Magazines or Novels? A Short Story

 

"Stop dawdling, Jane, and get your head out of that book!" Jane's mother cried, and continued sashaying down the sidewalk. Jane sighed heavily, and shut her book, which her father had just bought her the day before, speeding up to her mother. How she wished that her mother was more like her and her father.

 

Jane's father was an editor at a publishing house, and Jane admired him, whereas in the case of her mother, Jane despised her. Jane's mother was not your ideal authority figure, going to the salon three times a week, and gossiping away to whoever was doing her hair, nails or makeup that day about her friends and family, not caring a bit about her daughter. Jane's mother also thought books were poisonous, and never cared to read a word, unless it was in some trashy magazine, like PaparazziPop.

 

Soon, Jane and her mother reached the local salon. As Jane’s mother pressed four quarters and a dime into Jane’s palm, she announced “Alright Jane, I’m going to the salon now to get a perm, so here’s a dollar and ten cents, go get yourself some sweets or something, I don’t care, just meet me back here in a couple of hours, ‘kay?”

 

Jane nodded, sighing. The two went off in separate directions, when suddenly, something caught Jane’s eye. A fountain? No, a wishing fountain! The crystal clear water gleamed and rippled in the sunlight. Maybe this was the key to her mother becoming more like her and her father. She threw the dime her mother had given her in, and whispered softly, “I-I wish Mother becomes more like Father and I,”

 

Jane watched the dime skip elegantly across the water, and sink. She ran in the direction of her mother’s salon, and she peeked in the window. Her mother was reading something! Jane turned to look at it from another angle, and it was a novel! Wishes really could come true.