Three Wishing Tales

by Ruth Chew

  Meredith rolled out of her hammock. “Chris, wake up! It’s morning!”

  Christopher blinked and sat up. “There’s going to be a sea battle. I want to see it.”

  He ran down the hall and up the stairway to the deck. Meredith chased after him.

  The Red Goose had sailed so close to the Cadiz that they could see the people on the Spanish ship.

  The deck of the pirate ship was crowded. Most of the sailors had swords or pistols in their hands. Some were carrying both.

  Meredith ran over to Jem. “What was the bang?”

  “We fired one of our cannons across the bow of the Cadiz,” he told her. “What are you doing here, lass? I told you to stay below.”

  Meredith put her hands in her pockets and stood as tall as she could. “Christopher came up to see the battle. I have to stay with him.” Her fingers touched the silver coin. She didn’t dare take it out of her pocket here among the pirates, but she held onto it for luck.

  “I never meant to mix you and your brother up in anything as nasty as this,” Jem said. “I should have stayed with Matt and Jonathan.”

  “I wish you were with them,” Meredith said.

  An instant later Jem had disappeared.

  “Juan Pablo,” Meredith whispered, “I wish Chris and I could go back to where we belong too.”

  Meredith found herself up to her middle in icy water.

  Christopher was standing beside her. He looked around. “We’re back in Prospect Park. And we’re still stuck in the lake. Juan Pablo is playing tricks again. I never did get to see that battle.”

  “I know how the coin works now, Chris.” Meredith pulled the magic coin out of her pocket and held it high in the air. The silver shone in the spring sunshine.

  “I wish,” Meredith said slowly, “that Chris and I were dry and clean and standing on our own front doorstep.”

  She waited for something to happen.

  “We’re still in the lake,” Christopher said. “I thought you said you knew how it works.”

  Meredith didn’t answer him. She was thinking hard. “Maybe the magic can’t work once you know the secret of it,” she said at last.

  “What do we do now then?” Christopher asked.

  Meredith put the silver coin back into her pocket. She grabbed hold of the stone wall at the edge of the lake.

  A young man was walking his dog by the lakeshore. “Wait a minute. Let me help you.” He got down on his knees on the wall and grabbed Meredith around the waist. He lifted her out of the water. “Give me your hand,” he said to Christopher and pulled him out of the lake too.

  “Thank you,” Meredith said.

  The young man grinned. “I was always falling into the lake when I was your age. And I know how hard it is to climb out.” He whistled to his dog and walked away toward the boat house.

  Christopher looked across the lake. “The people in that boat over there look like the same ones I saw before. Maybe it’s still Saturday!”

  “Let’s go home and find out.” Meredith started to run. Christopher could hardly keep up with her.

  They had to stop running before they got home. Both of them were out of breath.

  Mrs. Dalby met them at the front door. She looked at their wet clothes and muddy shoes. “I wish there was some kind of magic that would keep you two out of trouble.”

  Meredith kept the silver coin safe in her pocket and went upstairs to change her clothes. She opened the bottom drawer of her desk and put the coin into it. “Thanks for everything, Juan Pablo,” she said. She leaned over to take a good look at the coin.

  The little bearded face was smiling.

  “Alice, look at Freckles!” Tom grabbed his sister’s arm and pointed.

  It was a steaming hot day. Alice and Tom had been jumping from rock to rock in the little stream in Prospect Park. Alice stopped to look up at the bank above the stream. She could see just the fluffy tip of Freckles’ tail sticking out of a tangle of vines. A moment later the tail disappeared and there was no sign of the dog at all.

  Tom climbed the slippery bank to the place where Freckles had been. He pushed aside the heavy vine that hung down from a rocky ledge. “Al!” Tom was excited. “Guess what I found!”

  Alice was almost two years older than Tom. It seemed to her that he was always excited about something. “You found a spotted cocker spaniel,” she said. “And I hope he didn’t catch the chipmunk he was chasing.”

