Every year, since the time I was three, I asked my parents for a pony on my birthday. Every year they would smile and say, “We’ll see.” I knew what that meant in parent-speak: “NO!”

Last week they were killed in a car accident. They left me a pony farm.

Candace always wished for a pony. Some wishes are better left ungranted. You don’t usually have to clean up after a story.