✦An original three-wish fantasy
The Wishing Well
Nila wants her kite to fly without waiting for the wind. A wishing well grants exactly what she asks—and gives her a reason to think about the next wish.
A story to read together
The Wishing Well
Take your time. Let the story unfold.
Nila and her friend Ari carried a handmade kite to the meadow. Its tail was bright with scraps of green and red cloth, but the afternoon air was perfectly still. They tried a few gentle runs, then sat down laughing beside the old stone well. A white pebble shone near Nila’s shoe. When she picked it up, a small voice rose from the well: “Three wishes, if you wish.”
A kite without wind
Nila looked at Ari. Ari looked into the silver shimmer above the well, keeping well back from its edge. “Is that really magic?” he whispered. Nila held the pebble. “I wish my kite could fly without the wind,” she said. At once, the kite lifted from the grass. It climbed gracefully, then began looping over the meadow like an eager bird. Nila held its string, delighted. But the kite had far more energy than she expected. It spun left, swooped right, and tied its tail into a fluttering knot.
A wish too large
“Oh, I wish everything would stand still!” Nila exclaimed. The meadow stopped. A falling petal hung beside a flower. The kite rested motionless in the sky. Ari was frozen halfway through pointing at it, his mouth shaped around a word that had not arrived. Only Nila and the well’s silver light continued moving. She suddenly missed the small, ordinary motions she had barely noticed before: grass bending, her friend laughing, a bee passing without asking anyone’s permission. A quiet world was not the same as a world that could not move.
The last white glimmer
The pebble gave one soft flash. Nila remembered the voice: three wishes. She had one left. She did not hurry this time. She thought about the kite as it had been before the magic, resting on the grass, and Ari waiting beside her. “I wish everything in this meadow would be as it was before my first wish,” she said clearly. The silver light curled like a ribbon and slipped into the well. The petal fell. Ari finished his sentence. The kite lay beside their feet, with its tail loose and bright again.
The breeze that came by itself
Nila told Ari what had happened in the still moment he had not felt. He listened, then helped untwist the ordinary string. “Shall we wait a little?” he asked. They lay on the grass and watched shapes form in the clouds. Soon a light breeze crossed the meadow. This time, they worked together: Ari held the kite while Nila steadied the line, and it rose slowly into the air. The white pebble had become an ordinary stone. Nila kept it beside her drawing box—not because she needed another wish, but because it reminded her how much could happen when she gave an afternoon room to unfold.
The end
After the final page
There is no single right answer. Invite young readers to notice, wonder and imagine.
Why did Nila make her first wish?
What did she miss when the meadow stood still?
What ordinary part of a day would you like to slow down and enjoy?
Make something: Write three imaginary wishes. Beside each, draw one delightful result and one unexpected result, then choose which wish you would keep.
