Jared said he’d call me from camp. I told him he should write too and send me more poems.
At Sixty-sixth Street and Broadway, he went down into the subway after such a long final kiss that Reggie started growling.
When I couldn’t see him anymore, I walked Reggie a little longer. I wanted to be alone for a few minutes before I went home. At Sixty-fifth Street four or five people were waiting for the crosstown bus. I was almost past them when I saw her. The old lady. Waiting for the bus. My heart stopped. Why was she here?
I made Reggie heel and went up to her. She was facing down the street, looking for a bus. She didn’t seem to notice me. “Excuse me.” I didn’t know her name.
She shuffled to face me. “Wilma! What a lovely surprise. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Yeah. Right.
She smiled. “Congratulations. I see you’re on your way to becoming a cool cat.”
She could make sure I did, by giving me back my wish, by making it last as long as I wanted it to.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“Why, I’m waiting for the bus. I just missed one.”
“Can you . . . Would you . . .”
I heard Ardis’s voice in my mind, as loud as if she were right next to me. “You’d do it again! You’d force us again. You don’t get it.”
Then I thought about Ovideo and Timothy, gossiping about me, saying mean things. When I went to Elliot in the fall, I’d have to put up with a lot of that from the kids who’d gone to Claverford.
I thought about Ardis and Nina and BeeBee, judging me, trying to make up their minds about being friends with me. I thought about them leaving yesterday still not positive, even though they were leaning in my direction.
The old lady could make it all better. She could make me exempt. I could judge everybody else, pick who I wanted, and never be judged.
And then I remembered wondering if Ardis and the rest of them really liked me, under the spell. I wanted friends who liked me because I was Wilma, because I had a caricature done, because I loved dogs and could imagine being one, because I helped an unpopular kid when Suzanne teased her. I wanted friends who liked me without a spell.
Maybe I could get a different wish, though. Maybe I could get her to give me a porpoise or an elephant, like Jared said. Or maybe she could change Maud into a chimpanzee. I’d love to share a room with a chimp.
“Could I do something else for you? Help you onto the bus? Pay your fare?” Stir your cauldron.
She chuckled. “That wouldn’t be a good deed. You’d have an ulterior motive. You’d be doing it for yourself, not for me.”
I noticed that she had perfect teeth, and her wrinkles seemed to be millions of laugh lines, so she always looked a little smiley. But who knew if this was her real shape. Her real shape could have thirteen legs and pincers and teeth like nails.
I might never see her again, and I wanted to know. “Is this your real shape?”
“What? My real shape? Oh. Yes, it certainly is.”
“Oh. Well, isn’t there anything I can do? I do other good deeds, help kids study, give to—”
“I’m sure you do, dear. I’m sure you’re very sweet. But you can’t do any more good deeds for me. And it’s probably not wise to turn your sister into a chimpanzee.” She smiled again. “Good-bye, Wilma.” She shuffled to look up the street again.
I couldn’t force her to give me another wish. If I tried, she could turn me into a toad. Besides, I had Reggie. I didn’t need a chimp. And—maybe—I had a few friends. And Jared.
I started to walk away, but then I turned back and went to one of the other people waiting for the bus, a boy about my age. The old lady was still looking down the street, away from us.
“When the bus comes,” I whispered to the boy, “help that old lady on. It’s a good idea. You’ll see.”