Go Fish Meredith Mercer sat on her bed with her pillows piled up behind her and a book in her hand This was her favorite rainy day place to read Now and then she looked at the old mirror hanging over her desk Aunt Prudence had sent her the mirror for her birthday It was magic a secret only Meri knew If she left a book on her desk a character would appear in the mirror At first the mirror was a little scary No one expects to find a stranger where their face should be Plus the mirror only let Meri see the character It didn't let her talk to the character Meri had solved that with a little
practical thinking She used a gadget that turned any surface into a speaker Making friends with book characters was fun But the character couldn't leave the mirror room while the book was on the desk The mirror was like a cage Meri didn't want to do that to her book friends When she met Anne of Green Gables they had lots of fun until Anne got homesick Maybe the answer was to only have short visits Meri sighed and looked down at the book she was reading A Little Princess She knew she'd like chatting with Sarah Crewe Sarah knew what it was like to be different from the kids at her school Sarah liked reading learning and imagining The girls at her school just liked fancy clothes and talking about each other Then when Sarah's papa died the owner of the school made Sarah live in the freezing attic and work all day Meri's house was old
and sometimes it got cold in the winter but she had never been really cold or hungry If Meri used her magic mirror Sarah could tell her one of her wonderful stories The book was full of Sarah's stories but Meri wanted to hear them for herself Meri loved stories Meri looked at the mirror again When she finished reading the book then maybe she would chat with Sarah for a day She wouldn't make her stay days and days Meri nodded to herself firmly and dove back into the book A few minutes later her little brother Thomas peeked around her doorway He held up a deck of cards Do you want to play Go Fish Not right now she said I'm reading Thomas walked in and leaned over her to look at the book That looks boring Cards are more fun Meri closed the book with her finger between the pages to hold her place Why don't you go play with Kyle
