Their Wish

The pool formed naturally overnight. August’s sister spotted it from the window in the morning, bouncing and screeching with excitement. Pool? It was more of a pond. No walls. Just a round hole in the ground filled with perfectly reflective water. It smelled clean, and animals gathered around it as though in prayer.

August’s sister wanted to get in right away. Their parents said no and held her tight. They called for a land survey to determine the origin of the water. Three months later and no satisfying answers. But the pool didn’t seem to be dangerous, the surveyors said.

Still, their sister was not allowed in the water, and it was implicit August would keep dry as well. There were plans to fill in the circle, maybe with cement to create a fountain. Anything to give their parents a sense of security about the existence and safety of this sudden marvel.

August, though, knew the pool for what it was. They had wished for a passage to take them to a place they would be accepted as they were. Like a portal to Narnia. And then August woke up to their sister screeching. They stepped to the edge of the water and stared into their own reflection.

They dove.

August swam for the bottom of the pool. The surveyors had found it was four feet deep, but August kept swimming down until they thought their lungs would burst. Strands of their hair wisped around their face. The sun disappeared from above and appeared below. August pushed themself, reached by for that light until their hand broke through the bottom of the pool to air.

Hands reached for theirs and they were pulled from the water onto a mossy bank. “You’ve come through!” voices shouted. Jubilant bodies twisted circles around August as they pushed back their hair and breathed.

“This is it?” August whispered, eyes round with wonder.

“Yes!” cried the others. “Here you are, where you belong!”

So August danced for hours or days. But one day August looked for their reflection in the pool. Instead of their bright eyes and pinked cheeks, they saw the sadness of their sister and heard her wish, “August, I miss you. Please come home.”

August peered through the water. Their sister could not see them, but she was certain they were on the other side. “I know why you left,” she said.

August wrapped their hands around their middle and breathed through the pain that had disappeared until this reminder: they never felt at home with their family. Mother. Father. Sister. August. Where did August fit?

Then came their sister’s small voice. “You are August. Please come home. You belong with me.”

August’s nose broke the water’s surface. Their sister disappeared. They looked around this side of the pond where everyone a reflection of everyone else. They loved it here. They loved being acccepted fully and completely as they were, with no expectation they would be any other way.

August pictured their sister’s face. Re-heard her voice. She was only one. Here there were many. But their sister was family. She had known them before they had come out and there she was still loving them after. Could August have made a mistake?

“If you leave, you cannot come back,” said one dancing child.

“The wish is only granted once,” said another.

August looked into the water. They could no longer see their sister, but their house was visible in the distance. They thought of warm dinners and cozy sheets and homework and dances and others like them.

“Thank you,” August whispered. They dove back through to the other reality. To home. And it wasn’t perfect. It was hard. But it was worth it because August built a new tribe starting with their sister, and August was wrapped in love.