Happy ending to this tail.....

Story: no story.
Walking westward yesterday along route 278, from Piedmont to Gadsden, I came upon a small ramshackle wishing well. Wishes: 5 cents. A bargain indeed, and certainly cheaper than a lottery ticket.
I looked at the surrounding houses, and they were sadly as ramshackle as this old wishing well. I snapped a few pix of the thing, and approached, digging in my pocket for a nickel, coming up with a dime instead. I figured whuat the hell, Ill just do two wishes. After all, there are a lot of things that could be wished for: world peace, a cure for all disease, that friends in stressful situations be relieved of their burdens, and oh so many more, including an end to aching feet…..
I peaked inside the well. Instead of some rancid green water with a few once-shiny coins beneath the murky surface, there was overgrown grass and a couple boards, part of the well itself, where they had fallen from the front. There also were several nickels and dimes visible, but no more. As I said, this was a poor man’s wishing well.
I stepped back, closed my eyes and made a couple of wishes and threw the dime in.
As I walked away, I noticed, in the background, a young boy running along my general direction, waving at me. He was shirtless and very pale. He waved hard, and I waved back. I was going to talk to him but something told me not to, since there were no parents around and I don’t need any problems as I walk along. I noticed that he had no hair, or only a few strands blowing around in the wind, and I knew in an instant what the wishing well was for, and I felt terribly sad. I have seen “cancer kids” and he had that pale look, and I was surprised his parents let him run around outside like that, but who was I to judge?
I left and made my way to Donnie Hamilton’s gas station in Hokes Bluff. I asked Donnie of he knew the situation with the sick boy down the road a few miles. “What boy is that?” he asked.
“Where the wishing well is,” I responded.
“Oh, the kid with the mohawk? He’s not sick, his parents just let him get that haircut,” he said.
And that was the very first time I have ever been happy to see a mohawk on a kid.