Once upon a time there was a very special little girl called Orlagh Rose who was so special that everywhere she went, people would smile at her and say ‘hello’ and feel happy for the rest of the day, because her smile was a very special present that made them feel warm and safe inside.

Her mummy and her daddy, her little brother and her big sister loved her very, very much and thought that she was the best wee baby girl in the whole world. Orlagh Rose had a little black and white cow, who was also a very special little cow, as he had no tail but he had the two twinkliest, sparkliest, blackest little eyes out of all the little cows and he did the bestest little cow dance of all and always made Orlagh Rose laugh a lot.

One Sunday morning, when mummy and daddy were getting ready to take Orlagh Rose to the park, Orlagh Rose noticed something sparkling that was peeping out cheekily from under her lovely big bear changing table. She was sure there had been nothing sparkling underneath the changing table yesterday.

“Little Cow”, she shouted, “Little Cow, where are you?” She looked for him all around her room and then seen a sleepy little foot underneath the little pink bunny blanket on her cot.

“Little Cow”, she whispered, more quietly, “Wake up! I have something special to show you!”

Little Cow poked his little head out from underneath the blanket and yawned sleepily.

“Do you see it?” Orlagh Rose said excitedly to him.

“Do you see the glittering in the corner of the table, over there? Do you think it might look like ‘magic gold’?”

The Little Cow suddenly woke up completely.

‘Magic Gold?” he thought, ‘Wow!’

Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow had just found out all about ‘magic gold’ from the story book that Aunty Catherine had read to them last week and everyday since they had been looking everywhere to see if they could find any!

Aunty Catherine had told them that magic gold was in the air all around them, except it was invisible to most people, in fact nearly all of them, but, sometimes and only when babies were very, very special and they had magic gold sprinkles all lighting up their eyes and their hearts, sometimes if they looked really, really closely, they could see magic gold, but only on something that was so precious you could make a wish on it!

Aunty Catherine told them that if, someday, Orlagh Rose was special enough to see magic gold, it would mean, not only had she got one of the brightest of hearts, out of all the wee babies, and was one of the most special, but that she could also make a very special wish, for anything in the world and the very next day, that wish would come true!

Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow had thought that this sounded very, very exciting but they also remembered that Aunty Catherine had also told them that they had to be careful for what they wished for. If the wish made was not a true wish, made by one of the most special babies, then the gold magic would not work and they would perhaps never again have a chance to see it.

Orlagh Rose really, really wanted to see magic gold, as Aunty Catherine had told her it was one of the most beautiful things she could ever imagine, the gold of magic gold was such a bright, dark, golden colour, she knew she would never see another colour like it!

Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow peeped out carefully out of her cot and got as close as they could to the changing table to try and get a closer look at what was twinkling away in the corner!

Just then, mummy came back into Orlagh’s room and seen that Orlagh and the Little Cow were trying to look underneath the table.

Mummy laughed, “Why, Orlagh Rose, do you want to look there?”

“Do you see something interesting?”

Mummy looked under the table too and seen the glittering gold straight away.

“Oh look!” she said, really pleased,

“Look, Orlagh Rose, there is my lovely golden shoe that I thought I had lost!”

Mummy reached under the table, and sure enough, lifted out a very pretty golden shoe. She held it up for Orlagh Rose to see, who thought it was very beautiful.

“Now, Orlagh Rose”, said mummy,

“I am going to tell you the story of this golden shoe!”

Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow were delighted, they knew they were going to hear a very special story indeed and couldn’t wait for it to get started.

“It all started”, began mummy,

“When I was a little girl, except I was a little older than you Orlagh Rose, I think that I was about 6 years old. One day I was in Aunty Catherine’s house and after we had had a special day together, where we baked buns and covered them in chocolate icing, Aunty Catherine got me all snuggled up for bedtime and read me the story you know now, the special story all about magic gold.”

Mummy, like Orlagh Rose, when she was a little girl, had loved the story and had really, really hoped one day to be able to see magic gold, just like Orlagh Rose was hoping now.

She told Orlagh Rose she had looked in all sorts of places, to see if she could find it.

She had looked in her mummy’s handbag, as she always had special, secret things hidden in there; she had kept looking in her special little watch box, one of her most precious treasures; she had looked under loads of Christmas trees and up countless chimneys, just in case Santa had dropped, or sprinkled some, while he had been making his deliveries.

Mummy had tried to find magic gold under shimmering lakes and at the ends of the sunshine, and even under the crispness of a brand new snowy, blanket day.

But no matter how hard she looked, and haw much she hoped to see it, mummy could just not find magic gold!

So, after a while, she started to look for it, a little bit less.

But guess what happened then?

Mummy told Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow, that just when she had almost stopped to look at all for magic gold, it suddenly seemed, that everywhere she went, she would see some kind of lovely, shimmering, just like gold!

And this happened every time, so just as she almost stopped believing in it, something would appear, sparkling bright, that would start her search all over again!

But, whenever mummy looked closely as what she thought might finally be magic gold, and as she found the gold clues that would appear, just like magic, none of them turned out to be what she had hoped, magic gold.

Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow listened to mummy as she told them how she had found sparkling gold ribbons and golden rings with tiny hearts, all so bright as if lit up with little tiny stars. She found golden boxes, all decorated with shells and hearts that looked like boxes that could only contain special hopes and secrets.

She had found golden moons and golden gloves, that looked like they should be worn by princesses and even golden chocolates, all wrapped up prettily, that tasted like all the colours of the rainbow, all mixed up together in turquoises and purples and pinks.

Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow were amazed at all the beautiful gold that mummy had seen! She hoped that she would be able to find and see some of these beautiful things while she was looking for magic gold!

Orlagh Rose especially hoped to find the pretty, golden princess gloves, she guessed that they would only fit tiny little hands and would be all covered in little gold rose-buds that sparkled just like Orlagh Rose’s eyes when she was really, really happy.

“Now, Orlagh Rose”, said mummy,

“You will not believe how I came to have this little golden shoe when I tell you the rest of the story.”

Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow got snuggled up closer together to mummy, and Orlagh Rose gently stroked the glittering, pretty shoe as mummy continued with the rest of her story.

“After a really, long time of not being able to find magic gold, one day, after coming home from school, I was playing in my room, when all of a sudden, I noticed a beautiful golden box, all wrapped up in gold ribbons, sitting on my bed.

It seemed to have appeared as if by magic, because one moment the box was not there and the next moment it was!”

Mummy told Orlagh Rose that she thought it must have been a special present for her, although it wasn’t mummy’s birthday, so she quickly opened up the box.

“Inside,” said mummy, “was a pair of golden shoes! They were so beautiful!”

“And,” she said, “this shoe, that you have just found is one of those shoes!”

Mummy told Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow that she thought they were the most loveliest shoes in the whole world and that she had ran downstairs to thank her mummy for such a present, but it turned out, her mummy had told her, she did not know where the golden shoes had come from, she had never seen them before!

“Wow?,” mummy had thought then, “Could this finally then be magic gold?”

Mummy told Orlagh Rose she had then quickly made her wish, really hoping it would come true, she thought she had really found the magic gold!

She had been really excited all night, as she knew, like Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow, that a wish, made on magic gold, if a true wish, would come true the very next day!

But guess what happened? The very next day while mummy waited to see if her wish was going to come true, no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t find one of the golden shoes! Her and her mummy looked everywhere but the shoe was nowhere to be found!

Mummy had waited all day for her wish to come true and she was very sad that she could not see and wear the golden shoes while she was waiting, but the day went on and it seemed that mummy’s wish was not going to come true after all….

Later on, that day, mummy told them, Aunty Catherine had come over to visit and when she seen her, she had given her a great big hug and had asked her if she had liked her special surprise present that she had hidden in her room for her!

Orlagh Rose knew then that mummy’s special golden shoes had not been magic gold after all then, Aunty Catherine had got them for her, as a special present.

Mummy told Orlagh Rose she was a little sad that the shoes were not magic gold and that her wish would not come true, but, she told her, the real mystery was that they were never able to find the missing shoe!

Until now!

Orlagh Rose was a little sad to think of her mummy being sad and so her and the little cow gave her a great big hug.

They were pleased when mummy told them she had only been a little bit sad for a little while as the very next day, her mummy had taken her shopping and bought her not only golden shoes, but also a gold dress, and a golden ribbon for her hair which she could wear any time she liked!

Orlagh Rose thought this sounded great and she hoped her mummy would take her shopping too.

Mummy laughed and looked at Orlagh Rose,

“Maybe we will do that soon, Orlagh Rose!”

“I think we could go shopping for the prettiest, golden dress and the best golden shoes for the loveliest little baby girl in the whole world!”

Orlagh Rose clasped her little hands together, she couldn’t wait to go shopping with her mummy.

“But first, Orlagh Rose, I need to tell you the rest of the story!” said mummy.

Orlagh Rose’s mouth dropped open as she listened to mummy.

“After a very long time Orlagh Rose, I had forgotten about magic gold and the wish that I had made, but then, one day, my wish did come true!”

“Wow’, thought Orlagh Rose, getting excited, ‘maybe then, her mummy really had found magic gold?’

“You see”, said mummy,

“I had wished for a golden princess, and even though I didn’t get to see her for a very long time, one day, I finally did!”

“Do you know who she was Orlagh Rose?”

Orlagh Rose clasped her little hands together, hugging the Little Cow, she couldn’t wait to find out who the golden princess was!

Mummy laughed and gave Orlagh Rose a great big hug.

“It was YOU! Orlagh Rose, you are the golden princess! That is why your name is Orlagh, because Orlagh means golden princess. You were my wish that came true.”

“Wow’, thought Orlagh Rose, she had not known that her name meant golden princess. She was very, very happy and she was so glad that her mummy’s wish had come true,

As she played with mummy for a little while, she suddenly whispered to the Little Cow;

‘Look, Little Cow, look….’, she quietly pointed out to him the corner where mummy had lifted out the beautiful golden shoe, and sure enough, just at the exact same time, Orlagh Rose and the Little Cow both saw a ….little flash of gold!

As they looked at each other and back at mummy, they realised that mummy was still holding the golden shoe and their eyes sparkled as they both imagined what they had maybe just seen!

the end