Act One, Wish One by Klasky Mindy

Author:Klasky, Mindy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Genie, Witch, Vampire, Angel, Demon, Ghost, Werewolf
Publisher: Book View Cafe

CHAPTER 11

I HAD TO wait hours for Jules and Maddy to go to bed that night. They wanted to play a game of Scrabble. Then they wanted to watch Law & Order; an old friend was playing the corpse in the first scene. To commemorate the role, Maddy popped a batch of kettle corn in the microwave.

I have never liked kettle corn. It’s dishonest. It smells like popcorn while it’s popping, and it looks totally ordinary in the serving bowl. But when I taste it, it has a hint of sweet beneath the salt, a dessert flavor that just doesn’t belong. Nevertheless, I took a handful, just to be sociable, and I ate the kernels one by one. I successfully drew out my serving, so that Maddy and Jules had emptied the bowl by the time I was done.

Ordinarily, I really enjoyed the evenings that all three of us were home. This time, though, I just couldn’t wait for them to get tired, to go to their rooms, to close their doors and give me some privacy.

I had decided to call in my third wish.

Sure, I’d told Teel to leave me alone, just that afternoon. I’d told him that I’d make my wish on my own schedule. I’d told him to back off from dragging me into his invisible Garden.

But that had been before he had reverted to the trampy she I was sick and tired of seeing at rehearsal. That was before she had done everything she could to seduce Drew Myers. That was before she had purposely driven me insane, with her innuendos and her seductive looks.

As soon as I was certain Maddy and Jules were both asleep, I dug Teel’s lantern out of my closet. As always, the metal was warm to my touch. Almost without thinking, I started to rub the side, my fingers aching for the familiar tingle, the promise of the magical energy.

I could feel my pulse beat strongly, echoing through the almost invisible flames tattooed across the ridges and whorls of my fingerprints. I pressed my fingers together, letting the energy spark against itself. “Teel,” I actually said out loud.

This time, I was completely braced for the full electric shock. I was absolutely prepared for the jewel-toned fog that coalesced in the center of my room. I was one-hundred-percent ready for the light to shimmer through the fog, to settle into a human shape.

I’d somehow forgotten, though, that the shape wouldn’t necessarily be familiar to me.

Teel was a black man. A very large black man. His belly spilled over his pants, testing the limits of his suspenders. He wore a white oxford shirt that had to have a twenty-four-inch neck; even then, a roll of flesh sagged over the back of the collar. A white canvas bucket hat sat comfortably atop his head. His hair was gray, where I could see it, and his skin was medium-toned—more seasoned oak than mahogany. He raised a hand as big as a dinner plate and rubbed at the back of his neck.

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