  Tom got down on his hands and knees and squirmed under the vines where Freckles had disappeared. After a few squirms he too was hidden behind the vine. “Al, come on up here,” he yelled. Tom’s voice was still excited, but it sounded different now, sort of hollow.

  Maybe she ought to look at what Tom had found. Alice was standing on a rock in the middle of the stream. She jumped to the bank. Holding on to bushes and clumps of grass, she climbed up to the patch of vines. With one hand she lifted a thick vine. It was like a curtain. Behind it Alice found the opening of a large drainage pipe.

  There were rocks all around the pipe to make it look like a cave. Three rusty iron bars blocked the opening, but long ago someone had twisted one of the iron bars loose on one side.

  Tom had crawled under the twisted bar. He was squatting inside the pipe. When Alice lifted the curtain of vines he grinned at her. “It’s a real cave,” he said.

  Alice was excited now too, but all she said was, “It’s just an old sewer pipe. Where’s Freckles?”

  Tom had been so surprised to find the cave that he had forgotten the dog. Now he began to whistle.

  The pipe stretched back into the hill. It was dark there. A scratching noise came from the black tunnel. The noise became louder, and Freckles came running out of the darkness. He rushed to greet the children. His tail wagged so hard that the back half of Freckles wagged along with it.

  Freckles ran under the twisted bar. He jumped around Alice as if he were on springs. She gave him a pat with the hand that wasn’t holding up the vine, but she kept looking into the tunnel. “I wonder where it goes.”

  “Let’s explore it, Al.” Tom crawled farther into the pipe. Alice bent down to go under the bar. She was bigger than Tom. She had to lie flat on her stomach and twist to get in. Freckles squeezed in after her.

  When Alice let go of the vine it flopped down over the opening of the cave and cut out most of the light. It was cooler here than outside. The daylight sifted through layers of leaves. This part of the cave was lit with a soft green glow.

  Once Alice had wiggled her way into the cave she found that there was just enough room for her to sit up. If she were any taller she’d have to lean forward.

  Now Alice and Tom heard voices outside. They were coming closer. Alice put her arm around Freckles to keep him quiet. She leaned close to the bars and peeked through the vine. Three big boys were walking along the stream. Two of them tried to push the other one into the water. He dodged them and ran up the bank on the other side. Alice and Tom sat very still until the boys were gone.

  “We don’t want anybody else to find this place,” Alice whispered.

  She heard a little scraping noise. A small flame was burning, back where Tom was sitting. “I found a book of matches on a park bench,” Tom explained. “It has two whole rows of matches in it.”

  “We can use one row to explore the tunnel,” Alice said. “Save the other row for the way back. Come on.”

  Tom went first into the tunnel. Alice came after him, and Freckles followed her. They couldn’t go very fast. Tom had to hold the match.

  The pipe seemed to go uphill. The air was cool and damp here. Tom lit another match. In a little while they were out of sight of the opening of the cave. They crawled along for what seemed like ages.

  “Can you see the end of the tunnel yet?” Alice asked.

  “No,” Tom said. “It’s still dark up ahead. And there are only two matches left in this row.”

  “Try to let them burn a little longer.” Alice arched her back and tried to stretch
her legs.

  “Ow!” Tom dropped the match. It went out. “I burned my finger.”

  “Does it hurt?” Alice asked.

  “Sure does. What do we do now?” Tom asked.

  Alice held out her hand. “Give me the matches.”

  “Can’t,” Tom said. “I’ve lost them.”

  “Hold still. Maybe they’re caught in your clothes.” Alice reached to grab Tom. She began to feel for the matches.

  “Stop it, Al. You’re tickling,” Tom giggled. “Hey, get your fingers out of my mouth. Take it easy.”

  Alice let go of him. “Feel on the ground. They can’t be far away. Let’s go back the way we came. Where’s Freckles?”

  Alice felt the dog’s cold wet nose on her hand. She hugged him. It made her feel better to know that Freckles wasn’t afraid of the dark. His wagging tail banged against her knee.

