Wishes

By Emily Miller

In all labour there is profit (Prov. 14:23).

I asked Janie first. She’s my baby-sitter. “How can wishes come true?”

“I can’t tell you,” she answered, returning to her book, “but I wish I had the blue dress in this catalog.”

It was a pretty dress.

“I’m saving my baby-sitting money to buy it,” she added.

I next asked Mom as she left for work, “How can wishes come true?”

“I can’t tell you,” she said, “but I wish the living room would be picked up and vacuumed. After work I must go by the dry cleaners, so I’ll be late.”

When my big brother came home from school, I asked him, “Jack, how can wishes come true?”

“I can’t tell you,” he replied, “but I wish for an A in geometry.”

That afternoon and evening Jack left the television off and worked hard on his geometry.

As soon as Dad came home, I asked him, “How can wishes come true?”

“I can’t tell you,” he answered, “but I wish my good suit was cleaned and pressed. I need it tomorrow.” Looking at Mom’s note saying that she would be late, he started picking up the living room. “Hmmm … it needs the full treatment,” he said. He wheeled out the vacuum cleaner.

“I wish I could ride my bike, now that you took off the training wheels,” I said as he was putting the vacuum cleaner away.

“Come on, I’ll help you practice.”

First he showed me how to stop and get off. Then he gave me some good starts, and I began to get the hang of it.

When Mom came home, she looked around with pleasure at the clean, inviting living room. And the next morning Dad was happy to find his freshly pressed suit in his closet.

That afternoon Janie seemed happy. She had received a birthday check from her grandmother. “In another week I’ll have enough for my blue dress.”

Jack came home, walked right past the basketball hoop he loved to shoot at, and went into his room.

“When’s the test?” I asked.

“Next week. I have three more study sessions.”

A week passed. I practiced every day riding my bicycle in the driveway. I had a skinned elbow, a bruised knee, and a scraped ankle, but I finally mastered the bike.

I was proudly riding it when Janie came by to model her beautiful blue dress for me.

“You look great, Janie,” Jack said as he came down the sidewalk. Then he grinned and waved a geometry test paper with a 94 on it!

How can wishes come true? Figure it out—I did!

Illustrated by Shauna Mooney Kawasaki