Relentless: Three Novels

by Lindsey Stiles

  “There you go, Tawny. Your wish has been granted. You never have to go to bed anymore.”

  “Yay, I’m so happy. Thank you, Mrs. Honey Pickle. Now I can play forever.”

  Tawny jumped up and down on her bed and Buzzy joined in, barking with each jump.

  “I’m glad to see you so happy, Tawny and you too, Buzzy,” said Mrs. Honey Pickle. Now come on, Buzzy. We have to leave now. Tawny, if you need me just look to the sky and repeat my name three times and I will return as fast as I can.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Honey Pickle. Thank you, Buzzy.”

  Buzzy licked Tawny’s face and then he and Mrs. Honey Pickle were off. Tawny went into her closet and pulled out her Barbie dolls and began to play where she left off.

  “This is going to be so fun,” she giggled. Tawny enjoyed herself playing Barbies. She sang to herself: Barbie and Ken, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g! And she dressed and redressed them in different outfits and put them in the pink Barbie car. After that, she went into the living room and played a dance game on her Xbox. After that, she went into the pantry and organized all of the spices in alphabetical order for her mom. After that, she heard someone throw a newspaper on their porch, birds chirping and trash trucks picking up down the street. She was surprised that it was no longer night.

  Tawny had stayed up all night and watched the sun come up on a school day. By the time it was time to get ready for school, she was a little tired but nothing too bad. She gathered up her clothes, took a shower, and then went into the kitchen for breakfast.

  “Good morning, Mommy and Daddy.”

  “You’re in a good mood today,” said her mother, putting pancakes and orange juice down in front of her. “Are you the one who organized my spices?”

  “Yes, and I’m having a lot of fun staying up late and not having a bedtime.”

  “That’s why we did it, honey, so that you can be happy,” her father added.

  “It was nice of you to do that for me,” her mom said.

  “You’re welcome, Mommy!”

  Tawny skipped off to school. Tra-la-la, she sang all the way to school. No more bedtime. Tra-la-la! A little before lunchtime she began to feel sleepy. She tried brushing it off, but the yawning kept coming back. Maybe she was just hungry?

  Then the bell rang for third-grade lunch, Tawny realized that she must have dozed off, because the bell woke her.

  Her teacher walked over to her desk and said, “Tawny, I couldn’t help but notice that you fell asleep during arithmetic. The lesson was fractions today and quite important.”

  “Oh, it’s okay, Mrs. Dunne. I don’t have a bedtime now. So I might be falling asleep in places other than my bed.”

  “You don’t have a bedtime?”

  “No, I made a wish and it came true. No more bedtime for me.”

  “Oh, I see. Well, you need sleep, Tawny, but not in my classroom.”

  “It won’t happen again, Mrs. Dunne.”

  “Go home and get some sleep. Don’t come to school this tired again. You’re a complete wreck. You doodled on your spelling test!” Mrs. Dunne handed her another one. “You need to take this home and do it again after you get some sleep. Bring it tomorrow. It’s a make-up test. You are allowed two a year. Go eat lunch now.”

  “Thanks!” Tawny put it in her backpack and got up from her desk, heading towards the lunchroom.

  She felt a little bit better after her little accidental nap in Mrs. Dunne’s class. She sat with her best friend, Beth, at lunch and the two girls giggled about the boys in their classroom. They both had a crush on Gene Atkins. They thought he was the cutest boy ever. The only thing bad about Gene was that he still thought that girls were gross. So, the two girls would chase him around the playground, threatening to kiss him. They loved how he ran from them. It was a game to them. It was a game to him, too.

  That afternoon wasn’t any different than any other one. Tawny and Beth chased Gene around the playground, screaming that they were going to give him a kiss. Except that today, Tawny didn’t have much energy. Tawny was usually way ahead of Beth and sometimes ran so fast that she caught Gene. Of course, once she caught up to him, she wouldn’t kiss him, she was way too scared to do such a thing. But Gene didn’t seem to notice as he weaved back and forth, dodging her like they were playing tag.

