I brought my notebook down to breakfast with me again. I felt a little guilty about tricking Mom, but having it work was worth it.
As soon as I put the notebook on the table, Mom said, “Claire, after breakfast you and I are going to run some errands.”
Claire put her head down and looked mopey. She’d been with us for only a little while, but already she knew the truth—running errands with Mom was not fun. Mom tried to make it sound exciting, but the only thing that helped was when she threw a thrift store into the mix as a reward—Claire couldn’t resist a thrift store.
While Claire and Mom were getting ready to go, I went down to the basement. I still wasn’t used to it—me being downstairs alone, and Mom being okay with it. Claire was doing some kind of dance routine, and it seemed like it was purposely right over my head—thump, thump, thump. There was no way I could do the wishes until they were gone—it was too distracting. I grabbed the notebook and wrote down some fake notes. It was probably good to have a few pages filled, just in case—even stupid-sounding notes were better than nothing. A blank book would be hard to explain. Finally the thumping stopped, and I heard the back door slam. They were gone. And then a minute later I was too.
I Wish Every Summer Would Be Like This
Ashley and Shue were lying on a roof. They were just outside a window. I peeked in—it was Ashley’s room. The moon was full and the stars were out, just like it’d been for me on the trampoline. I smiled. I knew how they felt. The girls were quiet, not talking, looking up at the sky. I started to say my test word but stopped myself. Fuchsia cow was wrong; even whispered it seemed loud and garish. I ran through my list of colors for something better. It seemed silly, but it mattered; I would remember it. My memories of this wish would last forever.
The minute I thought of it, I knew it was perfect: lavender seal. It was beautiful and mysterious. I whispered the words and moved toward the girls.
Shue sat up and turned toward Ashley. “I got us something.”
Ashley sat up. “I hope it’s food—I’m starving.”
Shue shook her head. “Sorry, no food. This is better.” She held her hands out in front of Ashley, each one a closed fist. “Pick one.”
Ashley thought for a moment and pointed to the left one. Shue opened them both. Each hand was holding the exact same thing—a silver necklace with a silver half-circle pendant.
Ashley gasped. “Really? For me? I can have it?”
Shue handed Ashley the necklace, and they put them on. I was waiting for Shue to say something cheesy about the half circles being like halves of the full moon, but she didn’t. And Ashley didn’t either. They just sat in silence, looking up at the stars, smiling.
When I got home, I was smiling too. I picked out another wish and read it, happy to be going back.
I Wish I Was Going to High School
Ashley and Shue were walking on the sidewalk. It was a busy street, much busier than the other streets we’d been on. It caught me by surprise, so instead of shouting my test word, I said it quietly.
“Amber crow.”
Just like before, the cars were big and old-fashioned. The girls crossed the street, walked down the block, and stopped in front of a small grocery store.
“How much do you have?” asked Ashley.
Shue put her hand into her pocket and pulled out a handful of coins. She counted them and said, “Thirty-six cents.”
Ashley dumped her coins into Shue’s hand. “Twenty-four cents.”
Shue counted up the coins. “That’s sixty cents total. So we get thirty cents each.”
Ashley motioned toward the store. She looked nervous. “We should figure out what we’re getting before we go in.”
Shue nodded. She looked around to make sure no one else could hear her and then whispered, “They’re kind of mean in there.”
From the outside the store looked like a regular market, but when we got inside, I could see that I’d been wrong. The whole front of the store was filled with candy. As soon as the girls walked in, a woman rushed forward from the back of the store.
“What do you want?” she barked.
Shue was right—she was mean.
Shue pointed to some orange candy in a jar. “Four of those, please.” The woman dropped the candy into a little brown paper bag; she neither smiled nor frowned—she was expressionless. Shue gave the lady the rest of her order, and when she was done, the woman shook the little bag and said, “Thirty cents!” Shue handed her the money. As soon as Ashley’s order was done, the girls left the store.
They walked about halfway down the block and stopped. Shue reached into her bag, found an orange sour, and popped it into her mouth. She shook her head. “That lady makes me nervous.”
Ashley nodded. She took a bite of red licorice. “Do you know what else I’m nervous about?” She didn’t wait for Shue to answer. “High school.” It was a nice segue.
Shue sucked loudly on her candy.
“What part?” she asked.
Ashley thought for a minute, twirling the licorice around her fingers. “Well, the friends part I guess. What if there’s no one there I like?” She paused and then added, “I wish you were going too.”
Shue was probably wishing the exact same thing.
When the fade-out happened, I was ready for it. The zap was short and fast, but being ready made a difference. The surprise zaps were totally different; they were bad.
I squeezed the arms of the chair and winced. It was over quickly, and the mild tingling in my arms and legs only lasted for a moment. I shook out my limbs.
Everything was quiet upstairs—Mom and Claire were still out. I sat down and picked up the jar. Should I do another wish? What if I picked out a really bad one? Would the pain be worse? I picked out a wish. I could put it down—not open it. But that was only in theory, because the truth was, once it was in my hands, there was no going back. I looked down and read it.
