Wish

Charlie has been at Gus and Bertha’s house for four days. Their house is perched on the side of a mountain with supporting stilts, and there are cats everywhere. Gus and Bertha have done their best to make Charlie feel at home, but she still feels abandoned. When she arrives home from school, Bertha is waiting with freshly baked coffee cake and wants to hear everything about Charlie’s first day at school. Charlie resolves to tell her nothing, especially about the “Get to Know You” worksheet, and instead says that she saw a kid eat a squirrel sandwich. Charlie tells Bertha that she met an “up-down boy” (17), referring to the way Howard limps. Bertha tells her that Howard and his entire family are kind, helpful people and that Howard doesn’t even retaliate when kids at school call him “Pogo” (17). Howard’s brothers help Gus with odd jobs around the house and he pays them with turnips, a concept that Charlie thinks is strange.

Charlie’s room is small, and Bertha keeps her canning jars on shelves lining the wall. To make the room homier for Charlie, Bertha excitedly shows her the two new princess pillowcases she bought for her room, but Charlie feels as though Bertha is treating her like a baby. Jackie calls and tells Charlie about everything going on in her life, including that she’s learning to drive and is going to a NASCAR race with a boy. Charlie thinks to herself that everyone in Raleigh sees Jackie as a good kid, but Charlie knows her true character. Feeling like everyone back home has forgotten about her, Charlie plans to wait for the stars to come out so she can make another wish.

Charlie sits with Bertha and Gus on the porch as she looks up at the stars. Even though Gus is less chatty than Bertha, she goads him to tell the story about the time he wished for his uncle to disappear, and it came true. Gus points out the constellation Pegasus and Bertha tells Charlie that Gus knows a lot about science, saying, “He thinks I married him for his looks […] but I married him for his brains” (22). Charlie watches as the two quietly hold hands and gaze sweetly at each other, and she can’t ever remember her parents even liking one another. As she lies in bed, Charlie thinks about all the people back home and the new people she has met in Colby and hopes that her wish is granted.

Charlie wears Jackie’s white majorette boots to school, but several students give her funny looks. When a girl name Audrey Mitchell teasingly tells her she likes the boots, Charlie kicks her in the shin and is sent to the principal’s office, where she robotically responds to Mr. Mason’s lesson about bad behavior. He says he will have to tell Bertha about the incident, and Charlie feels ashamed for even wearing the boots. Even though she is actively trying to avoid Howard, he follows her around and invites her to sit with him on the bus. Howard tells Charlie that she must learn to control her anger and explains how his mother taught his brother Cotton to say “rutabaga” (26) each time he feels angry. Howard says Charlie’s word should be “pineapple,” though Charlie thinks to herself that it’s an absurd idea. When Howard gets off the bus, Charlie again notices the rundown condition of his home. As she stares out the window at the mountains, she remembers Howard’s explanation: The trees give off smoky, bluish vapors, giving the Blue Ridge Mountains their nickname, the Smoky Mountains.

As Charlie approaches her bus stop, she wonders how she will explain her behavior to Bertha. She sees two dogs fighting, and a woman scares away one of the dogs, a skinny black one, with the water hose. When Charlie gets off at her stop, seeing her white boots makes her angry for all the injustice in her life, and she quietly says “pineapple” before going inside.

Bertha isn’t angry with Charlie for kicking Audrey. She simply says, “Tomorrow’s a new day” (30) and tells her that she likes her white boots. At dinner, they have blueberry pie for dessert, and Charlie remembers how her cousin Melvin taught her to wish on the pointed end of the pie, so she saves hers to make a wish. Charlie feels self-conscious around Gus and Bertha and still wonders whether they like her or if they think she is a bad person like her father.

Bertha and Gus have a prodigious garden, and while Gus pulls weeds, Charlie writes her name in the dirt with a stick. Suddenly she sees rustling in the bushes, and the scrawny black dog appears briefly before darting back into the woods. Gus knows the dog and says that even though Bertha feeds it table scraps, it won’t let them get too close. Feeling a kinship to the wild dog, Charlies asks if she can catch him, but Gus thinks the dog prefers to roam free.

Bertha announces that they will attend church on Sunday. Charlie is worried because she never liked church the few times she visited with her family in Raleigh, and she only has jeans and T-shirts to wear. Bertha promises to take her shopping for new clothes later, but when they arrive at Rocky Creek Baptist Church, Charlie is embarrassed because all the other girls are wearing dresses. Charlie goes to Sunday school class, and Audrey Mitchell is there. The children play a game called Bible Detective, which tests their knowledge of Bible stories, but Charlie doesn’t know any of the answers. After church, Bertha proudly introduces Charlie to everyone. Howard and his family also attend the church, and Charlie meets Mrs. Odom, who invites her over to visit their home. On the car ride home, Charlie looks for the black dog and counts to 13 wishing on a truck filled with hay, because Jackie’s friend Casey told her that this method of wishing worked.

