Amelia was awake. She hadn't gone to sleep. She knew she was supposed to be. Aunt Sharron had told her to go to bed and wouldn't let her stay up to watch the world change. Amelia sat curled up in her bedding with her Raggedy Doctor doll staring into his eyes. Everyone had tried to tell her that she'd dreamt him up and that he didn't exist. She remembered when hat first psychologist had told her that she bit her for lying. Aunt Sharron didn't like that at all. Amelia had got one hell of a telling off for that. They thought she might have outgrown it by now. It was nearly four years since she had first seen him. They seemed to think she'd outgrow it but no. She knew what she had seen. She wasn't going to change her mind about that.

Amelia switched on the lamp by her bed (trying to keep the loud click as the switch was flicked to a minimal volume) and looked over at the clock. It was nearly midnight. Amelia looked at her Raggedy Doctor and smiled at him.

"Nearly there," she said out loud. "I wonder if it'll be any different." She had a habit of talking like that. Most people would call it thinking out loud or talking to herself, but she always spoke to her Doctor, even if she wasn't sure he would hear her. She was still convinced he would come back though. He'd said five minutes, but he could have got it wrong. That was why she kept waiting. He would come back. No one even thought he was real though, not even Rory (even if he did agree to play him in her stories). It was just their little secret. Amelia looked at the clock again. Less than a minute to go... She was going to miss it!

Amelia slid out of bed still carrying her Raggedy Doctor, and climbed up onto the windowsill. There were lots of people outside waiting for midnight. Amelia hugged the doll to her chest.

"Any minute now," she said. Maybe he'd come back for her today. That hope had never died, and today would be a really good day for him to get back.

Everything will change in the next half minute.

As if prearranged in some sort of disorganised rehearsal, Amelia heard traces of the countdown coming from all over the village. She could especially hear Aunt Sharron and a few other voices of her friends from downstairs. Amelia smiled and joined in herself.

"Nine," she started in barely more than a whisper. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One..." The last second seemed to take forever and then the cheers started. Amelia smiled as the bangs and pops of fireworks started and beautiful flashes of colour lit up the sky. That was it. The waiting was over. The new millennium had begun.

"Happy new year," Amelia said, although this one was said mainly to herself. She leant her head back against the window frame. Goodbye 1999. Hello 2000. The fireworks continued to zoom into the air and explode in dazzling colours far above the roof of the house. Amelia watched them go, still with renewed hope.

She could remember that a long time ago (although she couldn't remember who it was) that if you made a wish on a shooting star it would come true. Amelia knew that wishes could come true if you wished hard enough. When she was seven she had prayed to Santa Claus to help her fix the Crack in her wall and she had got a Raggedy Doctor to help her: a Raggedy Doctor who ate fishy custard and found the voices on the other side of the Crack. Amelia held the doll tighter. When was he coming back? She could really use a shooting star right now. That would be a really cool wish. Amelia shifted her position slightly and tried to see the stars, but none were showing. Amelia felt downhearted, but then a bright idea occurred to her. If she pretended that fireworks were shooting stars. Yeah, that'd work. Amelia then settled down to find the best firework.

Her eyes caught a rocket, leaving a golden tail behind it as it soared into the sky. Amelia watched it go and made her wish.

I wish that he would come back for me, she wished. Preferably this year. The firework exploded, showering blue and golden stars through the clouds and night sky. Amelia looked back at her doll again.

"I wish you'd come back soon," she said out loud to it. "It's really getting boring here." The Raggedy Doctor didn't reply (how could it), but she still smiled it and turned back towards the fireworks. Eventually her head lolled and she drifted off into sleep still sat on her windowsill. Aunt Sharron had to wake her up to get her back into be a few hours later when she herself came up to bed. Amelia wondered in the years that followed about her wish and whether or not her Raggedy Doctor would really come back. It turned out he would. But if would take him a further eight years to do it.