Wishes

Jack

a poor young lad...

In the far east of the village, a boy perhaps ten or eleven, sat in his small shabby cottage thinking. Thinking next to a cow. Now, this child was quite a peculiar child. The neighbors constantly gossiped about him all the time.

"I heard that seventy-five percent of his brain is filled with curiosity!"

"I heard that he is always worried about a cow he calls his 'friend'!"

The kid's name was Jack. He was a curious child indeed. A poor one too. If his cow wouldn't milk (which it hadn't in weeks), then Jack and his mother would starve to death. Either way, they wouldn't be able to sell the milk, or make cheese for themselves, WITHOUT THE MILK!

So that was why Jack was thinking. He was in his house sitting on a milking stool with his cow, Milky White. Milky White was by far the whitest cow, with the smoothest creamy coat anyone had ever seen. Jack found him one day, running through the village, with no owner. And oh, how dedicated he was to find the owner again. But, no one claimed the cow. So, Jack decided to take him in.

Milky White was Jack's only friend. They both shared a similarity of being different. Except, that's all Jack knew about himself. He never thought of himself as unique. Just different. Because of Jack's peculiarity, no other boys in the village ever asked to play with him.

"Come on pal," Jack would plead to the creamy white cow.

"Why won't you produce your milk like every other cow?"

He thought about that for a minute. Did he eat something wrong? Like apples? Apples upset my stomach...

Suddenly, his mother burst into the house. She too was rather strange. With wide round eyes and rebellious hair, she looked like a maniac.

"Jack!" she screamed in astonishment.

"What in heaven's name is that cow doing inside our house?!"

Jack looked down at his feet, ashamed of himself.

"I," he stammered, "I thought a cozier environment might be what Milky White needs to... to produce his milk..."

Goodness, the mother paused for a moment. Good choice of words.

She snapped back to attention.

"It's a SHE!" the mother rolled her eyes, "Only SHEs can give milk!"

She sighed and the whole room grew quiet.

The cow then gave a long deep moooooo.

"Well," Jack muttered, "maybe Milky White is a boy. He certainly isn't milking..."

"You know what?!" his mother cried, with a determined look on her face, "We must sell Milky White at the market, for no less than five pounds!"

"Mother, no!" Jack begged.

"You can't do that! He's the best cow!"

"WAS! WAS the best cow!" his mother complained.

"SHE hasn't been producing anything in weeks! We have no food and no money. It's for the greater good!"

And with that, she grabbed Milky White and marched outside, slamming the door behind her.

Jack held his head in his hands. He whimpered,

"I wish..."