“Are you out of your mind?” Tina shouted at the burly fisherwoman.
“I am a guardian of the Ancient Consequence. I have been placed here to catch my limit!” the woman replied. “Whatever pain my hooks cause you will be nothing in comparison to what you will find in the Cave of the Undiscovered Genie.”
It was another warning, similar to what we’d heard at Mount Rushmore and Super-Fun-Happy Place. I wanted to ask her for more details, but she looked to be prepping another fishing pole.
“I don’t think she’s going to stop,” I shouted to Ridge and Tina.
Vale’s voice echoed out of the jar in Tina’s hand. “Let me out of here! I can help!”
“Yep,” shark Ridge said. “She’s itching.”
“We’re going to need something to cut the lines if we get caught again,” I said to Tina. If only my shark could swim! “I wish for a knife!”
Ridge turned to me, his shark mouth opening wide to explain the consequence. “If you want a knife,” he said, “then any time you sneeze this week, a grape will fall out of your nose.”
“What?” I cried. “I don’t have grapes up my nose!”
“I know,” said Ridge. “But the Universe will cause one to fall out whenever you sneeze.”
“Would it be a red grape or a green grape?” I asked.
“Does it matter?” Tina cried, ducking as the fisherwoman cast a giant hook and worm.
“It might!” I said.
“Green grape,” answered Ridge. “The sour kind.”
“That’s gross,” I said. “Bazang.”
I felt something land in the back pocket of my pants. Since my pants were on backward, it was really the front pocket. Floating on my stomach in the water, I reached down and retrieved the item I had wished for.
“What’s this?” I cried, holding it up. It was the smallest knife I had ever seen. Like the kind my foster mother used to cut olives. The blade was probably less than two inches long. “Why’s it so small?”
“You didn’t mention the size,” Ridge said. “That’s what the Universe gave you.”
“Not cool, Universe,” I muttered. “It better be sharp enough to cut the fishing line.”
“Let’s dive down and find out,” Tina said.
“Aren’t you wishing for something?” I asked her, wondering if she’d come up with some other brilliant plan to avoid getting hooked by the evil worms.
“We’ll stick together,” she said. “You can cut me loose with your knife.”
I glared at her, feeling like she’d just used me. “That’s a dirty trick.”
Tina shrugged. “It’s not a trick,” she insisted. “I don’t see why I should make a wish when we already have a perfectly good knife that would work for both of us.”
“It’s two inches long!” I shouted. We didn’t really have time to debate. Every second wasted meant Thackary was closer to getting away. “Muumuu,” I said. The shark turned into a boy, who fell into the water with a splash as I said, “Ridge, get into the jar.”
A puff of smoke, Ridge disappeared, and I was able to float upright again. Tina swam over to me, but I dove underwater before she could say anything. If she wanted my help with the knife, she’d have to keep up.
I darted straight down. Now that I knew what to look out for, I could see a few fishing lines, nearly invisible in the darkening water. One was close enough that I decided to test out my new knife. Sliding the tiny blade along the clear line, I felt the knife snap through, successfully severing the hook somewhere below.
Suddenly, an overgrown worm on a different hook whizzed past my head, leaving a trail of bubbles. I managed to dodge the reaching bait, but Tina wasn’t so lucky. It took her around the middle, snugging her tightly against the huge hook. She was jerked upward, but I was there to cut her loose before she got far.
Tina took a breath of air from her lip balm jar and gave me a grateful look as we swam on. I cut through two more lines that brushed threateningly close. And once, a beastly worm managed to wrap on to my leg. But the knife, despite its miniature size, seemed to be sufficient defense against it.
I estimated we’d dived about a hundred feet when the fishing net got us.
It was so dark, I didn’t see it until it wrapped around me. Tina was snagged up, too, and we collided underwater as the net tightened its grip. I used my little knife in hopes of slashing my way free, but the net was made of thick strands and I barely managed to saw through one as we were dragged upward.
