Eden's Wish

by M. Tara Crowl

  “I knew there was something strange about Ms. Bola!” Sasha shook her head. “She was no normal teacher.”

  “And I knew I heard someone following us yesterday,” Tyler said triumphantly. He smacked Sasha’s arm. “See?”

  “So there are two factions of genie alumni after you,” Sasha said. “And each side wants something different, but neither of those is what you want.”

  “Basically,” Eden said dismally. She’d broken it down quite well.

  Sasha pulled out her phone to look at the text message again. “But how could Bola have messaged me?” she wondered. “Why would she have my number?”

  “Who knows?” Eden said. “These alumni are tricky.”

  “Crap!” Sasha’s eyes got big as she noticed something on her phone. She jumped up and brushed off her shorts. “I’m going to be late!”

  “For what? You already missed practice,” Tyler said.

  “I’m babysitting at five!”

  “Sash, this is important. Can’t you call them and cancel?”

  “Not on my first day! I don’t want to lose this job.”

  “Well, be careful.”

  Sasha rolled her eyes.

  “I’m serious. Don’t talk to strangers.”

  “Especially beautiful women wearing gold cuff bracelets,” Eden added.

  “Right, right. Okay. I’ll see you guys later, at home.” The softening afternoon light framed Sasha’s silhouette as she left.

  “See this guy?” Tyler pointed out a tall teenager with a buzz cut. “He’s really good.” The guy jumped above his board, and it spun quickly beneath his sneakers in a full revolution before they hit it again.

  “Can you do that?” Eden asked.

  “A three-sixty flip? I wish.”

  “Hey, be careful with that word.”

  “Shoot, that’s right.” He gave her that crooked-tooth smile she was starting to know so well. “So as long as I follow those rules you told us, I really do get two more wishes?”

  “Yeah.” Eden’s heart was heavy. She’d fought so hard to stay on Earth, but now he was sure to use the wishes in no time. Returning to the lamp was certainly a better option than sacrificing her masters’ lives…but she was going to miss this place—and these mortals.

  “Once I make them…do you have to go back?”

  “That’s how it works. I won’t have a choice.”

  He nodded thoughtfully, then shook his bangs off his forehead. “Hey, let’s go somewhere.”

  “Where?”

  “Are you up for an adventure?”

  She grinned. “Always.”

  Tyler led her down a tree-lined path. Most of the mortals on it were jogging, wearing sneakers and sunglasses. Some of them ran behind dogs attached to leashes they held in their hands. Eden observed them as they passed, and told Tyler the breed of each. The varieties of plants and trees she saw were easy to identify too. She loved seeing things she’d learned about in the pages of textbooks. She could even smell and touch them if she liked.

  “I have to ask,” Tyler said. “Does being a genie automatically make you a genius?”

  “It’s just that we use more of the space in our brains. And I have a really, really good teacher.”

  “No kidding. You know everything.”

  “Not everything.”

  “What’s the longest river in Asia?”

  “The Yangtze.”

  “What’s thirty-two times one hundred and forty-five?”

  “Four thousand, six hundred and forty.”

  “What kind of bush is that?” He pointed at a plant with clusters of long, spiky green and brown leaves.

  “A Mojave yucca,” she answered. “Yucca schidigera.”

  Eyebrows raised, he nodded. “So how does it feel?”

  “How does what feel?”

  “To be the smartest person I’ve ever met.”

  She had to laugh.

  “Possibly the smartest person in San Diego.”

  “Ooh! One second.” She’d spotted her first California white oak, and she wanted to feel its bark. When she did, she found herself face-to-face with a fascinating creature.

  “Hello!” she greeted it.

  It turned its head this way and that. It was roughly the size of a shoe, and it clung to the tree trunk with four tiny claws. It twitched its furry tail.

  “You’re a squirrel!” She could have sworn it nodded. “I didn’t know you’d be so charming!”

  “Possibly the smartest,” Tyler said from behind her, “and probably the weirdest.”