  Tawny dragged behind Beth as Beth ran as fast as she could to catch Gene.

  “I think I’m going to have to sit this one out, Beth,” said Tawny.

  “Why, what’s wrong?”

  “I just feel really tired today.”

  “Didn’t you sleep last night, Tawny?”

  “Actually, I didn’t.”

  “What? Your parents let you stay up?”

  “I don’t have a bedtime anymore. I can stay up forever if I want to.”

  “That’s awesome, I wish I could do that, too.”

  “I made a wish with my fairy godmother, Mrs. Honey Pickle, and it came true.”

  “A fairy godmother? Wow, you really are lucky, Tawny.”

  Tawny smiled with pride and said, “Maybe you have a fairy godmother, too. I didn’t even know I had one until last night. Just think of a wish and maybe she’ll show up.”

  “Maybe I do, I’ll have to look into that.”

  They both giggled.

  On the bus ride home from school, Tawny began to feel tired again. She was just starting to understand that maybe a little bit of sleep wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

  “I’ll go to bed a little earlier tonight,” she told herself. “I can catch up.” Her dad sometimes caught up on sleep on the weekends when he had to work late. He pretended to watch weekend sports in the recliner chair in the den, but it was then that he caught up on his sleep that he had missed all week. Such a thing was possible. Dad did it every week.

  By the time she was dropped off at her bus stop and she walked the two-minute walk home, Tawny was exhausted. She wanted her pillows, her blanket, her bed!

  “Maybe, I’ll just take a short nap, just to rest. Before dinner. Like Dad does, sometimes.”

  Tawny walked into her bedroom and climbed into her bed and fell asleep instantly. It felt better than she imagined to close her eyes and just let it happen, without fighting it.

  She suddenly awoke to her mother telling her, “Tawny, get up right his instant, you know you never have to go to sleep.”

  “But I’m tired, Mom. Really tired.”

  “It’s a great privilege not to have to go to sleep when someone tells you it’s bedtime. It’s very grown up not to have a bedtime. I thought you wanted this so much so you could have more fun in life. Besides, we have plans!”

  Tawny sat up in her bed and remembered her wish and how much she had wanted it.

  “Okay, Mom, I’m up. What plans do we have?”

  “I came in here to tell you that were leaving for the circus in ten minutes.”

  “Wow! I forgot!” Tawny jumped out of bed, feeling excited. She loved the circus, she must have been so tired that she forgot today was Thursday, the day the circus was in town.

  She felt a sudden burst of energy as she brushed her hair and got ready to leave for the circus. She made her hair style into two ponytails and used her elastic ponytail holders with the clowns on them. She also wore her silly clown nose. She loved clowns and wanted to go to clown camp someday.

  The whole Pine family piled into her father’s Chevy and headed to the circus.

  “I want to see the lions,” said her little brother.

  “I want to ride the elephant,” said Tawny. “And see the clowns!”

  When the family got to the circus, the circus had elephant rides out front.

  “Can we please go?” begged Tawny.

  “I don’t see why not,” said her father.

  Tawny and her little brother ran to the line to ride the elephant. Waiting in the line made Tawny tired and by the time it was their turn to ride the elephant, she was so sleepy that she was seeing double.

  The lady in the
sparkly red costume who was giving the elephant rides motioned for Tawny and her brother to get on. They both jumped on as Tawny was fighting back sleep.

  “You have to hold on tight!” she said, when the elephant got up and started moving. Tawny held on but then her eyes closed and it felt so good to let them close. Then she heard her little brother scream her name.

  “What is it?” she asked, her eyes opening so fast that she was dizzy. Her clown nose fell off and the elephant stepped on it.

  “Oh no!” she said.

  “You fell asleep, Tawny, and almost fell off the elephant.”

  “That’s enough of a ride for you two.” The lady removed both kids from the elephant as their parents rushed to Tawny to see if she was okay. They had seen her almost fall from the elephant.

  “Tawny, are you all right?” asked her father.

  “Yeah, just a little tired.”

  “Oh, that’s all? You know you never have to go bed anymore, Tawny,” he said.

