The Glass Slipper

by Sherwood Smith

We'd just stepped off the school bus and were starting up the long hill toward home. We passed a couple of old storefronts and had reached the vacant lot when all four of us saw a flash of gold in the gutter right below our feet.

"Hey!" Lissa exclaimed on one side of me.

"What's that?" Nikki yelled on the other.

I crouched down on the edge of the curb, poking at the trash that the rain had piled up in the gutter. In the midst of the withered leaves and soggy papers and mud gleamed a roundish thing kind of like an extra-large gold coin. As the other three watched, I picked it up and shook it off.

"What is it, Margo, a badge or something?" Pat asked.

"I don't know, but I like it," I said. Sunlight glanced down between a couple of clouds and made the thing glitter and shine so it looked like liquid flame in my hand. It would be great in my collection of Weird Things, I decided--if no one else wanted it.

"It's pretty," Lissa said, touching it daintily. "I wonder who lost it?"

"Is that carving on it?" Nikki pushed her curly black hair out of her eyes as she peered down at my hand. "It looks like something is written on it."

"No, it's leaves," Lissa said, setting her backpack on the sidewalk and bending over my hand.

I tipped my palm so everyone could see the thing. The glitter was so bright it almost hurt my eyes.

Lissa gasped. "There are words on it! Look...it's kind of old-fashioned, but I can read it. Here's an 'I', and there's 'molder'--"

"Holder," Nikki said. She grabbed my fingers in her strong brown hand, staring down at the talisman, then up at us, a funny look on her round face. "It says, 'I grant the holder one wish.'"

"Whoa," I said, feeling kind of like little electrical shocks were zinging through my entire body. Had I, Margo O'Toole, found real magic at last? "Lemme see--” Nikki let go of my hand and I nearly smacked myself in the face. "You're right," I said, examining the fancy letters, which looked like something from a fairy tale book.

"D'you think it's real?' Nikki asked, rubbing her hands.

"No way," Pat said, crossing her arms. "Toss it. It's all gross with mud and gunk, so it's probably crawling with germs."

"If you do, it's mine," Nikki said. "In fact, didn't I see it first?"

"We all saw it at the same time," Lissa said quickly, flinging her blond braids over her shoulders. "You know we did. Margo just picked it up first."

Nikki grinned at me. "But if you don't want it--"

"Who said I didn't want it?" I retorted quickly. "That was Pat."

Everyone looked at Pat. All four of us girls are the same age, we live on the same block in a not-so-safe part of the city. We've been going back and forth from school together for several years, because we aren't allowed to go alone. Pat's the tallest, and sometimes it feels like she's the oldest. Her lips were pressed together in a familiar line, and her dark eyes were, well, austere.

"You guys, it's not going to work. Let's get home before we get into trouble," Pat said. She sent a worried look up the street.

"Just a sec." I turned it over in my hand. "Well, it's not like there’s a name or address on it. I say finders keepers."

"We can make a wish first and then throw it away," Lissa said, adding to me, "And after that, you can wash your hands."

"Let's go," Pat said, her voice sharp. "I can't believe you're messing with that thing at all."

Nikki and Lissa gaped at her as though she'd turned into a monster. I could just see what they were thinking--was this really good old Pat, who was always so quiet, and fair, and so kind she couldn't even step on bugs? I knew she hated any mention of magic these days, but I couldn't tell them that.

"So, if we only get one wish," Nikki said, "we better think a little."

"If it's even real," I said, sneaking a look at Pat.

It didn't help. "I can't believe you dummies," she muttered, and whirled around so all we saw was her back. Next to us was a weed-choked vacant lot, left over from a fire. Stalking in the direction of a charred old tree stump right in the middle, she yelled over her shoulder, "I'll get started on my homework while you waste your time on that thing."

We all watched her march through the wet weeds, drop down onto the tree stump, and yank her notebook out of her backpack. Lissa and Nikki turned back to me and shrugged, looking down at the talisman. Nikki's brow puckered, and Lissa threw her braids back. "What do you think? Should we wish for a thousand wishes?" she suggested.

"I've never read a story where that worked," I said. "The magic might just split up a thousand ways and you'll get a little of each wish--like just the front porch if you wish for a mansion, or if you want a really cool pair of shoes, you'll wind up with half a shoelace."

Nikki gave a loud snort. "That's one thing I really hate--those stupid stories where the person is granted a wish, and goes for something that seems perfectly okay, but then it turns out to be a total disaster."

Lissa bit her lip, and did a little ballet hop, backing away. "You think that thing is going to zap us? It was in the gutter, after all. Maybe it zapped someone else."

I thought over all the magic stories I'd ever read--and I've read a lot. "Someone might have tossed it," I said, "but then maybe, after it grants its wish, it might just kind of jump into space, and land anywhere."

