I jogged up the trailer steps and knocked on the door.
“What are you doing?” Ridge asked, his voice shooting high-pitched. “The Universe said this Thackary kid was dangerous!”
“I’m checking to see if anyone’s home,” I said.
“And if they are, then you’ve just ruined our element of surprise!”
“Not completely,” I pointed out. “I just surprised you.”
Ridge was panicking over nothing. Nobody came to the door, and when I pressed my ear against it, I couldn’t hear any voices.
I tried the doorknob. This also worried Ridge.
“It’s locked,” I said. Then, stepping back, I rubbed my hands together to build up some adrenaline.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to kick the door in,” I said.
“With your foot?” Ridge asked.
I nodded. “That’s what I usually use for kicking.”
“You’ve done this before?” Ridge asked. “Wait a minute! Are you a criminal?” He threw his hands up. “Oh, great. The Universe assigned me to a delinquent!”
“I’m not a criminal,” I said. “And as far as I can remember, I’ve never kicked down a door before. But I’ve seen it in movies. It can’t be that hard.”
I kicked. It was hard. Too hard.
I jumped back from the door, grabbing my foot and howling in pain. “The movies lied!”
Ridge tapped me on the shoulder and drew my attention to a frumpy-looking neighbor woman across the crunchy yard. She was wearing something that looked like a long, colorful housecoat, and her hair was in three-inch curlers.
“Act natural, Ace.” Ridge waved at the neighbor. My attempted break-in seemed to be attracting some unwanted attention. I was ready to try a second kick now. I still had one foot that didn’t hurt.
“She’s watching us,” said Ridge. “Maybe you should compliment her muumuu.”
“What the heck is a muumuu?” I asked.
“The outfit she’s wearing,” he said.
“Isn’t that a housecoat?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s called a muumuu.”
“I’m pretty sure you just made that word up,” I said. “Anyway, I thought you said the Universe would shield us from being noticed.”
“People can still notice us,” Ridge whispered. “The Universe just makes it so that they don’t get suspicious about magical activity. There’s nothing magical going on right now.”
“Right,” I muttered. What was the sense in breaking down the door when I could easily wish to get through? “I’m going to make a wish.”
“You don’t have to announce it every time,” Ridge replied.
I waved him off. “I wish that this door would disappear.”
The hourglass popped up on my wrist and the seconds started ticking as Ridge explained the consequence. “If you want this door to disappear,” he said, “then whenever you sit on a couch, you will instantly bounce over to the next cushion.”
“That’s weird,” I said.
Ridge shrugged. “Hey, I’m not the one making this stuff up. I think it seems pretty fair. You wish for the advantage of getting past this door. The Universe balances it with the disadvantage of not being able to sit on a couch the right way.”
“How long will this go on?” I asked.
“Until the end of the quest,” answered Ridge. “The rest of the week.”
Well, that didn’t seem too bad. “How high will I bounce?”
“Not high,” said Ridge. “Just enough to propel you onto the next cushion.”
“What if there is someone already sitting on the next cushion?” If I was going to accept this consequence, I didn’t want any surprises.
“Then you will land in their lap,” my genie answered. He pointed to my hourglass watch, where most of the sand had already slipped away. “Do you accept?”
I’ll admit, I was relieved that the payment wasn’t more severe. And, who knows, bouncing around on couch cushions might actually be kind of fun! I looked at the door, thought about my quest to save the world, and made a decision.
“Bazang.”
My hourglass watch clicked out of sight and I stood on the slanted porch, grinning. The door to Thackary Anderthon’s trailer home had vanished.
Chapter 6
I moved into the trailer, passing a ripped, overstuffed recliner, until I reached the middle of the room. There was garbage and junk scattered everywhere. The whole place was filled with an unpleasant smell. Wet dog, I think.
I glanced back at Ridge, who crinkled his nose as he stood in the open doorway. “We should get out of here,” he said in a voice so soft it was barely audible.
