Grandpa Dean's Wishing Well Stories

"The Wish-Granting Shower"

He made a water closet wish.

Keshawn was in his room and could hear his parents, Nell and Millard, arguing in the kitchen. Again. They had been doing this for a while now, and it was very disturbing to Keshawn. He didn’t understand why they always yelled at each other. He thought it might be his fault for not doing well in school lately. With tears in his eyes, he left his room and went to the kitchen to ask his mother and father what he did wrong.

His parents told him they were just having a disagreement, like most married couples.

Keshawn didn’t believe them because their arguments were happening too frequently. When he asked if they argued because of something he had done, his parents realized how their arguments were affecting their little boy.

Nell promised they would talk out their problems before Millard asked Keshawn to go back to his room. He reluctantly left and shut his door. He could hear them talking very low at first, but then the volume of their voices rose.

Keshawn could not stand the arguing anymore.

He opened his bedroom window and pushed out the screen. He jumped out and started running as fast as he could, not knowing where he was going.

All he knew was that he had to get away.

After running for several minutes, Keshawn slowed to a walk and thought about where he might go to hide. There really was no other place he could go except to the house of his grandmother, Nanny, who made Keshawn feel good and always seemed to have the answers.

Nanny had just moved to the edge of town, back into the old house where she grew up. Keshawn had never been inside the house, but he knew where it was. He walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. Nanny opened the door and knew something was not right when she saw her grandson.

Keshawn could smell fresh bread baking. Nanny ushered him into the house and toward the kitchen, where he eyed two large pork chops in the frying pan. There was a large pot of fresh creamed corn warming on the stove. He loved her creamed corn best of all. Everyone did.

Nanny told Keshawn to go upstairs to the bathroom and wash his hands. As Keshawn approached the upstairs bathroom, he thought he heard water running from one of the taps. Downstairs, Nanny’s phone rang, and when she answered the phone, he heard his grandmother say, “He just got here and he’s okay, so come get him.”

Keshawn thought the sound of running water was the shower, but not from the bathroom that he could see. And when he reached the bathroom to wash his hands, neither the shower nor the sink faucet was running. Behind the toilet, he saw a second door, slightly cracked with steam coming from it. Was it another bathroom?

As Keshawn moved closer to the door, the running water inside the strange door stopped. He heard sounds of squeaky rubbing, as if someone was moving a finger on damp glass. Keshawn opened the door and saw that there was a second bathroom, a tiny one with only a standing shower.

The room was thick with steam, and written on the shower door were the words, “Hello, Keshawn. Welcome.”

Keshawn couldn’t believe his eyes. “Who are you?”

The sound of squeaky rubbing brought another sentence to the shower door. “I grant wishes,” it wrote.

Keshawn asked, “What do you mean?”

The writing again appeared on the door. “Well, you make a wish and I will grant it.”

Keshawn thought for a second that he might be on some reality show. The thing he wanted most was for his mother and father to stop fighting all the time, something he always wished for, as he did now.

Once again, writing appeared on the shower door. “Young man, your wish has been granted.”

Keshawn didn’t know whether to believe what he had just seen. He ran downstairs to tell Nanny, but met his mother and father instead. They had just walked in, and they grabbed him and hugged him. They apologized and promised to go to a counselor, and they assured him that it was not his fault.

Keshawn’s parents did keep their promise.

They quit arguing and saw a marriage counselor, and they worked out their problems with less anger and more love.

Keshawn thought of his wish. He went to visit Nanny, who was cooking a meal for them to share. Again, she told Keshawn to go upstairs and wash his hands. He climbed the stairs and went to find the steamy wish shower again. He saw the same door and opened it, but inside was a linen closet. No steam, no squeaky rubbing, no wish-granting shower.

Keshawn ran downstairs and asked Nanny what had happened to the bathroom with the shower. She said, “Honey, there is no bathroom with only a shower.”

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