Free The Christmas Genie by Dan Gutman, Dan Santat

she never gave birth to him, and he didn’t really exist anymore.”
    â€œThat makes no sense at all,” said Logan.
    â€œBut Natalie makes a good point,” said Mrs. Walters. “If you traveled back in time, you would have to be very careful. Because anything you do in the past could change everything that happens after that point in time.”
    â€œI’d make sure not to kill my mom,” Alex said.
    â€œBut what if you were walking down the street and you happened to kick a seed with your foot,” said Natalie, “and years later that seed grew into a tall tree. And the tall tree got struck by lightning and fell on a house. And it just happened to be, say, Thomas Edison’s childhood home. And he was killed when the tree crashed into his bedroom. And he never grew up to invent the lightbulb. We would be sitting here in the dark right now. And it would be
your
fault because you kicked that little seed.”
    â€œYou have a sick mind,” said Logan.
    â€œLogan!” said Mrs. Walters. “I guess the moral to the story,” said Alex, “is not to kick seeds.”
    â€œIf I was going to wish for a machine it wouldn’t be a time machine,” said Christopher. “I’d wish for a machine that did my homework for me automatically.”
    â€œThat would be cool,” said David.
    â€œI’m not sure I would approve of that,” Mrs. Walters said.
    â€œWhy not just wish that we didn’t
have
homework in the first place?” asked Ella. “Then you wouldn’t need a machine to do it for you.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with homework?” asked Madison. “Doing homework is how we learn things.”
    Everybody turned around and looked at Madison. Obviously, she had lost her mind.
    â€œIf I was going to wish for a machine,” said Natalie, “I would wish for a pencil that allows you to draw things that become real as you need them. Like, you could draw a picture of a house, and then a real house that looks just like it would appear in front of you.”
    â€œIf I was going to wish for a machine,” said Abigail, “I would wish for a machine that turns dirt into gold. Then I’d make a fortune.”
    â€œIf you could turn dirt into gold, gold would become worth nothing because there would be so much of it,” claimed Mia. “Gold is valuable because it’s rare.”
    â€œYeah,” said Alex, “but if you turned dirt into gold and the gold was worth nothing, you could make a fortune selling dirt.”
    â€œWhy don’t we just wish for a magical machine that can do
anything
we want it to do?” suggested Natalie.
    â€œHow about just going with my original idea?” said Ethan. “A time machine.”
    â€œSpeaking of time,” said Genie Bob, “you only have ten minutes left. Looks like you’re going to miss your Christmas vacation.”
    â€œLet’s hurry,” said Mrs. Walters. “We need to get through everyone’s wishes.”

WISH #18:
I WISH I HAD SUPERPOWERS.
    â€œYeah!” a bunch of us exclaimed.
    â€œMine,” claimed Josh, raising his hand.
    â€œSorry, dude, but you need to be more specific,” Genie Bob told Josh. “If ya simply tell me you want superpowers, I might give you the power to eat a ton of broccoli, or the power to lick your own elbow, which, by the way, is impossible for humans.”
    Genie Bob licked his elbow. We all tried to lick ours. He was right. Impossible.
    â€œOkay,” Josh said, thinking it over. “I need to pick one superpower? That’s a no-brainer. I wish I could fly. Like, on a flying carpet. I wish I could jump up to the sky and stay there and relax on the clouds.”
    â€œThat would be cool,” said David.
    â€œYeah!” we all agreed. Of all the superpowers, nothing could possibly be better than flying.
    â€œBig mistake,” Genie Bob told us. “Believe