The Love Potion

Julie was eight and a half, the younger sister, and desperately wanted to be a Princess. A princess needed a prince, or so all the fairy tales said, and Julie's father had read to her every story ever written about happily ever after.

Matt had just moved in next door a couple of weeks ago, the middle of the summer, and celebrated his ninth birthday. His parents invited her since she was only person his own age in the neighborhood. Exploring the big house took Matt and Julie on a long adventure, punctuated with cake, cookies and Koolaid. Highlight of the day was opening presents, and Matt's favorite was a set of toy sword, shield and helmet. Julie went home full of sugar and the sight of Matt fighting off dragons in the backyard. Tonight's story was Sleeping Beauty and Julie couldn't help but imagine Matt kissing her awake.

Julie's sister was having a slumber party and when they found out about Julie's crush, the answer was a love potion! Julie had images of happily ever after while the girls settled on a recipe and made her memorize it.

The next morning, with Mom and the girls off to the mall and Dad mowing the lawn, Julie went to the kitchen to mix her love potion. She pulled the chair up to the counter and added the big dictionary. From memory she began to mix:

"R" was for rose petals, poured into a cup. "O" was for Oreos, crushed on top. "M" was for mushrooms, picked off last night's pizza. "E" was for a raw egg, carefully broken. And "O", again, was for orange juice to make the potion drinkable. Looking at the potion Julie wondered who was supposed to drink it. Love wasn't as easy as in the stories!