  Alice held on to the dog’s collar, and Tom grabbed hold of Alice’s pants leg. They crawled along in the darkness for a few feet. Then Alice felt something with her free hand. It was the book of matches.

  “I’ve found them, Tom!” Alice pulled a match out of the book and tried to strike it. The match bent. “They’re wet! There’s water in this pipe.”

  A tiny stream was trickling through the pipe. The stream seemed to be getting deeper. The water in it was flowing faster every minute. By this time Alice was really scared.

  They crawled faster. The knees of their pants were wet. Freckles liked wading. He splashed the children’s faces with his tail.

  At last Alice saw a glimmer of green light. She let go of the dog and moved ahead on all fours. When they reached the mouth of the cave she peeked through the curtain of vines. “No wonder it’s wet in here. It’s pouring outside.”

  The rain was splashing down. There was a rumble of thunder. Suddenly a bright flash of lightning lit up the cave. The children heard a loud crash. Freckles was so scared that he tried to climb into Alice’s lap. Tom jumped and banged his head on the roof of the pipe. “That was close, Al.”

  Alice looked out again through the wet vine leaves. A huge oak tree stood on the other side of the stream. It was black and twisted with age. The lightning had knocked off one of the crooked branches and split the great trunk in half.

  Alice stared at the tree. “Tom,” she whispered, “look!”

  Tom crawled to the mouth of the cave and looked through the leaves. Someone seemed to be curled up inside the split trunk of the old tree.

  “We’ve got to get help.” Alice lay on her stomach to crawl under the iron bar. She pushed aside the vine and crept out into the downpour.

  The bank was slippery. Alice skidded down to the stream on the seat of her pants. Freckles wiggled out of the cave after her. He bounded down the slope and leaped across the rushing water. Tom followed.

  Alice was in such a hurry that she just waded through the stream and headed up the bank toward the ruined tree. When she reached it she found an old man asleep in the hollow trunk. Funny, Alice thought, he’s wearing a white fur coat in the middle of summer. When Alice looked closer she saw that the coat was really his hair and his beard. They were so long that they were all tangled together and seemed to be wrapped around and around the old man.

  Tom had come up beside her. “Wow!” he said.

  The two children and the dog stood in the pouring rain and stared. The old man opened his eyes. They were very blue and bright, not like the eyes of an old man at all.

  He stretched. When he moved, the cloth of his sleeves fell apart. His bare arms were very pale, as if they hadn’t been in the sunshine for a long time. All his clothes seemed to be turning to dust. It’s lucky he has all that hair, Alice thought.

  “Are you all right?” Tom asked the old man.

  The man looked at Tom as if he couldn’t understand what he said.

  “Maybe he’s deaf,” Alice whispered.

  “ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?” Tom shouted.

  The old man put his hands over his ears. “Softly, lad,” he said. “It will take me a little while to get used to your way of speaking, but I was always quick to learn.” He spoke slowly as if he were picking the words out of the air. He didn’t seem to notice the pouring rain.

  Alice couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “What were you doing in the tree?”

  “I was enchanted,” the old man said. “I have tried for more than a thousand years to break the spell.”

  “You’re kidding,” Tom said. “That tree’s old, but not that old.”

  “It grew from the acorn of an older tree in a far-off land,” the old man told him. “It took me hundreds of years to learn how to fit into an acorn.” He stretched again. The rain fell on his long hair and white arms.

  Alice poked Tom to make him be quiet. “Who are you?” she asked the old man.

  “I am Merlin,” he said. “Have you never heard of Merlin the magician?”

  Alice shook her head.

  Tom said, “I saw a magician on television.”

  “Television? Is that a new kind of magic?” Merlin asked.

  “Yes, in a way,” Alice said.

  Merlin looked at her. “In all the years I’ve been shut up I’ve forgotten my magic. Perhaps, if I work hard, I can get some of it back. Can you help me? I need a place to stay.”

  Alice was sure her mother wouldn’t want her to bring home a crazy old man, but there was something about him that Alice liked. She wanted to help him. He was very thin. It gave her an idea.

