Free The Christmas Genie by Dan Gutman, Dan Santat Page A

me,
everybody
wishes they could fly. I get that wish
all
the time. But ya know what happened the last time somebody wished they could fly? The poor guy crashed into a plate glass window and landed on a fence. Believe me, ya don’t want to wish that on anybody. Things are dangerous enough as it is without the sky being filled with flying people.”
    â€œHow about superstrength?” suggested Abigail. “Then I could crush a piece of coal in my bare hands like Superman and turn it into a diamond.”
    â€œWhy not just wish for a box full of diamonds?” said Ella. “Avoid the middleman.”
    â€œIs that all people care about?” asked Hannah. “Money? Diamonds? Buying things?”
    â€œI would rather have X-ray vision,” suggested Matthew. “Then I could see through walls.”
    â€œI never understood the big attraction of seeing through walls,” said Alex. “You can just walk through the door and see what’s on the other side of the wall with your
regular
vision.”
    â€œI would wish for superhearing,” suggested Ashley. “Then I could hear what people are whispering about me.”
    â€œYou would also pick up every conversation people are having miles away,” said Mia. “You’d hear every bird chirp, every door creak, every time somebody sneezed. You wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. Superhearing would probably drive you insane.”
    â€œI wish that I had the power to communicate with ghosts,” said Anthony, “and to bring dead people back to life.”
    â€œThat’s just weird,” Alyssa said, “and creepy.”
    I guess the wheels were turning in our heads, because everybody started suggesting superpowers they wish they had. Kids wished theycould be invisible, invulnerable, or able to read minds. Jacob wished he could run really fast so he would be the greatest athlete in the world. Olivia loves to swim, and she said she wished she could breathe underwater. Andrew wished he could control the weather. Isabella wished she could create clones of herself and morph them into animals. Alex wished he had heat vision so he could toast marshmallows at any time. And me, well, I wished I could walk up walls like Spider-Man.
    â€œMan, you kids are greedy!” Genie Bob said, “I hate to rain on your parade, but this ain’t no grocery store. You don’t come to me with a list and pick stuff off the shelves. You get one superpower, and that’s all.”
    â€œYou know, for a genie, you’re really not all that nice,” said Sophia.
    â€œYeah, go ahead and complain,” Genie Bob said. “Maybe the
next
time a meteorite crashes into your class and a genie pops out, he’ll be nicer than I am.”
    â€œThere’s no need to get snippy about it,” said Mrs. Walters as she pulled the next index card out of her jar.

WISH #19:
I WISH MY PARENTS WOULD GET BACK TOGETHER.
    When Mrs. Walters read that card, nobody jumped up to say it was theirs. We were all looking at each other nervously. Then, finally, Ella raised her hand in the back corner of the room.
    â€œI didn’t know we were going to say out loud who made each wish,” Ella said. “I would have chosen another one.”
    â€œThat’s okay, Ella,” Mrs. Walters said. “Howmany of you have a family in which Mom and Dad are no longer together?”
    About ten kids raised their hand. So did Mrs. Walters.
    â€œAt least I’m not the only one,” Ella said. “My parents just got separated a few weeks ago.”
    â€œI’m so sorry, Ella,” Mrs. Walters said. “I know how difficult that can be. My parents split up when I was about your age.”
    â€œMy parents split up
twice
,” said Andrew. “First my dad left after my folks weren’t getting along. Then they went through counseling and he moved back home. But then they got along even worse and he moved out