Found Things Read Online Free Page A

kind you make a wish on.”
    â€œYou want to wish on it?” I asked, watching the feather flutter in my hand.
    â€œLet’s both make a wish, at the same time. Ready?” She crossed her fingers and squeezed her eyes shut. “One-two-three—go.”
    I’d already made my wish the night before, so I watched Meadow Lark’s lips move to hers. When she was finished, she opened her eyes and asked, “All done?”
    â€œI didn’t make a wish.”
    â€œThen go ahead.”
    I shook my head. “No, I want to save my wishes.”
    â€œSave them for what?”
    â€œUntil I really need them,” I say. “Let’s just send it off now, okay?”
    â€œRiver, what’s the matter?” Meadow Lark asked.
    What was the matter was always the same—Theron. I’d wished for more than two months for him to come back, and he hadn’t. All the talk about wishes and miracles was just talk. What good would it do to wish on a feather?
    But all I say was, “Nothing. I just don’t know the wish rules.”
    â€œThere aren’t any rules. It’s just a game.”
    â€œSo go ahead and blow it away.”
    Meadow Lark shook her head. “No, you float it on the river.”
    â€œI never heard of that. Did you just make it up?”
    â€œThat’s what they do where I come from.”
    â€œWhere you come from?” I asked, puzzled. “I thought you didn’t have a river in Phoenix.”
    â€œWell . . . ,” she say slowly, “I’ve lived in lots of places. And in the other places—not Phoenix—that’s what we did. I can’t believe you’ve never heard of it.”
    â€œWe must be slow,” I say, and glanced at the feather ruffling in the light breeze. It looked alive.
    â€œSure you don’t want to make a wish first?” she asked.
    â€œOh, okay, I’ll make a silly little wish.” That way, I figured, I wouldn’t be disappointed when nothing come of it.
    â€œNo, you have to make a big, crazy wish that you’d never, ever believe would come true. It has to be so big and crazy that it hurts to make and would break your heart if it didn’t come true.”
    Too many hearts were already broken over Theron, so I thought of something else that could be big and crazy. Then I looked at Meadow Lark. “Okay, I have one.”
    â€œRemember, make it big and crazy,” she say.
    I closed my eyes and made my wish. I want to know my real mama.
    When I opened my eyes, Meadow Lark say very seriously, “Now we put it in the water.”
    It was such a pretty feather, pretty enough to keep, pretty enough to put in your pocket as a lucky feather. It would be a shame to waste it down the river. “Sure you don’t want to hold on to it?” I asked.
    She shook her head and took the feather from me. “No, it has to carry those wishes away.”
    Then Meadow Lark stepped into the river up to her knees, out far enough for the current to carry our wishes a long way. She set the feather on the surface, and the river snatched it and whisked it off.
    I watched the feather slide and twirl on the water until I couldn’t see it anymore, letting my big, crazy, silly wish about my mama last only as long as I could see the feather. After it was gone, I wished I’d tucked that pretty feather in my pocket, so I could keep it in my ballerina box next to my emerald ring.

    The pink light of dusk hung in the air when I got home, and as soon as I stepped inside and smelled onion casserole, I remembered the milk.
    â€œDid you forget something, River?” Mama asked me, her hands planted on her hips and her mouth a straight line. “Just when I was at my last drop. Now I’ll have to go out. Where . . .” She stopped and sniffed the air. “You’ve been down at the river. What have we told you about that?”
    I nodded. “I’m sorry. I just forgot about