Dreamer, Wisher, Liar

by Charise Mericle Harper

  After we made the cookie dough, Claire and I picked out a bunch of stuff to use for the surprises. I even found some lollipops. Now we could do exactly what Shue and Ashley had done, only ours would be cookie-cycles. At first, making the surprise part was kind of hard—there’s not much room in a cookie to hide anything. But after a few tries we figured out how to make it work. We made the cookies larger, and put two together with the surprise part in the middle—like a filling. Most of Claire’s surprises had to do with chocolate. I was going to have to be careful when it was time to eat. Chocolate was not a surprise I wanted to bite into.

  We made a lot of cookies, but my favorite was the one I made for Lucy. Even though she’d only mentioned one new friend in her letters, I knew she must have more. Why wouldn’t she? Everyone loved her. She was a little like Claire—superfriendly, without the unpredictable and crazy part.

  Lucy’s cookie was a lot bigger than any of the other cookies. I started with a big circle of dough and then put all of Lucy’s favorite stuff on top—peanut butter chips, marshmallows, M&M’s, and chocolate chips. After that I took six lollipops, unwrapped them, and arranged them around the edge of the circle with their handles sticking out, and covered it all with another circle of dough. When it came out of the oven, I wasn’t so sure what I thought of it, but after decorating it with icing, I was happy. The lollipop handles sticking out made it look like some kind of strange, exotic flower.

  When Mom got home, she came straight into the kitchen. She was probably following her nose—the house smelled delicious.

  Claire pointed to the cookies. “They’re surprise cookies!”

  Mom stopped moving and gasped. “How did you think of that?”

  She looked at me, but I shrugged; I couldn’t tell her. Mom’s favorites were the ones with the lollipops in them—the cookie-cycles. What’s not to like about a cookie on a stick? Claire was too excited to keep any secrets, so before Mom even had a chance to pick out a cookie to eat, Claire told her what all the fillings were. So much for the surprise part. When Mom saw Lucy’s cookie she went and got her camera. I took that as a good sign.

  Before I went upstairs for the night, I looked up some new color names on the computer. I didn’t want to give up on my can-you-hear-me? tests, but it was getting harder and harder to think of words. Plus it was wasting wish time—me trying to think of a color, when I should have been paying attention to what was happening. It didn’t take long; after only a few minutes, I had a list. I wrote them down in my notebook, and because I wanted to be extra prepared, I picked out a test word for the next wish—fuchsia cow.

  It was nice to be excited about the Have Mercy, Percy book. I’d never had so many different feelings with a book—loving it, being annoyed by it, almost hating it, and finally loving it again. Was it on purpose? Did everyone who read it feel this way? Or was it just me? I was going to have to ask Peter about it. It would be something good to talk about, after the way we’d walked out of there today.

  chapter thirty

  Lucky

  I brought my notebook down to breakfast with me again. I felt a little guilty about tricking Mom, but having it work was worth it.

  As soon as I put the notebook on the table, Mom said, “Claire, after breakfast you and I are going to run some errands.”

  Claire put her head down and looked mopey. She’d been with us for only a little while, but already she knew the truth—running errands with Mom was not fun. Mom tried to make it sound exciting, but the only thing that helped was when she threw a thrift store into the mix as a reward—Claire couldn’t resist a thrift store.

  While Claire and Mom were getting ready to go, I went down to the basement. I still wasn’t used to it—me being downstairs alone, and Mom being okay with it. Claire was doing some kind of dance routine, and it seemed like it was purposely right over my head—thump, thump, thump. There was no way I could do the wishes until they were gone—it was too distracting. I grabbed the notebook and wrote down some fake notes. It was probably good to have a few pages filled, just in case—even stupid-sounding notes were better than nothing. A blank book would be hard to explain. Finally the thumping stopped, and I heard the back door slam. They were gone. And then a minute later I was too.

