Ridge grinned. “Probably.”
I was determined not to give up on this empty notebook. “I wish to know exactly what was on the first torn-out page of this notebook.”
Again, my hourglass clicked out and Ridge explained the deal to me. “The Universe can give you the information on that first page,” he said, “but in exchange, you won’t be able to read for the rest of the week.”
I exhaled sharply. “What about you?” I asked Ridge. “Do you know how to read?”
He clucked his tongue at me. “Of course I know how to read, Ace.”
If the two of us were tethered together for the week, then I could always ask him to read for me. “What about writing? Will I still be able to write?”
“Strangely,” Ridge said, “yes. You won’t be able to read, but you’ll still know how to write.”
I glanced at my hourglass. Not much sand left. It was time to make a choice. Accept or decline? How much did I believe in those ripped-out pages?
“Bazang,” I said. At once, my watch clicked away and, with it, my ability to read. In the same moment, my mind was flooded with new information. The Universe fulfilled my wish, telling me exactly what was on that first missing page of the notebook.
The knowledge deposit was over in a flash, my head pounding from hanging upside down for so long.
“Well?” Tina asked.
I closed the empty notebook and looked down at the others. “I got it,” I said. “I know where Thackary is going.”
Chapter 7
At last, I was standing on the ground again. It had been an awkward transition, passing through the doorway from the ceiling. It took Ridge, Tina, and Vale working together to put me right again, and they all stumbled down the trailer steps with me on their shoulders.
The muumuu neighbor had gone back inside her mobile home, so the four of us stood in the Anderthons’ spotty yard, arguing.
“Just tell us what you learned about the missing page,” Vale said.
“I’m not so sure I want to,” I replied. I was feeling much more confident with my feet on the ground. “It’s our quest to stop Thackary, but you two are trying to save his life.”
“Well, you’re not planning on killing him, are you?” Tina asked.
“Of course not!” I cried. Though that would surely stop him from opening the Undiscovered Genie jar.
“Then what does it hurt to let us come with you?” Tina pressed. “It’s the best lead we have for our quest. And it’s probably safer to go together.”
Tina had a point. It might be useful to see how another Wishmaker navigated her wishes. “We’ve got a long ways to go,” I said. “Let’s get started.”
“A long ways?” Tina repeated.
“Yeah,” I replied. “We won’t be back for a couple days. Maybe longer.”
Tina shifted uncomfortably. “Okay, but there’s something I have to do before we leave.”
“What?” I asked. Was there something more important than her quest?
Tina fidgeted under my stare. “Don’t worry about it. Just something personal. I can meet you at the southeast edge of town in three hours. How about Dilly’s Diner on Twelfth Street?”
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at her. “Fine. Don’t be late.”
Without another word, Tina and Vale moved down the gravel road of the trailer park, leaving Ridge and me standing side by side. The girls were a mysterious team, and I felt lucky that wolf Vale hadn’t eaten me when they first surprised us.
“Can you turn into a wolf?” I asked Ridge.
“I can do anything you wish for,” he said.
I thought back to our encounter inside the trailer. “I never heard Tina wish it,” I said. “She just said some funny word and Vale turned from a wolf into a girl.”
“I don’t know,” Ridge said. “I’ve never encountered anything like that.”
I took a deep breath. “Do you trust them?”
“No reason not to, so far,” Ridge said.
“But they’re being all secretive,” I said.
“They’re girls.”
“Where do you think they’re going?” Tina and Vale had moved out of sight now, and the most brilliant plan came to me. “Let’s follow them.” I bent my knees and leaped forward, sprawling clumsily on the patchy dry grass.
“Are you okay?” Ridge shouted, rushing to help me up.
“What happened to flying?” I dusted myself off.
“You didn’t wish for it.”
“Oh, yes I did! I wished that I could to fly to Thackary Anderthon’s house.”