  Tawny was beginning to re-think this whole wish thing. The family headed into the large red and yellow striped tent to watch the circus. Before the show started, clowns ran through the audience and played with them. She loved that. She wanted a new clown nose and hoped her dad and mom would get her one again.

  The first act was a trapeze act, her favorite. Tawny, however, wasn’t interested in it. The only thing she was interested in was going to sleep. The music for the trapeze flyers, “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” was so relaxing and watching them go back and forth in the air, swinging, was even more relaxing! But every time she would feel herself fall asleep, one of her parents would nudge her to wake up.

  “Tawny, this is so great, you don’t want to miss any of it!” her mom or dad would say. And then she would shake herself awake from the dream she was having of being an acrobat clown on a trapeze in Cirque du Soleil.

  She suddenly realized what she was missing. DREAMS! Never did she imagine that losing sleep would take away one of her favorite activities, which was dreaming. She could barely hold her head up and was aching to have a dream again.

  Each time she nodded off, someone woke her, whether it was her parents or the audience at the circus, oh-ing and ah-ing over an act.

  The next act was the lions doing tricks in a big cage, which was very exciting and should have kept her awake. The lions were roaring and jumping around on big platforms. They even showed their teeth. Her brother clasped his hands in joy. She felt herself began to fall asleep again, beginning to have a dream about lions escaping and running up the aisles. Dreams, yay! She wanted them, needed them, craved them.

  “Tawny, stop falling asleep. You don’t have to ever go to sleep.”

  “But I’m so tired, Mom. I can’t even help it anymore. And I don’t have dreams when I am awake.”

  “That’s the rules,” added her father. “You wanted to get rid of bedtime and we agreed to it. No sleeping. It’s fun time!”

  Tawny managed to stay awake for the rest of the circus and for the drive home, even though her brother was sleeping all the way home. He looked so comfortable in his padded car seat. By the time she got home, she was so exhausted that she felt like she was going to collapse.

  She went into her room looked out her window to the sky and said three times, “Mrs. Honey Pickle.”

  When Mrs. Honey Pickle and Buzzy arrived in her bedroom, she had fallen asleep.

  Mrs. Honey Pickle woke her up. “I take it the wish isn’t going well for you, my dear.”

  “No, Mrs. Honey Pickle. I’m so tired. Not only am I doing badly in school, I miss dreaming about being a clown in Cirque du Soleil when I grow up. Can I take back my wish?”

  “Of course you can.”

  Mrs. Honey Pickle got out her magic wand and waved it onto Tawny. By the time she could finish reversing the wish, Tawny was in her bed, fast asleep. She was even snoring a little bit! She began to dream and dream and dream and a big smile spread on her face as she dreamed she was a beautiful clown on the trapeze in Las Vegas. And the Barbies and Kens in the audience applauded, but they turned into adults clapping for her, when she soared above the fountains in her clown white face and red smile. Nothing had ever felt as sweet as that first sleep after being deprived of it for so long!

  “You see, Buzzy? This is why little girls need their rest,” said Mrs. Honey Pickle. “Poor thing, she was completely tuckered out!”

  Buzzy agreed as Mrs. Honey Pickle tucked Tawny into bed and gave her a kiss. Then she and Buzzy took a picture with the sleeping Tawny.

  “I’m going to want this on my wall at home,” Mrs. Honey Pickle said. “Little does Tawny know that her dreams are going to come true! And that she couldn’t have made it without sleep!”

  *

  Mrs. Honey Pickle and Buzzy felt very good about the work they had done lately. So many kids had been able to have their wishes granted and then all of them realized that sometimes, we don’t always think hard before we wish.

  The two of them headed home in their spaceship and talked about the next kids they would help and the crazy adventures they would have from getting their wishes granted. And then, of course, getting their wishes reversed.

  And to you: Be careful what you wish for!

  The End

  Return to the Table of Contents

  Also available:

  Mommy’s Little Angel

  A thriller

  by Lindsey Stiles

  (read on for a sample)

  I remember that night as if it was yesterday.