“Why are we whispering?” I whispered back. Have you ever noticed that when one person starts to whisper, other people join in for no apparent reason? I certainly didn’t see a reason for it. I had proven that no one was home when I knocked and kicked.
“I’m just saying, I don’t want to be here if Thackary returns,” said Ridge. “Need I remind you that the Universe said he is a very horrible kid?”
“Need I remind you that the Universe put me in charge of stopping him?” I said, picking up a towel and wiping the residual bird poop off my head. “I’d like to find out everything I can about this kid while we’re in his home. Maybe even catch him if he decides to come back here.”
If Thackary Anderthon was trying to open the Undiscovered Genie jar, then the only way I knew how to stop him was to capture him.
“Maybe I’ll wish for a really big bird cage to put him in,” I continued. “Or a human-size hamster ball. I’ll lock him up for the week and that will complete my quest.”
“That’s a good idea,” he said. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“Changing my shirt.” I had found clothes draped over the ottoman. I carefully peeled off my filthy shirt and put on the new one. It probably belonged to Thackary Anderthon, and going by the size, the kid was just a little bit smaller than me. Still, wearing the bad guy’s shirt was way better than wearing a poo-poo shirt.
“Much better,” I commented. There were a few splotches on my pants, but my head and shirt had definitely taken the brunt of the attack.
A table in the corner of the room caught my attention. It was cluttered with objects but somehow seemed more purposeful than the rest of the dirty home. A few pencils, a pad of sticky notes, a black notebook, and half a dozen maps marked with thick pen.
“Someone was planning something.” I shuffled through the maps. “A journey.”
“How can you tell?” asked Ridge, finally venturing across the room to stand by my side.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I pointed to the stuff on the table.
Ridge shrugged. “How do you know Thackary Anderthon isn’t just a map collector?”
I would have told him how absurd that was if the bathroom door hadn’t burst open at that very moment. Something darted toward us, a large gray mass of fur and snarling teeth.
It barreled into Ridge, sending him sprawling under the table with a scream. I leaped backward as the animal turned to face me.
It was a wolf.
There was an actual wolf in the Anderthons’ trailer house. Much larger than any dog I’d ever seen, it had piercing green eyes and insanely long fangs.
You’d think it might be hard to get distracted if you’re facing off with a wolf. However, something else caught my eye, entering the room. It was a girl, no more than my age, with long black hair spilling down her back. She might have looked intimidating if it weren’t for the strange way she was moving.
The girl hopped forward as though her ankles were fused together. She held her hands tucked up close to her chest, and I couldn’t help but think that she was acting like a bunny.
“Paradiddle, Vale!” the girl shouted, two words that meant absolutely nothing to me.
My attention immediately returned to the wolf, who made an almost instantaneous transformation into a redheaded girl, tackling me to the fl
oor.
From under the table, I heard Ridge shouting advice. “Wish, Ace! Wish!”
That was a wonderful suggestion from the hiding genie. But my mind was suddenly blank on how to get out of this ambush. The redheaded girl had successfully pinned my arms and was reaching one hand toward my face.
“Don’t let her cover your mouth, Ace!” More good advice from the cowering genie.
I looked up, desperate to escape my attacker. “I wish I was on the ceiling!” I shouted. Underneath me, I heard my hourglass watch click out. I couldn’t see the timer, but I knew I had less than thirty seconds to accept before the girl covered my mouth.
“If you want to be on the ceiling,” Ridge called, “then every time you open a door today, it’ll fall off its hinges.”
That sounded sort of dangerous. What if the door fell on me? Oh, well. In the moment, it seemed like the advantage of escaping to the ceiling was definitely worth the consequence of having a few doors fall apart.
“Bazang!”
The redheaded girl’s hand closed over my mouth just as the Universe granted my wish. Immediately, I was whisked upward, slamming into the ceiling as though it were the floor.
