What if We Rewrite the Stars?

Act 3: The Barnum Family:

*Eighteen Years Later*

After being sent home from the day's work, Phineas walked up the fire escape to see his wife, who was hanging up clothes, while his girls played. Amelia, the oldest, was running around with her little sisters, Caroline and Helen. Charity laughed at her girls, watching Amelia do a couple of flips before grabbing her littlest sister, Helen, and swinging her around, making the girls giggle.

"Me next, Mimi," Caroline begged when Amelia put Helen down. 

"I believe we have an outsider in these parts," Amelia smirked at her sisters, using an old Western accent when she motioned to their mother. 

"I believe you're right, partner," Caroline said as the three girls talked in old Western accents, pretending to shoot finger guns at Charity.  

Charity pretended to be shot, making the girls chuckle before Caroline and Helen started playing tag. "Oh..." Charity said after jumping to see her husband walk over to her. "You're home early." Charity continued to say to him. 

"And until further notice." He said, holding up his discharge papers from the office job he was working at.

Charity took the papers when Phineas put down his briefcase when he moved to help his wife with the sheet. "Well, I didn't think you were wrong for that job." Charity smiled at her husband. 

"Or any job, apparently." Phineas sighed, clipping the sheet on the line. 

"That's what makes our life together so exciting." Charity smiled, looking at her husband.

"Charity..." He sighed, making his wife look at him. "This isn't the life I promised you." He said, making Charity scoff at him.

"But I have everything I want." Charity defended, making Phineas sigh again.

"What about the magic?"

"What do you call those three girls?" Charity smiled when she watched her daughters. She smiled, watching Caroline and Amelia flipping and doing tricks, while Helen watched, jumping around with them, laughing. "Hey, partners, look who moseyed into the corral," Charity said in an old-western accent, making the girls turn to see their father.

"Daddy!" The little girls exclaimed while Amelia followed, watching Helen jump into Phineas's arms. 

"Come here!" He smiled when Caroline and Helen jumped on his back. 

"Did you bring a present?" Caroline asked him when he pretended to be confused. 

"A present for what?" Phineas asked them.

"For my birthday!" She chuckled when Amelia walked over to Charity, who smiled at her. 

"Your what?" Phineas continued to be oblivious. 

"My birthday." She repeated giggling.

"It's not your birthday." He said, making the girls chuckle when they got off his back. "Okay, I do have a present... but not just any present. Oh, no." He smirked, sitting on the bench in front of the girls, opening his briefcase on his lap. "The most amazing birthday present ever." He smirked, making the girls chuckle.

"That's a big claim." Amelia chuckled when Phineas gave her a smirk. 

"Well, Mimi..." Phineas began to say, calling his eldest by her nickname that they have called her since Caroline and Helen could not say, "Amelia." It just stuck around when Caroline started to talk. "This extraordinary machine was originally created by Leonardo da Vinci 400 years ago. But the blueprints had been lost for centuries until just last week, on a stormy night, when a sunken pirate ship washed up on the shores of Nantucket. They found skeletons and treasures, and the blueprints were recovered by none other than J.W. Mercantile." He said, making a contraption behind his briefcase when he held up the match he lit. "The blueprints crossed my desk very briefly, but I managed to commit them to memory. And if I have remembered correctly..." He said, closing his briefcase where he placed an oil lamp where a candle was shining the cut-out shapes around the white sheets that were hanging up.

Amelia, Caroline, and Helen looked around the shadows on the sheets in awe. 

"Happy birthday, Caroline." Phineas smiled at his daughters' expressions. 

Charity joined the girls, standing up as she looked at the spinning shapes. "What is it?" Amelia asked when she looked at her dad. "This, Mimi is a wishing machine. You tell it your wishes... and it keeps them safe until they come true. Even if you forget them, they're always there." Phineas explained to his girls. 

"Can I tell a wish?" Helen smiled, grabbing Amelia's hand. 

"Step right up." Phineas smiled when Amelia leaned down to Helen's height. 

"Go ahead." Amelia smiled when she moved to rest her hands on each of her sisters' shoulders.

"I wish to marry Santa Claus," Helen whispered as the family chuckled at her silly wish. 

"That is a good wish," Phineas smirked at his little girl.

"You next, Care." Amelia smiled when Caroline moved to make a wish. 

"I wish... for ballet slippers," Caroline whispered, making Charity and Phineas look at each other, knowing they couldn't afford ballet classes. 

"Hey, that's-- that's a good wish, too. Mimi?" Phineas smiled when Amelia leaned over the candle but rose up to look at her sisters and her parents. 

"I wish... I wish for a love like my parents have." Amelia whispered into the candle, making her parents smile at each other. 

"And she wants ballet slippers, too," Caroline whispered when the family chuckled. 

"And ballet slippers, of course," Amelia whispered into the candle.

"That is a very good wish, Mimi." Phineas smiled when Helen looked over at their mom. 

"What's your wish, Mommy?" Helen asked her mom. 

"I wish..." Charity smiled when she thought about her wish, smirking at her daughters. She leaned over to make the wish. "...for happiness like this forever for you and you and you... and for your father." Charity smiled when Phineas smirked at her. 

"Boring..." He chuckled.

"Boring?" Charity laughed with him. 

"Since when has happiness ever been boring, Dad?" Amelia asked her dad, chuckling a bit. 

"Every night I lie in bed, the brightest colors fill my head. A million dreams are keeping me awake." Caroline sang as she looked around at the lights. 

"I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see. A million dreams is all it's gonna take." Helen and Amelia joined in while Phineas followed his daughters' gaze around the sheets. 

"A million dreams for the world we're gonna make." Phineas sang softly when Amelia chuckled, turning to look at her dad when Helen jumped in her oldest sister's arms.

~1056 words~