Free Wish by Joseph Monninger

pushed open the gate. Music crashed out at us and we saw people collected in the early-afternoon light. The backyard appeared bright and dry, and it took me a second to notice that someone had built a wooden half-pipe as long as the house. An old picnic table stood next to a small patio that led into the kitchen. Two teenage boys sat on the picnic table watching a third roll down the slope of the half-pipe. The boy on the half-pipe wore a helmet.
    The boys on the table looked up when we stepped through the gate. The skateboarder rolled back and forth, the wheels changing pitch depending on how fast he shot down the sides.
    “Does Ty Barry live here?” Tommy asked, but the boyssquinted and tightened their faces to say they hadn’t heard him.
    “Ty Barry?” I called, loud enough for them to hear over the music.
    Before they could answer, another guy, older than the three with skateboards but still in his twenties, stepped out of the kitchen. He was tall and lean and tan and barefooted. He had long wavy hair clipped back in a ponytail. He couldn’t have been more of a surfer-dude type. A tattoo of a sailing ship covered part of his upper arm and shoulder.
    “Ty?” Tommy asked.
    “You got me,” Ty Barry said. “And you must be Tommy from New Hampshire.”
    Ty walked over and held out his hand. He and Tommy did a sort of abbreviated soul-shake that surprised me because I didn’t know Tommy had ever tried one before. I shook hands afterward. Ty smiled. He had white, white teeth and smooth skin.
    “Let me turn down the music,” Ty shouted so that we could hear. “That’s my brother, Little Brew, on the half-pipe. He’s sixteen.”
    Ty waved at the three boys, signaling that he was cutting the music. Then he trotted into the kitchen and a second later the music went down to a realistic level. Little Brew jumped off his board and let it roll up the slope withouthim. When he pulled off his helmet, my stomach did a small roll. He was jaw-droppingly handsome, with brown eyes and hair down past his ears. He had perfect shoulders, wide and muscled, and his forearms moved when he motioned with his hands. If he knew he was amazingly gorgeous, he didn’t act it. He smiled. He couldn’t have bought a better smile. It was natural and friendly. The sun had turned his hair dirty blond and his skin was the color of apple butter. For a second I stared at him, not quite believing that such a boy existed outside of movies. I couldn’t move.
    “You the guys from New Hampshire?” he asked, coming over to shake hands. “The sharkies?”
    He did the soul-shake thing with Tommy. They finished with a minor chest bump. Then he nodded at me.
    “I’m just along for the ride,” I said, my throat tight. “I’m Tommy’s sister, Bee.”
    Little Brew looked at me for the longest time. I didn’t know what else to say, if anything. Tommy saved me.
    “I study great whites,” Tommy said, looking first at me, then at Little Brew. “Just as an amateur.”
    “Well, dudes,” Little Brew said, “say hello to my peeps. This is Frankie and Kobie.”
    We shook hands. Frankie and Kobie both had boards and Kobie climbed up to start his own routine. He did some tricks that I recognized from films I’d seen on MTV,but I didn’t know what they were called. He zipped back and forth, nearly reaching the top on some moves and hanging there as though he wanted to use the board to plane the edges of the ramp. I didn’t dare look sideways at Little Brew for fear of doing something obviously dorky.
    “You like boarding?” Little Brew asked finally. “You guys can sit down, you know? Sit here and watch.”
    “Thanks,” Tommy said.
    We moved over to the picnic table, and I helped Tommy off with his backpack. Meanwhile Ty Barry returned from inside carrying a surfboard. Tommy stood up as soon as he saw it. He
knew
. When Ty slid the board onto the table, Tommy nodded.
    A perfect circle of teeth marks covered the midsection.
    “Unbelievable,”