Tina kicked and thrashed, but that didn’t help at all. By the time we reached the surface of the lake again, our arms and legs were twisted and tangled in the net.
“What a haul!” cried the fisherwoman. “Bring them in! Bring them in!”
“Ridge, get out of the jar! And muumuu!” The genie suddenly appeared, instantly taking the form of a shark. I went belly down, but there was a bigger problem.
Ridge was inside the net.
My shark thrashed, but this only seemed to delight the fisherwoman even more.
“Can’t you bite free?” I yelled.
“This is a fishing net!” he answered.
“So?”
“So, I’m a fish!” said Ridge. “This is designed to catch me!”
“Well, that turned out horribly!” Tina gasped as the bearded woman raked us toward the boat.
“How did Thackary get past this?” I cried, slapping the surface of the water. I had to assume he’d already accomplished the third task, or he and Jathon would still be nearby.
“Jathon must have wished for his dad to reach the bottom,” Tina said. “Nothing can stop the Universe from fulfilling that kind of direct wish.”
“Fine!” I yelled. “I wish to touch the bottom of Lake Michigan.” At saying the state name, the Universe made me do my best to jump. But jumping is hard when you are floating on your stomach in a fishing net with a shark on top of you.
“Okay,” said shark Ridge. “If you want to touch the bottom, then your breath will smell like fish until . . .”
“Until . . . ?”
“Until forever.”
I cringed. “What kind of fish? Are we talking salmon? Tuna? Halibut?”
Ridge shrugged with his front fins. “Just general fishiness.”
“Is there anything I can do to mask it?” I asked. “What if I brush my teeth?”
“Not going to help,” Ridge said. “Besides, a few days ago you took a consequence that makes your toothpaste taste like cauliflower.”
“Hmm.” I had forgotten about the toothpaste, even though it wouldn’t last. I had to complete the third task so I could catch up to Thackary Anderthon. That took priority over fresh breath.
“Bazang,” I said. Suddenly, the net disentangled itself from me and I was able to swim free. Now that I had made the direct wish to reach the bottom, the Universe would have to remove all obstacles from my path to fulfill that wish.
I transformed Ridge and called him back into the jar, turning once more to Tina, who was still struggling inside the fishing net. “You’re on your own this time.” Tina couldn’t mooch off my wish like she had done with the knife.
“Vale,” she called. “Get out of the jar.” The redheaded genie suddenly appeared in the net, getting soaked for the first time and gasping at the shock of the cold water.
“I wish to touch the bottom of Lake Michigan,” said Tina, causing me to jump at the name.
“Same wish as Ace?” Vale said. “I could hear you from the jar, you know.”
Tina shrugged. “We have to hurry. Being direct is the only way.”
Vale nodded. “It’s the same consequence.”
“The fish breath?” Tina asked. Vale nodded. “Bazang.”
The only reason I had stuck around to watch the exchange was because I needed a little bit of satisfaction in seeing Tina accept the same consequence that I had agreed to. Once I had received the reward of seeing her scowl, I took in a deep breath of fishy air and dove down.
The fishing
lines were still there, slicing through the water with their giant hooks and demon worms, but they seemed to miss us. Twice, a fishing net pulled past us, but our wish had given us the assurance that we’d reach the bottom. Nothing could hold us back now.
It grew darker as we swam deeper. The pressure of the water was building around me and I thought my head might explode. I shut my eyes and continued diving, my fingers reaching out blindly before me.
I was seriously considering giving up and turning back, when at last, my hand plunged into a soft layer of silt that made up the lake bottom. I couldn’t see Tina in the darkness, but I had to trust she was close behind.
I ran my hand through the muddy lakebed, a few small slimy rocks slipping through my fingers. I had completed the third task, taking me one step closer to receiving the key to enter the Cave of the Undiscovered Genie.
I didn’t know how much time was left in my hour of breath, but it seemed like a good idea to get to the surface so I’d be ready to breathe air again. Kicking off the bottom of the lake, I streamed upward, finding this direction much easier than the dive.
