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

again. They get along better now than they did when they were together.”
    â€œThat happens sometimes,” Mrs. Walters said. “In some cases it’s
good
for two people to split up because they just can’t get along.”
    â€œI still wish my parents were together again,” Ella said. She looked like she might cry.
    â€œI wish I had a brother or sister,” said Isabella. “I’m an only child.”
    â€œI wish I had
no
brothers or sisters,” said Alex. “There are five kids in my family, and I’m the youngest.”
    â€œI wish I could meet my real mother and father,” said Alyssa. “I was adopted.”
    â€œI wish my mother was still alive,” Mrs. Walters said.
    It was quiet in the room. I guess everybody had some kind of unusual relationship in their family that they were thinking about. My uncle got in trouble last year, and he was in jail for a while, but I didn’t say anything about it.
    â€œThere’s no such thing as a perfect family,” Mrs. Walters told us. “How about this? Let’s all agree to be supportive and respectful of each other. And if one of us ever needs to talk to someone, we’ll be there for them.”
    â€œYeah,” we all agreed.
    â€œFor now, let’s move on,” said Mrs. Walters.

WISH #20:
I WISH FOR A PLANE TICKET TO SOUTH DAKOTA BECAUSE I WOULD BE ABLE TO SEE WILD BUFFALO AND WALK IN THE MOUNTAINS.
    â€œMe!” William jumped up and proudly claimed credit.
    â€œThey have wild buffalo in South Dakota?” asked Mrs. Walters.
    â€œI saw it in a comic book once,” William said.
    â€œYour wish is for a
plane ticket
?” said Josh. “Are you kidding me? Why don’t you wish for your own private jet? Then you can go anywhere you want, whenever you want.”
    â€œI’m sure everyone here has a special place they would like to go,” said Mrs. Walters.
    â€œI would wish for an all-expense-paid trip to Pluto,” said Christopher.
    â€œThe temperature on Pluto is minus 369 degrees,” Ava pointed out. “Your body would be frozen solid in about a second. And there’s no air, either.”
    â€œThen I would wish for a heated space suit,” Christopher said.
    â€œI wish I could go to the moon,” said Anthony.
    â€œThat would be cool,” David said.
    â€œI’ve been to the moon,” Genie Bob said. “It’s way overrated. Big bore. Nothin’ going on there. Believe me, ya don’t want to go to the moon.”
    â€œI wish there was a magical place where no one could go but me,” said Madison. “Nobody could tell me what to do. The flowers would gleam and there would be a wide open field. And pixies would fly over your head.”
    â€œPixies?” we all said.
    â€œWhy are we arguing over where we wish we could go?” said Ethan. “Why don’t we just wish for the whole class to have the power to teleport wherever we want? Like on
Star Trek
. That would be even better than a time machine.”
    â€œIf everyone in the world had that power,” said Hannah, “we wouldn’t need cars, trains, planes, or ships. We wouldn’t need to burn gas. There would be no global warming.”
    â€œAnd we would save so much
time
,” Natalie said. “Can you imagine if you could go from New York to California in seconds?”
    â€œThat would be cool,” said David.
    â€œMy mom works for an airline,” said Mia. “She would lose her job.”
    â€œ
Everyone
in the travel industry would lose their jobs,” Ella said.
    â€œMy dad is a truck driver,” said Christopher. “Would he lose his job?”
    â€œSure,” Mia said. “If we could teleport stuff, we wouldn’t need the travel industry, shipping companies, the post office, railroads, highways. It would be a different world.”
    â€œIsn’t it kind of risky for us to make a decisionthat