  It was a cold October evening and I had been preparing dinner for myself and my then-husband, Russ. I heard the phone ring and answered it on the first ring: “Hello?”

  “Rachel?”

  “Yes, this is she, can I help you?”

  “This is Marcia Woodward, Amber Woodward’s mother. She wanted me to let you know that she is in active labor and for you to come down to the hospital as soon as you can.” I jumped and screamed in happiness. “I will be right down, thank you.” I hung up the phone. “Russ, Russ I yelled Amber is having the baby.”

  Russ jumped up out of the couch and began cheering with me. “Is everything ready for the baby to come home?” I asked. “I got it all done last month, honey, remember?” Russ assured me as he grabbed both of our coats to head out. “Rachel,” he paused, “everything is going to be fine. We are going to be amazing parents.” I smiled and kissed him on the cheek as we headed out the door to meet our new baby daughter.

  Russ and I had been married for eight years. He was my soul mate. Everything I had ever wanted in a partner. He was kind, caring, hardworking, driven, funny, and such a loving man. He was my second husband; I had married right out of high school to the first loser I fell in love with. Luckily, that marriage only lasted two grueling years. It was a very hard time in my young life. I met Russ on the eve of my twenty-seventh birthday and it was love at first sight. We married six short months later. Russ and I had a great marriage, we rarely fought.

  When I turned thirty years old, I wanted to have a baby. We tried for a couple of years but later, I found out I couldn’t have a baby. All my life, I wanted a baby daughter who looked just like me. We could be best friends and do everything together. It was so hard for me to deal with the fact that, it just wasn’t in the cards for me. We looked into adoption but the wait was so long that we would be in our early 40s before it was our chance. So, I gave up my dream of becoming a mom and focused on my husband and my job as a registered nurse until one day, a young woman of about twenty came in to the emergency room complaining of abdominal cramps. I was drawn to her instantly, she was so pretty. Tall, brown hair, and big brown eyes. She reminded me of the way I looked at her age. I was her nurse in the E.R. and when the doctor came to examine her, he ordered an ultrasound. To the young girl’s surprise, she was ten weeks pregnant. I was very happy for her, considering my misfortune and congratulated her.

  She gave me a blank stare and asked me if I knew of an abortion clinic nea
rby. I almost burst into tears; how could she not want this baby? I began to tell her my story and how badly my husband and I wanted a child. How she should re-think her decision and think of it as a blessing. She seemed not the least bit interested in my story. “Look lady, I have no intentions of ever having a baby. Now, will you let me know where an abortion clinic is?” Then all of a sudden, something came over me. An idea, something that would be so easy to do.

  “Miss Woodward,” I asked, “are you currently working?”

  She gave me a dirty look, and said, “I told the lady up front that I didn’t have medical insurance and she told me I could still be seen.”

  “That’s not why I asked,” I told her. “If you are unemployed, I think I might be able to help you. I mean, personally. Not some social program. Me, and my husband.”

  “Wow.” She smiled. “No, I can’t find a job. I moved out here a few months ago to live with my boyfriend and we broke up last night.”

  “Where are you staying?” I asked.

  “As of last night, I am homeless. Tonight, I was going to see if I could crash with a friend.”

  My face lit up. I thought to myself, this woman had something I needed and I had something she needed. That’s when I proposed the idea to Amber about me paying her to have her baby. At first, she was a little hesitant, I mean, naturally. It’s not every day that a crazy nurse asks to buy your unwanted baby. After an hour or so of convincing her that this would be the best for both of us, she finally agreed. I informed her that I would pay for her to live in an apartment until the baby was born. And pay for all her expenses and medical bills and at the end, when she gave birth and signed over the child for Russ and I to adopt, I would give her fifteen grand to help her get a new start. After that, we would never see each other again.

  “Can you really afford that?” she asked.

  “Yes, we can.”

  That night I told my husband my idea and surprisingly he went along with it. During the past nine months, the three of us were one happy family. Me, Russ, and Amber Woodward with our little baby growing inside of her. I was ecstatic. Now it was the big day. Baby day!