a nurse-call button. They couldn’t understand that this morning, I had a button with endless potential. A button that could take me anywhere, that could make me anyone. This morning there was an escape just waiting for me to push it. Now I’m stuck here in this hospital bed, dying, and the only button I have is a goddamn nurse-call button. A nurse can’t take me out of this hospital bed, a nurse can’t make me healthy, and a nurse certainly can’t make me someone else. With a single press, my sister stole my escape.