“What do we have to listen to?” Philip asked in a hushed voice.
The pharaoh stared briefly at Philip with his large, round eyes before pulling a chair up near the boys.
“A wish is a powerful thing. It cannot be taken lightly. You and you now have three wishes. Before you do anything with them I must tell you of people I once knew. They, like you, performed an important service for the gypsy. They, like you, received three wishes in return. They were a poor couple who could not survive without the help of their grown son, who worked in a factory and always gave them some money to help them pay their bills and buy food. The old couple talked for days about what they should do with their three wishes, and do you know what they decided?”
The pharaoh stared at the boys, waiting for an answer.
“No,” Philip squeaked.
The pharaoh’s eyes widened. “They . . . chose . . . money! They wanted to relieve their son of the burden of supporting them, so they wished for a lot of money. One minute after the man spoke their wish aloud, the telephone rang. The old man answered it. The president of the company for which his son worked was on the line telling him that his son had fallen into the machinery and was no more. He was gone forever.” The pharaoh’s voice had risen steadily as he related the fate of the young man. “Do you know what that means?” he asked.
Emery cleared his throat. “Uh, it means he died?”
“Yes! But then the president of the company said something that sent horrible chills through the heart of the old man. He said the company’s insurance policy would pay them five hundred thousand dollars because of the accident! They had gotten the money they’d wished for! When the old man reported the horrible news to his wife, his wife nearly went insane. ‘We wished our son’s death. We killed our own son,’ she moaned. She and her husband were torn apart by the realization that their wish for wealth came true at the expense of the life of their only son.”
The gypsy paused, and Philip reminded himself to breathe.
“What then?” Emery whispered.
“They still had two wishes, and the old woman knew exactly what to wish for. She wanted her son back. The old man agreed. If the first wish came true, so would the second one. That very night they sat in the dark at their dining room table. This time the woman spoke the wish out loud. ‘I wish to have my son back.’ They waited. The night was quiet; as quiet as a tomb. Only eight minutes later they heard the sound of something being dragged through the street toward their house. They heard a scraping sound and then a pause. Scrape. Pause. Something approached their front door! Louder and louder; nearer and nearer came the scraping sound. Then it stopped. Right outside their door! Then RAP! One solitary knock on their door. The old woman leaped up. ‘My son,’ she screamed. RAP! Another lonely knock. The woman started to the door, but her husband was wiser. He realized what his wife did not. Her wish had come true! Too true. He grabbed his wife and would not let her go near the door. The wife screamed to be let free to see her son again. RAP!”
The boys jumped as the pharaoh gave another loud knock on the door.
“The old man wrapped his arms around his wife and screamed at the top of his lungs, ‘I wish my son back where he came from. Immediately!’ The old woman began to beat at her husband, not realizing the wisdom of his choice. They froze as the scraping sound again began, this time moving away. Soon, the noise faded into nothingness.”
The pharaoh stared at the boys and nodded his head slowly.
“Do you know why the man wished his son away?”
Emery and Philip shook their heads silently.
“Remember, he had fallen into a machine. He was terribly hurt. He was dead. A dreadful dead person had come back to life and stood knocking on their front door! The old man had figured out what happened and wisely sent the son away. So, my dear children, you must be very careful what you wish for. Because wishes . . . do . . . come . . . true.”
The pharaoh stood and walked to the tent entrance. He opened the flap, and sunlight flooded in, making the boys wince.
“Go now. And I wish you the wisdom of the old man.”
Philip and Emery stood and, like two people in trances, stepped out of the tent and onto the midway. They walked two blocks before Emery broke the silence.
“You want to make your wish first?” he asked.
“What? Me? No. You can go first.”
“I don’t think I’m ready yet.”
“Let’s go sit in Mrs. Logan’s bushes,” Philip suggested. “I’m all out of breath, and I didn’t even do anything.”
“Good idea,” Emery agreed. “We better think about this.”
The boys hurried back to their hideout in Mrs. Logan’s bushes. They looked at each other questioningly. Finally, Philip spoke.
“Maybe we shouldn’t ask for money. You see what happened to those other people when they asked for money.”
“You don’t think saying the things we wanted this morning was like really making the wishes, and it counted, do you?”
“How could it count for real? We didn’t even have the three wishes yet.”
“I wish we knew about this story before we gave the box back.”
“Emery!” Philip screamed. “You just made a wish!”
“I did? No, I didn’t. Oh, no. I did. I take it back; I take it back,” Emery cried looking up toward the sky.
The boys waited. They didn’t know for what, but they waited.
“I don’t think your wish counted,” Philip said softly. “If it did . . . if it did, we’d already know the story before the pharaoh told us.”
