The terrified children clung to each other as the Tyrannosaurus charged towards them.
‘Goodbye, Ruby!’ Todd sobbed. ‘It was nice knowing you!’
Chapter 17
There was a sudden, loud whirring noise.
‘Yee ha!’ shouted a familiar voice.
Granny stood on top of the compost bin, the garden hose spinning above her head like a giant lasso. She let go and the loop sailed over the washing line, landing neatly around the Tyrannosaurus’s neck.
The dinosaur jerked backwards. It wobbled to the left. It wobbled to the right.
‘Timber!’ cried Granny, as it toppled to the ground with an almighty crash.
The Tyrannosaurus’s eyes flashed red. Its legs pedalled furiously in the air. It snarled and snapped its mighty jaws, but it was no use. Lying on its back, the world’s most fearsome carnivore was as helpless as a cockroach.
‘Granny!’ Ruby and Todd scrambled to their feet and ran into Granny’s arms.
Keeping well out of reach of the dinosaur’s snapping jaws, Ruby, Todd and Granny pushed the red button on the dinosaur’s belly with all of their might.
At once, its red eyes faded to black. Its legs stopped moving. Jellybean’s Tyrannosaurus was back to being a harmless toy, albeit a giant one.
‘Holy donuts!’ puffed Todd.
‘Quadruple phew!’ Ruby panted. She gazed admiringly at Granny, who still held one end of the garden-hose lasso in her hand.
‘I didn’t know you could do that!’
‘I was National Lasso Champion in my youth,’ Granny told them proudly. ‘Four times over, in fact! I’ve got medals to—achoo!’
Something popped out of Granny’s nose and landed in the dirt.
‘Eww!’ Ruby pulled a face. ‘A mouldy strawberry!’
‘Well, that’s what happens when your youngest grandchild decides to hide you in the compost bin!’ Granny picked a potato peel out of her hair. ‘A heavy one at that! If our prehistoric friend here hadn’t knocked it over, I’d have been in there all week!’
Ruby and Todd looked sheepish. Neither of them had thought to look inside the compost bin.
‘On the upside, I did meet a rather interesting worm!’ Granny winked. ‘But enough chitchat. We had better get a wriggle on. Your mother will be home from work soon and it seems you have some cleaning up to do!’
Ruby and Todd looked miserably at the garden. It was in a terrible state. Dad’s vegetable patch was completely destroyed. The lawn was in tatters and so was the shed. Jellybean was still gigantic and there was a gaping hole in the side of the house where the Tyrannosaurus’s head had been. Ruby very much doubted her mother would be pleased if a dinosaur toy of this size was left lying around the house.
‘But, Granny—’ Ruby’s voice wobbled like a lassoed Tyrannosaurus ‘—I can’t fix any of it!’
Chapter 18
Ruby told Granny how her wishes had come early, and how Jellybean had hidden them all over the garden.
‘They’ve been impossible to find!’ added Todd.
Granny chuckled. ‘Perhaps you two need more practice!’ She opened her palm where three small circles of yellow light quivered softly.
‘Luckily, I wasn’t the only thing Jellybean decided to hide in the compost bin.’
Granny pressed the wishes into Ruby’s hand. Immediately, Ruby’s fingers began to buzz and hum and tickle and wriggle. Her heart swelled as she remembered the very first time her fingertips had tingled with magic.
Ruby closed her eyes and pressed her fingers tightly together.
‘I wish this Tyrannosaurus was just a small toy again!’
Jellybean’s toy dinosaur lay at her feet.
Todd bent down to pick it up. He prised open the battery compartment and pulled out the batteries.
‘Just in case!’ He grinned, slipping them into his pocket.
Ruby laughed. She pressed her fingers together again.
‘I wish Jellybean was back to his normal size!’
When Ruby opened her eyes Jellybean was toddling towards them, pulling Dad by the hand.
Dad smiled weakly, then noticing the state of his vegetable garden, slumped into a heap at Ruby’s feet.
‘I wish the whole house and garden were back to normal!’ Ruby blew on the tips of her fingers with all of her might.
In a blink, Dad’s vegetable garden was lush and healthy again. The sandpit was filled to the brim with toys and sand. The lawn was perfectly manicured. The shed was back where it had always been. On the washing line, a pair of Granny’s knickers fluttered in the breeze. There was no trace of the giant hole the Tyrannosaurus had made in the side of the house.
‘There, there!’ Granny patted Dad gently on the cheek. ‘Sleepwalking again, George?’
Dad opened one eye. He sat up and looked around with a puzzled expression that quickly turned to relief. As the colour crept back into his face, he jabbered about giant toddlers and terrifying Tyrannosauruses.
‘Goodness gracious!’ Granny winked at Ruby. ‘I can see where young Ruby gets her wild imagination from!’
‘B-b-but it was r-r-r-eal!’ Dad babbled.