"That's one big jump, Margo," Nikki said, a sour grin on her face as she looked around at the familiar run-down apartment buildings and crummy old stores. "I haven't heard of any sudden millionaires in this neighborhood."

"Is that what we should wish?" Lissa asked. "For a million bucks?"

"Or a billion?" Nikki added, closing her eyes.

For about ten seconds, it felt great. I thought about my mom and me getting away from our dinky apartment and buying a house with my share of the money. A mansion! With an entire theme park in the yard. And a limousine--for each of us.

Then I thought about what would happen if we couldn't prove how we'd gotten the money. "I wonder if the IRS would believe us," I said. "The FBI sure won't."

"Who says the IRS would have to know?" Lissa demanded. "We'll keep it a secret, of course."

"Margo's right." Nikki threw her backpack down next to Lissa's and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Anybody who suddenly spends big amounts of money gets investigated by nosy tax agents. I've seen it in a million detective shows. They'll think we're with some kind of creepy gang."

"We won't spend big amounts." Lissa fluttered her hands, turning a pirouette. Then she stopped and sighed. "But then, even if we spend tiny amounts, we'll get investigated by nosy families. At least, I sure will."

"Me, too," Nikki grumped. "Heck--I buy a single candy bar with my babysitting money, and my mom wants to know why the money didn't go into my college fund."

I closed my fingers over the talisman. "I'm just wondering if each of us might get a wish," I said. "I mean, if I wish, then hand it off to you, Nikki--you'd be the new holder. Then to Lissa." I was thinking, And if it really works, we could give it to Pat.

"But it might disappear," Nikki said, toeing the trash in the gutter, as if another talisman might be uncovered. A car hissed by through the wet street and Nikki jumped back from the splash.

"Let's agree on the first wish," Lissa said. "If it stays, then we agree on the other wishes."

"Fair's fair," Nikki said, kicking mud off her shoe.

"Okay," I said. "So what'll it be?"

"A mansion, maybe?" Nikki threw her arms wide. "Everyone has her own room. No, two rooms. Five! A bathtub like a swimming pool for each!"

Lissa closed her eyes and sighed. I grinned, thinking again of royal palaces with rooms and rooms of fun stuff to do.

But then Nikki snorted again and said, "Wait a minute. It's only one wish, you hogs."

"What?" Lissa exclaimed.

"We have one wish," Nikki repeated, looking from one of us to the other, her brown eyes wary. "If we wish for a palace, we might get one, but I bet it doesn't come with furniture. And even if it did--” She made a terrible face, "--who's going to clean up a million rooms? Not me! It’s bad enough being stuck with cleaning our little place when my mom's too tired."

"And who's going to let a kid keep a palace in the middle of the city?" Lissa said, shrugging her shoulders.

I groaned. "I can't think of anything that won't backfire. Like, if we wish for an unending supply of ice cream--"

"--We end up ralphing at the sight of it," Lissa said. "I just thought of that as well."

We stared at each other.

"Maybe we could fix things in our lives," Nikki said slowly. "All four of us have had divorces happen in our families. Maybe it would work for all of us--even Pat--if we wished our parents were back together again, and all happy."

We looked at each other. Lissa turned another slow pirouette, then faced Nikki. "I hate to say it, but do you really want your dad back?"

Nikki's head dropped and her hair swung forward and covered her face. I couldn't see her eyes, but I didn't have to. The few times her dad had visited, it always ended up with him getting drunk and though Nikki never complained in front of me, I think her dad was pretty mean to Nikki and her brothers and sisters.

She looked up. "I don't, but my mom might. At least, she'd like another paycheck, or the child support he owes us, or something."

Lissa said, "I like my step-parents now. If the magic brought my parents together again, what would happen to my half-brother Sean, since his father is my stepdad, and how about the new baby my stepmom is expecting?"

I'd been thinking while they talked, and I said, "In the stories, forcing a change onto someone else's life always turns out rotten. Even if you did it for the best reasons."

"It would be a good thing in Pat's family," Nikki said seriously. "I mean, except for my dad, who's just a flake, at least all our parents want us. Hers don't even want her any more--and that aunt of hers is mean. She just uses her for a maid and a babysitter."

"Which makes it extra rotten," Lissa added, "because there's no one in the world who works harder, at school or home, than Pat."

"Or is more fair to other people."

"I just don't see why she's so mad," Lissa added, whirling in another pirouette, and then stopping to look at Pat on her tree stump.

I opened my hand again and stared down at the talisman, thinking hard. Pat and I lived next door to each other so we'd spent a lot of time together. When we were little we’d acted out the adventure stories we read and loved. I'd started collecting Weird Things in first grade, and Pat used to help me--we always hoped one of them would turn out to be left by aliens, or would transport us to another world. Then the problems started at Pat's home, and trying to test the magic from books to see if it was real turned from a game into a kind of quest.