When my head finally rose above the surface of the lake, the sun had just set and a cool wind whipped over the water. I had come up twenty or thirty yards from the red boat. In the dying light, I could see the bearded fisherwoman leaning against the railing.
Tina came up behind me, gasping and sputtering. “Did you touch the bottom?” she asked. I nodded, as the fisherwoman’s voice sounded across the water.
“You have completed the third task,” she called. “But before you seek the Cave of the Undiscovered Genie, I must warn you. He longs to breathe the free air, but his powers are fishy!”
“Ridge,” I said, “get out of the jar.” I wanted to be prepared if the guardian fisherwoman tried anything else. But just as Ridge appeared in a puff of smoke, the bearded woman slumped down on the deck of the red boat, as though suddenly fast asleep.
“Did you hear what she said?” Ridge asked.
“Yeah.” More ominous warnings about the Undiscovered Genie. More incentive to stop Thackary from opening his jar.
Tina swam closer to me, still gasping for breath from her long time underwater. I turned my face away from her. “I’d offer you a breath mint,” I said, “but it wouldn’t help.” And I didn’t actually have one.
Tina splashed water in my face. “Mind your own consequences,” she said. “You smell just like I do.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. And laughing should have made my socks wet. But guess what? They already were.
Ha! Take that, Universe.
Chapter 30
I destroyed most of the lightbulbs in our room at the Big Pillow Motel. I didn’t mean to, but I had completely forgotten about that consequence when I went strolling into the room. Now there were bits of broken glass all over the carpet and bathroom, so we had to wear our shoes at all times.
Luckily, one small lamp on the desk escaped my destruction, because, well, it’s hard to walk directly under a desk lamp.
At first, I think Tina was upset that we weren’t pressing on to find Thackary, but after a hot shower and a moment of relaxation on the couch, she was seeing things my way.
We had been much too tired to go on after our ordeal in Lake Michigan. We’d ended up using some rope we found on the red boat to tie on to Ridge’s shark tail so he could tow us to shore. There, Tina had proposed that we find out what was on the final ripped-out page of the notebook and continue our quests. I had proposed wishing our way into a motel room and actually getting a decent night’s sleep before chasing down Thackary and Jathon.
I came out of the bathroom after my shower, damp clothes back on, complete with backward pants and overgrown shirtsleeves. Attached to the bottom of my foot was a fourteen-inch-long piece of toilet paper that I knew wouldn’t fall off for an hour.
“This place is great!” Ridge said, thumbing through a binder on the desk. “They serve free breakfast in the morning.”
“See?” I said. “Not only do we get a decent place to sleep, we also get a meal that isn’t peanut butter sandwiches.” I was getting very tired of eating those. I glanced at Tina on the couch. I’d heard her scream when she sat down. “I told you it would be worth it.”
Vale, sitting cross-legged on one of the queen beds, answered. “Worth the mosquito bites?”
“Yes,” I said, scratching at one on my arm. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have accepted the consequence.”
I had wished to find a key to a vacant motel room. In exchange, every time I saw a yellow flower, a mosquito would bite me. A year of potential mosquito bites actually seemed like a fair disadvantage for the comforts of the motel room.
I sat down on the couch beside Tina. The moment I touched the cushion, I felt a force propel me sideways, landing me squarely in her lap.
“What are you doing?” she shouted, pushing me to the floor.
I thought back to the beginning of the week. I had forgotten about the consequence that forced me to bounce across couch cushions. In fact, I couldn’t even remember what wish I had made to get it!
“Sorry,” I muttered. “Consequence.”
“I can’t believe Thackary got away again,” Ridge said, shutting the binder of motel amenities and leaning back in his desk chair.
“I didn’t have a chance against that stupid trinket,” I said. I turned to Tina. “If you knew about those, why haven’t you wished for any?”
