"You specified a girl between the ages of eight and fourteen." Mrs. Belland, who handled placements and adoptions, picked up a file from her desk and scanned the contents. "She should be intelligent, you said, quick to mind, and have a sweet personality. Aura fits your specifications to the letter. She's twelve years old and…"

"Her!" Mrs. VanDyke recoiled, wrinkling her nose and making no effort to hide her revulsion. "Certainly not!"

Aura flinched, tears stinging her eyes. She blinked, trying to hold them back, and dropped her gaze. Although that same attitude had greeted her time and time again through the years, it still hurt.

"We're discussing a living person, not an inanimate object." Mrs. Belland's voice was cool and edged. "Children should be treated with consideration, not exposed to anything hurtful, especially when they already have a lot to deal with."

Aura remembered the Director telling her and the other children that some people might treat them differently because of their history and current circumstances. She'd shared personal experiences of being treated unfairly because of her dark-brown skin, too.

Expression blank, Mrs. VanDyke stared at Mrs. Belland a couple moments without speaking. Then her eyes widened. "Oh, I didn't mean… It's just…" She glanced at Aura, not once meeting her eyes, and stared at the girl's feet instead. Then she looked at her husband who sat beside her, and he gave a small nod. "We take pride in staying in the best shape and being healthy, so we want someone like us. She's crippled…"

Suppertime

"My shoulder hurts," seven-year-old Jana sobbed, rubbing it. She'd arrived at the group home only a couple of hours earlier. "A big girl hit me."

"Don't cry," Aura soothed, her voice soft and gentle. "I think I know who you're talking about, and I'm sorry she was mean to you." Putting her arm around the younger girl's shoulders, Aura sighed. She'd gone through the same thing when she'd first arrived. "Everything will be okay, though."

She recalled bullies taunting her, and the same old anguish and hopelessness grew inside her, threatening to crush her. "Who'd want you?" they'd asked. "You're useless, nothing but a cripple…" Their words no longer had the power to tear her apart, but they used to. Knowing how that felt, she wanted to spare other children pain and tried to be extra kind to them.

"I'm hungry," Jana said. "She took my food."

"Don't worry. I'll share mine with you." Aura gave Jana more than half of the meal, along with all the dessert.

The following night

Aura heard a child crying, sobs interspersed with sniffles. When she looked around, though, she didn't see anyone, and called out, "Hello?" No one answered, so she began limping from one area to the next, searching under beds and inside closets and rooms. The unhappy child, wherever she was, continued to cry, but more faintly now, and Aura bit her lip, hoping the other girl was all right.

Her eyes flew open, her heart thumping like crazy in her chest. Holding her breath, she listened hard but heard only silence. She realized she'd been asleep and assumed everything had been a dream, but then she heard a muffled sound to her right and got up, heading that way.

Several children shared the room with her, their beds arranged in rows. Nine-year-old Mary was one of them, her bed a few feet away from Aura's. She lay in it, eyes shut, but visibly trembling all over and whimpering, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Mama, where are you?" she called out. "Mama?"

As Aura watched, she started to toss and turn, still asking for her mother, and coughed a few times. Aura sat beside her, reached out to take her hand, and squeezed it gently, whispering, "It's okay. You're safe," and "You're not alone." She continued murmuring reassurances till Mary calmed down.

Walking back to her own bed, Aura's heart ached for the other girl, whose entire family had died when their house caught fire. Firefighters had arrived to find it engulfed, and they'd only been able to save Mary.

Two weeks later

"I don't want to die," Jana said, voice wobbling.

"Don't worry," Mrs. Belland reassured her. "Nothing bad will happen to you."

"But a tornado's coming. I heard it on TV. Tornadoes kill people."

A particularly loud clap of thunder sounded, punctuating her words, and everyone gasped at the sudden torrential rainfall and rattling windows. "It's coming for us," Jana wailed, huddling close to Aura, who slid her arm around the younger girl's shoulders.

"It's just a storm, dear," Mrs. Belland told her. "Rain, lightning and thunder. No tornado. But even if one formed later, we'd be safe down in the basement."

Without warning, the lights went out, and several children began crying.

"That's just the power going out," another staff member said calmly. "It often does during storms, remember?"

A light appeared from the right, and the children saw Mrs. Belland holding a flashlight. She passed others out to staff members. "Let's go down to the basement. We already have sleeping bags and candles down there. It's going to be fun. Like camping out." She held up a few bulging plastic bags and winked at Aura. "Guess what?"

"What?" Aura asked, playing along. This was a routine they'd followed when other storms had come through in the past.

"I have treats for everyone who's good."

"Yippee!" Jana cheered, clearly distracted from her previous fears and thinking now of yummies.

Once everyone had gathered downstairs, they were given sleeping bags. Some youth opened theirs up, crawling inside, but others sat on theirs. Even downstairs, they could hear the storm raging outside, and several children remained terrified.

"Aura, do you…?" Mrs. Belland asked, holding up a flashlight.

"Yes, Ma'am," Aura replied, knowing what the Director was referring to. Once she got the light and sat back down, she turned it on, held up the book she'd brought with her, and asked, "Who wants me to read to them?"

She often read to the others. Within moments, two younger girls huddled up to her, one on each side, as she read from The Wind in the Willows. Four others soon joined them, then three more, along with a couple of the older girls, one who had a reputation for bullying newcomers and younger children.

