<div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;color:black;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><u><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">I really love this piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></font></font></u></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><u><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="3">It has a surprise ending<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></font><font size="3">that pulls it all together.</font><font size="3"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></font></font></u></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><u><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">It really touched my heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></font></font></u></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><u><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Definitely publishable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></font></font></u></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><u><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">The picture painted of the 3 little girls
was really good, both of their physical characteristics and an inner part of
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></font></font></u></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><u><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">It was just an interesting local color
story, until the fairy in the tree appeared. That was a really powerful trick.
I can’t think of anything I would want to change. <o:p></o:p></font></font></u></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></o:p></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">YOU
BELIEVE IN MAGIC?<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">By
DeAnna Quietwater Noriega<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"> <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">
Early one June afternoon, three small girls sat in a row on the steps of a two
story house in the middle of the block. It was an old neighborhood of working
class homes. Most of them needed paint and the cars parked along the street or
in the graveled drives looked tired and well-used. Louisa Mary Lijewski (bones)
was a painfully thin girl of seven with perpetually skinned knees. Paula Skiba,
(Buttons) had coarse straight black hair that was her mother’s despair. No
matter how carefully she rolled it up on plastic curlers each Saturday night,
by the end of Sunday mass it straggled down like the mane of an ill- kept
Shetland pony. Bows, (nicknamed for the ribbons tying the ends of her long dark
braids), was the smallest of the three friends. She sat on the bottom step of
her grandmother’s house, drawing circles in the dirt with the big toe of one
grubby bare foot. <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">
“Do you believe in magic,” she asked? <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">
“Nope,” answered Bones. “My ma says to spit in one hand and wish in the other
and see which gets filled up first.”<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">
Buttons chewed meditatively on a grass stem before giving her considered
opinion. “I think if you pray and light a candle, you can sometimes get stuff
you really want, but I don’t guess that is magic. My mama says God sometimes
says no, but he always listens.” <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="3">
“My mom reads me books at bedtime like <u>Peter Pan</u></font><font size="3"> and stories about
fairies and stuff,” Bows explained. “If magic was real and you could rub a
magic lamp and get wishes, what would you wish for, do you think?”<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Bones looked shyly down and said:”I’d wish to be
pretty like you, Bows. Even teachers smile when they see you. Old Mrs. Whitaker
doesn’t always think you are going to do something bad like pick her flowers,
just cuz you are standing looking at them.”<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Buttons’ black eyes sparkled, “I’d want curly hair
that wouldn’t always be falling in my eyes,” she said decisively. “And I’d like
to travel around and see new places. What would you wish for Bows?”<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">“I don’t know. Sometimes I think I would like to
go some place where you can read lots and lots of books and not have to stop to
go to bed if you don’t want too. Then I could get really smart and I could get
a good job so my mom wouldn’t have to work so hard to take care of us.”<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Ten years flew by and three young women sat on the
porch swing in the shade. <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">“It’s all going to be different after graduation,”
mourned Paula. Her shoe button black eyes rested on the slender girl on her
left. Lou smiled and ran a graceful long fingered hand through the froth of
permed black curls framing her friend’s wistful pixie face. <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="3">“Yes, things will change, but not everything. When
I get settled in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state></font><font size="3">,
you can visit and you know I’ll write and tell about everything! We’ll keep in
touch and always be best friends. Tell her Deedee!”<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">The petite girl on the other end of the swing
jumped to her feet to gather her two friends in a group hug. <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="3">“Of course we’ll both write and with Lou in <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></font><font size="3"> working for the modeling agency and me in </font><st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size="3">California</font></st1:place></st1:state><font size="3"> at college,
you’ll be able to visit both ends of the country whenever you want. It’s all
good, you silly! We have always been best friends and we always will be! That
hasn’t changed and it won’t if we work to keep it that way. Come on. Let’s see
if Gran has any iced tea!”<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="yiv2861680509msonormal" style="margin: 1em 0in 1em 0.5in;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">From the green depths of the oak tree in the front
yard, a small wizened face smiled. Fairy godmothers would have a place in the
world as long as little girls still had dreams and believed hard enough in the<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font></div>