Ridge pointed back at the Anderthons’ trailer, and I realized my mistake. The way I worded my wish meant that I could no longer fly now that I had reached Thackary’s house.
“Hmm,” I said. “Can I wish to fly again?” I hadn’t really thought about asking for the same thing more than once. But it seemed a shame, since I had just cleaned myself of the bird droppings.
“You can,” Ridge explained. “But the consequence will be different every time you ask.”
“So I could just keep asking until I get a consequence that I like?”
“I don’t think you’ll like any of them,” answered Ridge. “The Universe knows you. Even though the consequences will be different, they’ll be equal disadvantages.”
“So if I wish to fly again, it won’t result in bird poop, but it’ll be something that I hate just as much?”
“Probably,” answered Ridge. “Though, between you and me, I’m hoping you wish for a mode of transportation that doesn’t require me to travel in the jar.”
Yeah, flying wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It was tiring, messy, and punished Ridge. I was sure I could think of something else. But in the meantime, we set out on foot, sneaking up to Tina and Vale and then keeping our distance as we tracked them along.
I thought back to the trailer, when my quick wish had landed me on the ceiling. I needed to be prepared to make better wishes.
“Is there any wish you can’t fulfill?” I asked Ridge as we walked.
“Well, you already know that I can’t let you unwish a wish,” he said. “And I can’t let you wish to remove a consequence. Other than that, I think you’re free to ask for anything.”
“What about knowledge?” I asked. “If I wish for it, the Universe can tell me anything I want to know, right?”
“As long as you accept the consequence,” Ridge said. “What do you need to know?”
The moment didn’t seem right, walking down an unknown street at the edge of town. But I knew I had to ask him sooner or later. Wasn’t that the reason I had accepted the Universe’s quest? I mean, sure, I wanted to prevent the zombie pet apocalypse, but that wasn’t what had spurred me to follow Ridge out the door of the Lindons’ home.
Ridge was a genie. He could give me unlimited wishes. He could answer a question that had burned in my mind for as long as I could remember.
So why was it so hard to make the wish? Why couldn’t I ask him where I came from? Who my parents were, and why I had ended up so alone?
We’d been following Tina and Vale for nearly an hour, when they arrived at their destination.
St. Mercy’s Hospital.
I froze. My hand strayed into my pocket and I flicked my thumbnail across the edge of the tattered card I always carried.
“You all right?” Ridge asked me.
I looked at him. The Universe would be able to tell me. All I had to do was ask Ridge. But part of me was too afraid. Afraid to find out my past. I pulled my hand out of my pocket. “I’m fine,” I said. Taking a deep breath, I followed Tina and Vale through the front doors.
I hadn’t been to this hospital before, but they all seemed so alike. Same colors, same smells, same clothing. I thought back to when I had first awakened in that hospital bed. It had been over three years ago. And I was just as confused as I was back then.
Tina paused at the stairs, conversing with a uniformed security guard. We hung back until the guard steppe
d aside and let the girls go up the stairs.
“Why would they come here?” Ridge asked.
“Let’s find out,” I said, moving across the lobby.
The same security guard stopped us at the bottom of the stairs. But he didn’t seem so friendly now.
“Visiting hours are over, boys,” he said.
“What about those girls?” I pressed.
“She has special arrangements with the patient in room 214,” answered the guard. “You two can come back in the morning.”
“Special arrangements,” I muttered as Ridge and I walked back outside. A moment later, we stood awkwardly on the sidewalk in front of the hospital.
“You could always wish to get in,” Ridge suggested.
“Yeah,” I said. “And accept another dumb consequence?” I looked at the hospital, trying to decide how badly I wanted to spy on Tina. I had the perfect wish. Might as well see what it would cost me. “I wish to be invisible.”
“Forever?” Ridge asked.
“What? No!” I answered. “Just for the next ten minutes or so. Enough to get past that security guard.”
Ridge nodded in understanding as my watch clicked open. “If you want to become invisible,” said Ridge, “then all your clothes will remain invisible for a day.”