After she'd read a couple chapters, Aura laid the book down. "Who's been good?" she asked, smiling when a few kids spoke up or raised their hands. "And who wants some candy?" Mrs. Belland had given her one of the bags of treats the way she usually did, and Aura passed some out to children who said they'd been good.

"Can I have something, too?" the bully asked. "Please?"

"Yes." Without hesitation, Aura handed her a bag of M&Ms.

"Thank you."

Later, Aura saw the other girl sharing her candy with others who'd finished theirs, and she smiled.

Three days later, 1:17 AM

Aura lay in bed, staring at the sliver of moonlight peeking through the drapes. She'd been doing that for some time now, unable to fall sleep. With a sigh, she got up, walked over to the window, and looked out. A full moon hung in the sky, and she gasped because it looked like a face. Closing her eyes, she imagined it smiling down at her, expression warm and approving.

Her parents had died when she was young, and she had no clear memories of them, much less any pictures, just vague impressions of loving kindness. She longed for that now. For someone to look at her as if she mattered. To actually want her.

"Wow!" Aura stared up at the moon. It seemed so much brighter and a lot closer than before. "Some people say there's a man in the moon," she murmured. "I know that's not true, but…" She remembered the Van Dykes' expressions — looking at her as if she was less than nothing, as if she was something vile to be scraped off the bottom of their shoes — and her eyes filled with tears.

One of the other girls had left the group home earlier, going to stay with a family that wanted her, and Aura was both happy for the girl and sad for herself. She longed even more for someone to accept her, to love her, just the way she was. She wrapped her arms around herself, imagining it was a parent's loving hug. Warmth enveloped her, and she cried harder because of how good it felt. "I wish you were a person," she whispered, raising her eyes to the bright globe overhead and studying it. "You could be my mother…"

She fell asleep crying but found herself in a meadow with brightly colored flowers stretching in all directions, a small spring trickling beside her. Birds flew back and forth overhead, some landing nearby, chirping and warbling. A breeze touched Aura's face, lifting and twirling a lock of her hair. A small rabbit nibbled at something several yards away, glanced at her nose twitching, then hopped away. She picked a sprig of the red clover growing by her feet and followed the animal. "Here, bunny, bunny, bunny," she called out, trying to keep her voice non-threatening. "I have a nice treat for you." Her eyes widened when the rabbit turned around, coming straight to her. It nibbled at her offering before grabbing the clover and hopping off.

Smiling, Aura extended her arms and twirled in place before skipping around. But she soon realized something was different and froze. She typically limped and hobbled along because of her foot but wasn't now. Her foot looked just like it always did, but it didn't hurt and she could bend it easily. That's when it hit her she had to be dreaming, and she sighed.

"It doesn't have to stay a dream," a soft, gentle voice said. "Would you like it to be real?"

She whipped around, gaping at the woman hovering in the air behind her. She looked normal from the waist up but was smoky from the waist down, and her body glowed.

Aura could barely breathe, much less think clearly. "Are you a — genie?" she finally managed to ask.

"Very good, child," the woman replied, smiling.

"Can I make a wish? Or more than one?" Aura thought of the things she'd always longed for. To be healthy, not crippled anymore. To have loving parents and a home.

The genie shook her head, expression serious.

Hopes crushed, Aura's head hung. She felt miserable, her eyes growing wet. Wonderful, magical things never happened to her.

"Don't cry, dear." The woman wiped her tears away. "I'm not a that kind of genie, but I can offer you something even better."

Aura sniffled and raised her head.

"You can join me in helping others." The genie cocked her head to the side. "It wouldn't be that different from what you do anyway, since you already help the children at your home. And soon you won't even remember your right foot was ever different."

"I'll always remember. It's been ugly and twisted for as long as I can remember."

"Ugly and twisted? It doesn't look like that to me. I think it's beautiful. A badge of courage and strength."

Aura heard the sincerity in the woman's voice, looked into her warm eyes, and didn't feel sad anymore. "I'd get to help people?"

"Yes. Children like you. With no parents and no home, some that nobody wants. You could help them find kind, loving people to be with."

It sounded wonderful and reminded Aura of the peace and happiness she felt when helping others. She wasn't even disappointed about not being offered a loving home for herself. If she could make other children happy, kids like Mary and little Jana…

"How can I help them?" she asked. "I'd like to, but I wouldn't know what to do."

" Oh, you wouldn't be by yourself, dear one. I'd be with you. The rest of us, too. We would be your family."

Aura hadn't realized they weren't alone, but saw dozens of other genies surrounding them, adults and children of different ages, acceptance and genuine welcome on their faces. They looked like they actually cared.

"Yes!" she breathed. "Oh, yes…"

Her eyes popped open and she sat straight up in bed, her heart racing. She saw she was still in the group home, and sighed. She'd just been dreaming, but what a great dream!

Two weeks later

"Come to my office," Mrs. Belland said. "Now, please."

Limping after the Director, Aura racked her brain, wondering what she'd done wrong. "Ma'am, what did I do? Am I in trouble?"

"Not at all." The director opened her office door, gesturing for the child to enter.

The person seated inside turned and smiled at her. Aura recognized her immediately and burst into tears.

"Hello, dear." The woman, who looked completely human now, opened her arms. When Aura rushed into them, she hugged the child tightly.

-