The Wish Department

Ring of the Smallest Wish

Nine-year-old Elsie Barlow had a wild imagination and a tendency to dig up her mother’s garden in pursuit of “ancient relics,” most of which turned out to be bottle caps or unusually shaped rocks.

But one Tuesday afternoon, while searching behind the hydrangeas for buried treasure (and avoiding math homework), her trowel hit something that clinked.

Curious, she dug faster, uncovering a small, tarnished brass ring nestled in the roots like it had been waiting.

She slipped it on her finger.

A puff of glittery smoke appeared with a very small, very grumpy voice, “Congratulations. You’ve found the Ring of the Smallest Wish. One wish. Very small. Make it count.”

Elsie blinked. “How small?”

“Small. Think... sub-sandwich small. Not global peace. Not a pony. Maybe... toast-level.”

She frowned. “That’s a weird magical restriction.”

The voice coughed. “Budget cuts.”

Elsie sat on the back step, considering her options. She could wish for candy, but her mum would confiscate it. She could wish for her homework to be done, but Miss Temple always knew when she cheated. Then she remembered: that very morning, her little brother had eaten the last strawberry yogurt, the only flavour she liked, and left behind six containers of boring banana.

“I wish,” she said, “for one strawberry yogurt to appear in the fridge. Cold. Unopened. With a spoon ready.”

There was a soft ding, like a polite microwave.

She ran to the kitchen. The fridge light blinked on dramatically... and there it was: one glorious, chilled, strawberry yogurt, balanced on top of a spoon. Elsie grinned like she’d just outwitted the universe.

The ring crumbled into glitter and disappeared.

From behind her, the grumpy voice muttered, “Honestly, that was one of the better wishes.”

And somewhere deep in the soil, under a tomato plant, another ring waited.

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