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Once upon a recent time in a back garden not unlike those you see every day there stood a well. This well was a very old well, it was made of rough hewn stones covered in dark, slimy green moss and its roof was thatched with shiny, golden straw. Over the years many owners had tried to clean away the moss but no matter how hard they scrubbed it was back again the very next day. Everyone agreed it was a very odd well.

"A wishing well," little Joey McGuire yelled to his dad as he ran at top speed down the garden path of their new home. Skidding to a stop right on the edge of the well's shadow, he examined the squirmy feeling he had inside his tummy. Carefully he stuck his hand into the shadow and all the little hairs on the back of his hand stood straight up like stiff little soldiers coming to attention. He pulled his hand back and the hairs rested at ease. Back in, up, out, down, up down, up down, he was still doing this when his father came to stand beside him.

"What are you doing?"

"It's cold."

His dad walked straight into the shadow and it was all Joey could do to stop from yelping out a warning.

"It is cooler here in the shade, come out of the sun," his dad said. Joey took a deep breath and stepped forward. All the little soldiers stood to attention on his arms and legs where they poked out from beneath his shorts but nothing else happened. It was just cold.

That was three weeks ago and now as he sat with his back against the slimy, green wall he had almost forgotten how it was much colder than it should have been here in the shade. Joey had more things to worry about than hot and cold. The school bully had taken a dislike to him from the moment he brought his pet skink to school for show and tell. His dad said the bully was just jealous and to ignore him but nobody wanted to be friends with Lizard Boy for fear the Bully's attention would be turned on them.

He stood up and took a nickel out of his pocket. Each day he would drop a nickel in the well and wish that his mum would come back from heaven and they could all be a family again. He leaned over the edge of the well as far as he could go, as he dropped the coin something else slipped from the pocket of his shirt.

"Oh no," he grabbed at the falling seashell and only just missed slipping into the well himself. He peered down into the blackness, trying to see his mother's favorite shell. The one she had liked best of all the shells they had collected on their beach walks. It had gone forever and the salty tears

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