Free The Magic Touch by Jody Lynn Nye Page B

dreamed it. He’ll throw the card in the wastebasket.”
    “Oh,” Ray said.
    “What’s the matter?” Rose asked, tucking a hand into his crooked elbow. “You look disappointed.”
    “I thought being a fairy godmother meant doing magic all the time, like we did before,” Ray said, waving behind him. “All we did was walk through walls and buy ice cream.”
    Rose tapped him on the wrist. “You’re right, but this was not a flashy case either. It’s bupkis ,nothing, to everyone except that little boy. We got him over the disappointment of losing the ball game. Now, he’ll think hard about whether he needs us for real, but he’ll be able to pick himself up from the little losses.” Rose searched his face in the lamplight glimmer. “We gave him a tool for handling the rest of his life. The world is cold out there. Every so often a child needs to see that other people do care.” Rose shook her head. “I blame the parents. They should have taken him out for an ice cream themselves after the game, not gone scooting off to the movies by themselves. I bet they’re some of the parents who only care about winning. Did you hear what Peter told us?”
    “Yeah,” Ray said, remembering.
    Together, Ray and Rose made three rapid stops, helping another boy and two more girls. Their wishes were easy ones, not requiring a PhD in psychology, just a little good judgment in not going too far with the magic. The last was the fanciest of the three, where Rose wished an ugly birthmark off a girl’s face, leaving her still kind of ordinary-looking, but unmarked. The radiant smile she gave them when they left made Ray feel all warm inside, but he kept thinking back to Matthew and Clarice. He liked the tricky calls best.
    “That’s about all for tonight, then,” Rose said briskly. “It’s after ten. Most of the children are going to be in bed or too sleepy to tell us what they really want.”
    She led Ray out of the last girl’s home, through the alley, and onto the main street, where they emerged into the light of a streetlamp. Ray looked around him with surprise. He realized that they had started out right here on this spot only a few hours ago. In that short time, his whole life had changed. He was going to be a fairy godfather, and like it. He felt for the wand and the little book, and gave them both an affectionate pat.
    Rose turned abruptly, so he had to jump back to keep from bumping into her. “You believe now, don’t you?”
    Ray hesitated. Rose seemed to know that he’d changed his mind, but at least she didn’t throw it back at him.
    “I guess,” he said, not willing to commit himself out loud just like that. He had some pride. Rose was pleased all the same.
    “If you do like what we’re doing, and you can think of someone who’d be good at it, tell us. Or tell him. The meetings are open to anyone who’s serious. You know what I mean.” She nodded knowingly.
    “Yeah, I guess so,” Raymond said, thinking hard. Nobody sprang to mind, exactly. He’d have liked to tell his sister, but if he did, she would want to be right in the heart of it, wanting to go grant wishes right alongside him and Rose. Ray couldn’t help but think that if Grandma Eustatia had wanted that, she’d have sent Chanel along. Maybe the child was too young. Well, what about Hakeem Barton, his best friend? Ray almost opened his mouth to mention him, then reconsidered. Hakeem used to shoplift candy from the corner store in their neighborhood. He really didn’t boost stuff anymore, but what about past sins?
    “They don’t have to be moral giants ,” Rose said, reading his mind again in that maddening fashion of hers. “You know somebody who’s reformed who’d make a good fairy godmother, that’s okay. It’s the ones who sell drugs to children who wouldn’t fit in. The ones who steal from their bosses. The ones who beat animals. You know.”
    Ray knew. “Let me think about it,” he said.
    “We can’t save the world,” Rose