Charlie struggles with her classwork at school and doesn’t bother to do her homework. Shunned by the other students, she eats alone at lunch and often feigns illness to get out of class. Back in Raleigh, her mother didn’t care about her grades, so Charlie doesn’t tell Bertha about her struggles. Howard remains her only friend, even though Charlie is still annoyed by his incessant questions. Plus, Charlie is insistent that she will not be staying in Colby long. Charlie notices that even though their classmates are unkind to Howard, he doesn’t let their behavior bother him. While his brothers are athletic and popular, Howard prefers to play alone. Bertha worries about Howard, declaring that every kid needs friends. Bertha excitedly describes all the new friends that Charlie will make in Colby and all the exciting, new things she will experience, but Charlie thinks it sounds too good to be true. Charlie makes a wish on a black horse in a field, remembering her father’s assurance that a person can wish on a black horse after shaking a fist at it three times.

During a math lesson, Mrs. Willibey uses a pie metaphor to teach fractions, but when she asks Charlie how much pie she would share with her sister, Charlie remembers her resentment of Jackie and says that she wouldn’t share any. Mrs. Willibey calls Bertha to report Charlie’s poor classroom behavior. Charlie overhears Bertha trying to explain to her teacher that she is having a difficult time adjusting to the move. When Bertha hangs up the phone and confronts her, Charlie recites “pineapple” repeatedly to try and defuse her anger, but instead she explodes and says many hurtful things. Feeling ashamed, Charlie runs outside and down the road and begins sobbing.

Howard rides up on his bicycle, but Charlie tells him to go away. Howard persists, telling her that his mother taught him to share his problems with others to help lighten the burden. Before she realizes it, Charlie pours her heart out to Howard, revealing her loneliness without her family in Raleigh and her fear that she won’t be allowed to return. Howard listens attentively and responds truthfully, saying that there isn’t much she can do to change her circumstances, but that she can repair her relationship with Bertha. He describes everyone’s problems like laundry hanging on a line. If we saw what everyone else was going through, we would pick our own troubles back off the line. Charlie agrees and decides to apologize. As she leaves, she sees the skinny dog emerge from the woods and tells Howard that she plans to catch the dog and make it her pet. Howard agrees to help her, but he worries that the dog has fleas and mange. Charlie says she will bathe the dog and name him Wishbone. Charlie realizes that Howard no longer annoys her and feels like a true friend.

Charlie trudges home, her feet heavy with guilt and dread. She apologizes to Bertha and dissolves into tears. Bertha comforts her and says, “You are a blessing in this house, Charlie” (53). Gus arrives home, and they all eat blackberry cobbler while Bertha relates a funny story about her friend backing her car into a flagpole at the post office. An acorn falls at Charlie’s feet, and she picks it up and spins around three times before making a wish. She hopes what her Girl Scout leader in Raleigh told her about acorn wishes is true and keeps the acorn on her windowsill for a few days to seal the wish.

After dinner, Bertha shares with Charlie a shoebox full of old photographs of Bertha and Charlie’s mother when they were children. Bertha tells Charlie that she and her sister were once close, but time and life have complicated their relationship. Gus tells Charlie that she can call Jackie the next day, but Charlie says no. Even though she tells Bertha that she isn’t angry with Jackie, inside Charlie feels hurt by Jackie’s lack of concern for her situation, saying, “She acted like she didn’t have one single trouble hanging on her line and she didn’t care one bit about me” (57). Later while lying in bed, Charlie thinks again about Howard’s clothesline metaphor and determines that her problems are worse than other people’s. She thinks about the stray dog and prays for Wishbone to return.

Howard and Charlie make plans to search for Wishbone, but first, she must go shopping in Ashville with Bertha for church clothes. On the way to the store, Bertha tells lots of humorous stories, but Charlie wants to hear stories about her mother Carla. Bertha tells her the story of the time when the sisters were 10 and made friendship bracelets out of yarn. When a neighbor boy tossed the bracelets into the trees, Charlie’s mom bit him on the hand. Bertha said that Carla had a hot temper, and Charlie silently wonders if she inherited her anger issues from her mom instead of her dad. Charlie still wants to know why Bertha and her mother don’t speak, but Bertha avoids the topic. After purchasing two dresses and a cardigan, Bertha and Charlie return home where Howard is waiting with a hand-drawn map of the area. They set out to look for Wishbone but find nothing.

Charlie attends church the following Sunday proudly wearing her new dress, but she still feels left out during the Bible Detective game. Mrs. Mackey tells them to decorate the bulletin board with paper flowers listing all their blessings. Charlie watches the other children decorate their flowers, but she can’t think of any blessings in her life and runs from the room. In the parking lot, she sees a cardinal and makes a wish.

