“I liked it better when the tire blew out,” Ridge said. “Last time we didn’t have so far to catch up.”
The four of us ran along the roadside, anxious to reach the villains and make our long-awaited capture.
We were still forty or fifty yards away when the Oldsmobile veered suddenly, using its momentum to propel itself off the road. It went crashing down a dusty embankment and continued rolling through the desert landscape until it finally came to a halt in a cloud of dust and engine smoke.
I swerved down, making a straight run for the ruined car. The passenger door flew open and the boy stepped out, his black leather jacket zipped to his chin despite the hot afternoon. The boy’s father also emerged, and when he turned, I saw that he was wearing my backpack!
The two of them left the car and took off running into the desert. Ridge and I sprinted off the road toward them, while behind us Tina and Vale were running, too.
Basically, there was a lot of running.
I didn’t know if the villainous duo had a plan. There really wasn’t anywhere for them to go. Except—
“The train!” I shouted, frantically waving my one arm as I realized their plan. Cutting across the vast landscape, the freight train had finally reached us, chugging on its westward track just a hundred yards ahead.
Thackary and his dad reached the train. Sprinting alongside it, I could tell they were trying to find a way to leap aboard, but the locomotive was simply moving too fast. The man shouted something to his son. In response, the boy reached into the pocket of his leather jacket and withdrew a glass pickle jar. He must have ordered his genie out, because his words were followed by the sudden appearance of the Polynesian girl I’d seen atop Mount Rushmore.
Seeing her Wishmaker on the move, the genie girl broke into a sprint to keep up. Thackary shouted something back to her, but I couldn’t make it out. It must not have taken long for him to accept the Universe’s consequence, because the genie promptly disappeared and the boy slipped the pickle jar back into his pocket.
Instantly, the train began to slow. For a moment, I wondered if it might come to a halt, but that wouldn’t make sense. Would you make a wish that would stop your only means of escape?
The wish must have slowed the train just enough for Thackary and his dad to catch up. Now that it was moving at a more manageable rate, the man grasped a railing at the edge of a car and managed to hoist himself up. Bracing, he reached back and clasped hands with his son. The boy stumbled on his oversized smiley-face shoes, and I held my breath, but the man flung them both backward, pulling his son to safety on the train.
“They’re getting away!” Ridge shouted. But I didn’t feel like I needed to resort to wishing yet. This was a long train, and I was determined to climb aboard before it picked up full speed again.
Leaping through the sagebrush, I saw the final train car speeding along. I planned my route, picking a diagonal path across the desert that would get me to the train before the last car passed.
The huge metal wheels were thundering on the tracks and I could barely hear Ridge calling, “We’re not going to make it!”
Tina had caught up to us, and her little lip balm jar was clutched in her hand. “Vale,” she cried, “get into the jar!” In a cloud of smoke, the redheaded girl vanished and Tina leaped onto the ladder at the very end of the train.
“We’re going to have to jump at the same time,” I said to Ridge, noticing that the train was rapidly picking up speed again. Our window of opportunity was closing.
Tina, perched on the ladder of the last railway car, reached out her hand for me. Vale had reappeared at her Wishmaker’s command. Now she was holding fast to the ladder beside Tina, leaning out and beckoning to Ridge.
“One, two,” I counted, trying to prepare Ridge so we could leap together. “Three!”
We jumped. My one and only hand grasped Tina’s and she jerked me up with as much force as she could muster. I slammed into the ladder. Unable to grip with only one arm, I dangled there, wondering how Tina managed to hold on to me.
My feet floundered underneath me for a moment, then they found the first rung of the ladder and I pushed up. Tina hauled me upward and together we spilled into the open-top railway car, an uncomfortable mound of coal beneath us.
Ridge was already there, grinning at me, Vale crouched behind him. Ridge’s hands were shaking, and his face was smeared with soot from the coal. I sighed. The train was back up to full speed, the wheels thundering along the track.
