Curse of the Wish Eater

by Mike Ford

  Max expected the page to be blank, or to show only his name, and was almost afraid to look at it. But there on the paper was the list of names. It was as if the Wish Eater’s magic had overlooked this one little bit of proof that he hadn’t made up his brothers and sisters. And even as Max read the list of names, they began to fade.

  “Arthur,” he said as the letters, written in Charlie’s crooked printing, melted into nothing. “Not Archie. Arthur.”

  He quickly wrote the name on the pad, crossing out Archie and putting Arthur in its place. Then he read the list out loud: “Elfie. Elsie. Charlie. Arthur.” Now that they were written down, he wouldn’t forget them. He folded the paper and tucked it into his shirt pocket, where it rested against his heart.

  For the rest of the night, whenever he felt himself forgetting his brothers and sisters, he touched the paper in his pocket. He did it twice at dinner and several more times while doing his homework. Before he went to bed, he took the paper out and read the names again.

  “I’m not going to forget you,” he promised. “I’m going to get you back.”

  He meant what he said. The problem was, he had no idea how he was going to do it. After turning the light off, he lay in bed, thinking about the Wish Eater and how he’d messed up his wish. If he ever got the chance to use it again, he was going to have to make sure he did it correctly. But that meant getting Tamyra to let him have it back, and given how she’d acted that afternoon, she wasn’t ready to do that.

  Max stayed awake for a long time, and when he finally fell asleep it seemed like only a few minutes before his alarm rang and he had to get up and get ready. So when he walked into school, he was yawning and at first didn’t notice the huge crowd that was blocking the hallway.

  “Tay is my best friend!” a girl said, sounding angry.

  “She was my best friend first,” said another.

  Suddenly, a lot of people were talking at once, all of them insisting that Tamyra was their best friend. Max searched and found Tamyra standing in the center of the arguing students, looking miserable. When she saw Max, she pushed her way through the throng.

  “Come on,” she said. “I need your help.”

  Max followed her as she hurried down the corridor. Behind them, the kids arguing about which of them was Tamyra’s best friend noticed that she was gone.

  “There she is!” one of them shouted. “Hey, Tay, wait up.”

  Tamyra began to run. Max, seeing a bunch of people running toward them, ran too. Tamyra turned a corner ahead of him, disappearing. When Max reached the corner, she was gone. Then a door opened and a hand reached out, pulling him inside a closet where janitorial supplies were kept. Tamyra shut the door behind him. A second later, the sound of running feet and voices filled the hallway.

  “Shhh,” Tamyra whispered, holding her finger to her lips.

  Max stayed quiet until the sounds outside stopped.

  “I think they’re gone,” he said softly.

  “Good,” said Tamyra, unzipping her backpack. She reached inside and pulled out the Wish Eater. “Because we’ve got some wishing to do.”

  Max stared at the Wish Eater sitting on Tamyra’s outstretched palm. Seeing it again, he couldn’t believe that a toy could cause so much trouble.

  “It doesn’t look magic, does it?” he said.

  “I wish I’d never seen it,” said Tamyra.

  After a second, they both laughed. “Probably not the best choice of words,” Max said.

  “Just for the record, that’s not my wish,” said Tamyra.

  “It only counts if you write it down,” Max reminded her.

  “Too bad it didn’t come with a rule book,” Tamyra remarked, sitting down cross-legged on the floor. “Then we might have made different wishes.”

  Max joined her on the floor. The Wish Eater sat between them. “I don’t know if that would have helped,” he said. “I think this thing is tricky.”

  They both stared at the teeth in silence for a moment. Then Tamyra said, “How do you think it works?”

  Max shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “All I know is, it does.”

  “It still doesn’t make any sense,” Tamyra said. “Magic, I mean. Like, why is this thing magic? If I made a Wish Eater out of clay or whatever, it wouldn’t be.”

  “Maybe it would be,” Max suggested. He looked at Tamyra. “You still don’t believe it’s real, do you? Not really.”