  Eden turned to him. “These things are wonderful!”

  “I wonder if I was ever this excited about trees and squirrels.”

  “How could you not be? They’re incredible!”

  “Kind of like what we think about living in a lamp,” Tyler said. “And traveling the world to grant wishes.”

  Eden supposed it was the same. Maybe whatever wasn’t normal to you seemed amazing. Did that mean she’d daydream about being a genie if she’d been born a mortal?

  No way, she thought. She could never get tired of Earth.

  “I’d switch places with you in a second,” she said as they walked.

  “Me?” He shook his bangs off his forehead. “I’m just an ordinary kid in California. There are millions of others like me. But you—you’re one of a kind. Your whole life is magical.”

  “Your world is full of magic too,” she said. “You’ll never run out of places and things to explore!”

  “I guess.” Tyler shrugged. “If I can ever get to them. All I see is San Diego. I know it’s beautiful, and I love living near the beach, but when you’ve been here your whole life, it gets kind of boring, you know?” He paused for a moment. “And I wouldn’t mind trying somewhere new, to get away from bad memories here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If you stick around long enough, you’ll see. Sure, the world is amazing, but most of us are stuck with what we’ve got. Life can be really hard, you know? People hurt each other, lie, take advantage of each other. Bad things happen when you aren’t expecting them.”

  What he was saying sounded a lot like Xavier’s warnings. But just when she was about to argue—

  “Duck,” he said.

  “Huh?”

  He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to the ground.

  “What—”

  “Ssshhhh.” He put his finger to his lips, then pointed through the bush in front of them. The sleek black car from the school parking lot was driving by very slowly. Eden held her breath. The windows were rolled down. Bola was leaning out of the back, scanning this way and that like a sentry on watch. In the seat beside her were Tabitha and Nala. Noel was driving, and Ivy sat in the passenger seat.

  They were scoping the area. They’d probably comb the whole city for her.

  Eden and Tyler stayed down for a while after the car had passed. When she finally looked away from the street, he was staring at her.

  “This is serious,” he said.

  She shrugged uncomfortably.

  “You really don’t want to go back, do you?” Tyler asked.

  “Well…no.”

  A man jogging by with headphones in his ears almost ran into them, then nearly lost his balance as he veered away. He turned back and glared.

  Tyler held out a hand to Eden. “We should be clear. I bet they won’t come back this way.” She took it, and he helped her stand up. “We’re almost there anyway,” he said.

  A few minutes later, they reached the mysterious structures she’d seen looming in Mission Beach’s backdrop, including the roller coaster.

  “Here we are!” he announced.

  She blinked. “We’re going here?”

  “You wanted an adventure, right?”

  The park was even stranger and more amazing than she could have imagined. She sprinted from one mechanism to another. On one of them, four mortals strapped themselves into seats and were lifted a hundred feet for a high-s
peed drop to the ground. Another had cups spinning wildly on a platform while the platform itself spun and tilted. And of course, there was the sprawling centerpiece: the roller coaster.

  Each mechanism was more dazzling than the last. But it was odd. Mortals were smiling when they stepped out of the little cars or the attendants unstrapped them from their seats. By all appearances, they were elated. But while they were on the mechanisms, their screams rose and fell like ocean waves.

  “Why do they do it?” Eden asked Tyler. They’d come to a stop in front of a foreboding structure a sign identified as the Octotron.

  “Do what?”

  “Put themselves on the mechanisms. If they’re afraid, why do they do it?”

  “Mechanisms?” Tyler tossed his bangs out of his eyes. “You mean rides.”

  “Rides,” Eden said. It seemed like a strange word for them. “They seem afraid. Why do they get on?”

  Tyler thought about that for a minute. “For a thrill, I guess,” he said. “They have safety belts and brakes. They’re not really scared.”

  “But if they didn’t have safety belts and brakes, they could die.”

  “That’s probably true,” he said. “So where should we start?”

