Vera Counts Five Points — Under the mantel clock, Vera traced her five points with a silver thread and whispered her challenge: touch every pine shadow before the last tick of bedtime. Read the full story →
Under the mantel clock, Vera traced her five points with a silver thread and whispered her challenge: touch every pine shadow before the last tick of bedtime. The velvet tray felt soft as a mitten beneath her, and leaving it made her hook tremble. Still, she slid down the ribbon, past the sleepy scent of wax and cedar, toward the first dark sprig.
Pine needles brushed her glass with tiny shh-shh sounds. At the third shadow, her brightest gold dot snagged on a rough twig and popped loose. Vera held very still. The room was wide, the carpet far below, and the clock kept breathing its slow tock. “Just one more point,” she told herself, though her voice was no bigger than dust.
She reached the last shadow and found something better than the missing dot: a bead of pine sap, round and amber, warm from the mantel light. Vera pressed it into the empty spot and climbed back to the tray smelling faintly of forests. Next time you see the star between the pine sprigs, can you find the tiny brave place where the gold dot used to be?