Lissa and Nikki knew about my Weird Things collection, but not about the quest for real magic. I thought about how in fourth grade Pat and I used to run into thick fog banks, hoping they'd turn out to be a magic gateway to Middle Earth, and how we tried to open the backs of our closets to see if we could get to Narnia.

Once we tried a love potion on her parents. That was before both of them left, and her grandmother moved in. Pat's grandmother really loved her, but after only a year she died, and Pat's aunt moved in--with her kids. Pat's life was now exactly like Cinderella's--except there was no fairy godmother, and Pat no longer believed in magic.

I looked over at her, sitting on the stump crouched over her math book. I couldn't see her face, but her bony shoulders looked fierce. That's why she's angry, I thought. It'll hurt too much if this thing doesn't work.

But I couldn't say anything--I knew she'd hate it if I talked about all our tries to get to Narnia and Oz. I turned back to Nikki and Lissa.

"We can't bring her grandma back to life," I said.

Nikki made a face. "Yeah, Margo's right. She might come back a zombie."

"Eeeeeugh," Lissa and I said together, exchanging gross-out looks.

"But if her parents were together again, and loved her?" Lissa said.

My mind was racing now. "Would it really work, though?"

"What do you mean?" Lissa and Nikki exclaimed at the same time, grinned at each other, and then turned to me expectantly. Another car whooshed through the rainy street, but this time neither of them noticed the splash.

"Well," I said, "is it right to make people go back to the way they were without asking? I mean, how would you like it if a magic spell forced you to be like you were in first grade?" I asked.

Lissa said slowly, "We're talking about getting them to love Pat again."

"But they don't," Nikki said, frowning. "I think I see it--it'd be fake, wouldn't it?"

"Right," I said. "At least, fake or not, it would be fake for Pat. She'd always know they were back together because of the spell, not for her. Or even for each other."

Lissa hopped again. "I see. They might not even act real--but like programmed dolls, or something, if we force them to change." She stuck out her tongue. "Heck, there's always a chance this won't even work in the first place," she went on, pointing to the talisman on my hand. "Will it really matter to us if it doesn't?"

Again we looked at each other. "Not to me," Nikki said, smacking her hands together. "I got my life planned out. College, law school, then goin’ after corporate pirates."

Lissa whispered, "If it just were mine, I might have wished that I'd get a scholarship to a good ballet school--except then I'd have to worry that I was good enough once I got there."

"You want to wish you would be the best dancer in the world?" I asked.

Lissa's whole body tensed as she closed her eyes, then she said, "No. It's like what you said about Pat--I'd always know they were clapping for the talisman, and not for me. I'd hate that."

"So what do we do, throw it away?" I asked.

"There's a chance it's real," Nikki said.

"I know," Lissa said. "I'm just wondering if we could ask Pat if there’s something she would want."

"And get our noses bitten off?" Nikki said, grinning. "She already let us know pretty clearly she thought this whole thing was stupid."

They both turned to me. "She wouldn't touch that talisman," I said. "Though she's the one who needs it most."

"So what do we do?" Lissa asked. "We can't change her life for her--and she won't take the thing and do it herself."

I said, "Maybe we can't send her to the ball, but we could give her a glass slipper."

"What?" Nikki asked, making one of her faces.

Lissa's eyes went wide, and she laughed. "I know what you mean," she said, whirling into a little dance step on the sidewalk. "When Cinderella had that slipper, it was her proof that magic had happened--and it could happen again. We could give Pat hope. I mean, if magic is real just once, then it could happen again."

"Anything could happen," I said, thinking of all the stories I'd read--and all the ones I hoped to act out some day, on the stage.

"She might even start looking for it," Nikki said, nodding slowly.

"So we're all in favor?" I asked.

Lissa smiled, making a graceful dancer's bow, and Nikki smacked her hands together. "Do it, Margo."

I raised the talisman, the other two reached up to touch it as well, and I said, "We wish Pat would see magic."

Then we turned to face Pat, not knowing what--if anything--to expect.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then Pat's head came up, and she looked at us. It was a long look, an odd look, as if she saw something else besides us. I felt a weird tingling in my bones, and around the edges of my vision light flickered, like tiny stars, but I didn't dare move. Turn my head, even.

For a long time we all just stood there, and then Pat got up.

And she smiled.

It wasn't a big grin, like Nikki's best, or a giggly smile, like Lissa when she's feeling silly. It was a little one, but it glowed in her eyes and her cheeks and her forehead--it made her all bright.

She picked up her books and came down the hill, still smiling.

I looked down at my empty hands--the talisman had disappeared. But it didn’t matter, I realized as I stooped to pick up my backpack. It didn’t matter because we'd each gotten a gift after all. We'd given Pat her glass slipper, and the look in her face gave it right back again.

"C'mon," I said, laughing as I looked at the others. "Let's go, or we’ll be late for the ball."