  I Wish Every Summer Would Be Like This

  Ashley and Shue were lying on a roof. They were just outside a window. I peeked in—it was Ashley’s room. The moon was full and the stars were out, just like it’d been for me on the trampoline. I smiled. I knew how they felt. The girls were quiet, not talking, looking up at the sky. I started to say my test word but stopped myself. Fuchsia cow was wrong; even whispered it seemed loud and garish. I ran through my list of colors for something better. It seemed silly, but it mattered; I would remember it. My memories of this wish would last forever.

  The minute I thought of it, I knew it was perfect: lavender seal. It was beautiful and mysterious. I whispered the words and moved toward the girls.

  Shue sat up and turned toward Ashley. “I got us something.”

  Ashley sat up. “I hope it’s food—I’m starving.”

  Shue shook her head. “Sorry, no food. This is better.” She held her hands out in front of Ashley, each one a closed fist. “Pick one.”

  Ashley thought for a moment and pointed to the left one. Shue opened them both. Each hand was holding the exact same thing—a silver necklace with a silver half-circle pendant.

  Ashley gasped. “Really? For me? I can have it?”

  Shue handed Ashley the necklace, and they put them on. I was waiting for Shue to say something cheesy about the half circles being like halves of the full moon, but she didn’t. And Ashley didn’t either. They just sat in silence, looking up at the stars, smiling.

  When I got home, I was smiling too. I picked out another wish and read it, happy to be going back.

  I Wish I Was Going to High School

  Ashley and Shue were walking on the sidewalk. It was a busy street, much busier than the other streets we’d been on. It caught me by surprise, so instead of shouting my test word, I said it quietly.

  “Amber crow.”

  Just like before, the cars were big and old-fashioned. The girls crossed the street, walked down the block, and stopped in front of a small grocery store.

  “How much do you have?” asked Ashley.

  Shue put her hand into her pocket and pulled out a handful of coins. She counted them and said, “Thirty-six cents.”

  Ashley dumped her coins into Shue’s hand. “Twenty-four cents.”

  Shue counted up the coins. “That’s sixty cents total. So we get thirty cents each.”

  Ashley motioned toward the store. She looked nervous. “We should figure out what we’re getting before we go in.”

  Shue nodded. She looked around to make sure no one else could hear her and then whispered, “They’re kind of mean in there.”

  From the outside the store looked like a regular market, but when we got inside, I could see that I’d been wrong. The whole front of the store was filled with candy. As soon as the girls walked in, a woman rushed forward from the back of the store.

  “What do you want?” she barked.

  Shue was right—she was mean.

  Shue pointed to some orange candy in a jar. “Four of those, please.” The woman dropped the candy into a little brown paper bag; she neither smiled nor frowned—she was expressionless. Shue gave the lady the rest of her order, and when she was done, the woman shook the little bag and said, “Thirty cents!” Shue handed her the money. As soon as Ashley’s order was done, the girls left the store.

  They walked about halfway down the block and stopped. Shue reached into her bag, found an orange sour, and popped it into her mouth. She shook her head. “That lady makes me nervous.”

  Ashley nodded. She took a bite of red licorice. “Do you know what else I’m nervous about?” She didn’t wait for Shue to answer. “High school.” It was a nice segue.

  Shue sucked loudly on her candy.

>   “What part?” she asked.

  Ashley thought for a minute, twirling the licorice around her fingers. “Well, the friends part I guess. What if there’s no one there I like?” She paused and then added, “I wish you were going too.”

  Shue was probably wishing the exact same thing.

  When the fade-out happened, I was ready for it. The zap was short and fast, but being ready made a difference. The surprise zaps were totally different; they were bad.

  I squeezed the arms of the chair and winced. It was over quickly, and the mild tingling in my arms and legs only lasted for a moment. I shook out my limbs.

  Everything was quiet upstairs—Mom and Claire were still out. I sat down and picked up the jar. Should I do another wish? What if I picked out a really bad one? Would the pain be worse? I picked out a wish. I could put it down—not open it. But that was only in theory, because the truth was, once it was in my hands, there was no going back. I looked down and read it.