On the bus ride home from school, Howard invites Charlie to his house to discuss his new plan to catch Wishbone. Charlie spots an eyelash on his face and grabs it, blows it away, and makes a wish. She tells Howard that ever since the fourth grade, she has wished for the same thing every day, but he aptly points out that the wish hasn’t come true and wonders why she keeps asking for something that’s never going to happen. Charlie becomes angry and kicks Howard’s backpack across the floor. He calmly tells her to say “pineapple,” but it doesn’t work, and she gets angrier. Charlie stays angry at Howard all day, but when she sees that it doesn’t affect him, she feels bad and decides to go to his house to hear his plan. She makes another wish at 11:11. Bertha is glad that Charlie is becoming friends with Howard because all the children, even the ones at church, tease him.

Howard’s home is cluttered and messy inside, but Howard’s mother is kind and generous. She serves a cake, and all of Howard’s brothers emerge to grab the cake, forgoing plates and forks. Charlie meets Burl, Lenny, Dwight, Howard, and Cotton and is amazed to see how kind Mrs. Odom is to her children. Howard outlines his plan, and he and Charlie spend the afternoon looking for Wishbone without success. Mrs. Odom invites Charlie to stay for dinner and Charlie thinks about how different this home is from hers in Raleigh. Howard lends Charlie Lenny’s bicycle to ride home, and as she rides, she realizes how much she misjudged Howard’s home the first time she saw it.

Charlie excitedly explains Howard’s plan to build a trap to catch Wishbone by luring him with food scraps. Bertha worries that the stray dog might be dangerous or carrying diseases, but Charlie is certain that Wishbone will like her. Bertha wants Gus to tell Charlie about his childhood dog named Skeeter, but chatty Bertha ends up telling most of the stories. Gus has begun calling Charlie “Butterbean” (76), which she doesn’t like, but she doesn’t tell him that. While Bertha trails off into another story, Charlie’s mind wanders to all the things she will do with Wishbone as her pet. Her only worry is that when she returns to Raleigh, her mother won’t like the dog.

Later, as Charlie helps Gus to water the garden, a ladybug lands on her and she makes a wish. Jackie calls and goes on and on about all the things happening in Raleigh, including how everyone is dying their hair blue and her new friend named Cockroach. Charlie asks Jackie whether she will visit her in Colby, and Jackie promises she will, but Charlie feels like her sister doesn’t care much about her. After the call, she is more desperate than ever to find Wishbone to heal her loneliness. Charlie thinks about the Odom family and how they are probably enjoying family time together at the end of the day. Since she is still struggling with her schoolwork and the other kids are being unkind, Charlie dreads returning to school the next day and longs for summer to arrive quickly.

Time passes slowly at school because Charlie is anxious to get back home and set the trap for Wishbone. On the bus, Audrey sits next to Charlie and refuses to move when Charlie asks her to. Even though Charlie tries the pineapple trick to dampen her anger, it doesn’t work, and she shoves Audrey off the seat and onto the floor. Charlie instantly feels bad, but Audrey just calls her “crazy” (82) and moves to another seat. Howard sits next to Charlie and notices that she is upset, but Charlie doesn’t tell him about the incident. When they get off at Howard’s house, his mother and brother are waiting to hear about his day. Howard shows Mrs. Odom his school papers, and she makes a big fuss over his good grades. Charlie thinks about her poor school performance, thinking that she “could practically feel [her] marked-up papers jammed into the bottom of [her] backpack, weighing heavy on [her] lap” (83).

Howard’s father helps the children to build the dog trap. While they are working, Mr. Odom tells Charlie that she looks like her mother. Although he didn’t know her mother well, he saw her at Gus and Bertha’s a few times. Charlie is desperate to know more but remains quiet. Mr. Odom says that Howard talks about Charlie all the time, which makes her embarrassed. Burl loads the trap into his truck and drives Howard and Charlie back to her house. Charlie is anxious about the prospect of catching Wishbone, but she can’t stop thinking about what Mr. Odom said about her mother. Bertha asks Burl a lot of questions while Howard and Charlie set the trap and bait it with table scraps.

Gus waits with Charlie and Howard, but Wishbone never appears. Charlie is disappointed that the plan didn’t work, but she is also distracted by what Howard’s father said about her mother visiting Bertha and Gus’s house. Later, as they sit out on the porch listening to the rumble of an approaching storm, Charlie asks Bertha about her mother coming to Colby. Bertha explains that when Charlie and Jackie were still small, their mother Carla left them and Scrappy and came to Colby to start a new life. Bertha expressed her disapproval of Carla leaving her family behind to start over, and she became angry. Carla eventually returned home to her husband and the girls, but she never spoke to Bertha again. Bertha tried to call and regularly sent cards and gifts to the girls, but Carla never responded. Upon hearing this story, Charlie hides her emotions, and Bertha tells her that even though her mother often “just loses her way,” (92) she does truly love Charlie. Charlie longs for Wishbone to run out of the woods to soothe her broken heart.

At bedtime, Gus calls her Butterbean again, and she finds that she is growing to love the nickname. Bertha’s story leaves Charlie with many unanswered questions, and she wonders what kind of new life her mother was seeking. She also thinks about Wishbone and wonders what he is doing. Just as Charlie remembers that she hasn’t made a wish yet for the day, she hears a mockingbird singing through the rain and makes a wish.