“Ahh!” I cried, stepping behind a shrub in case my clothes suddenly vanished. “That’s terrible! What if I put on new clothes?”
Ridge shrugged. “They will also disappear.”
There was no way I could accept. We were supposed to team up with Tina and Vale soon. Face it, you wouldn’t accept that crazy deal, either.
“No way,” I said, feeling my hourglass watch close. I stepped out from behind the shrub. “These consequences are impossible!”
“Remember what I said about making direct wishes?” Ridge said. “You always wish big, so the consequence usually seems too steep. If you walk into that hospital and turn invisible, then the wish did all the work for you. I guess what I’m saying is . . . think smaller.”
“Think smaller. . . .” I repeated, a grin spreading across my face. “I wish I could be three inches tall until I get to room 214.”
My hourglass popped up again, and Ridge was nodding his approval at my wish. “If you want to shrink down,” he explained, “then every time you exit a bathroom, you’ll have toilet paper stuck to your shoe for an hour.”
Well, that would be embarrassing. “Just my shoe?” I asked. “What if I’m barefoot?”
“Bare feet count, too,” said Ridge.
“How much toilet paper?” I asked. If it was just half a square, nobody might notice. Then again, if it was an entire roll dragging around, then it could be a major tripping hazard.
“About fourteen inches,” Ridge answered, holding up his hands to show me the length.
“That’s manageable,” I said. “How long will this go on?”
“The rest of the week,” Ridge said. “Once the quest ends, your shoes will be toilet paper free.”
I could handle that. It would be worth a bit of embarrassment for the week so I could snoop on Tina’s secret.
“Bazang.” I said the magic word. And just like that, I was three inches tall.
Chapter 8
The world looks very different when you’re the size of a mouse. The sidewalk sprawled before me like a parking lot, and the hospital loomed at such a height that I could barely see the top. It was going to take a long time to walk anywhere, since my legs were now half the length of toothpicks.
I turned to look at Ridge and found myself staring at a ginormous shoe, the white sole nearly coming to my waist. I guess I had foolishly assumed that Ridge would also shrink with me. Obviously, he had remained regular size, which was humongous to me.
“I guess I’ll have to put you in the jar!” I shouted. My voice must have been too faint for Ridge to hear. He dropped to his knees on the sidewalk, his head bending low until we were nearly at the same level.
“Whoa!” I shouted, surprised by the massive size of the face before me. “I think I could crawl into your nostril!”
“Why would you do that?” Ridge whispered, but his voice was still plenty loud.
“I don’t want to,” I said. “I was just pointing out that your nose is huge.”
“My nose is the same size it’s always been,” Ridge said. “You’re just really tiny now.”
I shrugged at him. “I’ll have to put you in the jar to get past the security guard,” I repeated. “But you should get me as close to the stairs as you can so I don’t have so far to walk.”
Ridge reached out, tucking his thumb under one of my arms and his index finger under the other. With a gentle squeeze, he lifted me off the sidewalk. I clung to his hand as Ridge took a few steps and passed through the automatic hospital doors.
Once inside, he found the corner of the lobby and took a knee, depositing me behind a fake potted plant.
I dug into my backpack and pulled out the empty peanut butter jar. “Ridge,” I said, holding out the container, “get into the jar.”
I was grateful that the Universe shielded us from suspicion, because Ridge instantly turned into a puff of dark smoke and got sucked into the minuscule jar in my raised hand.
I took a deep breath and focused on the giant stairs across the lobby. The security guard who had stopped us earlier wouldn’t be much of a threat since I could slip past him unnoticed. But there was definitely no way for me to climb the stairs at my current height.
“Are we there yet?” Ridge asked, like an annoying child on a road trip.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I hadn’t even moved. “It takes a long time to get around when you’re barely bigger than a Lego figure,” I said, dropping the jar into my overstuffed backpack.