I Hope We Never Get Caught
As soon as I saw the Dumpster, I smiled. This was exactly what I’d wanted and been hoping for—another Anderson’s wish. The girls were over by the Dumpster, but for now I ignored them. Instead I looked around, taking in the scenery, in case there was something here that I’d need later. We were in the parking lot next to the Dumpster; Anderson’s was in front of us. There were buildings to the left, and a row of apartments to the right—everything looked the same as before. After one final scan, I shouted out my test words, olive snake, and walked toward Shue.
She looked especially grumpy.
“It’s empty again,” she complained.
She was wearing her special sweatshirt—the one for Dumpster diving. She pulled it off and tied it around her waist.
“We could do the rocks again,” said Ashley. She pointed to the back of the building. The man’s boots were there, like last time.
Shue shook her head. “That’s boring. We already did that.”
Ashley nodded. They shuffled their feet in the gravel and wandered off in opposite directions around the Dumpster. I followed Shue. She looped wide and walked by the apartment buildings. Suddenly she stopped. She was staring at something. I followed her gaze over the gravel parking lot and up three small steps, to the back door of one of the apartments. There were shoes in a row on each side of the door. I knew what was next—lots and lots of rocks. She turned and ran quickly back toward Ashley.
“There’s a bunch of shoes over there,” she whispered. She pointed to the apartments.
Ashley bent down and picked up a handful of stones.
Shue shook her head. “No, let’s do something different.”
I followed the girls back toward the apartments. Now that we were closer, I could see the shoes; they were mostly men’s shoes except for one bright red pair of women’s pumps. Shue motioned for Ashley to wait. I followed Shue as she crept up to the door. I didn’t like this idea. What if someone suddenly opened the door and caught her? Shue picked up the two red shoes and waved them at Ashley, and then she was gone, sprinting toward Anderson’s. I raced to keep up with her. I was right behind her. A few seconds of work and then she was done. She’d stuffed the red shoes inside the man’s boots. I had only one thought—the man was going to be mad.
Ashley must have been thinking the same thing, because she said, “Let’s get out of here. We can watch from my window.”
Moments later we were running, and we didn’t stop until we were safely in Ashley’s room.
We watched for fifteen minutes before anything happened. Ashley was the first to notice something. She squealed; it reminded me of Claire. I’d never heard her do that before.
“Outside the apartment,” cried Ashley. “Look! It’s the lady. She’s looking for her shoes.”
Shue shook her head. “She’s never going to find them. We should have made an arrow, or left a clue.” She looked disappointed.
Suddenly the door to Anderson’s opened, and a man stepped out.
“It’s him!” whispered Ashley. She ducked behind the curtain. It was the same man as before.
He looked around the parking lot, leaned forward, and tossed a box into the Dumpster. A minute later he was yelling and waving one of the red shoes around. I was glad we were watching from far away: he was kind of scary. Suddenly he threw the shoe into the Dumpster. We all gasped. I looked over at the lady; she was watching him. He grabbed his boot, turned it over to make sure there weren’t any stones in it, and pulled it on. The other red shoe was in his hand; he pulled his arm back to throw it in the Dumpster but suddenly noticed the lady. She was waving and yelling at him.
Shue leaned back and turned to Ashley. “This is amazing.”
Ashley nodded and smiled. “I know. Do you think he thinks she did it?”
Shue shook her head. “No, I’m pretty sure he knows it was us.”
The man pulled on his other boot, and he and the lady walked toward each other across the parking lot—the lady more slowly since she had bare feet. When they met, the man handed her the shoe. Now they were talking.
“I wish we could hear them,” complained Shue. She leaned forward, but it wasn’t going to help; the window was closed, and the man and the lady were speaking quietly.
Suddenly they were laughing. The man ran back to the Dumpster and climbed in. He came out with the shoe and walked it back to the lady. They laughed some more.
Ashley smiled. “I think she likes him. Maybe they’ll fall in love and live happily ever after.” She moved away from the window and twirled in a circle.
Shue was watching her. “Does happily ever after really happen?”
Ashley shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe, but probably only if you’re lucky.”
I wanted to stay longer, but I was fading away. It was time to go back. I braced for a shock, just to be safe, but I wasn’t expecting one. This was a good wish. A second later I was back in the chair with only a dull tingle in my arms and legs. I’d been right. I should have been smiling, but I was too tired. My brain felt foggy. I closed my eyes and sat back in the chair, and only woke up when I heard the door slam. Mom and Claire were home.
Mom opened the basement door and called down to me.
“Ash, are you down there?”
I heard footsteps on the stairs. I jumped up, quickly hid the jar, and ran to the bottom of the stairs.
Mom was halfway down. She was holding up a small plastic bag. “Can you put these in the laundry?”
I held up my hands, and caught the bag.
“Claire picked some things out at the thrift store. There’s something in there for you, too. So just dump it all in the washer and don’t look. She wants it to be a surprise.”
I walked over to the washing machine, put in the soap, emptied the bag, and closed the lid. Mom didn’t have to worry about me peeking; I wasn’t even tempted. I could wait. I was happy to wait. Whatever it was, I probably wasn’t going to like it. I’d have to fake being excited and happy. I just hoped it wasn’t something with a crying clown on it; I was pretty sure I couldn’t fake being happy about that.