Three Wishing Tales

by Ruth Chew

  The cliffs were farther away than they seemed. Christopher and Meredith rowed for more than an hour before they came close to them. They went along the shore looking for a place to land.

  On the other side of a pile of rocks Meredith steered the silver boat into a little inlet. They rowed between vine-covered banks until the inlet widened into a lagoon. A white beach shaded by palm trees curved along one side of it.

  “This is a great place to go swimming. Help me get the boat onto the beach, Chris.” Meredith pulled off her shoes and socks and stepped out of the boat.

  Christopher took off everything but his undershorts and jumped into the warm water. He dog-paddled around the boat. Then he helped Meredith drag it up onto the sand.

  Christopher ran over to one of the palm trees. “Guess what I found!”

  Meredith was still holding onto the boat. Now she let go of it. At once it started to shrink. A moment later Meredith couldn’t see the boat anymore.

  Christopher came running over with a big coconut. “What are you doing?”

  Meredith was on her hands and knees in front of a pile of clothes and shoes.

  “Where’s the boat?” Christopher looked around for it.

  Meredith picked up a shoe and shook it. She put it down on the sand apart from the other clothes. Then she felt in the pockets of Christopher’s shirt. She laid it on top of the shoe when she had finished. Meredith looked through each piece of clothing and then moved it from one pile to the next. At last there was only one blue sock left in the first pile. “Cross your fingers, Chris.”

  Christopher crossed his fingers and held his breath. He watched Meredith squeeze the sock. There was nothing in it. Meredith laid the sock on top of the rest of the clothes.

  “Look!” Christopher pointed to something shiny that was almost buried in the sand.

  Meredith reached for it. “Juan Pablo!” She held the magic coin against her cheek. “I was afraid it was just another pop-top,” she told Christopher.

  “He must have gotten tired of being a boat,” Christopher said. “I’m glad he’s still with us.”

  Meredith put the coin deep in the pocket of her jeans. “Where’d you find the coconut, Chris?”

  “There are a lot on the ground under those trees. I wonder how we can get it open,” Christopher said.

  “Give it to me.” Meredith put the coconut on a flat rock. She started to pick up a large stone. It was too heavy for her to lift.

  Christopher grabbed one end of the stone. Together they held it over the rock. “One, two, three, wham!” Christopher said.

  Crack! The coconut split in two. A sticky juice splashed across the rock and spurted onto the two children. They set the stone on the ground.

  Meredith dipped her fingers in the juice inside one of the pieces of coconut. She sucked them. “Not bad.”

  Christopher started to drink the juice out of the other piece of coconut.

  It was a different sort of picnic and rather messy. Their faces were sticky from dipping them into the coconut shells. When they’d eaten all they wanted, Meredith said, “Let’s go swimming. It’s an easy way to get our faces washed.”

  She took off her shirt and her jeans and put them in the pile of clothes on the beach. She checked to make sure the silver coin was safe in her pocket. Then, wearing her undershirt and pants, she waded into the blue water of the bay.

  Christopher splashed in after her.

  The water was so clear that they could see their feet on the white sand. A school of bright-colored little fish swam around Meredith’s ankles. She waded until the water was above her knees. Then she started to swim.

  Swimming always seemed like flying to Meredith. She rolled over and drifted along on her back.

  Christopher was swimming underwater. He came up for air. “I’ll race you to that big rock in the water.”

  Meredith turned back onto her stomach and swam toward the rock. Christopher got to it first. He climbed up and sat next to the bush. Meredith pulled herself out of the water and lay down in the sun.

  The rock was smooth and warm. Meredith closed her eyes. Christopher stretched out next to her. Both of them fell fast asleep.

  When Meredith opened her eyes it was very dark. For a moment she didn’t remember where she was. She looked up at a sky that seemed to have more stars than she had ever seen in her life. And she could hear the waves slapping against the rock.

