A girl received a Harry Potter’s magic wand (pen) from me as birthday gift. She held the wand enthusiastically and said: “Lumos!”
“The sun is still shining brightly, what is the use of Lumos now?” her sister asked.
She pointed the wand to her sister and said: “Expelliarmus!”
“No use too, I do not have a wand to disarm from!” her sister replied.
I am inspired by this scene and spend some time thinking a funny question. If one thing from all the stories I read could be true, what would I wish for?
My knowledge of magic spell is too little, therefore a magic wand would not be so much fun to me. Aladdin’s flying carpet? No, it is too conspicuous if I am flying on that carpet. The Tigerente (tiger duck) from Janosch’s story is very cute, but it is not exciting enough. Hmmm… not easy at all to wish only one thing.
Somehow, as I was reading “Mio, my son”, I discovered one thing that could be my wish. Let me introduce “The Well That Whispers at Night” to you:
But then I heard something. Yes, I heard something. I heard a whisper down in the well! A whisper began deep, deep down in the well. It was such a strange voice, unlike any other voice. It whispered fairy tales. They weren’t like any other fairy tales, and they were the most beautiful stories in the whole world. There was almost nothing that I loved more than listening to fairy tales, so I lay down flat on my stomach, leaning over the edge of the well to hear more and more of the voice that whispered. Sometimes it sang too, the strangest and most beautiful songs.
“What strange kind of well is this?” I said to Totty.“A well full of fairy tales and songs. That’s all I know,” said Totty. “A well full of old stories and songs that have existed in the world for a long time, but that people forgot a long time ago. It is only the Well That Whispers at Night that remembers them all.”
Astrid Lindgren, Mio, My Son
Translated from the Swedish by Jill Morgan
And what would you wish for?