Once Upon a Wish Read Online Free

Thank you!”
    David stared at the white wall in front of him, arms crossed, lips curling into a small smile as tears filled his eyes. Tatum’s arms had stretched as wide as they could reach, chin pointed toward the ceiling, when he had announced that the room was finally finished and asked if she’d like to come in and see it. Sitting on the floor in the long, quiet hallway of the hospital, he closed his eyes and pictured how she had stepped through the purple door with a gapingmouth, stood in the middle of the room, and spun, letting colors of the freshly painted walls blur to rainbows until she was nearly too dizzy to stand. Before David had finished the room, Tatum spent countless hours circling the newly installed hardwood floor on her scooter with Hannah in tow on her tricycle. They had placed a pile of their favorite stuffed animals in the center and circled like a carousel before serving tea and sitting down with the animals for a picnic.
    When the room was complete, the furniture, old and new, was placed neatly and the bright yellow walls were decorated with handcrafted pictures, pink shelves, and giant flowers painted in the brightest colors. Hot pink curtains hung over windows lined with green trim and were swooped and tied to the side, letting bright Texas sunlight into the room every morning.
    Tatum and Hannah had always shared a room, so as Tatum got a little older and needed her own space, David and Sherry decided to squeeze the home office into their bedroom and give each of the girls a room of their own—a place to create, to share, and to imagine. David scraped the popcorn ceiling, tore out the twenty-year-old carpet, replaced the doors and moldings, added a ceiling fan, and painted the retextured walls with colors like “forest sunrise” and “enchanted coach ride.” Tatum loved that room, and she was never shy to wrap her arms around her parents’ waists and tell them how grateful she was.
    Silence around him, alone, David watched as the long, skinny arms of a round, starch-white clock with black numbers ticked loudly. Each tick felt like an hour. He let out a long, breathy sigh and stood.
    Then he paced.
    He pressed the button on his phone to hear Tatum’s message again.
    “Hi, Daddy! Thank you so much for the playroom. I really …”he slapped the phone shut and squeezed it. Her voice was too real; the images of her face too clear. The thought of her leaving that message made the feeling of wanting her to be okay too overwhelming. So he sat with his eyes closed, praying that when he opened them he’d be somewhere, anywhere, but in that hallway.
    “Dan is asking that we go and pray with Tatum,” Sherry said, and David’s eyes shot open to the reality of their situation. He hadn’t even heard her coming. The thought of seeing Tatum, of touching her hand, of being in her presence, filled him with hope as he followed Sherry to where Dan and Kelli waited.
   4   
    The girl whose personality drew people to her when she walked into a room lay there quietly, eyes closed. David and Sherry stood in disbelief. Pale and fragile, with attached IVs draped over the rails of her bed, Tatum seemed like somebody else’s little girl lying there. But no, she was theirs, and this was real.
    Sherry reached for Tatum’s hand and stared at her face, thinking of the time the two of them spent together in New York City when Tatum was five. The thought made her smile through her tears. While dancing in circles down the streets of the city, Tatum sang songs from
The Lion King
, a Broadway musical they had seen the night before. People stared; some laughed, most applauded.
    “Is she in a show?” they rightfully asked. She belonged on stage.
    “No, not exactly,” Sherry said, laughing. “She’s just in a world of her own.”
    “Well, she should be,” one woman said. Her wise eyes creased when she smiled. “She just glows with joy.”
    The same face that served as a canvas for an artist in Central Park