The bad news was the redheaded girl didn’t let go. Now I was in essentially the same situation I had been in on the floor. Only upside down.
I tried to shout another wish, but the feisty girl had an iron grip across my mouth, her legs wrapped tightly around me in a crushing vise.
Below me, on the floor, the girl with the black hair strode forward. She no longer hopped like a deranged bunny. Her step even seemed to have a bit of strut to it.
“Who are you?” asked the girl on the floor. I tried to answer, but I was bound and gagged by her partner.
“The genie is under the table,” said the redhead.
Like a child who’d been found in hide-and-seek, Ridge quietly crawled into sight. “Oh, hello,” he said, as though he’d just noticed their arrival.
“You’re the genie?” asked the dark-haired girl.
Ridge nodded, and my captor laughed. “I can see why you have a hard time believing it. They both seem equally incompetent.”
“Excuse me,” Ridge replied to the insult. “We are on a quest to save the world, and I’d say we’re doing a pretty good job of it so far.”
“Umm,” said the girl on the floor. “We just captured your Wishmaker.”
“True,” Ridge said, looking up at me. “Maybe the ceiling trick wasn’t such a good idea.”
I’ll admit, it wasn’t the best wish. I panicked in the moment. Don’t tell me you could have thought of something better while getting pinned by a girl who used to be a wolf.
“What are you doing here?” asked the girl below.
I burned Ridge with my gaze, trying to tell him not to speak. We didn’t need to give in to the demands of these bullies. Ridge must have interpreted my defiant expression as a cry of defeat, because he promptly told the girls everything they wanted to know.
“My name is Ridge. That’s Ace.” He pointed up at me. “We’re tracking a kid named . . .” Ridge’s eyes suddenly grew huge. He clapped his hands together. “You’re Thackary Anderthon?!”
“What?” said the dark-haired girl, her face scrunching in confusion. “No. Who’s Zackary Anderson?”
“Thackary Anderthon,” Ridge corrected. “Hmm. If you’re not Thackary, then what are you doing here?”
“Martina Gomez,” the girl introduced herself. “Call me Tina. I was led here by a wish.” She looked up at me. “I’m a Wishmaker, too.”
I raised my eyebrows, hoping I would soon have the opportunity to speak for myself.
“Who is . . . Thackary?” Tina asked.
“A bad guy,” answered Ridge. “There’s an Undiscovered Genie out there. Thackary is searching for the jar, but it’s our quest to stop him.”
Tina furrowed her eyebrows. “Undiscovered Genie?” she said. “Tell me more.”
“We don’t know more. But the genie must be special,” answered Ridge. “There’s a pretty scary consequence if we fail. The Universe is counting on us.”
“It’s counting on me, too.” Tina looked up at me and the redheaded girl who was working overtime as a human clamp. “You can let him go, Vale.”
Vale (I gathered that was her name) took her hand away from my mouth and swung down my shoulders, dropping to the floor next to her Wishmaker.
Ridge looked upward. “Are you coming down, Ace?”
I smiled tightly, attempting to jump from the ceiling. Instead of falling down, I miraculously fell up, my feet contacting the ceiling once again. “Well, I’m trying.”
Vale shook her head at my failure. I guess I’d have to wish myself down and accept another consequence.
“Hey, Ridge,” I said. “I wish I could come down from the ceiling.”
“Sorry, Ace,” answered my genie. “You can’t wish that.”
“I thought you said I could wish for whatever I want!” Of course he was contradicting himself now that we had company.
“You can’t unwish something you wished for earlier,” Ridge said. “I should have mentioned that before.”
“Yeah, you should have,” I answered. “So now I’m stuck on the ceiling for the rest of my life?”
“Just this ceiling,” Ridge replied. “Once we leave the trailer, you’ll be able to come back to the ground.”
Tina looked up at me thoughtfully. “When did you get your genie?”
“Today,” I answered. “Around lunchtime.”