  Christopher was curled up beside her on the rock. Meredith reached over and touched his shoulder. “Chris, wake up!”

  Christopher sat up and stretched. “It’s late! We’d better go home.”

  “Mother must be worried.” Meredith stood up. Her eyes were getting used to the darkness. She could see the white beach gleaming in the starlight.

  “What did you do with Juan Pablo?” Christopher asked.

  “He’s in the pocket of my jeans. We have to get our clothes.” Meredith slipped off the rock into the water. She swam toward the beach. Christopher came after her.

  The beach seemed much bigger now that they had to find their clothes in the dark. “I wish I could remember just where we left them,” Meredith said.

  They started crisscrossing the beach, walking away from each other. Meredith bent down and felt the sand whenever she came to a shadow. She was afraid she’d pass right by the pile of clothes.

  It was Christopher who found them. He let out a whoop of joy. “Get dressed, Meredith, and ask Juan Pablo to take us home.”

  Meredith ran over and picked up her jeans. She felt in her pocket for the silver coin. It was right where she had left it.

  All the clothes were dry now. Christopher and Meredith put them on over their wet underwear. They pulled on their socks and shoes and tied their jackets around their waists.

  Meredith took out the magic coin and held it up in the starlight. “Please, Juan Pablo,” she said, “take us home.”

  Nothing happened.

  It was too dark to see the little bearded face on the coin. Meredith wondered if Juan Pablo was angry. But she had no way of knowing.

  “Juan Pablo,” Christopher said, “can’t you turn yourself back into a boat and sail us home again?”

  Still nothing happened.

  “I guess he’s mad at us. Let’s see if we can find another coconut. I’m hungry.” Christopher walked toward the palm trees.

  Meredith didn’t want to lose Christopher in the dark. She ran after him. She was hungry too, and there was a faint smell drifting by on the breeze that made her even hungrier. She caught up to her brother and grabbed his arm. “Chris, somebody’s cooking something.”

  Christopher sniffed the air. “Let’s follow our noses and see what we can find.”

  They went slowly, trying to follow the scent. Meredith pretended she was a bloodhound. The smell reminded her of roast beef. Her mouth started to water.

  “It’s coming from the woods,” Christopher said.

  Meredith didn’t like being in the woods after dark even when they went to the country in the summertime. And these woods were almost like a jungle. But she was so hungry now that her stomach hurt. “I wish we had a flashlight.”

  She felt the coin in her hand move. It was getting bigger and changing shape. Meredith ran her fingers over it. Click! A little beam of light lit the darkness.

  Christopher turned around. “Juan Pablo’s turned himself into a flashlight.” He grinned. “I guess he isn’t mad anymore.”

  Meredith shined the flashlight at the tangled woods. “Look, Chris. There’s a path!”

  A narrow track had been made through the vines and bushes on the ground. It looked new. The twigs and branches on each side of it were broken but still green and leafy.

  They walked single file. Meredith was in front with the flashlight. The light attracted a big moth. Suddenly, out of the darkness, something came flapping down. It brushed against Meredith’s arm and then crashed back into the woods.

  Meredith jumped back. “What kind of bird do you think tha
t was?”

  “It went so fast I couldn’t get a good look at it,” Christopher told her. “Maybe it was a bat.”

  A bat seemed much spookier than a bird. The woods were full of scary shadows and even scarier noises.

  They heard a harsh sort of chirp. Then a gray lizard darted across the path in front of them.

  Meredith kept walking. She was beginning to be frightened, but she didn’t want Christopher to know it.

  The cooking smell was stronger now. Smoke drifted between the trees. Meredith wondered if the woods were on fire. Maybe they should run back to the beach before they were trapped.

  “Listen!” Christopher said. “Somebody’s singing!”

  Meredith heard a man’s voice and the plinking of a guitar. She started walking faster. The path was going uphill now. The singing sounded closer, and the smoke was thicker. It curled down the path like a fog and made Meredith’s eyes sting.