I tried to pull away from Tina, but she just lay there, holding tightly to my hand, fingers interlocked with mine.
“You can let go of my hand now,” I said.
Tina sat up, staring at me. “No, I can’t.” Before I could wonder at this sudden show of affection, she explained. “It’s a consequence, remember? Our hands are stuck together for the next five minutes.”
Well, this was going to be awkward. I only had one arm to start with. And now I was sitting in an open car of a freight train holding hands with Tina.
“We need to find Thackary,” she said, ignoring our current situation. I didn’t know what Tina planned to do with him, though. She didn’t need to save Thackary’s life until he became an ex-Wishmaker. Maybe she would help me capture him and wait until his genie time expired.
“With any luck,” said Vale, “Thackary won’t know we’ve gotten aboard. We might have the element of surprise. Let’s go.”
“Actually,” I cut in, “we’ll probably need to wait about five minutes. Tina and I . . .”
“Are you guys holding hands?” Vale asked.
I felt my face going red. “I can’t let go of him,” Tina said.
“How romantic,” Ridge replied.
“It’s not . . .” I trailed off with an annoyed grunt.
Thanks for embarrassing me, Universe.
Chapter 19
“How do we move to the front of the train?” Ridge asked, lying flat atop the load of coal. Tina and I had just released hands, after what seemed like forever. I don’t know why people would ever choose to hold hands. It got all sweaty.
Ridge raised a good question. In the movies, people leaped from train car to train car as though they were on a walk in the park. Now that I was on the back of the speeding freight train, I had a feeling it might be a little more difficult than that.
“They’re probably five cars ahead of us,” I said. “At least.” I tried to think back to where I had seen them climb aboard.
Tina lifted her head to examine the long train before us. Her black hair whipped wildly, but she didn’t seem as frightened as I might have expected. Determined. That was how Tina looked with her face to the wind.
“We should be able to make our way up,” she said. “Most of the rear cars are carrying coal like this one. If there’s a ladder between each car, then we can try to get to the front without any unnecessary wishing.”
I liked the idea of not collecting another consequence, but I was doubtful about my ability to climb forward on this speeding train with only one arm.
“Okay,” I said. “But I might need some help.”
“Don’t worry,” Ridge said, trying to suppress a smile. “I can give you a hand.”
Ha.
Tina wasted no time, crawling across the lumps of coal, with Vale falling in beside her. Ridge and I began making our way also, trying to keep our heads low so the wind wouldn’t push us back.
We reached the edge of the train car and watched as Tina and Vale maneuvered themselves onto the ladder. From there, they reached out to the next coal car, grasping its ladder and hoisting themselves into the open bed.
When Ridge and I followed, it was much scarier than it had looked while watching Tina. The track was thundering right below my feet and a single slip would be the end of me. If I fell, there wouldn’t even be enough time to spout out a wish.
Ridge helped me get across the ladders in my one-armed state, and soon we were finding a rhythm to this dangerous maneuver.
There was no sign of Thackary or his father in the first five cars. If they had climbed aboard here, they must have moved forward, too. But it was exhausting crawling across the mounds of coal and shimmying up and down ladders, and my whole body ached.
We pressed on, three more units, until we reached a new type of freight car. It was enclosed on the top, and I guessed it wasn’t hauling coal. We paused before approaching it, the four of us whipped to tatters in the wind as we knelt in the final coal car and tried to gauge what was ahead.
“There’s a hole in the top of that car,” Vale said, daring to rise higher than the rest of us.
“Does it look manmade?” Ridge asked.
“Isn’t this whole train manmade?” I pointed out.
“I was wondering if the hole looks like it’s part of the original design,” Ridge said. “Or does it look like somebody broke it open?”
“No,” said Vale. “The edges look ragged, like something ripped through the metal.”
“Thackary’s in there,” I whispered, my words swept away in the rush of wind.
“Thackary’s in there,” said Tina, in a slightly louder voice so the others could actually hear her. I felt like she kind of stole my thunder.