  “I know a place where you could stay,” she said, “if you’re good at crawling on your stomach.”

  Tom understood. “She means the cave,” he said. “You can live there, and we’ll bring you food. Right now the cave is wet, but it’s a lot drier than it is out here. Come on. We’ll show you where it is.”

  Merlin looked interested. He stood up and began to climb out of the tree. He had to keep unhooking his hair and his beard from twigs and branches. Even though his hair was wrapped four times around his body it dragged on the ground. Before he could walk without tripping, the old man had to loop his hair around one arm and his beard around the other.

  Alice and Tom crossed the stream and climbed the bank on the other side. They lifted the vine to show Merlin the cave. He slipped under the bar almost as easily as Freckles could.

  The dog followed him into the pipe. Then Alice and Tom squeezed in to get out of the rain. Merlin crawled farther into the pipe and lay down. It wasn’t big enough for him to sit up, but he didn’t seem to mind.

  “My friends,” he said, “you must tell me your names.”

  Tom was sitting near the mouth of the cave hugging Freckles. “I’m Tom Nelson,” he said. “This is my sister Alice.”

  “Thank you for bringing me to this shelter, Tom and Alice.” Merlin was trying to untangle his beard from his hair. “I’ll have to do something about this.”

  “Would you like me to bring you a pair of scissors?” Alice asked. “And maybe Tom and I can find something for you to wear.”

  Merlin smiled. “My clothing does seem to be in need of a change. If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like a robe of blue and gold.”

  Alice had been thinking of an old sweat shirt and some trousers that her father had grown too fat for. Now she noticed that the old man was wearing a ring that flashed even in the dim light of the cave. Alice wondered if it could be a diamond. She decided that the old sweat shirt wouldn’t be right at all for Merlin.

  When the rain stopped, Alice and Tom left Merlin lying in the cave. He seemed quite at home there.

  “He’s a nice old guy,” Tom said, “but I don’t believe that stuff about his being enchanted.”

  Alice stooped to put the leash on Freckles. “How else could his hair grow so long?”

  The grass was wet and the trees dripped. Alice and Tom made their way to one of the gates of the park.

  They lived in an old brownstone house nearby. Both their parents were away at work all day. Alice had a key to the front door.


  When Alice walked into the house she remembered that her mother had asked her to put the laundry into the washing machine. She went upstairs to get the clothes out of the hamper.

  Alice used her bedspread to wrap the laundry in. The white spread still had peanut butter and jelly on it from the picnic she and Tom had in her room on a rainy day.

  Alice’s new blue jeans were wet and muddy from her slide down the bank by the stream. She decided to wash them too.

  She changed into an old pair of pants and carried the laundry down to the basement. Alice stuffed all the clothes into the washing machine. She added the soap, turned on the machine, and went to look for Tom.

  She found him in the kitchen. He was looking into the refrigerator. “What do you suppose we ought to feed the old guy?” Tom took out a container of milk and filled a glass for himself.

  Alice poured some dog chow into Freckles’ dish. She pulled a banana from the bunch on the table and began to peel it. “Cheese ought to be a good thing,” she said. “And there’s half a loaf of bread.” She shut the refrigerator door. “Would he like cherry soda?”

  By the time Alice and Tom had finished lunch the washing machine had stopped. “Tom,” Alice said, “would you put the laundry into the dryer? I have to look for some clothes to give Merlin.”

  “There’s a lot of old stuff in that cedar chest in my room,” Tom told her.

  Alice went to Tom’s bedroom. She opened the chest. Most of the things in it were old clothes of hers or Tom’s. There was a baggy pair of pajamas that belonged to Alice’s father, but they were green with tan stripes. Merlin wanted blue and gold.

  Underneath everything in the chest Alice saw something shining. She reached in and pulled out a pair of gold curtain tie-backs. They were like two short ropes. Alice thought they might be knotted together to make a belt.

  Tom came into the room. “Did you find anything?”