  Tamyra shrugged. “I like science,” she answered. “Things that you can explain by studying them. Magic, I’m not so sure about.”

  “But you love the Harry Potter books,” Max said. “You wear a Ravenclaw scarf and everything.”

  “That’s just for fun,” Tamyra said. “I do love the books. And I love the idea of magic. But it’s not real.”

  “Then how do you explain what’s going on?” Max asked. “My family disappearing. You suddenly being the most popular girl in school.”

  Tamyra didn’t answer him. She fidgeted uncomfortably for a moment, then said, “Who should go first, you or me?”

  Max wanted to say he would, but that seemed greedy. Also, he kind of wanted to see if Tamyra’s wish worked before he made his. “You go first,” he said.

  Tamyra seemed relieved at the suggestion. She took a notebook out of her backpack, tore off a page, then sat quietly, tapping her pen against her leg and biting her lip.

  Max waited impatiently until he couldn’t stand it any longer. “What are you going to wish for?”

  Tamyra started to write on the paper. “I wish I wasn’t the most popular girl in school anymore,” she said as she wrote. “How does that sound?”

  “Pretty good,” Max said.

  Tamyra folded up the paper. She opened the Wish Eater’s mouth, tucked the note inside, then shut it again. “How long do you think it will take?” she asked.

  “I left mine in overnight,” Max said. “How about you?”

  “Same,” said Tamyra. “I hope it doesn’t take that long this time.” She put the Wish Eater back into her backpack and zipped it shut. “I guess I should keep it with me until something happens.”

  Or doesn’t happen, Max thought. But he didn’t say that out loud. He didn’t want Tamyra to worry about it.

  “We’d better get to class,” Tamyra said, opening the door a crack and peering out. “It’s okay,” she told Max. “My fan club is gone.”

  They stepped out into the hall and walked toward their classrooms. Max’s homeroom was first, and when they reached the door Tamyra said, “You can take the Wish Eater home tonight and make your wish.”

  “Okay,” Max said. “Good luck with yours. I hope it comes true.”

  Tamyra smiled. “Me too.”

  Max went into his classroom just as the bell rang. He slipped into his seat and unpacked his books as the morning announcements came on.

  “Today’s hot lunch will be fish sticks,” said the robotic voice of Mrs. Blovage, the principal’s assistant. “Tryouts for the school play will be held during sixth period, and all interested thespians should report to Mr. Coney’s room. And in this morning’s big news, the results of yesterday’s student council election are in and Tamyra Hinkle was elected to every single position. Congratulations to President-Vice-President-Treasurer-Secretary Hinkle. I’m sure you’ll do an excellent job.”

  The class erupted in applause, and Max heard several people say that they had voted for Tamyra, who as far as Max knew hadn’t even been running for student council. The Wish Eater had obviously taken her wish seriously and also apparently hadn’t answered her latest one yet. Max wondered if it even would and how it decided which ones to say yes to and which ones to ignore.

  He had to wait until lunch period to see Tamyra again, and he spent the whole time thinking about how he was going to word his own wish later that night. He was still thinking about it on the way to the lunchroom when his train of thought was interrupted by a loud “Psst.”

  He stopped and looked around.

&
nbsp; “Over here,” a voice whispered.

  He turned and saw Tamyra waving to him from the same closet they’d hidden in earlier. He went inside.

  “Are they still looking for me?” Tamyra asked.

  “Who?” said Max.

  “The angry mob,” said Tamyra.

  “What angry mob? I thought you were everybody’s favorite president-vice-president-treasurer-secretary.”

  “I was,” said Tamyra. “Until this thing decided to grant my wish.” She held up the Wish Eater and opened its mouth. Her wish was gone. “Now I’m not the most popular girl in school anymore. I’m the most unpopular.”

  Max thought about what Tamyra had written as her wish. “ ‘I wish I wasn’t the most popular girl in school anymore,’ ” he said.

  “Exactly,” said Tamyra. “I thought that would do it. And it did. Only it did it too well. Now everybody is saying I cheated to win the election. But I didn’t even run!”