  At the top of the hill they looked down into a clearing in the woods. There was a row of smoky fires with wooden racks stretched over them. The racks must be covered with cooking meat, Meredith thought. The smell was so strong now that she could hardly stand it.

  The fires gave enough light for Meredith and Christopher to see two men sitting cross-legged on the ground. The row of fires was in front of the men, and the wind blew from behind them. The smoke was blowing away from them and toward the children.

  There were hardly any trees on this side of the hill, but there were a lot of short stumps. “I guess the trees were cut for firewood,” Christopher said.

  An orange moon began to rise above the trees. It gave a murky glow to the smoke and gleamed on the bare, stony hillside.

  Meredith turned off the flashlight. She felt it shrink in her hand. In the moonlight she could see that she was once more holding the silver coin. She put it back into the pocket of her jeans.

  They started down the steep hillside. Their feet sent the stones underfoot rolling down. Meredith and Christopher grabbed onto the stumps to keep from sliding.

  The man had stopped singing. When the children reached the bottom of the hill they stepped over to the fires and looked through the smoke at the two men.

  One man was very tall. He had a red beard and wore a blue scarf tied around his head. The other was shorter. His hair and beard were gray, and he had a gold earring in one ear. Both men were wearing baggy pants and short floppy boots. They were standing up now. The tall man had a curved sword in his hand, and the other one held a big pistol.

  Christopher moved closer to Meredith. “They’re pirates!” he whispered.

  The two men stared at Meredith and Christopher.

  “Who else is with you?” the man with the red beard asked.

  “Nobody,” Meredith told him. “We’re all alone.”

  “Come here, lass,” the other man said.

  Meredith started to walk slowly between two of the smoky fires toward the men.

  The gray-haired man looked at Christopher. “You too, lad.”

  Christopher rushed after Meredith and grabbed hold of her hand. She took a deep breath and marched over to the fierce-looking men.

  The men were still holding the gun and the sword. They kept looking up the hill as if they expected somebody to come out of the woods on the top.

  At last the older man put the big pistol in his belt. “You really do seem to be alone. How did you come here?”

  “In a boat,” Christopher said. “We rowed into the bay.”

  “You mean the lagoon, I suppose.” The tall man with the red beard laid his sword down. “They must have been in a ship’s dinghy,” he said to his friend. He turned to Meredith. “There are vipers in the woods, lass. You might have been bitten in the dark. Why did you come here to our camp?”

  Meredith decided not to tell him about the flashlight. “We haven’t had anything but a coconut to eat since breakfast,” she said. “We smelled your meat cooking. It smelled better when we weren’t so close to it.”

  “The smell does get powerful,” the tall man agreed. “We’ve gotten used to it.”

  “How will you ever eat all this meat?” Christopher asked.

  The gray-haired man laughed. “We’re not cooking the meat to eat it, lad. We’re smoking it so it will keep for months on a sea voyage.” He smiled at Christopher. His face didn’t look fierce now. “What’s your name?”

  “Christopher. This is my sister, Meredith.”

  “You can call me Jonathan,” the gray-haired man said. “My friend here is Matt.”

  “We’ve plenty of stew left from supper, Meredith,” Matt said. “You and your brother are welcome to it.”

  “Thank you.” Meredith followed Matt to a big iron pot that was hanging over the glowing embers of a small fire. Christopher came over to join her.

  Matt filled two reddish-brown pottery bowls with warm stew. He gave one to each of the children.

  They sat side by side on a log and ate with their fingers. The stew tasted different from what their mother made, but it was good. They licked their fingers clean.

  “The water barrel is over by our cottage.” Matt pointed to a hut made of palm branches.

  Christopher and Meredith walked over to the barrel. There was no cup. They drank out of a long-handled dipper.

  Christopher wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Let’s go see what Jonathan is doing.”

