THE WISHING STONE

THE WISHING STONE

 

Once upon a time there lived a little girl named Brianna. She was six years old and had just started first grade. She loved her teacher. She loved her mommy. She loved her daddy.  She also loved her little yellow room in the cute little white house on the hill. One thing she didn't love was her three older brothers. They were mean!

 

Her twelve year old brother, Shawn, was tall and skinny with dark hair and big brown eyes like her. He was mean, but in a sneaky way. He would wait until her parents' backs were turned then do things like pull her hair.

 

When she would cry and fuss, he would say "I didn't do anything." With those big, innocent, puppy dog eyes, of course her parents would believe him.

 

Her nine year old brother, Rory, was in fourth grade. He was tall and medium sized with red hair and big green eyes like her daddy. He loved to make her mad by saying mean things. Most of all he liked to call her names.

 

        "Brianna." He would call.

 

       She would say "What?"

 

       "Chicken butt!" he would yell and then start laughing as she frowned and stomped her little foot at him. He loved to talk and if there was a way to be mean by using words, Rory would find it.

 

Seven year old brother, Parker, had blonde hair and blue eyes just like her mommy. He was the meanest of all. He was just slightly taller than her, and she was fairly tall for her age. He liked to eat and was definitely wider than she was. He would take her things and find mean creative things to do to them.  One doll was found missing an arm, Parker said it was because there was a war and his transformer knocked it off.

 

At night she would cry herself to sleep all the while wishing her brothers had never been born. More than anything she wished she were an only child.

 

One night, after she cried herself to sleep, through the open window came a soft breeze and with it what would have looked to anyone else's eyes like a lightning bug. Brianna felt a whisper in her ear. It tickled and she opened one eye as she lifted her hand to brush it away. Instead she saw a face no bigger than her little thumb staring into her one open eye.

 

       She jerked upright dragging the covers up to her chin as the little creature clung to the violently moving blanket. The poor thing turned green.

 

       "Who are you?"  She whispered half scared and half fascinated.

 

       In a tiny, high voice the creature said, "I am the Wish Fairy. I come at the sound of weeping children to give them wishes that will make them smile again."

 

       "Oh." said Brianna not really knowing what else to say. She now noticed the small twinkling see-thru wings on the fairy. In her hand, the fairy held a wand. The tip of the wand was made up of diamonds arranged in the shape of a tear drop. While the fairy did nothing more than stare at her, questions began flitting through Brianna's head.

 

       "I get wishes?  How many?" Brianna whispered again this time so she would not wake anybody else.

 

       "You only get four. Here's the rules; one, you can't wish for more wishes. Two, you can't wish someone to get hurt. Three, I am not a warehouse so no unlimited supplies of chocolate, wishes or anything else. Four, this is the last rule, be very careful what you wish for. There are no wish exchanges."

 

       "Four, but I thought most fairies only give three?"

 

       The Wish Fairy frowned. "If you want three, then I'll give you only three. My policy is always four."

 

       "No, four is great!" Brianna said quickly, not wanting to lose a wish.

 

       "All right, well let's get this started because I have many more crying children to visit tonight." The fairy hopped down to Brianna's pillow where curiously there lay four of Brianna's tears sparkling like diamonds in the moonlight streaming through the open window.

 

       The fairy touched the tears with her wand, one by one and each became solid. The four sparkling stones rose above the pillow then spun around faster and faster until they stuck together then fell to the pillow looking curiously like a regular stone from the garden.

      

       "Now, don't lose this stone. Each time you make a wish, one tear will disappear and the stone will get smaller." The Wish Fairy smiled kindly and tapped Brianna's head. "Now sleep. You have a lot to think about."

 

       Brianna held the rock tightly in her fist and drifted off to dream land.

 

In the morning, Brianna woke up to see Shawn about to poke her.

 

       "You're awake. Mom sent me to get you. Get ready for school." He bossed and then poked her. He laughed when she yelped.

 

       "Shawn! You're so mean!" She yelled at him while he was leaving. She quickly got up and dressed. Without thinking about it, she put the stone in her pocket. Brianna was a neat person so getting ready for school was easy because she had her clothes picked out and her room cleaned the night before. However, getting ready in the morning was not so easy for her messy brothers.

      

       Once she was dressed, her mom put pretty ponytails in her hair while she ate breakfast.  After breakfast it was off to the bus stop. Mommy and Daddy said it was Shawn's job to walk her to the bus stop since she was only a first grader and he was a sixth grader.  Rory and Parker would just run ahead so they could play with their friends for a little bit until the bus came.  Shawn's friend, Malcolm, was waiting at the bus stop when Brianna and Shawn walked up.