“We need to get inside and secure the boy’s mouth before he can make a wish,” Vale said. “The father might be a challenge, so you two keep him occupied.” That last bit was directed at me and Ridge.
“Why do we have to fight the pirate?” Ridge asked. “I’d rather take the boy.”
“And what kind of experience do you have in capturing a Wishmaker?” Vale asked.
“It’s my quest to stop him,” I said. “I thought you two were supposed to save his life.”
“I’m supposed to save an ex-Wishmaker,” Tina clarified. “We’ll have to keep him hostage until his genie time runs out. Then I can work on saving him.”
“That’s one way of doing it,” Ridge said.
“Fine. We’ll take the dad,” I said, agreeing to the original plan. I wasn’t crazy about it, either. I knew he could be dangerous in his own right, even without a genie. “But there’s something I’d better do first.”
Ridge looked at me. “What’s suddenly so important?”
“Muumuu,” I answered.
“Why are you talking about a muumuu right now?” he asked.
“It’s a word I’ve never really used, and I don’t think I’ll ever say it by accident.” I looked at him. “I’m going to use it as my trigger word.”
“Trigger for what?”
“I wish,” I began, “that every time I say the word muumuu, you will transform from your regular human form into”—I paused for dramatic effect—“a shark that swims in the air!”
I’d put a lot of thought into it, and I felt like an air shark was the right way to go. Could you have come up with anything cooler?
“Whoa!” Ridge grinned, clearly impressed by the idea. But I could tell the Universe was cooking up a good counterbalance to my wish with some sort of disadvantage. “If you want me to transform,” he said, “then every time I am in shark form, you will only be able to belly scoot.”
“Belly scoot?” I said, unfamiliar with that term.
“Yeah,” said Ridge. “You’ll have to lie on your stomach and scoot across the floor to get around. Like a baby.”
I lifted my one hand to my head in thought. If I had an air shark doing battle for me, then it wouldn’t really matter if I could barely move, right?
“Let’s do this,” I said. “Bazang.”
My hourglass watch collapsed on my wrist, and I glanced over to see if the girls were impressed by my pay-as-you-play wish.
“An air shark?” Tina asked.
I grinned. “Air shark versus wolf. Who do you think would win?”
“I don’t see why it matters,” Tina replied. “We’re on the same team.”
“I’m not talking about Ridge versus Vale,” I said. “Just hypothetically. Air shark and gray wolf. Who would be better?”
“An air shark isn’t a real thing,” Tina said.
“It is now,” I replied.
“Look, we’d better get in there,” Vale said, pointing to the boxcar before us. “And if you need help taking down Thackary’s father, I’m sure we can do it after we’ve captured the Wishmaker.”
“Thanks,” I said, a second before realizing that she was mocking us by doubting our ability to take down the man. “We’ll be just fine.” I was feeling overly confident now that I could turn my genie into a shark.
“Here we go.” Tina dropped over the edge of the coal car and swung to the ladder on the rear of the boxcar. In a moment, all four of us were across, perched a short distance away from the hole in the roof.
Tina and Vale shared a quick glance, their faces flushed from the afternoon heat. Then Tina muttered, “Paradiddle,” and Vale became the giant gray wolf, her fur matted in the strong wind.
Wolf Vale leaped forward, disappearing as she fell through the hole in the roof of the boxcar. Tina crawl hopped the short distance, grasped the rough metal edge, and dropped out of sight.
I looked at Ridge, a smirk of awesomeness spreading across my face at what we were about to do. “Muumuu!” I shouted.
Instantly, my genie transformed into a huge silvery shark. He turned to me, grinning with his frightening mouth, double rows of razor-sharp teeth flashing in the sunlight.
Then, without feet or hands for traction, my new shark went sliding backward across the roof of the boxcar, fins flailing.