‘What a frightful dream,’ tutted Granny. ‘Come along, George dear. How about a nice cup of tea and a biscuit!’
As Granny led Dad towards the house, Jellybean rubbed his eyes and yawned.
Ruby scooped him up and held him close. She was glad her little brother was back to his normal self—warm, soft and smelling ever so slightly of strawberry jam and chocolate biscuits.
As Jellybean rested his head of soft caramel curls on her shoulder, Ruby realised he wasn’t sucking his thumb. In fact, he hadn’t had his fingers in his mouth all afternoon.
It seemed that Jellybean’s powers had finally worn off—for now. But Ruby knew that, like hers, his magic would return. You never quite knew when, but it always did.
Jellybean is growing up to be quite an extraordinary boy, thought Ruby.
But that was hardly surprising. He was a Wishfingers, after all.
Chapter 19
Ruby and Todd sat under the apple tree, drinking ice-cold lemonade.
Jellybean was busy pushing gumnuts into his Tyrannosaurus’s mouth.
‘The worm used one wish,’ Ruby began, counting on her fingers. ‘Mrs Cottesloe used another, then Jellybean wished to be big and the Tyrannosaurus wished to be real …’
‘And you used the three wishes Granny found,’ Todd reminded her, chewing on his straw.
‘That’s seven!’ Ruby leapt to her feet. ‘Todd! There are still four wishes missing!’
‘They’ve probably blown away by now,’ Todd said, grimly.
‘But what if they haven’t?’
Todd glanced nervously at the sandpit, where the tail of a plastic shark stuck up out of the sand.
‘Then we had better find them! Before someone or something else does!’
Just then, Mum’s car pulled into the driveway.
Jellybean toddled across the lawn. Granny and Dad, refreshed by tea and biscuits, also strolled down to greet her.
Mum got slowly out of the car. Her shoulders were slumped.
‘We didn’t win.’ She sighed, bending down to pick up Jellybean.
‘Win what?’ asked Ruby, Todd, Granny and Dad all at once.
‘The holiday!’
‘Ish! Ish!’ Jellybean pointed.
A wish had landed in Mum’s hair.
‘Oh I do wish we had won! The whole family could have done with a nice holiday!’ Mum sighed again. ‘But no good comes from wishing, does it?’
Ruby and Todd looked at each other and grinned.
As Mum headed inside with Jellybean, her mobile phone rang.
A moment later, her stunned face reappeared in the doorway.
‘We won!’ Mum
whispered faintly.
‘Won what?’ asked Dad.
Ruby and Todd tried not to giggle.
‘The holiday, of course!’ Mum passed Jellybean to Granny and steadied herself against the doorway.
Dad looked bewildered. ‘I thought you just said we didn’t win?’
‘The winning ticket wasn’t valid!’ Mum squealed. ‘They had a redraw and two tickets were stuck together! One ticket was ours and the other one was—’
Before Mum could finish, a car came tearing down the street and into the Wishfingers’s driveway. A door flew open and Aunt May leapt out.
‘We won! We won!’ she shrieked, grabbing Mum by the hands and dancing about in circles.
‘Would you believe it, our tickets were stuck together!’ Uncle Max shook his head in disbelief.
A slow smile spread across Ruby’s face.
‘Sticky fingers!’ she cried, suddenly. ‘Jellybean had strawberry jam for breakfast this morning! That’s why the tickets were stuck together!’
‘Well, it’s three cheers for strawberry jam!’ Dad laughed.
‘Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!’ everyone shouted.
‘A holiday for all of us!’ Mum dabbed the corners of her eyes. ‘How simply extraordinary!’
‘It’s a wish come true!’ Granny agreed.
‘It’s … it’s … it’s …’ Dad stuttered.
‘What is it, George?’ Mum beamed. ‘Spit it out!’
‘It’s … m-m-m-magic!’ cried Dad. Then he swept Mum off her feet and waltzed her around the garden.
Ruby could hardly believe it.
Neither of her parents had ever believed in anything extraordinary before.
But now, her mother had just made a wish—and her father believed in magic!
Ruby looked up at Granny and smiled. ‘Perhaps there’s a little bit of magic in all of us.’
Granny kissed her granddaughter on the cheek and squeezed her tight, ‘Ruby May Wishfingers, I think you could be right!’
Post Script
‘Coming, ready or not!’
Ruby and Todd uncovered their eyes and looked around the garden.
A tuft of grey hair stuck out from behind the eucalypt tree.
‘Found you, Granny!’ Ruby yelled.
Todd grinned. ‘We’re getting better at this!’
As they set off to search for Jellybean, Ruby kept an eye out for any small circles of soft yellow light. There were still two wishes missing, after all.
A few days ago, she had found a stray wish underneath an upturned flowerpot and wished those worms back to normal. She felt a bit sorry for them, but at least now that the skies were no longer filled with hundreds of terrified magpies, the airport had been able to open again.
