The Golden Wish
"I wish we could go on a proper holiday" Tom whined as he trudged through the woods. The forest floor was a mosaic of autumnal colour, golden leaves dripped from the trees, shimmering in the sunlight.
"What do you mean? This is a proper holiday," replied his dad, "this is the Lake District! We used to come every year when I was a kid, and I loved it. I still do!"
"But there's nothing to do!” said Tom. “We don't even have any Wi-Fi in the caravan" he moaned.
"You don't need Wi-Fi when you've got all this," his dad said enthusiastically, gesturing his arm towards their surroundings. Tom didn't respond. They resumed their walk, Tom trailing along behind his parents, head down, lost in his own thoughts of where he'd rather be.
After a while they came across the trunk of a fallen tree – a huge log resembling some sort of mythical creature lying in wait, its gnarled back covered in an array of vertical scales. Tom’s brain couldn't interpret what he was seeing at first, then slowly, he realised...coins! The log was covered with coins that had been driven into the bark - a bristling armour of different shades of copper and nickel. Some were twisted and deformed where they'd been hammered into place, others barely visible, buried deep in the moss-covered bark. Tom tried pulling one out. "Don't do that," his mum snapped "that's someone's wish. If you take it out it won't come true."
"What!?" asked Tom, confused.
"People tap in a coin and make a wish," his mum said.
"Here," said Tom’s dad offering him a shiny new pound coin. Tom found a small rock nearby to use as a makeshift hammer and gently tapped the coin into a crevice while he silently wished to himself that next year they could go on a proper holiday.
Months later, their trip now a distant memory, Tom and his family were at the village gala. They visited all the stalls and as they were leaving, his dad sent Tom to buy some raffle tickets with the change he had left. Tom looked at his tickets, numbers 631-636, and saw they boasted the words "First Prize: A holiday in Disneyland" in gold lettering. "If only..." he thought.
At the end of the gala it was time for the raffle. The official plunged her hand into the bowl full of tickets to draw the winner of the first prize. Two tickets were in her grasp, numbers 298 and 636. There could only be one winning ticket so she had to let go of one.
Meanwhile, somewhere in a forest in the Lake District, a young girl and her family had stumbled upon the tree and, just at that moment, the glint of a shiny coin caught the girl’s eye, its golden edges glistening in the sun. The temptation was too great, she gripped it between her fingers and pulled...
Thomas Smith, 11.