Invisibility. Probably one of the loneliest conditions any person has to deal with in their lives. Certainly so in their youth where appearances are so important. ONE WISH is about two such invisible people. One because his family is practically shunned by the community. The other because she fades herself into the background. Invisible to everyone except to their own families perhaps but what if that isn’t a safe harbor.

So in ONE WISH we meet two such invisible characters. Except we learn very quickly that each has been very aware of the other. Should we say two peas in a pod? Maggie learned early on that for some reason people don’t warm up to her and so resigned to being alone. The only time she is surrounded by people is in her store and even then can sense pity in the shopper’s eyes. Poor Maggie they are all thinking and under their breath that is what they share.

Sam shares the same fate as Maggie. His family the Thompson’s are looked upon as odd and therefore not accepted by the townspeople. That’s okay with Sam. For the most part, he has quite literally carved out a good life in the mountainous range where he runs a practically self-sustaining ranch. He is independent albeit alone. Well, Sam would never actually be alone. The Thompson family is generations large with cousins and aunts and uncles all over the same mountainous area as Sam’s ranch. But he seems to keep a distance from most of them.

In the 1880s in Texas small towns were trying to legitimize themselves with town squares, shops and sheriffs. Sam and Maggie’s hometown was doing the same. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t have their fair share of lawlessness. So ONE WISH is about Sam and Maggie facing a challenge to their independence. Sam witnesses a robbery at Maggie’s store. He runs interference for what was surely going to mean a sexual attack not just a cash and flee job. Both he and Maggie now have to become invisible so that the lone surviving robber can’t finish the job. The only place that would be possible is Sam’s ranch.

ONE WISH was originally published as part of A Texas Christmas anthology so it is definitely a novella. But Jodi Thomas didn’t skimp with story in ONE WISH. The only problem is that you probably want more since both Sam and Maggie are wonderful characters and you hardly want to leave them when you are just getting to know them.