 

       "Hey, look it's a horse." Shawn chuckled to Malcolm as he grabbed both of Brianna's ponytails in his hands and shook them like reins.

 

       "Stop!" Brianna screamed as she jerked her head away while Shawn hung on a little too tightly. Her eyes started to fill with tears because it hurt.

 

       "Oh, come on. Stop crying, I didn't hurt you." Shawn walked over to where Malcolm stood leaving Brianna standing by herself.

      

"I hate you, Shawn Drew Bennett!" She yelled at him feeling the hard, stone in her pocket.

 

She rubbed it hard, trying to rub all her madness into it. "I wish you'd never been born!" As soon as she said that her brother farted loudly and blew up into the air. He made the same sound as a balloon makes when someone lets go of it and all the air escapes. He just got smaller and smaller like a balloon losing air until he disappeared with a *POP*.

 

Brianna stared at the place where Shawn popped with her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide. She looked over at Malcolm to see his face, but he was busy watching the approaching bus.

 

       "Malcolm? Shawn just popped. Did you see it?"

 

       Malcolm looked at her dumbly, "Shawn who?"

 

       "My brother? He's in sixth grade with you? Duh!" Brianna said.

 

       "You don't have a brother in sixth grade." He stated, shaking his head and walking away muttering, "Crazy kid," under his breath.

 

Brianna got on the bus, feeling very confused by what she had seen. During the ride, she thought about what she had wished for and felt the stone in her pocket shrink. When she took her hand out of her pocket, it was wet.  

 

That day after school she ran up the path from the bus stop to home. She burst through the door to see her mother standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes. "Mommy, Mommy. Shawn's disappeared!"  Her mother turned and looked at her funny.

 

"What are you talking about?  Shawn's right there in his cage.  You need to get him another mouse to eat."

 

       Brianna looked over at the bookcase. On the bookcase was a large tank and when she looked inside, she saw a long, slender, black snake.  Big shivers went down her back, she hated snakes.  After making sure the lid was very tightly fastened. She tried to tell her mother about her son, Shawn, but Mommy acted as if he had never existed as anything other than a snake. Instead of being convinced that Shawn had been her son the day before, Mommy made her finish washing the dishes which had been Shawn's job.

 

The next day she woke up to Rory yelling at her. "Get up poop head. Mom says get your butt out of bed and get ready for school."

 

       She growled at his back as he left the room. "Grrrrr."

 

Mom reminded Rory to walk Brianna to the bus. Instead of walking her to the bus though, Rory started running ahead to meet up with his friends.

 

       "Mom said you had to walk me to the bus stop!" She shouted.

 

"I'm not walking with any stupid little baby." Rory yelled back as he caught up with his friends.

 

Brianna felt tears start to fill up her eyes. A few traced their way down her cheek.  When she got to the bus, Rory was playing tag with his friends. One of the friends, Jimmy, ran up to her.

"Give me your lunch money now or I'll punch you in the head."

 

       "No!" She said looking to Rory, but he was too busy playing to notice.

 

She looked around for Shawn, because he usually protected her from the bullies.  Then she remembered what had happened the day before and that Shawn was no longer there. Jimmy shook his fist in her face that scared her and made her cry. She pulled the lunch money out of her pocket and handed it to Jimmy. He laughed as he said "Thanks" then ran back to playing tag. She tried to walk over to where Rory was playing.

 

       "Jimmy just stole my lunch money." she told Rory sniffling.

 

"Right, you probably just lost it, quit trying to be a goody two shoes just to get other people in trouble." He said.

 

"I hate you, Rory Lee Bennett" She shouted then sat on the ground rubbing the little rock in her hand as hard as she could "I wish you'd never been born."

 

All of a sudden to her surprise, Rory farted very loudly and blew away like a balloon losing its air. Finally, when he was so far away she could barely see him he just went *POP*. She looked around to see if anybody was watching. Everyone continued to play as if nothing had happened. She found Parker throwing rocks into the little pond next to the bus stop.

 

"Parker, Parker" She ran toward him "Did you see what just happened? Rory just farted, blew away and then popped."

 

Parker looked at her "Who's Rory?"

 

"Your older brother, he's nine?" she tried to remind him.

 

"That's crazy. Rory, our parrot, is at home in his cage. I know because I fed him just this morning."

 

Just then the bus pulled up. Brianna put the rock which was slightly wet now in her pocket and headed off to school.

