“Go on, then,” the Bird Lady said.
Natasha gazed up, but she couldn’t see the sky. The willow branches were too thick. She gazed at the Bird Lady, but the Bird Lady was gone. Natasha frowned and touched the willow’s trunk. Its bark was solid and real beneath her fingers.
She stepped away and pushed through the canopy of leaves. She walked down the steep hill. Slowly at first, but then more quickly as Aunt Vera kept calling.
“I’m coming!” she called back.
She stopped at the wooden swing, which Mama had loved. She thought for a long moment, and then she knelt by her backpack, which waited on the ground where she’d left it. She fished out a pen and a scrap of paper.
Come home, she wrote.
She folded the note into a neat square, kissed it for luck, and wedged it into the knotted rope at the base of the swing.
Please? she added silently.
She breathed in the night air and listened to the night noises. She thought about magic. Then she slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed toward the warmth of the house.
I wish for all of it.
—THE BIRD LADY, ALWAYS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Bookmaking is a magical process, and so much pixie dust was blown onto this one that I’m dazzled by its shimmer. Thank you to Edward Eager, Eleanor Estes, and E. Nesbit for cementing my conviction that what appears to be ordinary rarely is, and thanks to my parents for putting those authors’ books (and so many others) into my eager little-girl hands. Thanks, too, for not being ordinary parents in the slightest—a compliment I extend to my entire glorious, messy family. Since this is a novel about sisters, I especially thank Susan, Mary Ellen, and Eden for being born and being awesome. Without y’all, I would neither be a sister nor know the secrets sisters share.
Thanks to everyone at HarperCollins who breathed life into this project: Kate Jackson, Susan Katz, Suzanne Murphy, Amy Ryan, Bethany Reis, Lauren Flower, Alana Whitman, Ro Romanello, Stephanie Hoover, Patty Rosati, and Molly Motch. Also, a wide-eyed and bashful thank-you to Katherine Tegen. I’m honored to have been granted passage into your world.
Thanks to Barry Goldblatt and Tricia Ready, whose magic is crazy powerful, because no way would I get the boring stuff like signing contracts and paying taxes done without y’all. Plus, you keep me afloat, and when people throw stones at me (because they sometimes do), you hug me and tell me all will be well, and then you make it so. You amaze.
Thanks to my writing buddies, especially Emily Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Bob. Good heavens, y’all keep the fairy tale alive.
Huge sloppy “thank you”s to Anica Rissi for trusting me with this box of wishes, to Alex Arnold for helping me sort them out, and to Claudia Gabel for stepping forward at the end and wrapping things up with an elegant French ribbon. I am fortunate beyond belief, and I know it.
Al, Jamie, Maya, Mirabelle, and Alisha—thanks for being my kids and for letting me into your lives. All my best material comes from y’all.
And Randy? You are my wish come true. I love you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by Randy Bartels
When LAUREN MYRACLE was thirteen, she spent hours lying on her bed, staring at the cracks on her ceiling and wishing so hard to be magic. She wanted to bend spoons with her mind, talk to her sister telepathically, and rearrange her molecules so she could walk through walls. She wanted fairies to leave gumdrops on her windowsill. She wanted well-known paths to unexpectedly lead to mystical lands and times. She also wished she would grow up to become a writer—and that part came true! (Which is not to say the other parts didn’t. . . .) She’s written many books for tweens and teens, including the bestselling Winnie Years series and the Flower Power series. She lives with her family in Colorado, and she thinks life is the most magical adventure of all. You can find her online at www.laurenmyracle.com.
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BOOKS BY LAUREN MYRACLE
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Thirteen Plus One
The Fashion Disaster That Changed My Life
The Flower Power series
ttyl
ttfn
l8r, g8r
yolo
Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks
Shine
Kissing Kate
The Infinite Moment of Us
CREDITS
Cover art © 2016 by Julie McLaughlin
COPYRIGHT
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
WISHING DAY. Copyright © 2016 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
ISBN 978-0-06-234206-5
EPub Edition © April 2016 ISBN 9780062342089
16 17 18 19 20 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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