WISH

Angel of Music

(Submitted Oct 11, 1999)

"Ellen, it's time to come in now."

Ellen pretended she hadn't heard. She was lying on her back on the lawn, looking up at the stars. How beautiful they were! "Wouldn't it be wonderful," she thought, "to be able to visit them? Betelgeuse of Orion, Vega of the Lyre, Earth's distant sun. And others, galaxies full; too many to name. Someday," Ellen thought, "Ill name them all."

"ELLEN! I shouldn't have to tell you twice!"

Ellen again ignored the call. "Think of the freedom," she mused. "Being able to say, pick a star! Any star! And go there!"

"ELLEN MARY!"

Ellen sighed. "Coming, Mother!" With one last longing look at the heavens, she trudged up the porch steps and into the house.

"Mother?"

Ellen's mother looked up from her knitting. "Yes, dear?"

"Do you think that it's possible to make something happen if you want it hard enough?"   Ellen's mother stopped short. "Well, now, I don't know. Perhaps. Anything is possible if you believe it is." A pause. "What is it you want, dear?"

"Oh, nothing important. I'd better get to bed."

The next night, Ellen slipped out again. The stars shone brightly above her head, and- was it her imagination?- they looked as if they'd been waiting for her. With her face turned upward and her eyes pressed tightly shut, she breathed a wish.

"Ellen!" Ellen's mother called stepping out onto the screen porch. "Where IS that child! I could have sworn she was right here not a minute ago!" There was a sudden rush of breeze from a sky that for days had been pressed into motionlessness by the heavy summer heat, catching her hair and twisting it in frenzied spirals, drawing her attention to the sky. "Just look at those stars!" she exclaimed, marveling at their unusual brightness. "Aren't they lovely!"