  It was on the first drop of the roller coaster that Eden understood. The car’s creaky climb had brought them higher and higher above the pavement, the sand, and the vast rippling ocean. But as it tipped over the edge, she felt the rush of wind in her face and her heart soared. She screamed her head off just like a mortal.

  As they plummeted down one of the drops, Eden took her hands off the rail and raised them in the air. “Smile!” Tyler yelled as a light flashed in front of them.

  When they got off, he showed her what the flash had been: a camera. A station showed images of the roller coaster cars, captured as they whizzed by. Theirs showed their hands in the air and pure bliss on their faces. Freedom, Eden thought. Tyler bought two copies and gave one to Eden.

  Next they tried the Vertical Plunge. On this one, a harness strapped their torsos in, but their legs swung free. As the seat rose, the mortals below them grew smaller and smaller, until they looked no bigger than ants. Finally Tyler and Eden stopped at the top and lingered for a painstaking moment. At the very instant when the suspense became too much to bear, they dropped. The sensation was unreal.

  After that they rode the bumper cars, which was almost—but not quite—as turbulent as riding in Sylvana’s convertible. Gleefully they crashed and collided with other mortals’ cars.

  But the roller coaster was Eden’s favorite. They rode it three more times, and each was better than the last. When they stepped off after the fourth time, she wondered if the feeling of motion would ever leave her. She sort of hoped it wouldn’t.

  She couldn’t stop smiling as they strolled down the path.

  “I have a question,” Tyler said.

  “Go ahead.”

  He cleared his throat. “These other two things I have. You know what I mean. I don’t want to say it.”

  She swallowed. “Yeah, I know.”

  “I was thinking. What if I used one to ask if you can stay here forever?”

  It felt like a thousand seeds planted inside her brain were growing and blossoming into flowers all at once. She thought she might faint with happiness.

  “What do you think?” he said. “Can we do it?”

  How badly she wanted to say yes! But the truth tugged at her like an anchor. “I don’t think so,” she said reluctantly. “I’m bound to the lamp.”

  Disappointment darkened his face—but he wasn’t quite ready to give up yet. “Can’t we try?”

  What was the worst that could happen? She’d had wishes denied before. And even though her head knew it was impossible, in her heart was a shimmer of hope.

  She took a breath. “Go ahead,” she said. “But word it carefully. Wish for forever.”

  A scream whipped past them as a roller coaster car zoomed by. He took a step toward her. Amidst the roaring rides, they were the park’s still, quiet nucleus.

  Her heart pounded as he drew close.

  “I wish Eden could stay on Earth forever. No longer a genie, but a regular girl.”

  The sound of his words made her shiver. For one delicious, drawn-out moment more she savored the sweet possibility.

  But then she knew she couldn’t do it.

  She yearned to snap her fingers and grant the wish that would set her free. But granting wishes was what she knew best, and as soon as Tyler said it she knew for sure it was ungrantable.

  In order for a wish to be granted, the wisher, the genie, and the lamp had to be in accord. On this one, Eden and Tyler were alone. The lamp wasn’t going to budge.

  Sadly, painfully, she shook her head.

  “I keep striking out on these wishes.” He studied the ground, then looked at her again. “But I don’t want you to go back.”

  Her heart hummed with feeling. “You don’t?”

  “No.” His eyes remained locked on hers. “So I’m not going to let it happen.”

  Eden had traveled to twelve countries. She’d lived like a princess, been pampered and indulged, and seen wonders most mortals would never see. But she’d never known anything as wonderful as the way those words made her feel.

  “But how?” she asked him.

  “We’ll hide you.”

  “Where?”

  “With us. I’ll tell Dad…um…” He thought for a moment. “I know. I’ll tell him you’re a foreign exchange student, and you need a host home. He won’t mind.”

  “But your wishes. Don’t you want them?”

  He shook his head. “Eventually I’ll make the second one. It’ll be the world’s greatest wish. It’s got to be, because it’ll be my last.”