“Trinkets are risky because anyone can use them,” she answered. “You saw what happened to Jathon on the motorboat.”
I couldn’t forget if I wanted to. The entire time his dad stood on that magic nickel, Jathon was forced to slap himself in the face. It was a horrible consequence.
“I see,” I said. “So if you wished for a trinket and it fell into the wrong hands, someone could use it to affect you.”
“Not worth the risk, in my opinion,” Tina said.
“What is worth it?” I asked. “I’ve noticed that you don’t make a lot of wishes.”
“Not unless I absolutely have to,” she said.
“Well, you’re going to have to make a big one in a minute,” I said. She gave me a puzzled look. “The fourth page of the notebook,” I explained. “I think it’s your turn to wish for the information on it.”
Tina pursed her lips. “I think we should settle this the same way we settled all the others,” she answered, putting her hand out for a rock, paper, scissors challenge.
“No thanks,” I said. “You’re way better than me.”
“It’s not really a game of skill,” Vale pointed out. “How can Tina be better at it?”
Tina clapped at the mention of her name, and my shoelace came untied at the sound of her clap. Then her hands returned to the challenging position. “This is the last time,” she said. “I promise.”
Conveniently, it was also the last page in Thackary’s notebook. I sighed and put out my hand to play.
I lost. Again.
Tina used paper to cover my rock. She folded her arms, though she didn’t look as victorious as I thought she might. “You should make the wish now,” she said.
I nodded. It might be helpful to know where we needed to go tomorrow so we could make some sort of plan tonight. I turned to Ridge.
“I wish to know what was on that fourth ripped-out page of Thackary Anderthon’s notebook.”
He swiveled around in his chair. “If you want to know page four,” he said, “then every time someone asks you a question, you will have to answer with another question.”
“I’ll have to what?” I cried.
“Exactly,” said Ridge. “Just like that.”
“What if I can’t answer their question with a question?” I asked.
“It doesn’t have to make sense. You just have to reply with a short question of your own. Then you’ll be able to go on and say anything else you want. You can also choose not to respond at all. But that seems kind of impolite, if someone asks you a question.”
br /> “And this will last . . .”
“One year,” said Ridge.
“I don’t think I can,” I muttered.
Tina cut in with an attempt to encourage me. “Come on, Ace! We’re so close. This is the last thing we need to know.”
I shot her an icy glare. It was easy for her to say. She wasn’t the one that would have to bear the consequence. “Maybe we can find out another way,” I said.
“How?” said Tina. “Thackary and Jathon are probably long gone. If there is any chance of catching up to them, we have to know where they’re headed.”
Ridge tapped his wrist, gesturing for me to take note of my hourglass. The white sands had almost expired from the top chamber. I needed to accept the consequence or let it slip away.
“Do it, Ace,” said Tina.
“I can’t,” I muttered. “I have too many. I don’t think I can manage another.”
“Accept the consequence and I’ll tell you a secret.”
“What secret?” I asked. Why would Tina be hiding something from me?
“It’s a secret that will even things out between us,” Tina said, then promptly bit her lip as if she regretted saying it.
“Ace!” Ridge said, pointing to the hourglass.
“Bazang!” I squeaked out my answer just before the final grains of sand fell. Instantly, knowledge flooded my mind. I knew what was on that final page, and the answer both frightened me and gave me hope.
“This is it,” I said. “We’ve completed the tasks.”
“Then what was on the fourth page?” asked Tina.
“Do you want me to tell you?” Without even meaning to, I found myself answering her question with another question. “It’s the cave,” I added.
“You know the location?” Ridge asked.
“Would you stop asking me questions?” I answered. “The entrance to the Cave of the Undiscovered Genie is in San Antonio, Texas.” I involuntarily sprang to my feet and jumped at the mention of the state. “I have an address,” I said.
“The cave has an address?” Ridge asked.
“Why not?” I answered. “It’s right downtown. Someone will be waiting for us at the entrance. We’re supposed to ask him a question.”