“I want a man… I want a man…”

He peeked in. His mother was asleep, rolling from side to side, the sheets tangled around her, a light sheen of sweat on her forehead. Her hands reached out, grasping at nothing.

“I want a man…” she murmured again, still deep in sleep.

Ah Bing got his water and went back to bed, thinking nothing of it.

Chapter 2

Three days later, his mother brought Uncle Chan home.

“Ah Bing, this is Uncle Chan. He’ll be joining us for dinner.”

Uncle Chan smiled and ruffled Ah Bing’s hair.

That night, and several nights after, Ah Bing heard strange sounds from his mother’s room. Laughter. Bed frame creaking. Once, something that sounded like his mother’s voice but… different. Higher. Happier than he usually heard her.

Ah Bing lay in his bed, thinking.

His mother had talked in her sleep about wanting something. Now she had it. Uncle Chan appeared, just like that, within days.

Maybe… maybe that’s how it worked?

The next night, after his mother tucked him in, Ah Bing waited until he heard her bedroom door close. Then he started practicing.

He gripped his hands in front of him like he was holding bicycle handlebars. He rolled from side to side in his bed, getting the sheets tangled around his legs.

“I want a bicycle,” he whispered.

Then louder: “I want a bicycle!”

He rolled until his hair went damp. His small voice carried through the thin apartment walls.

“I want a bicycle! I want a bicycle!…”

This went on for three nights.

Chapter 3

On the fourth night, Mei Ling came home late from her second job. It was past ten o’clock, well after Ah Bing’s bedtime. She was exhausted, ready to collapse.

Then she heard it.

A small, determined voice from Ah Bing’s room:

“I want a bicycle… I want a bicycle…”

She opened his door quietly. Her son was asleep but restless, rolling side to side, hands gripping invisible handlebars, hair damp with sweat.

“I want a bicycle…” he murmured, eyes closed, completely lost in his dream.

Mei Ling stood there for a moment, watching him.

How many nights had he been doing this?

The next morning, she used the money she’d been saving for a new phone and bought him a bicycle, bright red, with training wheels she could remove later.

That night, the bicycle sat beside his desk like something holy.

Ah Bing fell asleep smiling. He’d figured it out.

If you wanted something badly enough, if you dreamed hard enough about it, it would come true.

He drifted off wondering what, exactly, he should dream for next.