I shake my head and read another wish, and it is a doozy! Wren Sinclair, who’s older than me, wished for a million cats. What was she thinking? A million cats mean a million cat poops every single day! I pinch my nose and read the next wish.
Great balls of flame-breath! Ashley Wyatt wished for a dragon. Doesn’t she know dragons are a fire hazard? A dragon could burn down her house with one sneeze! Or scorch her best friend!
Jefferson Winthrop wished it was always summer. Now he’ll never get to go sledding or make snow angels! Carlotta Gomez wished she were in a TV show. Now she’s probably trapped inside her TV. And Tony Smalls, who lives on my street, wished he would never have to go to bed again. He’ll probably turn into a zombie.
That’s when I know that every wish has an upside and a downside. “Posey, I never thought I’d say this: We need to ruin everyone’s wishes.”
Posey salutes me, probably because I sound like General Crazypants. He quickly chants more magic words and claps. POOF! We disappear again.
Turn It DOWN
This time we land on our feet next to the wishing well. And wouldn’t you know, another girl is there too, with a coin in her hand. She’s making a wish.
“WAIT!” we shout. But it’s too late. The girl tosses her coin into the well.
PLINK! It splashes into the water. Immediately the girl begins to glow. Then ZAP! There’s a flash of bright light and now the girl looks totally different. She’s wearing a mask, a navy cape, and a pink costume.
She stands with her fists on her hips and announces, “It worked! I’m a superhero!”
Then she pumps her fist and flies away into the sky.
I turn to Posey. “You have to stop this wishing well! Can’t you just pull out that stone you put back?”
“If I knew which stone it was.” Posey pats around the side of the well. Then he stops and says, “Hmm . . . I can’t stop the wishes, but maybe I can dampen them.”
Lily frowns. “Does that mean I have to eat damp chocolate?”
Posey rolls his eyes. “No, dampen as in lessen. Wishing wells have a switch to control the strength of the wishes. We can turn down the strength like turning down the volume on loud music. For Lily, it would put a limit on what she turns into chocolate. For Jasmine, it might make her a teenager instead of a grown-up.”
Jasmine and Lily give a thumbs-up to Posey’s idea. Then we all help look for the switch.
Unfortunately, wishing-well switches are not easy to find. We get on our hands and knees and begin to uproot the overgrown weeds and vines. Posey pulls a vine with roots that go on forever. We all grab hold of it and pull until we uncover a rusty metal plate on the side of the well.
“That’s it!” Posey cries.
Hmm, I bet that switch has not been used in a hundred years.
“Do you think it still works?” I ask.
“There’s only one way to find out,” says Posey. He flips the switch, and WHOOSH! Something definitely happens.
Oops!
Posey hops to his feet and dusts off his hands. Then he smiles and says, “That should do the trick!”
I gasp and point to Lily and Jasmine. “It did the trick, all right—in the opposite direction! You supercharged the wishes!”
Posey yelps. “Oh no! Jasmine, you’re an old lady!”
Jasmine grabs a lock of her curly hair and screams. “It’s GRAY!”
Whoa, one of my best friends now looks like she’s my grandma Upsy’s age!
“Posey, you turned the volume UP instead of DOWN!” I shout.
That’s when we notice that everything around us is going crazy.
John Gates, the boy who wished he could fly, is headed for outer space!
Wren Sinclair, the girl who wished for a million cats, is being chased by millions and trillions of cats. Oh meow, oh my!
Then that awful Carol Rattinger, who wished she could talk to animals, runs by and hides behind me. “Help me, Daisy! It’s the squirrels! They know I can understand them, and now they won’t leave me alone!”
Suddenly I look up, and we are surrounded by hundreds of squirrels in the trees and on the ground. And they are all squeak-chattering at Carol.
She screams back at them, “For the last time, I don’t have any nuts!”
Here’s the thing about squirrels: They are not good listeners. They keep squirrel-talking to Carol nonstop. With another shriek, Carol darts back into the park, and all the squirrels chase after her. On a regular day this might be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. But not today.
“Ugh. I don’t feel so good,” Lily says, and boy, does she sound sick.
I swing around to see Lily standing as still as a statue . . . a chocolate statue! Everything from her neck down has turned into delicious chocolate! I sure hope those hungry squirrels don’t come back!
Now I have to do something, so I run to the well and grab the control switch.
And guess what that old rusty switch does? It breaks off in my hand. Oops. I hold the switch up in the air to show the others, as if to say, Okay, we’re officially cursed for all time.
During all the hoopla, Grandma Jasmine shuffles over and picks up the wish list. “I think I might have a solution.”
I wish, I think, and I freak out at my choice of words. Then I relax a tiny bit because Jasmine’s voice sounds as calming as Upsy’s. I hope she’s as wise as Upsy too. “So, what’s your idea?”
Old Jasmine chews on her wrinkly bottom lip. “I have to warn you, Daisy. You may not like it.”
I raise my eyebrows. How could I
