Hello, Invisible Friends!  I trust you all had a whimsical and merry Christmas!

We’re back from Shreveport!  Did you miss me?

I know you missed Queen Bitty, of course.

Tomorrow, I’ll fill you on all of our wonderful Christmas adventures.

But today, you get a story.  And it’s not just because I have laundry to do, suitcases to unpack, treadmills to attack and a house to clean.

It’s because it’s just after Christmas and just before New Year’s, which is a magicial time.

A wonderful time.

Next week, our regular tales of Miss Pickles and Dallas Jean will return, along with a brand new NeverEnding Story.

Enjoy….

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It wasn’t the first time she came to the wishing well.  Far from it.

She had been coming to the wishing well since she was five.  And while she came often, during long and lazy summer days when the family was cooking out, crisp fall days when the leaves began to turn, the warm days of spring when the flowers bloomed;  it wasn’t until the winter that she came and made a wish.

And it was always between Christmas and New Years.  Never on the actual day of either holiday.  She wasn’t quite sure why that was.  Maybe it was because she could never escape her family, where the adults always wanted to catch up and the children wanted her to referee games and have tea parties.  Maybe it was because she felt trite wishing on a holiday.  On Christmas, one’s wishing had already been done to Santa and by New Year’s, it seemed greedy to ask for more.

Whatever the case, she always came to the wishing well at this time.  Now that she was grown enough to be on her own, but not grown enough to have her own collection of children and husband in a proper home with a dog and fancy dining room; she only made it out to the family farm once a year.  So instead of just waltzing up to the well, tossing a penny and demanding a wish, she did it right.  While everyone was asleep, the sun just beginning to paint the icy ground, she walked through the woods.  She stepped off the well worn path, cutting around the large oak that had stood guard over the well for hundreds of years.  Hopping over a log, she smiled as she approached the shabby stone well.

“Hello,” she murmured, tucking her hair behind her ears.  “How have you been?”

The frayed rope inside the well swung gently in the icy morning, the invisible bucket dangling below.

“I’ve been well,” she replied, taking a seat on the smooth grey stones and hooking her arm around one of the stone columns.  “My job is fine, graduate school is fine.  I got a puppy–two actually.  Princess and Petunia, two of the sweetest little girls you could ever imagine.  The neighbor’s daughter’s dog had them, they were just giving them away.  They’re Chihuahuas, of course.  The one dog I swore I’d never have.”  She smiled, resting her head against the stone column.  “But one look in those dark eyes, and I was in love.”

She heard a faint dripping below in the well.  Shivering in the cool morning, she continued.  “I still haven’t met him, you know.  The one I always wish for.  But that’s all right.  I’m sure you have your reasons.  That’s not sarcasm, of course.  I have faith.  I’ve always had faith.  You’ve never steered me wrong yet.”  She smiled.  “Remember when I wished for a pony?  Two years later, we would up taking in that miniature pony!  What a jokester you are!  Or the time I wished for a car and wound up with my aunt’s old Mary Kay car, the hot pink one that made sounds like it was blowing kisses when you hit the horn?”

She laughed.  The well water gurgled below.  Tracing her fingers along the worn and frayed rope, she mused, “I don’t know what to wish for this year.”

The water burbled.  “I really don’t,” she insisted, shaking her head.  “The puppies have made me so happy…and I just don’t feel I’m in much of anything.  I have a cute little apartment, friends, family, a decent job and good classes…Love will find me when it’s ready.”

Below, a sound like a stone dropping in the well rang out against the ancient rocks.  The girl shrugged, drawing her sweater tighter around her.

“Maybe there’s one thing…” she whispered.

The water pinged, questioning.

“It’s so silly,” she murmured, her cheeks red from cold or embarrassment.  It was hard to tell.  “It really is ridiculous.”

A splash slapped the well wall.

“It seems so frivolous to waste my wish on it,” she murmured.  “After all, I only make one a year….”

The well was silent.

Throwing back her head in the early morning light, the girl smiled.  Her eyes sparkled.  “I’ll do.  I’ll do it.  I’ll be back next year, anyway.  And besides, I’ll be thrilled to see what you come up with,” she giggled, winking at the well.  Pulling a shiny copper penny out of her pocket, she closed her eyes.  Bringing the penny to her lips, she waited a moment.  Then she threw the penny over her back and whirled around.   She watched as the gleaming penny fell into the dark black well, the tiny copper glint disappearing into blackness.  There was a tiny splash, then silence.

“Merry Christmas and New Year,” she whispered, just as she had every year since she was five.

And then, the joy of a fresh wish fresh in her heart, she skipped all the way home.

Behind her, there was a tiny giggle.  Then silence.

It wasn’t the first time she had been to the wishing well.  And it was far from the last.

Stay tuned, Invisible Friends!  Tomorrow we have a recap of Christmas, Wednesday a delicious recipe and Thursday, New Year’s Resolutions from all the creatures in the Pond!  Stay tuned!