‘Come on, everyone!’ Dad called, struggling down the steps with an enormous suitcase. ‘We’ve got a plane to catch!’
Ruby looked desperately at Granny.
‘We can’t go on holidays without Jellybean!’
Ruby, Todd and Granny looked here, there and everywhere—but there was no sign of Jellybean at all.
Then, Ruby spotted one of her little brother’s shoes wriggling underneath Granny’s caravan.
‘Found you, Jellybean!’ She laughed, crouching down beside him.
‘Kitty,’ Jellybean whispered, pointing.
Ruby squinted underneath the caravan and gasped.
A pair of yellow-green eyes narrowed at her, while a pair of blue-grey eyes blinked. Then Ruby noticed five more pairs of eyes. They looked just like Jupiter’s—only smaller.
‘Granny!’ Ruby shouted excitedly. ‘Jupiter’s back! He’s got a girlfriend! And kittens!’
‘Well I never!’ breathed Granny.
‘Oh, mind your own business!’ Jupiter growled.
It seemed that love wasn’t the only thing Jupiter had found.
His voice had well and truly returned, which meant that another of Ruby’s wishes was gone.
It also meant that there was now just one wish still missing.
As the Wishfingers’s car pulled out of the driveway, Mrs Cottesloe and Henry waved them off, promising to take good care of the cats and their kittens until the family returned from their holiday.
Even though Ruby’s fingers were now as cool and calm as cucumbers, her whole body tingled with excitement.
Her very first plane ride, a family holiday overseas and a whole litter of kittens to look forward to when she got back!
What could be more magical than that?
But as she waved goodbye to her ordinary street, and headed towards the edges of her ordinary town, Ruby couldn’t help but wonder just what would become of her eleventh missing wish.
Cast of Characters
Ruby Wishfingers – A curious eleven-year-old with the power to wish for whatever she wants.
Norman – Ruby’s pet goldfish.
Skydancer – Ruby’s cuddly toy unicorn.
Mrs Wishfingers – Ruby’s mother.
Mr Wishfingers (George) – Ruby’s father.
Granny Wishfingers – Ruby’s beloved confidante.
Great, Great, Great, Great-Grandfather Wishfingers – A distant relative and magician.
Jupiter – Granny’s ‘Maine Coon’ cat.
Mrs Cottesloe – Ruby’s next-door neighbour.
Henry – Mrs Cottesloe’s gardener and friend.
Jellybean Wishfingers – Ruby’s one-and-a-half-year-old brother.
Aunt May – Ruby’s aunt (Todd’s mother).
Uncle Max – Ruby’s uncle (Todd’s father).
Cousin Todd – Ruby’s cousin.
Mr Wilson – Ruby’s teacher.
Meet Deborah Kelly
Deborah Kelly writes picture books, short stories, chapter books and educational material for children. Her published books include The Bouncing Ball, Jam for Nana and Dinosaur Disco (Random House) and Sam’s Great Invention and Don’t Sweat It (Macmillan Education). Me and You (Penguin Viking) and The Chalk Rainbow (EK Books) are due out in 2017. She has also contributed short stories to Random House’s Stories for Boys and Stories for Girls collections. Ruby Wishfingers is her first chapter book series for children. It began in 2016 with Ruby Wishfingers: Skydancer’s Escape and Ruby Wishfingers: Toad-ally Magic.
http://www.rubywishfingers.com.au
Deborah is an engaging speaker who regularly visits schools, libraries and festival events to share her books and talk about writing.
For more information please visit her website:
http://www.deborahkelly.com.au
Meet Leigh Hedstrom
Leigh is a self-employed illustrator based on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast with over 15 years of experience across a wide range of media for numerous clients.
Leigh immigrated to Australia shortly after completing High School in Cape Town. In Sydney she completed a diploma in Fine Arts but it was her love of creating expressive, engaging characters that informed her career choice to become an Illustrator.
When not at the drawing desk, Leigh loves to spend time with her husband Ben and her most animated creation of all – her son James.
Ruby Wishfingers 4:
King of the Castle
Ruby is back, with twelve new wishes!
And one missing wish from last spring that is still floating about in the garden somewhere…
But if there’s one thing more extraordinary than being able to wish for whatever you want, it’s having a mischievous two-year-old brother with magical powers of his own.
Ruby is wasting her new wishes trying to keep Jellybean out of mischief until she discovers the perfect way to make Jellybean do exactly what she says. But Cousin Todd isn’t so keen on doing what Ruby says.
When Todd stumbles across Ruby’s missing wish he de
cides to teach her a lesson about being bossy, and make a few rules of his own.
Meet Australia’s new king and explore a country where school, homework, manners and peas are all banned. Discover monster trucks, giant jumping castles, furious principals and hungry crocodiles along with plenty of laughs in an all new Ruby Wishfingers adventure.
Hide and Seek Page 4