 

That afternoon when Brianna got home, she saw a note from her mother. Parker read it to her

 

"Brianna, Please wash the dishes, clean your room, take out the trash and feed the animals. Also, you need to clean their cages. Love, Mommy"

 

 Not only did she have to do Shawn's job of washing the dishes, but now that Rory was gone she had to take out the trash. She'd never have any time to play. She sat down on the front porch steps with her head in her hands feeling very tired thinking about it.  Mommy got home just as Brianna was finishing the last chore.  She was so tired that all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and have Rory read her a bedtime story like he did every night. Unfortunately, Rory had farted and blew away that day. She sat down on her bed and feeling so very sad. She tried to look at the pictures and make out the words but it just wasn't the same. She fell asleep with the magic rock, which was now half its size, curled in her fist and tears on her cheek.

 

The next day Brianna woke up to a large crash and looked just in time to see Parker jumping on her little table that had matching chairs. The table's legs gave way and cracked in half under Parker sending him tumbling and laughing to the floor.

 

“Parker Alan Bennett, you broke my table. I hate you! I wish you had never been born!" She said rubbing her magic rock still cradled in her hand, for she now slept with it.

 

No sooner had the words left her mouth and Parker farted loudly making that same balloon noise as he flew around the room. He got smaller and smaller until *POP* he was gone. The rock in her hand was little more than a pebble. There was no one in her room to ask if they had seen Parker fly away, but she was pretty sure if there had been they wouldn't have seen anything.

 

"Brianna!" Her mom hollered up the stairs "Hurry and get ready the bus will be here soon."

 

Even though her clothes were laid out, she took twice as long to get ready. While she dressed, she thought about what it was going to be like to be an only child. When she finally made it downstairs, she got brave enough to ask Mommy if she had seen Parker.  Mommy just pointed to a cage sitting in the corner of the living room where sat a fluffy hamster running in its little exercise wheel. She laughed a little at the thought of Parker as a hamster but then suddenly became a little sad. 

 

The rest of the day was horrible after that. She barely made it on time to the bus. Someone tripped her as she got on the bus and there was no Shawn to protect her.  At school, she lost her lunch money on the ground and a big third grade boy pulled her hair at recess.  When she got home, she not only had to take care of Shawn, the snake; Rory, the parrot and Parker, the hamster, but she also had a list of chores to do that her brothers had usually done.  By the time, bedtime rolled around she was exhausted.  Mommy must have been exhausted, too, because she fell asleep on the couch and wasn't able to read Brianna a bedtime story. Tears rolled down Brianna's face as she brushed and flossed. She missed Rory's stories. They made a bad day better.

 

As she walked over to climb into bed, she heard a pop and looked down to see that she had stepped on her favorite Barbie. She picked up Barbie's head in one hand and the body in the other. She headed toward Parker's room to have him fix it, because no matter how often he broke her things, he had always been there to fix them afterwards.  Halfway there, she remembered that he had blown away earlier and there was no one left but her.  She climbed into her little princess bed clutching the magic pebble. Falling to sleep, she whispered "I really do miss my three brothers. I wish they were here."

 

The next morning she woke up. Something was missing!  She opened her hand where the pebble had been and it was gone. She felt all around her pillow, but there was only a wet spot. She looked under the bed, but all she saw were a few dust bunnies. 

 

"What are you doing, dork wad?" came a voice from the doorway. She looked and there stood Rory, no longer a parrot.  She laughed and ran to hug him.

 

"What's wrong with you, kiddo?" Rory said a little less mean as he patted her back.

 

She shrugged "I just missed you is all. Is Parker here?"

 

"Of course, why wouldn't he be?" He looked at her with an odd expression on his face

 

"He's not a hamster is he?" She asked a little worried.

 

"No, what WERE you looking for under the bed? Your brain?"  He laughed and ran off downstairs.

 

 Instead of getting angry at his words, she just smiled and ran to find Parker. She found Parker in his room with glue and her table. He bit his lip as he concentrated on using glue to fix her table legs. He looked up as he realized she was standing there.

 

"Hey, sis, I'm really sorry I broke your table, but look I fixed it." He displayed her table now in only one piece instead of five. She ran over to him and kissed him on the head.

 

He blushed "What's that for?"

 

"For fixing my table and because I'm really glad you're my brother."

 

He hugged her back "I'm really glad you're not mad at me anymore."

 

"See you downstairs" She said over her shoulder as she skipped out the door. She ran downstairs and skipped into the kitchen where Shawn sat at the table pouring a bowl of cereal.

 

"Shawn" She squealed with delight.  "I'm so happy to see you. Will you walk me to the bus stop and protect me today?"

 

"Of course, don't I always?" He grumped.

 

Brianna smiled and ruffled his hair as she sat down to breakfast. Soon all three of her brothers were seated at the table eating breakfast. She looked around the table at all three of them.

 

"I love you, guys" She beamed with joy.  She decided then and there she would never again wish she didn't have any brothers. After all who would do some of the chores so she didn’t have to do them all?

 

And they all lived happily (most of the time) ever after….THE END