Nearby, a man was talking with someone at the front desk. His laptop bag was on the floor by his feet, and I decided this was my chance.
“Here we go!” I whispered, more to encourage myself than to inform Ridge of my plan. I sprinted toward the man, my tiny heart racing in my miniaturized chest.
I reached my ride and skidded to a halt. The laptop bag was a mountain of thick black cloth. Above my head, I saw a pocket where I could easily stow away, but reaching it was going to be a challenge.
Jumping as high as I could, I caught the zipper and pulled myself up. Dangling precariously, I swung one leg toward the empty pocket. I probably would have been able to successfully slip inside, if the man hadn’t picked up his bag in that very moment.
There was a jolt as the handles went tight. I toppled backward, barely catching the zipper pull as the floor fell away beneath me. I hung there, both of my hands gripping the loop at the end of the zipper tab.
With every step the man took, I thought I might shake loose. The floor seemed like it was fifty feet below me and the tiles were a blur as my carrier walked briskly toward the stairs.
“What’s going on?” Ridge’s muffled voice called from the jar in my backpack. “I don’t know how much longer I can stand this.”
My carrier man took the stairs two at a time, looping his laptop bag over one shoulder and increasing the distance between me and the floor.
I hoisted myself up, putting my leg through the loop at the end of the zipper tab and bracing as I pulled Ridge’s jar from my backpack.
We reached the second floor and the man strode down the hallway like he was in a hurry. I saw room numbers, but they just looked like gibberish squiggles, since I couldn’t read. I needed Ridge to have a look around.
“We’re riding in a laptop bag,” I said into the jar. It was one of those sentences I never imagined myself saying. “We’ve got to get down, but it’s too high to jump. I’m going to pull you out of the jar when I jump, and I need you to catch me before I hit the floor.”
I hoped Ridge would answer with something like, “Of course. Sounds easy. I’m an excellent catch.”
Instead, he simply said, “I’m so itchy!”
I pulled my foot up
to brace against the zipper, readied myself, and leaped from the man’s laptop bag. As I plummeted toward the hallway tiles, I squeaked out the command.
“Ridge! Get out of the jar!”
With a puff of black smoke, the genie appeared. But not exactly how I thought he would. Maybe it was because I was holding the jar sideways that Ridge landed on his shoulders, skidding to a halt against the wall.
My flight path landed me right in his mass of curly hair. I suppose it was still better than splatting on the floor, but the impact knocked the breath right out of my lungs.
Ridge leaped to his feet. I held on for dear life, grabbing two fistfuls of hair like horse reins. “We have to get to room 214!”
“Ace?” Ridge said, wandering down the hallway. “Where are you? I hear your voice, but I can’t see you.” He spun around in a dizzying circle. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch you. Are you a ghost now?”
“I’m in your hair!” I shouted, sitting down right atop Ridge’s head.
That’s when I got big again.
Ridge crumpled to the floor with a surprised yelp as I slid down in a heap beside him.
“There you are!” he exclaimed. “This is room 214.” He pointed to the door in front of us.
“Shhh!” I hissed, holding a finger to my lips. If Tina was inside that room, I didn’t want her knowing that Ridge and I were sneaking around out here.
We rose to our knees, positioned with our ears to the door.
“What’re they doing in there?” It really bothered me that Tina hadn’t told me her reason for coming here.
I glanced at Ridge. “I wish I could hear through this door.”
I was aware of my hourglass watch opening up, but I didn’t even look at it. Instead, I kept my focus on Ridge.
“If you want to hear through this hospital door,” he explained, “then the next time you plug your ears, your fingers will get stuck in them.”
“Seriously?” I whispered. “For how long?”
“Only half an hour.”
“Only,” I hissed. Did I really want to run around with my fingers in my ears for thirty minutes? That depended on how badly I wanted to know what Tina was talking about behind that door. To get this far, I’d already accepted a week of toilet paper stuck to my shoe.