Wonderful Magic

It was late at night, and Nora was desperate for her daughter, Laura to fall asleep. So, in the hopes that it would put her right to sleep, Nora began telling her a story. Laura was intrigued by it and listened closely to every word.

"Once, long ago, there was a magician. A magician that could do all sorts of wonderful things. He could make himself disappear and then appear again, he could turn fire into a girl. But no one ever really knew of him until he entered a talent quest. The prize was $250, 000. Well, this magician, he went all the way through and eventually, he won the whole thing, hands down. The world loved him. When he performed, he left them breathless and astounded, wondering how on earth he did what he just had done. The faces of the talent quest judges were priceless. Mouths agape, staring at him in wonder and in awe. They told him over and over that if he worked hard enough, he would be world famous. So he did just that, and within 3 years, the whole world knew of him. He went down in history as a magician of wonderful magic"

Nora stopped there and looked down at Laura. Sure enough, Nora's story had put her to sleep. So she tiptoed out of the room, closing the door behind her.

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Inspired by Australia's Got Talent contestant, Cosentino. Truly breathtaking and definitely world class. You are inspirational and a true Aussie gem.

Broken Dreams

All her life, Isabelle had had a left hemiegha plegia. A disability in which the whole left side of her body was partially paralyzed. The generalised term, and what most people said Isabelle had, was cerebrtal palsy. Isabelle was 16 years old, and before now, Isabelle hadn't let her cerebral palsy get in the way of anything she wanted to do.

Eversince she was a little girl, most of Isabelle's dreams involved driving a car. Isabelle wanted to get a little pale blue car and drive around town in it, driving her friends around, going for rides with her dog, Rosa. She even wanted to use the car to drive her little sister, Vanessa to her year six farewell.

So when Isabelle was told by her doctor that she would never be allowed to get her liscence, she was shattered. At that very moment, Isabelle felt as if her life and her dreams had been snatched away from her. For weeks, afterwoods, Isabelle couldn't talk about it without breaking into tears. All her friends would get their drivers liscences, and Isabelle felt like she would be the only one in the world who wouldn't. But that wasn't true, because Isabelle was not the only one who couldn't get her liscence. There were many, many people who were medically barred from driving.

As the months passed, and Isabelle got used to the idea of not being able to drive, she slowly found new dreams she could work towards. Then Isabelle became determind to make driving the only thing that her cerebral palsy stopped her from doing. So, when she graduated from school, Isabelle decided that she wanted to be a phychologist for disabled people, because Isabelle knew that she could help make a difference in their lives and that her cerebrral palsy would not stop her from doing anything else.

Jessica: A Fateful Night

Like he always did on a Friday night after work, Jessica Tucker's boyfriend, Alex went down to the pub with his mates for a few drinks after work. As usual, Jessica thught nothing of it. After all, Alex always went to the pub and had drinks with his mates and he always came home late.

That was, Jessica thought nothing of it until she got a call from the local hospital at around 9:30, 10 that night. "Miss Tucker?" Asked a voice. "Yes." Jessica said nervously. "I'm a nurse in the emergency ward. Your boyfriend has just come in. He's asking for you." Explained who Jessica assumed must be a nurse. "I'll be right there." Jessica promised, slamming down the phone and racing frantically around her little apartment, gathering her things.

15 minutes later, she was sitting beside Alex in his hospital bed. He'd been sleeping ever since the accident, when suddenly he woke up. "Jess?" He said weakly. "Alex. I'm here." Jessica replied, reaching for his hand and squeezing it tight. "Jess. I love you." Alex whispered softly. "I love you too." Jessica agreed.

Hours later, Alex had regained enough strength to tell Jessica what had happened. "As you know, me and Jake and Seth and Wayne, we were all at the pub." Alex began. "We all agreed that Jake would be the designtaed driver. But as the night went on, we all jad drink after drink, and pretty soon, we were all drunk, even Jake." Alex went on. "And Seth decided that seeing as he was the least drunk of all of us, he'd drive. So he got behind the wheel, although still drunk." "Before we knew what was going on, there was a bright flash of light, Seth swerved the car round, there was a huge bang and then I'm waking up here next to you." Alex finished.

Suddenly, Jessica heard a loud beeping noise. She looked over to see that it was Alex's heart monitor. His heart was beating really fast. "Nurse!" She yelled urgently. Almost immediately, a nurse came flying out of nowhere, pushing her out of the way, and out of the room.

Jessica watched in horror from the window as a team of nurses and doctors tried and failed to revive Alex from his sudden coma. Then she saw one of the doctors peering down at his wrist. But it didn't occur to Jessica that he was calling time of death. In the rush, and her panic, Jessica thought he was timing how long it took the rest of the team to treat Alex. That was until a nurse came out of the room, a sympathetic look on her face and told Jessica of the news. Jessica sat down and shook her head in her hands, beginning to sob.

The next thing that Jessica knew, someone was sitting next to her, their arm around her shoulders. Jessica looked up to see Garry, Alex's older brother. "I know Jess. The hospital called and told me what happened." Jessica leaned into Garry, still unable to stop crying.

Months later, Garry and Jessica began dating, and eventually fell in love and got married.

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This is the 4th in a series of short stories based on the faces of That's Life! Magazine

Lindsay: A Day at The Beach

Lindsay Phillips was described by her friends as being 'the luckiest woman in the world'. She had a great home life with a wonderful family, great friends and a fantastic job at the local Seaweed and Sand Homewares store.

On this particular Saturday afternoon, Lindsay and her family had gone to the beach for an afternoon. Lindsay was relaxing in her banana chair, watching her family. Her husband, Ross was swimming in the ocean, her son Heath was out with Ross, her daughter Ellie was playing in the waters shallows and her youngest daughter, Genevive was close to Lindsay, making a huge soundcastle and decorating it with the shells she'd collected. All was calm and peaceful, until Lindsay spotted something in the water.

Lindsay got up and walked down toward where Ellie was playing annd peered out for a closer look. "Ross!" Lindsay called urgently. But it was too late. It all happened in a flash. Heath was swept out to sea, toward what Lindsay discovered was a fin. Lindsay clasped her hands over her mouth and watched in horror as Heath was sweopt closer and closer to the fin. Then, the head of the creature popped up and out of the water, revealing itself to be a dolphin. "Heath!" Lindsay heard Ross call. "Grab on to it's fin, it'll swim you back to shore!" So Heath grabbed the dolphin's fin, and sure enough, it swam him back to safety. Lindsay sighed with relief.

Ross sudenly noticed Lindsay, peering out at them from the water's edge. He gave her a thumbs up and yelled. "It's all good Lindsay. Heath's here. Safe and sound!" Lindsay could only nod. She was still in shock, still trying to process all that had just happened. It had happened so fast. Too fast for anything to make sense.

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This is the third in a series of stories based on the faces of That's Life! magazine