  A moment later, the sound of people coming down the hall filled the closet.

  “I can’t believe we thought she was nice!” a girl’s voice said indignantly.

  “I always knew she was a phony,” said another. “I hear they caught her cheating on her math test too.”

  Tamyra shut her eyes and groaned. “See?” she muttered.

  “We can fix this,” Max said. “You just have to wish again. Only this time we’ll write it really carefully.”

  Tamyra shook her head. “I’ll just make it worse,” she said.

  “Down with Hinkle!” a voice shouted. It was joined by many others. “Down with Hinkle! Down with Hinkle!”

  “I’m not sure it could get worse,” Max said. “Sorry,” he added when Tamyra covered her eyes with her hand.

  “Okay,” Tamyra said. “One more wish. But you take this thing home with you. I don’t want it anywhere near me.”

  She thrust the Wish Eater at Max, who took it. Despite everything, he felt a little thrill holding it in his hands again.

  “What do you want to wish this time?” he asked.

  Tamyra took out some paper and a pen. She wrote something down, then folded the paper up and handed it to Max. “Here,” she said. “Put it in that thing tonight.”

  “You’re not going to tell me what it says?” Max asked.

  Tamyra shook her head. “Nope. Just do it. I’ll text you if it works. Assuming it eats it, that is.”

  Max shoved the wish into his pocket. “Now what?” he said. “You can’t let those girls find you.”

  Tamyra clutched her stomach and groaned. “I think I’ve come down with the flu,” she said, obviously faking it. “I’m going to see if I can go home.”

  Max grinned. “Is that any way for the student body president-vice-president-treasurer-secretary to act?”

  “Hopefully, tomorrow that won’t be a problem,” Tamyra said. “You just make sure you put that wish in, okay?”

  “Like I could forget,” said Max as Tamyra opened the door.

  As Tamyra snuck off down the hall in the direction of the nurse’s office, Max went back to his homeroom and stowed the Wish Eater in his backpack. He thought about it for the rest of the day, and when he got home that afternoon he took it out and set it on his bedside table.

  He retrieved Tamyra’s note from his pocket. He was tempted to open it and read it, but he thought that might be cheating, so he opened the Wish Eater’s mouth and put the wish on its extended tongue. Then he sat staring at it for a while longer. He really wanted to make a wish of his own. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered why he couldn’t.

  “Nobody said you only had to make one wish at a time,” he said to himself.

  He fetched a piece of paper and a pen, then wrote out his new wish. He read it over, decided it was exactly right, and folded it up. Then he opened the Wish Eater’s mouth again. The red tongue stuck out. Tamyra’s wish was still sitting on it. Max placed his on top of hers, then closed the mouth.

  “Let’s hope we both get what we wished for,” he said as he placed the Wish Eater back on his bedside table.

  The first thing Max did the next morning was check the Wish Eater’s mouth. When he saw that it was empty, his heart leaped with joy.

  He looked over at Charlie’s bed. It was still made up, and it didn’t look slept in. But maybe, he thought, the Wish Eater had answered his wish only moments ago, and Charlie hadn’t slept there. Maybe his brothers and sisters were somewhere else in the house. His heart pounding, he jumped out of bed and ran into the hallway. He dashed to the door of the twins’ room and looked inside. It was still an office. Then he checked Arthur’s room, but it was also unchanged.

  He tried not to worry as he went downstairs, telling himself that maybe everyone was gathered in the kitchen. But the house was too quiet, and when he got to the kitchen, all he saw was his parents sitting at the table, quietly looking at the newspaper and eating bowls of oatmeal.

  “Good morning,” his mother said. “Do you want scrambled eggs or cereal today?”

  “Um, is anyone else here?” Max asked, still hopeful.

  “Just us,” said his father. “Why? You expecting company?”

  “I, uh, thought I heard someone,” Max said. “Never mind. I’ll go get dressed.”

  “Eggs or cereal?” his mother called after him.

  “Cereal,” Max grumbled as he went upstairs.

