A CHILD'S WISH BY ANTHONY HEDGER *Published*

A CHILD’S WISH

“Here we are Jewel” Tully Grange whispered to his five year old daughter. He pulled his car to a halt outside their new home near Mullion in Cornwall.
“Come on sleepily head, wake up.” He gently shook her arm making her stir from her sleep.
“What’s that daddy, what did you say?”
“I said we’re here, this is our new home.”
Jewel’s mouth dropped open when she saw it. “This is all ours?”
“That’s right darling.” Tully felt good surveying the farm with his gaze but also sad that his wife wasn’t around to share it with them.
Jewel sensed his sadness and took hold of his hand. “Mummy is very proud of you at this moment daddy.”
“I’m sure she would be if she were alive darling.”
Then to take his mind of it she said, “Can we buy some chickens?”
“Of course we can honey, we can buy anything you want, but you will have to help me to look after them.”
“That’s fine by me” she said getting excited.
“Let’s go and un-pack then” Tully said “the place should be tidy, I phoned someone from the village last week to come in and clean for us.”
“I can’t wait, which bedroom can I have?”
“You can have whichever one you want, there are six to choose from, and next week we will think about getting you a few animals.”

Jewel became bored with the un-packing and shyly asked, “Can I have a break from this daddy? I need some fresh air.”
“Of course you can, but promise not to go near to the boundary fence by the road.”
“Why daddy?”
“Because it’s broken.”
“Alright, I’ll stay away from it.”
“Jewel please, you must promise me you won’t go near there, the cars on that road go much too fast, I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you like it did with your mother.”
“Is mummy ever coming back daddy?”
“No darling it’s just you and me now.”
“Mummy says she will wait for you daddy, she told me so when I saw her yesterday.”
“Don’t talk nonsense, your mother died three years ago; the dead don’t just come back whenever they feel like it.”
“But mummy can, she’s special”.
Tally’s eyes began to water from the memory of his wife’s hit and run accident, but he somehow managed to hold back the tears.
“Jewel she gone let her rest in peace darling and let’s not have any more of this silly talk alright?”
“Ok, I’m sorry and I promise not to play by the fence.”
“Good girl, now come here and give me a hug.”
“I love you daddy.” she said throwing her arms around her father’s neck and smothering him in kisses.
“I love you too. Now off you go and Jewel for once, please try to stay clean.”
“I’ll try but it won’t be easy.”
Tully chuckle to himself thinking how grown up she was for just a five year old then thought he better fix the fence before doing anything else, this would give him peace of mind while Jewel was out playing.
The long summer days that followed were great for Tully and Jewel. The schools were still on holiday and this gave them time to get closer than what they were. They had fixed the farm up really nice and had lots of fun together but September eventually arrived, and so did the first day of school.
“Will you stay with me daddy?”
“I’m not allowed to Jewel, but don’t worry you’ll be just fine. You’ll make a lot of new friends and have a wonderful time and when you come home later you can tell me all about it.”
“But you will you pick me up from school?”
“Of course I will honey.”
“So, what will you be doing today?”
“I thought I would take some photographs of the farm, and maybe some of the animals for your scrap book.”
“Will you take some of me before I go to school?”
“Alright, but we will have to be quick.”
Tully set the camera’s self-timer so he could get in the picture with Jewel.
“I want you to sit on the fence and keep very still, we don’t want you falling off do we?”
“I won’t, mummy wouldn’t let that happen to me.”
“Jewel, I thought I told you about that.”
“Whoops! Sorry daddy” and she said under her breath, “Well she wouldn’t.”
“Ok darling get yourself ready.”
He pressed the shutter button and ran over to pose with her. She was smiling and looking up to the sky and had her head turned away from the camera when the shutter clicked.
“Oh Jewel, I shall have to take another one now, this time look at the camera.”
“Sorry daddy. Mummy…..” She stopped herself from saying that her mother was in the picture with them, as she knew Tully would tell her off for imagining such nonsense.
Jewel settled in well in her new school and Tully told her she could have a special treat one day for being so good.
“Well darling, what’s it to be?”
“I would love to go on a picnic with you out by the fence that you fixed.”
“We have all this land and you want a picnic by the road.”
“That’s where you took our photograph on my first day of school; the blackberries still look nice there.”
“Ok honey, that’s where we will have it, by the way was there any post today? I’m still expecting those photographs to arrive.”
“I didn’t see any on the mat.”
“The post office must still be on strike, not to worry, they will get here eventually.”
It was a glorious Sunday afternoon and the Sun still had a lot of warmth to offer even though October was nearly over. Tully felt full from the picnic, he could feel his eyes getting heavy.
“Jewel would you mind if I had a short nap?”
“That’s ok; I’ll pick you some blackberries.”
While he dozed. Jewel was happily picking the last of the season’s blackberries. She saw some big ones on top of the bush.
Those look better than the small ones I have. She said to herself. If I climb up onto the fence, I should just about be able to reach them.
Tully woke up to the sound of her screams as she bounced onto the road the other side of the fence. Her nose was bleeding and she was crying but she managed to cal1 to him.
“I’m alright daddy don’t worry.”
Tully could see she was slightly dazed, then his worst nightmare happened, she was hit by a speeding van.
“NO!.............” he shouted, the words seemed to hang in the air.
The driver screeched the van to a halt.
Tully leapt over the fence and ran to her. Her body was a mass of blood and broken bones. He and the driver, who was in a state of shock gently put her into the van. On the way to the hospital the driver kept saying over and over how sorry he was, he just didn’t see her. Tully couldn’t hear him; he was busy trying to comfort Jewel.
“It will be ok Jewel; you’ll be just fine, try not to worry.”
“Am I going to die daddy?”
“Of course not darling, you’ll be up and about in no time, get some rest we’ll be at the hospital soon.”
“I WISH I could see mummy right at this moment, she would know what to do, she was a doctor wasn’t she?”
“Yes darling she was, and a very good one.”
“I WISH I was with her daddy.”
“Don’t talk like that darling, you’ll be ok.”
“Daddy it hurts, why is it getting dark? I’m scared daddy, hold me, please.”
Jewel’s voice lowered to a whisper, Tully place his ear to her lips to hear her and she kissed it lightly.
“Bye bye daddy, I love you so much.”
Then she was gone.

Tully’s world collapsed around him, he gave up on everything, the farm, the animals, even life. He shut himself in Jewel’s bedroom and rocked himself to and fro on her big old rocking chair, not answering the front door or the phone.
“You got your wish darling.” He said out loud, tears ran from his red eyes “If you are with your mother, tell her I’ll see you both real soon.”

Nine months after Tully’s death some children were playing in the rundown farm house. They found lots of unopened letters piled up on the front door mat. A boy went through some of them.
“Bills, a couple of postcards, a dozen or more letters and this fat package.”
“What’s inside?” a girl asked him “and what does that say on the wrapping?”
“The wrapper says, ‘Apologies from the post office, due to the strike that lasted several months we are now sending on your mail’.”
“What’s inside?” the same girl asked.
“Photos!” the boy said ripping the package open.
“Photos of what?” she asked.
“Well there’s lots of nice shots of this place probably when someone lived here. There’s shots of some animals and here’s a picture of a little girl. This one is of a man with the same girl and behind her it looks like there’s a woman though I can’t be sure, whoever it is for some reason they have faded almost completely away.”

THE END

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a, and, anthony, child, child’s, cornwall, father, hedger, love, published, short, story, tony and wish