  I Hope We Never Get Caught

  As soon as I saw the Dumpster, I smiled. This was exactly what I’d wanted and been hoping for—another Anderson’s wish. The girls were over by the Dumpster, but for now I ignored them. Instead I looked around, taking in the scenery, in case there was something here that I’d need later. We were in the parking lot next to the Dumpster; Anderson’s was in front of us. There were buildings to the left, and a row of apartments to the right—everything looked the same as before. After one final scan, I shouted out my test words, olive snake, and walked toward Shue.

  She looked especially grumpy.

  “It’s empty again,” she complained.

  She was wearing her special sweatshirt—the one for Dumpster diving. She pulled it off and tied it around her waist.

  “We could do the rocks again,” said Ashley. She pointed to the back of the building. The man’s boots were there, like last time.

  Shue shook her head. “That’s boring. We already did that.”

  Ashley nodded. They shuffled their feet in the gravel and wandered off in opposite directions around the Dumpster. I followed Shue. She looped wide and walked by the apartment buildings. Suddenly she stopped. She was staring at something. I followed her gaze over the gravel parking lot and up three small steps, to the back door of one of the apartments. There were shoes in a row on each side of the door. I knew what was next—lots and lots of rocks. She turned and ran quickly back toward Ashley.

  “There’s a bunch of shoes over there,” she whispered. She pointed to the apartments.

  Ashley bent down and picked up a handful of stones.

  Shue shook her head. “No, let’s do something different.”

  I followed the girls back toward the apartments. Now that we were closer, I could see the shoes; they were mostly men’s shoes except for one bright red pair of women’s pumps. Shue motioned for Ashley to wait. I followed Shue as she crept up to the door. I didn’t like this idea. What if someone suddenly opened the door and caught her? Shue picked up the two red shoes and waved them at Ashley, and then she was gone, sprinting toward Anderson’s. I raced to keep up with her. I was right behind her. A few seconds of work and then she was done. She’d stuffed the red shoes inside the man’s boots. I had only one thought—the man was going to be mad.

  Ashley must have been thinking the same thing, because she said, “Let’s get out of here. We can watch from my window.”

  Moments later we were running, and we didn’t stop until we were safely in Ashley’s room.

  We watched for fifteen minutes before anything happened. Ashley was the first to notice something. She squealed; it reminded me of Claire. I’d never heard her do that before.

  “Outside the apartment,” cried Ashley. “Look! It’s the lady. She’s looking for her shoes.”

  Shue shook her head. “She’s never going to find them. We should have made an arrow, or left a clue.” She looked disappointed.

  Suddenly the door to Anderson’s opened, and a man stepped out.

  “It’s him!” whispered Ashley. She ducked behind the curtain. It was the same man as before.

  He looked around the parking lot, leaned forward, and tossed a box into the Dumpster. A minute later he was yelling and waving one of the red shoes around. I was glad we were watching from far away: he was kind of scary. Suddenly he threw the shoe into the Dumpster. We all gasped. I looked over at the lady; she was watching him. He grabbed his boot, turned it over to make sure there weren’t any stones in it, and pulled it on. The other red shoe was in his hand; he pulled his arm back to throw it in the Dumpster but suddenly noticed the lady. She was waving and yelling at him.

  Shue leaned back and turned to Ashley. “This is amazing.”

  Ashley nodded and smiled. “I know. Do you think he thinks she did it?”

  Shue shook her head. “No, I’m pretty sure he knows it was us.”

  The man pulled on his other boot, and he and the lady walked toward each other across the parking lot—the lady more slowly since she had bare feet. When they met, the man handed her the shoe. Now they were talking.

  “I wish we could hear them,” complained Shue. She leaned forward, but it wasn’t going to help; the window was closed, and the man and the lady were speaking quietly.

  Suddenly they were laughing. The man ran back to the Dumpster and climbed in. He came out with the shoe and walked it back to the lady. They laughed some more.

  Ashley smiled. “I think she likes him. Maybe they’ll fall in love and live happily ever after.” She moved away from the window and twirled in a circle.