  Back in his room, he pulled on his clothes, wondering what had gone wrong this time. The Wish Eater sat on his bedside table, grinning in a way that made him feel like it was laughing at him.

  “I know you answered my wish,” Max said to it. “But how? What did you do now?”

  The Wish Eater remained annoyingly silent. Max finished getting dressed, then picked the toy up and stuffed it into his backpack. He carried the backpack downstairs with him and set it by the door before rejoining his parents. As he was eating his Oatey Bits, his phone vibrated. He looked at the screen and saw a text from Tamyra: We have a problem.

  He texted her back: ???

  She replied instantly: Meet me on the corner in 5.

  Max set his phone down and spooned cereal into his mouth as quickly as he could.

  “What’s the hurry?” his father asked.

  “I’ve got to get to school a little early,” Max said, which was kind of true and therefore not a lie.

  “Big test?” asked his mother.

  “Something like that,” said Max, picking up his bowl and tipping the last of the milk into his mouth. He took the bowl to the sink. “Bye,” he said to his parents.

  “Have a good day!” they called out as he went to the front door, picked up his backpack, and left the house.

  Tamyra lived three streets over. As Max walked down the sidewalk toward her street, he could see her standing on the corner. But there were three other kids standing with her whom he didn’t recognize. As he got closer, he saw that one of them was a boy and the other two were girls.

  “Hey,” he said, waving. Tamyra didn’t look happy. “Are these your cousins or something?”

  “No,” said Tamyra. She took a deep breath. “They’re my brother and sisters.”

  “You don’t have …” Max began, then stopped. He looked at the kids again. The two girls looked an awful lot alike. His mouth fell open as a horrible thought came to him.

  “I do now,” Tamyra said. “Max, meet Elfie, Elsie, and Charlie.”

  “Hi!” the three kids said together. They smiled happily.

  Max stared at them, speechless.

  “Before you ask, Arthur is at home with my aunt Jackie,” Tamyra said. “And my parents think this is all totally normal, like there have always been five kids.”

  Max continued to stare at the kids. “Wow,” he said finally. “That’s really bizarre.”

  “You think?” said Tamyra. “So, did you make a wish last night? That your brothers and sisters would be back?”

  “Yeah,” Max admitted. “I added it to yours.”

  Tamyra groane
d. Behind her, Elsie and Elfie laughed. Max found himself stealing glances at them. The resemblance to Tamyra was obvious. The fact that they had his sisters’ names was freaky.

  “The Wish Eater granted your wish but gave it to me,” Tamyra said.

  “Your wish was gone too,” said Max. “But nothing was different at my house.”

  Tamyra got a funny look on her face.

  “What?” Max said.

  “Nothing,” Tamyra said. “I mean, it’s probably nothing. It’s just that my wish wasn’t anything to do with my family.”

  “What was it?” Max asked warily.

  “We’re going to be late for school,” Charlie announced. “And I have a test.”

  “Let’s walk,” Tamyra suggested, heading off in the direction of the school. Her sisters and brother followed. Max walked beside Tamyra.

  “What did you wish?” he asked her, since she hadn’t really answered his question.

  “Just that things would be the way they were before I wished the first time,” Tamyra said.

  “Oh,” Max said, relieved. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

  Tamyra nodded but didn’t say anything. When they reached the school, Elsie and Elfie headed off to the seventh-grade classrooms, while Charlie joined the other third graders, all of whom seemed to know who he was.

  “This is so weird,” said Tamyra. “It’s like they’ve been going here forever.”

  Max started to say something, but just then Ji-woo Pak came rushing up to him, along with Amber Maitling and Pihu Reddy. They were three of the girls who had been angry at Tamyra the day before. Now they ignored her, focusing all their attention on Max.

  “Congratulations!” Ji-woo said, grabbing his arm and squeezing it.

  “Uh, thanks?” Max said.

  “You haven’t seen the list?” Pihu asked.

  “List?” said Max

  “The cheer squad list,” said Amber, jumping up and down. “You made the team!”