  Euphoria was pumping through her veins. “You’re sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “There’s something else, though. If the Loyals see I really won’t make the request for reentry, they may try to pressure you into making the other wishes.”

  “They’ll only be wasting their time,” he said. “You’re not going anywhere.” He held up a closed fist with the last finger extended. “I pinky swear,” he said. He took her hand, folded her fingers the same way, and entwined her pinky with his own. Then he kissed where his thumb met his forefinger, and nodded for her to do the same.

  “Pinky swear,” said Eden, feeling dizzy.

  “But for now”—he smiled—“one more time on the roller coaster?”

  She grinned. “Yes.”

  As long as she was here, she’d ride it as many times as she could.

  That night at a quiet bistro in downtown San Diego, nine disgruntled genie alumni convened around a back table.

  They were finishing a decadent meal. There had been fresh oysters to start, then entrées ranging from lamb to lobster. Bola had ordered the catch of the day, a local halibut served with capers and cauliflower mash. Several bottles of expensive wine sat in ice buckets next to the table.

  The restaurant’s décor reminded Bola of the lamp’s interior, which was, perhaps, why she liked it so much. The lighting was dim, with candles on each table, and the maroon wallpaper was patterned with gold.

  Tonight was the first time in history that so many loyal alumni had gathered in one place—and yet, the mood was far from celebratory. Circumstances were dire.

  In addition to the Loyals who’d been at the school in the afternoon, three others had joined them. Cadence, who’d preceded Eden as resident genie, had come from her villa in Spain. Alessandra had flown in from Moscow. And Scarlett, who preferred a simple life, had driven a station wagon from her ranch in Iowa.

  Of course, the alum who looked most out of place at the table was Genevieve. Having wished to spend forever in a twelve-year-old girl’s body, she often got strange looks when she was with the others. But in this case, her unusual final wish had made her invaluable.

  “Who else is coming to San Diego?” Alessandra asked.

  �
��Bianca and Karla arrive tomorrow morning,” Bola said.

  “What about Barbara Jean?” Scarlett asked.

  Bola scowled.

  “She’s Electric,” Noel snapped.

  “No way! When did she cross over?”

  “At least a hundred years ago.” Noel shot Scarlett a look that Bola was sure had struck many a chord in the courtroom. “You’d be wise to try to stay up-to-date on matters of the lamp.”

  “Sorry.” Scarlett scowled.

  “It is hard to keep up these days,” said Tabitha. Of all the Loyals, she was the nicest—always trying to smooth things over. After more than two thousand years on Earth, nice wasn’t Bola’s priority. Especially tonight. They were here to save the lamp.

  “How many of…them…do we think are here?” Cadence asked haltingly. As the youngest alum, she regarded Bola with reverence—and, perhaps, a touch of fear.

  “Sylvana, obviously,” said Bola. “Genevieve was in the classroom with Eden when she checked her out of school. It sounds like she claimed she was her mother.” Genevieve nodded.

  “If she’s here, surely there are others,” Nala said. “She’s got them all at her beck and call.”

  Indeed, Sylvana had amassed a disconcerting number of alumni over the past 250 years. She’d formed Electra in 1757. Among mortals, it was known as one of Earth’s top auction houses, along with the likes of Sotheby’s and Christie’s. However, the alumni around the table knew that its operations were essentially a front for its true goal: to procure the lamp—and, more importantly, its powers.

  Centuries earlier, when rumors had first swirled that Sylvana was on a mission to seize the lamp, most alumni had laughed it off. Even for her, the world was big. Eager mortals made their wishes in a flash, so the lamp generally disappeared soon after it was found. For her to get her hands on it would be nearly impossible.

  But then she’d started acquiring associates, who came to be known as the Electric. The first to go was Athena, the very first genie who’d resided in the lamp. Next was Violet. Then Kingsley, Monroe, and many others. All in all, fifteen that Bola knew of—about half the alumni on Earth. Sylvana’s contingent had become a force to be reckoned with.