I tensed, but even if I had wanted to jump up, I wouldn’t have been able to. My stomach felt glued to the metal roof, and my only means of moving was by dragging myself forward with my single arm.
I quickly realized that Ridge was about to snap our tether, which would fling me off the train to my doom. “Swim!” I screamed. Hadn’t I wished that the shark would be able to swim in the air?
“It’s not that easy!” Ridge replied, his speech slurred and his shark mouth looking very odd as he formed words. “I’m a fish out of water!” He bounced across the coal in the car behind me.
“Use your fins!” I coached, wondering how absurd we must have looked.
A boy, lying on his stomach atop a speeding freight train, giving swimming lessons to a talking shark. Does it get any weirder than that?
I estimated about forty-one and a half feet of distance between us when Ridge finally figured out what his tail was for. Suddenly, he lifted into the air, swimming with purpose, though not yet with grace.
“That’s it!” I called. “Now let’s get in there!” I used my one arm to point to the hole in the boxcar. Ridge sped forward, fighting hard to match, and then beat, the speed of the freight train. After what seemed like ages, he had positioned his shark body directly above the hole.
I was slithering forward as quickly as I could, and I watched the air shark prepare for the dive into the boxcar. His tail tipped up, his conical nose angled downward, and he plunged into the hole. There was only one problem.
Shark Ridge was bigger than the hole in the roof.
He got wedged, just past his front fins. His tail thrashed back and forth in a hopeless attempt to dislodge himself. I put my face into my single palm and shook my head.
So much for our grand debut.
Seeing that there was only one possible way to free my genie shark, I shouted, “Muumuu,” and watched him transform back into the skinny boy I knew, at the same time falling through the opening into the boxcar.
My consequence ended and I was able to rise to my knees, crawling the remaining distance and swinging down through the hole.
I nearly landed on top of Ridge, causing both of us to fall flat. As quickly as I could, I jumped to my feet, scanning the area and preparing for the worst.
There was plenty of open space in the boxcar and daylight angled down through the jagged opening in the roof. Tina was standing with her back to the wall. Vale (now returned to human form) knelt on the floor of the boxca
r beside a single prisoner. I recognized his slick blond hair, black leather jacket, and oversize shoes.
We had captured Thackary Anderthon.
Chapter 20
Seeing the boy as Vale’s prisoner gave me a swell of victory, but Ridge and I had the assignment of taking down the pirate-talking man. I raised my single hand as though I knew karate, and spun in a rapid circle, scanning all four corners for the man we despised.
“His dad’s not here,” Tina said.
I relaxed my ninja stance as Ridge took a step closer to the girls. “In case you guys happened to miss that,” he said, a smile on his face, “I was a shark. An actual shark.” He nodded. “Pretty cool.”
“It would have been cooler if you’d fit through the hole in the roof,” I muttered, turning back to our prisoner.
Now that my eyes had adjusted to the dim light of the car, I noticed something new about him. The boy had grown a full beard since I’d seen him on Mount Rushmore. I wondered what wish he had made to give him this new distinguished look.
“Where’s your dad?” I demanded. I didn’t like the idea of that cruel man out on his own.
“He’s not going to answer right now,” Vale said, tying off a strip of cloth around Thackary’s mouth. His wrists were already tied together in front of him.
“Where’s his genie?” I asked, knowing that she had to be close by.
“Right here,” said Tina, holding up a glass pickle jar. “Shut away for now.”
I felt much more confident knowing that Thackary was unable to access his genie. I stared down at the boy who the Universe had described as a very bad person. “It’s over, Thackary,” I said.
He made a sequence of grunts and groans, but nothing was intelligible with the gag in his mouth.
I grinned at Tina. “One step closer to completing my quest,” I said. “Now we’ve just got to keep him locked up for . . .” I did the math. “About four more days.”
The boy made some more sounds in an attempt to talk, but we weren’t going to take such a foolish risk with a dangerous Wishmaker like him, even if Tina was holding his genie in a jar.
The Wishmakers Page 10