Be Careful What You Wish For, A Short Children's Story For Maddie

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Maddie. Maddie was eight years old and would soon be nine. Everyone who knew her thought she was the cutest thing. Her Mom took her shopping and her Daddy took her hunting and fishing. She had tons of toys, her own room and everything she needed.

But Maddie wanted something she didn't have. She wanted a baby brother or sister and she wanted one bad. Her grandfather, who she called Pop, took her to Chick-fil-A every day after school so she could play. She never got tired of playing with the other children and often wished some of them were her brothers or sisters.

The night before her birthday, Maddie couldn't go to sleep. She kept thinking about not having a brother or sister. Maddie tossed and turned and tried to make her eyes go to sleep. Maddie tried counting sheep, but they turned into babies!

Suddenly, the room exploded with light. Maddie hid her head under the covers.

"Come out, Maddie." The voice was so calm and soothing that Maddie couldn't help but peek.

"I'm your guardian angel, Maddie." The angel was beautiful, with long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore a fancy robe that was so white it seemed to glow.

"Do I get three wishes?" Maddie sat up in her bed. "What is your name? Where were you when I knocked my toenail off at church?"

"Call me Angie," she said. "I was there, that's why you didn’t break your toe."

"How about the wishes?"

"I'm an angel," Angie said, floating up to the bed. "I’m not a genie. Besides, I know you want brothers and sisters and the only question I have is how many."

"Two each," Maddie said.

"You're sure about that?" Angie asked. "Let's see how that might work out."

The television in Maddie's room came on and there on the screen was Maddie's bedroom. Except it was different. Her queen size bed was gone and two pairs of bunk beds covered the space. Maddie saw the heads of her two brothers and two sisters in the beds.

"What happened to my bed?" Maddie asked.

"Oh your parents had to move you downstairs after the first set of twins was born," Angie said.

"But that's my play room," Maddie said. “I have to sleep down there and my parents are upstairs? Oh, no!”

Maddie looked back to the TV and the screen filled with an image of her play room, but it had changed too. Gone was the TV and Wii video game, gone was the set of drums and all the stuffed animals.

"You're in this room because you are the oldest, but in a few years you will have to share this room with your sisters. Your brothers will be too old to share a room with any girls."

"Angie, that's not right. I was here first," Maddie said.

"Oh, there's many changes. Your grandmother, Nae Nae, had to quit her job to help out with the second set of twins. Daycare for four was just too expensive."

The picture changed again. On the TV Maddie sat at a desk at school working on her homework. The clock on the wall showed that it was 2:30.

"Is Pop running late to pick me up after school?" Maddie asked.

"Your Pop had to go back to work when Nae Nae retired. He doesn't pick you up anymore and you stay in the After School Program until your Mom gets off at four."

"I don't like this, I don't like it one bit," Maddie said. She snatched the sheet up over her head and squirmed down into her pillow. She didn't want her guardian angel to see the tears.

"I don't like this, I don't like this," Maddie kept saying. She was hot and the sheet was covering her head making it hard to breathe. "I don't like this at all!"

"Well, get out from under the covers then, Scooter," her Dad said. "It's a school morning."

Slowly Maddie peeked out and saw it was daylight. Her bedroom was still her bedroom and there was no angel anywhere around.

"It was all a dream," Maddie said. She jumped out of bed and hugged her father. "I don't want any brothers or sisters!"

"That's good, because you're not getting any," and he laughed.

"Good." Maddie said. From that day on she still loved children, but she never, ever wished for a brother or sister again.

Well, almost never!