So Sina went out to drive Gladys to the ferry, which she would take to the mainland, where she would catch a train to a faraway city where she knew only one person, to overcome all kinds of trials and tribulations to try and perhaps never succeed in her cooking to make that thing, that thing tangible. How difficult it was. But off Gladys went. Maybe not even knowing why she was going or what she was trying to find. But now I knew: she was looking to do what we all were, and I wished her luck.

“Sina,” I said while we finished our tea, “you never told me what you wished for. In the night garden.”

“Oh,” said Sina, getting up in a fidgety way. “Let’s go up to the landing.”

We hadn’t sat on the landing together once while the Maddens were here, so I nodded.

As we climbed the stairs I said, “Did Gladys even thank you for the radio?”

“Oh, I don’t care about it anymore. I figured out that aliens aren’t going to be contacting me via it. Of course,” said Sina sighing, “that also means I can’t believe my great gift is that I don’t know how beautiful I am. It was nice thinking I was beautiful. I’ve never thought so, you know, being so tall. And kind of large. You know.”

“But, Sina,” I said honestly, “you are beautiful. And see, you don’t know it. So that much was right.”

“Oh, Franny,” said Sina.

We sat on the landing and I sat on her lap on the rocking chair. Because Sina is so large and I am rather small for my age, it was still comfortable. And besides, there was only one chair because we hadn’t returned the second rocker to the landing yet.

“So what did you wish for?” I asked again.

“For you,” said Sina. “I cannot regret it. I cannot. But, Franny, imagine, Old Tom and I could not have children. I wished for a baby. And after that a woman puts a baby in my arms and then falls dead at my feet. The people who were to adopt the baby are dead in a fire, their home burned to the ground; who knows what befell your real parents.”

It gave me a chill to hear her call someone else my real parents. Old Tom and Sina were my real parents.

“I cannot regret it either,” I said. “Your wish.”