Wishes, Gems, and Disasters by Martha Wickham (books to read this summer .txt) 📕

down on the floor wondering what she would do next. She took the phone and started dialing her last husband’s number. She remembered that one evening they were together. The room she sat in looked like the room they were in that she remembered. In that room they had dinner by candlelight and talked about their hopes and plans. This was when they were still married.
He answered his phone. “Hi this is Debra. I’m at work now of course and I’m having a problem. I’ve lost this one thousand dollar plant and I can’t find it. What should I do?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll think about it. What can you do? Did they sell it and forget?”
“No I don’t think so,” Debra answered.
“Do you want to pay them back for it or you can order another one?” He asked.
“I think I’ll order another one. I have to do something or I’ll loose my job. I’ll do it right now, bye.” Debra got up and ran to order another plant. She had it shipped as quickly as possible. This time she had gotten away with losing that plant but she was mad because it didn’t seem to be her fault it got lost. “Anyone could have stolen it,” she told one of the other people who worked there.
That night she went home and crossed her fingers the plant would get there in two more days, before the manager noticed.
The plant Debra ordered came in but it was three days late. When the manager asked, “Where’s the plant?”
Debra would just tell her, “It will definitely be here I’m just waiting for it to get here.” No one argued or refused her offer. Things were going well again.
One evening when Debra was about to go home she stopped by to look at the plant. The moonlight shone through and hit it just beautifully. To make sure she didn’t lose this plant she locked the door tight behind her.

In the next afternoon Debra had a day off finally to relax hoping her plant was safely locked away. Her oldest daughter Hanna stopped by to visit her. She sat and told the story of the lost plant and the sixteen-year-old teenager listened in interest.
“That’s nice. Can I see the plant? I really want to?” Hanna asked.
“Of course. We’ll go now,” Debra answered. They both went to the car and rode to the flower shop.
They returned too late because when they entered the plants storage room they saw that it was gone. “It was right here. I hope it’s not lost. I locked the door but other people had the key.” Debra walked away to the manager as her oldest daughter watched.
“I locked the new exotic plant up but once again it is gone,” Debra said sounding upset and near tears. “I just can’t keep track of plants around here and my daughter wanted to see it. It was beautiful. I’m sorry. Do I have to leave?”
“I don’t think so. We can look for it again,” the manager Cindy answered.

That night while Debra was at home she felt sad and wanted to quit her job. The telephone rang.
“This is Cindy the manager at the plant shop. Don’t worry about the exotic plant, someone bought it.”
“Great but I wanted to quit,” Debra replied.
“Don’t do that it wasn’t your fault. How about I give you a little raise in your pay as appreciation of all the work and trouble you went through?”
“That would be great. I’d follow leaves and look for plants for you for free if I had to.”
“I wish you weren’t sad. I’ll order a bunch more of the exotic flowered plants. Then you’ll see them again.”
“Thank goodness. I love plants.”
“Thanks for being patient Debra.”
“Anytime, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Debra loved working with the plants from then on. She bought herself an exotic plant and took it home so she would always have one. She cherished it forever and worked at the plant shop for twenty years and made the world a greener place by gardening whenever she could.
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Publication Date: 03-06-2010

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