  Shue was watching her. “Does happily ever after really happen?”

  Ashley shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe, but probably only if you’re lucky.”

  I wanted to stay longer, but I was fading away. It was time to go back. I braced for a shock, just to be safe, but I wasn’t expecting one. This was a good wish. A second later I was back in the chair with only a dull tingle in my arms and legs. I’d been right. I should have been smiling, but I was too tired. My brain felt foggy. I closed my eyes and sat back in the chair, and only woke up when I heard the door slam. Mom and Claire were home.

  Mom opened the basement door and called down to me.

  “Ash, are you down there?”

  I heard footsteps on the stairs. I jumped up, quickly hid the jar, and ran to the bottom of the stairs.

  Mom was halfway down. She was holding up a small plastic bag. “Can you put these in the laundry?”

  I held up my hands, and caught the bag.

  “Claire picked some things out at the thrift store. There’s something in there for you, too. So just dump it all in the washer and don’t look. She wants it to be a surprise.”

  I walked over to the washing machine, put in the soap, emptied the bag, and closed the lid. Mom didn’t have to worry about me peeking; I wasn’t even tempted. I could wait. I was happy to wait. Whatever it was, I probably wasn’t going to like it. I’d have to fake being excited and happy. I just hoped it wasn’t something with a crying clown on it; I was pretty sure I couldn’t fake being happy about that.

  chapter thirty-one

  Missing

  While we waited for the laundry to be done, I stood outside and watched Claire practice riding her bike. Just watching her made me smile. I liked that I had helped her learn something, and now she could do it all by herself. Maybe that was how teachers felt? Though it was hard to imagine they got the same feeling from helping some kid learn the six-times tables.

  She was getting better at riding and now only wobbled when she stopped. I would have liked to stay outside all afternoon and avoid the thrift store gift, but Claire had a good sense of time. I don’t know how she did it, but she stopped practicing right when the laundry was done. When we walked into the house, Mom was just coming up the stairs from the basement. She smiled and handed Claire a brown paper bag. I didn’t even have time to wonder about it, because Claire squealed, shook it in front of my face, and shoved it into my hands.

&nbs
p; “Open it!” She bounced up and down. “You’re going to love it. It’s great!” And then she got serious—“We washed it, so don’t worry about it being dirty.”

  I had no idea what to expect. I wasn’t good at stuff like this—surprises, being put on the spot, the unexpected. But there was no avoiding it or stalling. I opened the bag and pulled out a T-shirt and a pen.

  Claire pointed to the shirt. “Read the front!” She could hardly contain herself.

  I turned the shirt over and read what was printed on the front: BE CASH LUCKY. I didn’t get it. What was great about that? I looked again; maybe I’d missed something. The word “Be” was on top of a white oval starburst shape. CASH LUCKY was inside the starburst, and colored red, so that it stood out. Under all that, in smaller letters, was a swirly logo that said LOTTO 98. I got it, the shirt was advertising the lottery of 1998—but what I didn’t get was why Claire thought I’d like it. It was an old shirt, and she was wrong, I didn’t love it. Claire was staring at me, waiting for a reaction. Why would I want this? I tried to smile, but it was harder than I thought it would be—the best I could do was a sneer.

  Claire laughed. “You don’t get it, do you.” She leaned forward and grabbed the pen off the table.

  I watched as she crossed out two letters on the shirt—the C in cash, and the K in lucky. Suddenly I got it. It was amazing! Now I was smiling for real. With the C and the K crossed off, the shirt said ASH LUCY. I loved it! How had she found this?

  I held up the shirt. “How did you notice this?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know—as soon as I saw it, I figured it out.”

  I shook my head. It was hard to believe. It was so cool. Suddenly I knew exactly when I was going to wear it—it was perfect for my first day of camp, and Lucy was going to love it. Thinking about Lucy made me miss her, but I counted out the days in my head—only seven left. It was exactly one week from today. I walked over to Claire and hugged her. It was a thank-you for the shirt, but also for making the weeks go by fast. I’d be seeing Lucy in no time.