“But we know the story now. How do we know we didn’t know it before he told us?”
“Because.”
“Because what?”
“Because I still remember being surprised by the story. If we knew the story before the pharaoh told it to us, I wouldn’t have been surprised.”
“Oh, yeah. Me, too. I guess you’re right. We gotta be careful.” Emery paused. “How do you think the money would come if we wished for it?”
“I don’t even want to think about it. Let’s forget money until we figure out how to get it safely.”
“We could wish for money and say it has to come without anybody getting hurt.”
“That would be two wishes.”
“We have three.”
“Yeah, but maybe you can’t make two wishes at the same time. Maybe if you do, only the first one counts.”
That silenced Emery.
Philip had another thought. “What about your wish about your sisters? That you wouldn’t hear them crying. Suppose your wish made you deaf, or you had an accident, and your ears got chopped off. Then you wouldn’t hear them.”
Emery’s eyes bugged. “My ears got chopped off!” He reached up and grabbed onto them. “Yeah, well how about you? Not having any brothers or sisters to bother you? Suppose that came true because . . .”
“Never mind. Never mind. I don’t want to hear it.”
The boys fell silent again.
Emery had an idea. “Maybe we should just wish for a new comic book or something simple.”
“Seems like an awful waste of a wish. We could buy a new comic book. A comic book’s nothing.”
The boys didn’t stay in Mrs. Logan’s bushes much longer because everything they thought of frightened them. Every wish they discussed seemed to lead to disaster. When they exited the bushes, they headed for the playground. They joined in a game of baseball, but they didn’t enjoy themselves very much. Afterwards, they stopped into Emery’s house, but the babies were fussing, so they quickly left and went to Philip’s quiet house.
“Enjoying your summer?” Philip’s mother asked them. Philip could see she was getting ready to go out.
“Yeah, so much,” Philip responded gloomily. “Where are you going?”
“Walking over to the library. Want to come?”
“No, we’ll stay here.”
“Okay. Your father will be home soon. Emery, would you like to stay for dinner? I’ll make hamburgers if you do.”
“Stay, Emery,” Philip advised.
“Sure. Thanks,” Emery said without much enthusiasm.
“I’ll be back soon.” The boys watched Philip’s mother leave the house.
“Now what?” Emery asked.
“Why don’t we Google ‘wishes’ and see what it says. Maybe it’ll show how to make a safe wish.”
“Yeah,” Emery said hopefully. “Maybe it’ll tell us if we can make two wishes at the same time.” They went upstairs to Philip’s computer and began their research.
Philip’s father came upstairs as the boys were shutting down the computer.
“Is Mom home yet?” Philip asked.
“She came in right behind me. Where’d she go?” his father answered.
“She went to the library. We’re having hamburgers for dinner. Emery’s staying.”
“Ah, that’s nice. How are you Emery?”
“I wish I was better.”
Philip jabbed Emery with his elbow.
“Why what’s wrong?” Philip’s father asked.
“Nothing. I’m okay.”
“Oh, your mother is paging me. See you at dinner.”
“You just wasted another wish. You wished you were better. Don’t be saying ‘I wish’ anything,” Philip scolded. “Where’s your brain?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Emery!” Philip screamed.
“Oh, sorry, sorry.”
“Uh, do you feel better?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Good? It’s good I don’t feel better?”
“Yeah. It means the wish didn’t come true, so it didn’t count.”
“Oh, yeah, right. But I still don’t like what the computer said about wishes. It was like wishes were always make-believe and only in stories.”
“I know. I know. Aladdin and Snow White.”
“And why did they mention a monkey’s paw? What’s a monkey got to do with anything?”
“How do I know,” Philip said in irritation. An unsettling suspicion had begun to nag at him. “Do you think . . . you think the gypsy really can grant wishes?”
“He could if he was in a story.”
“Well, he’s not in a story, Emery. Maybe we should try an easy wish—an official wish—and we could see whether it comes true or not. Something safe.”
“Well, I’m hungry.” Emery tilted his head up and in a haunted house, echo-y voice said, “I wish for dinner now.”
Philip’s mother’s voice came from downstairs.
“Come on down, boys. The hamburgers are cooking.”
Philip and Emery looked at each other.
“It came true,” Emery said softly.
“Maybe not. Why’d you waste a wish on something that was going to happen anyway? Now we don’t know if it was the wish or just plain old dinnertime.”
“But I said now, and it was now.”
“It might have been now, anyway,” Philip argued, his voice rising. “You shouldn’t have said now then.”
“I didn’t say now then. I only said now. Something made me say now then, though. If I said now now, it would be too late.”
“You wouldn’t say now now after my mother already said dinner’s ready! What are you talking about! Oh, never mind. Let’s go eat.”