Wish Monster by J. A. White

Author:J. A. White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2024-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Nine

The boy whooped, ran in circles, swirled his arms around like helicopter blades, leaped onto the boulder, leaped off the boulder, and, in general, acted like a child set loose at recess after being cooped up in a classroom all morning.

“I’m young!” Mr. Bishop exclaimed. “All my aches and pains—gone! I feel like I could run a marathon, Amir. Two marathons, back-to-back!”

Mr. Kazem, laughing, bent down to look in the boy’s eyes.

“Is that you in there, my old friend?” he asked.

“Oh yes! Sixty-eight years of knowledge and experience wrapped up in a twelve-year-old’s body. I don’t know what to do first! I want to throw a baseball as hard as I can and hear it smack into somebody’s mitt. I want to slide down a snowy hill and not care if I fly off because it’s only going to be a few bumps and bruises, not a trip to the hospital. I want”—he paused—“Where do I live? Do I have a family? How is this going to work?”

Mr. Kazem chuckled. “I wouldn’t worry about that, Sam. I’m sure the wish monster has taken care of everything.”

Mr. Bishop picked up the pocket watch lying on the ground and dangled it before his eyes. The glow was beginning to fade from the 12 inscribed on the lid.

“I feel like I should keep this somewhere safe.”

Mr. Kazem nodded. “I got something in my bucket too. A key. I turned it in the door of my old store and watched that pathetic money pit transform before my eyes. You should have been there, Sam. It was—”

A thunderous crash exploded from the mouth of the cave. It was the same sound Hudson had heard the previous night, though from this close it sounded more aquatic in origin, like a giant wave slamming into the ocean.

Mr. Kazem clasped his head between his hands and groaned in misery, as though suffering from a migraine well beyond the reach of any medicine. Young Mr. Bishop watched his friend with concern.

“What’s wrong, Amir?” he asked.

“I’ve never felt anything like this before,” Mr. Kazem mumbled. “Feels like my mind is being . . . ripped apart . . .”

Hudson heard a soft moan next to him and saw that Violet was suffering a similar attack, though she was doing her best to remain quiet so as not to reveal their presence. He gently placed his hand on Violet’s shoulder.

“You okay?” he whispered. “Violet? Say something.”

Violet opened her eyes.

“What’s Sam doing here?” she asked in a perfectly calm voice. The pain had not only passed but been completely forgotten, as though it had never happened at all. “I closed my eyes for one second, and I swear he just showed up out of nowhere. Do you know him? He’s in band. Plays the trumpet.”

The wish monster had once again reshaped minds and memories to conform to a wish. Violet now believed that Sam Bishop, her former social studies teacher, was just some kid from school. Hudson figured that brains all over Haywood had been similarly rewired.

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