The Wish Pony Read Online Free PDF Page A

eat.’
    â€˜I wish some children weren’t so rude – and so untruthful.’
    I glared at Magda. She wasn’t even looking at me, she was busying herself with the kettle and I knew she’d make herself a cup of tea and use Mum’s special cup again.
    â€˜If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,’ I told her back, and my voice sounded spiteful, even to me.
    Magda turned slowly to face me. I thought she’d be angry. She should have been angry. But instead she looked at me for what seemed a long time and then stepped forward and gently tipped my face up towards her. Her fingers were long but old and her fingernail polish was chipped.
    â€˜I had a wish horse once,’ she said, ‘but my first husband, the jockey, fell under it. He broke his back and my heart. But I still have the pony. Come on.’
    I followed her obediently, right across the road and up her driveway, and waited for her to find her keys and let us both in. I’d never been inside her house and I couldn’t wait to see it. I jiggled with impatience. Magda hurried me down her hallway, past framed photos of her husbands. The little one on the big horse must have been the jockey.
    The teapot clock in the kitchen said 10.30. The big clock down in the lounge room wasn’t on the right time either. Magda opened the first of the three display cabinets that stood around the lounge room as though it were a shop. I saw a cat, a funny-looking penguin, some dainty glasses and a little box. Magda carefully took something from the same shelf.
    â€˜Put out your hand,’ she ordered.
    I held it out and she put a little glass horse on the flat of my palm. I curled my fingers up so it wouldn’t fall, but the little thing seemed to almost steady itself. It wasn’t quite clear glass – you couldn’t see through it. It wasn’t white but it wasn’t grey. It looked as though wisps of smoke or cloud had been caught in it. He was beautiful.
    â€˜For you,’ Magda said. ‘A wish pony.’
    â€˜For me?’ He was quite the most beautiful thing I had ever owned. I couldn’t imagine why Magda would want to give him to me, especially after I had been so mean to her.
    â€˜Who else?’
    â€˜But I ...’ I wanted to say I was sorry for being rude and horrible. But then it would sound as though I just wanted to own the little pony, and while it was true I wanted the little pony almost more than I’d ever wanted anything, I wasn’t sorry because of that.
    â€˜You don’t deserve it?’ Magda smiled at me and shook her head slightly. ‘You weren’t the only person not behaving well. I shouldn’t have asked for your opinion, your candid opinion, and then dismissed it with an easy wave of my hand. I should have said, I would like your opinion, my friend Ruby, but then, I will disregard it because although we both know the coat is too young for me today, tomorrow it might be perfect. I won’t be an old chook forever.’
    I couldn’t see how that would work. If something was too young for you today, wouldn’t it be just that tiny little bit extra young the next day?
    â€˜And look, here’s my old copy of The Secret Garden , to borrow. So, no more frowning, Ruby.’ Magda put two fingers at the side of my mouth and pulled them up gently. ‘The wish pony is yours. He’ll be someone to talk to. You put him somewhere in your room where he won’t be too lonely. He’s used to having company on his shelf.’
    I put the wish pony on my dressing table between the little ceramic bird Sarah had given me when she came back from a trip to the West and the small china dolphin Mum had bought after we’d seen real ones. They seemed strange company for my little wish pony, but Magda approved. She moved a photo of me, Mum and Dad a bit closer, too.
    â€˜He might want to gallop over and see you all,’ she said and put my hairbrush