  Jonathan was walking from one big fire to the next. He poked at the firewood with a pointed stick. “If I don’t give the fires air, they’ll die out.”

  Meredith looked at the wood. “It’s still green,” she said. “I thought firewood had to be dry.”

  “That’s why the fire smokes,” Jonathan said. “It’s a trick we learned from the Indians around here. They dry the meat in the sun and then smoke it. That way it keeps without salt.”

  “Indians?” Christopher said. “Around here?” He turned to look at the shadows beyond the fires.

  “There are still some left, but not nearly as many as there were a few years ago,” Jonathan told him. “Let’s talk about you now. Where are your parents?”

  “Mom and Dad are home in Brooklyn,” Christopher said.

  Jonathan rubbed his gray beard. “Do you mean the little town by the New York harbor? I once sailed on a ship that docked there. You’re a long way from home.”

  “And we don’t know how to get back,” Meredith said.

  “How did you get here?” Jonathan wanted to know.

  “Juan Pablo brought us,” Christopher told him. “But he won’t take us home again.”

  “You can’t trust some of these sea captains,” Jonathan said. “But don’t worry, young ones. We will get you home. There’s bound to be a ship going to New York to get a cargo of wheat flour. That’s something they pay well for in these parts.” Jonathan gave another poke to the smoky fire. “I’m tired. These fires will last till morning. Come along. We’ll rig up a roost for you.”

  Jonathan picked up a burning stick and walked toward the little hut. Meredith and Christopher started after him.

  They passed the water barrel. Matt was leaning against it, smoking a pipe. Jonathan was at the low doorway of the hut. He ducked his head to go through it. Meredith and Christopher came in after him.

  Matt knocked the ashes out of his pipe. He took hold of the water barrel and backed into the little house, leaving the barrel to block the doorway.

  Jonathan lit a thick candle from the burning stick. He put the stick on the dirt floor and stamped out the fire with his boots. Then he stuck the candle in a bottle and set it on the ground. He walked over to what looked like a pile of fishing nets. He tied one end of a net to a pole in a corner of the hut and the other end to a pole in the middle of the floor.

  “It’s a hammock!” Christopher said.

  Meredith looked around the little room. There was hardly space for four hammocks. “Why don’t we sleep outside?”

  “Herds of wild animals are roaming around in the hills,” Matt
told her. “The fire will most likely keep them away from the camp, but it’s better not to take chances.”

  Christopher thought for a minute. “Wild animals in herds, are they deer or buffalo?”

  Matt laughed. “These are herds of cattle, goats, and pigs.”

  “Those aren’t wild animals,” Christopher said.

  “The grandparents of these animals lived on farms,” Matt told him. “But when the Spaniards left this place, the animals they left behind ran wild.”

  Jonathan strung up four hammocks. Each went from a corner pole to one in the center of the hut. “Time for bed.”

  The two men took off their leather boots and belts. The gun and the sword went into the hammocks with them when they lay down.

  Meredith and Christopher decided to sleep in their clothes too. They even left their shoes on.

  When they were all snug in their hammocks, Jonathan leaned over the edge of his and blew out the candle.

  Meredith lay in the dark and wondered if her mother were calling the hospitals to find out if she and Christopher had been in an accident. Meredith wasn’t as tired as she would have been if she hadn’t taken the long nap on the rock. Long before she fell asleep she heard Matt and Jonathan begin to snore.

  “Meredith,” Christopher whispered, “isn’t it lucky we did all our homework last night? Now we don’t have anything to worry about.”

  Meredith was worried about a lot of things. After Christopher was asleep she tossed and turned in her hammock. She was used to seeing people in strange clothes. In Brooklyn sometimes they even shaved their heads and wore long robes. But Matt and Jonathan looked like something out of a movie. And their speech sounded different from anything Meredith had ever heard. It was just as if they belonged to a long ago time.

  What had Christopher said to make the silver boat start to spin? The spinning had made Meredith so dizzy that she couldn’t remember.