There were only two school notices and Millyâs last painting stuck to the big door. All the usual mess of outdated messages, school notices, and clippings were gone. On the top of the refrigerator the pot plant sat alone without the high pile of single thongs, slippers, sox, and bike pumps around it.
âItâs homemade jam, Maddy,â her mother said as she cut the crusty bread. âPerfectly wholesome.â
Maddyâs mouth watered. The bread was fresh and cut in thick, jagged slices. She had forgotten how much nicer a loaf of bread tasted than sliced bread. The jam was blackberry. It was made from blackberries she and her sisters had picked during the summer.
Her mother passed the mugs of tea around. Maddy sighed contentment. Today she didnât even mind her sisters. It was wonderful to be back home. There was something so comfortable about their big, old-fashioned kitchen, with its pantry and the old wood stove her father hadnât gotten around to taking out.
There were none of the usual squabbles over who had stolen whose slice of bread and who had taken the last spoon in the place. Everything was unusually peaceful and it felt nice and safe and homely.
âAnything interesting or unusual happen around here lately?â Maddy asked.
âThe new rabbit escaped,â Merry said.
âAnd it was you that let it go,â Milly accused.
âWhat new rabbit?â Maddy asked.
âA white rabbit with pink eyes turned up in the hutch with the others one afternoon,â Jennifer explained. âWe think someone must have sneaked it into the hutch when we were at school. Merry was cuddling it when it got away.â
Maddy felt herself go very still. She had been cuddling the white rabbit when she had made her wish. Was it the white rabbit that had caused her wish to be granted?
âWhere did it go to?â
âJust seemed to vanish,â Jennifer admitted.
Jennifer still had the same happy and contented face. She didnât seem to be missing the private school, the expensive clothes, and her privileged lifestyle at all. She had settled in as a Matson very quickly! Why hadnât anyone noticed she didnât belong?
âJennifer doesnât look at all like the rest of you,â Maddy said, looking at the black hair and dark eyes of her mother and her two sisters.
âYes, she does,â her mother said giving Jennifer a fond look. âItâs just that sheâs got the same coloring as Mr. Matsonâs mother. She was fair-haired and blue-eyed just like Jennifer.â
This might be true, Maddy thought. Grandma Matson had snow-white hair, fair freckled skin and faded blue eyes. It could have been Jennifer sort of coloring.
âOtherwise, she just looks like the rest of us,â her mother said.
Maddy looked around the table. Three glowing, happy, faces stared back. It was true! Jennifer did look like a Matson despite her coloring! Her face was rounder, and she now had the same bright pink cheeks as the others.
Maddy glanced across at her own face, reflected in the aging mirror by the back door. She hadnât noticed before, but her face was thinner than she remembered it and her skin much paler.
The fresh bread and homemade blackberry jam lost their flavour. She put it down uneaten. She was suddenly not hungry anymore. What if she couldnât wish herself back into her own family? Jennifer would gradually grow to be more Matson-like and she would grow into a proper Walton and their mothers would never know the difference.
âSo how was your day?â Maddy asked Jennifer.
âTerrific! How was yours?â
âIâm going to do my assignment,â Milly announced. âJennifer helped me get all the stuff I needed from the library at lunchtime, so I can finish it.â
âI thought you took your racquet to practice with lunchtime?â their mother said.
Maddy remembered Jenniferâs expensive racquet she hadnât