“About the same time as me,” she said. “And you have him for seven days?” I nodded. Tina’s hopeful expression seemed to fall a little. “I was hoping your time might expire soon,” she said to me.
“Why would you hope that?” I asked.
“Because then I could save your life,” she answered.
“Save my life?” I said. “Didn’t you just attack me?”
“We didn’t mean you any harm,” Vale said. “We had to pin you down to get some answers. In case you were dangerous.”
“You don’t live here, then?” Tina clarified.
“No way,” I said. “This is Thackary Anderthon’s house.”
“Then he must be the ex-Wishmaker,” Tina muttered.
“Ex-Wishmaker?”
“Yeah,” said Tina, “somebody who had a genie in the past.”
I shook my head. “Wait. You think Thackary had a genie once already?” I asked.
“The wish I made,” she answered. “I wished to be led to the home of the nearest ex-Wishmaker. I ended up here, which means Thackary must have had a genie once before.”
“And now he’s going for the Undiscovered Genie so he can keep wishing,” Ridge surmised.
“But why are you looking for an ex-Wishmaker?”
“It’s my quest,” Tina replied. “I’m supposed to save the life of an ex-Wishmaker. Kind of hard to find someone if you don’t know who they are.”
“Tell me about it,” I said. At least the Universe had given me a name.
“It seems like our quests are linked together.” Ridge clapped his hands cheerfully.
I shot the genie a disapproving glance. We were trying to capture Thackary, not save his life. But Tina was nodding steadily.
“You said this Thackary kid was making plans?” she asked.
Above them all, I walked across the ceiling until I was standing over the table with the maps. I pointed down. “We think he’s planning a trip,” I said. “Must be to find the Undiscovered Genie.”
Tina looked up at me. “Then maybe we should beat him there.”
It was a good idea. If we raced Thackary to wherever he was going, we could be in position to catch him. And I could always lock him up if we got lucky enough to bump into him along the way.
I pointed down at the black notebook on the floor. It had flown out of my grasp when a wolf had suddenly appeared out of the bathroom. “Can you pass me that?” I asked.
Tina picked up the notebook and
handed it up to me. By this point, I wasn’t feeling really great. After a few minutes, hanging upside down makes your head feel like it might explode. I opened the notebook, hoping to find some quick and useful information so we could get out of the Anderthons’ trailer.
The pages were blank.
I thumbed through them twice, scanning every page for any sort of marking that might reveal Thackary’s plan. I was about to give up when I noticed a few ripped edges tucked into the spine of the notebook. I ran my finger over them, counting how many pages had been torn out.
“There are four pages missing!” I shouted.
“That’s great!” Ridge replied.
“Why is that great?” asked Tina.
“Those pages probably have Thackary’s plans written all over them,” I said.
“Or he likes to doodle,” said Vale. “And he ripped out his favorite drawings to hang in his bedroom.”
I had a feeling about those missing pages. “There has to be a way to find out.” I took a deep breath. “Ridge,” I said, “I wish to know what was written on the four missing pages of this notebook.” For clarity, I held up the notebook. Technically, I held down the notebook, since I was still standing on the ceiling.
“Oh, that’s a heavy one, I’m afraid,” Ridge said as my hourglass watch popped out. “It’ll last a year.”
“What is it?” I urged.
“If you want to know what was written on those pages”—he took a deep breath—“then every time you make eye contact with a person, their house will burn down.”
“Yikes!” I shouted. I debated it for a moment, wondering how often I actually made eye contact with people. Then I realized that being polite would turn me into an arsonist, and I simply couldn’t do it.
“I can’t accept,” I said, feeling my watch snap back into place as the deal closed.
Vale shrugged. “Probably a waste anyway.”
“I don’t think so,” I said. “If the pages were useless, why would the Universe give me such a heavy consequence?”
“Good point,” Ridge backed me up. “I think you’re onto something!”
“Now,” I said, “I should get a less-severe consequence if I only wish for one of the pages. Right?”