Be a Genie in Six Easy Steps (19 page)

T
he words stood out boldly on the page, in ink as black as the depths of space.

“We've passed?” Jess breathed. “But…but that means we're…”

“Genies!” Michael whispered.

The four of them looked at each other in shock.

“Really?” said Milly, her hands flying to her mouth. “We're really proper genies?”

Vega shook her head. “Not quite.”

“What do you mean?” asked Jason.

“The book says that you have passed,” said Sabik. “Which means that you can
become
genies, should you wish it.”

“Well, of course we do!” Michael said impatiently.

“Yeah,” said Milly, “we want to be able to do proper magic.”

“Magic that doesn't fade at sunset,” Jess added.

“You may do all that in time.” Sabik smiled, his dark
eyes glittering. “But first you must leave the human world behind.”

His words were like a cold wind gusting into the shop.

Jess's skin prickled with goose bumps. “What…what do you mean?”

“Before you can become full genies, we must know if humans make worthy vessels for such knowledge,” Vega explained. “And so we must take you from this world to the Genie Realm.”

“Well…how long would we be away for?” Jess asked.

“Not long,” Sabik told her. “You all show great promise. Perhaps…two or three hundred years?”

There was a long silence.

“But humans don't even live that long!” Jason protested.

“
You
would,” said Vega.

Michael glowered at Sabik and Vega. “You genies really have a laugh, don't you? With all your loopholes and your tricks…What it boils down to is that after all we've been through, after all the effort we've put into passing all the different steps, unless we go off and live in Genie Land with you we get
nothing
!”

“I didn't know this, children, I promise,” Skribble murmured. “I am so sorry.”

“You baffle me, infants,” said Vega. “Did you not tell the book that your heart's desire was to become genies?”

“Skribble made us say that,” Jess said. “But our hearts' desire was really to get back to London.”

Sabik looked at her shrewdly. “Was it indeed?”

“I see.” Vega's eyes glinted. “Are we to understand that you are rejecting our invitation to travel to the Genie Realm?”

Michael nodded. “We can't go.”

“We don't want to,” said Milly more firmly.

“I couldn't leave Mum and Mark,” said Jason. “I just couldn't.”

“None of us could,” Jess affirmed.

Sabik's face darkened. “You deny yourselves the glory we could give you?”

“Please don't be angry with them,” Skribble begged the genies. “These children are only human. They have small minds, but such big hearts…. Let them be, great Sabik. Please, merciful Vega, let them be!” The words spilled out of him. “It is I who have led the children astray. It was my folly—if anyone must be punished, let it be me, not them!”

“So…” Sabik surveyed the bookworm coldly. “Humility and compassion at last, Skribbaleum?”

Skribble hung his head miserably.

“Very well, so be it.” Sabik brushed his hands briskly together. “If the human infants choose to reject the chance we are offering them, then we accept it.” He turned back to the children. “You have found
The Genie Handbook
and brought our search to an end. According to custom, you must be given something in exchange. If you will not accept a privileged place in the Genie Realm, then we shall grant you one wish.”

“One each?” Michael asked hopefully.

“One to share,” said Vega. “Use it wisely.”

“Then…we could do it,” Jess realized, looking at Michael, Milly, and Jason. “Put things back. Go to London, have our old lives again. We could make the wish and have what we've always wanted.”

For a long moment they all just looked at each other.

“Oh, Jess…” cried Milly, breaking the silence first. “I'm sorry, but I don't think I
do
want it anymore! I don't care if we can't do magic; I don't care if I don't get any more wishes. I'll try to be neater and not mess up our room, and not to annoy you so much, but I…” She shrugged. “I like it here in Moreways Meet. I want to go riding with Emily and to drama club and…and I want us all to live together like we do now.”

“Know what?” Michael suddenly crossed to his sister and put his arm around her. “I don't want to go either.”

Jess and Jason looked at him in astonishment.

Michael shrugged. “This place has grown on me, okay? So my mobile might not have a signal here, but I can always ask for a different phone for my birthday. Karate was cool last night. School's not bad and…” He looked away, his cheeks flushing slightly. “Well, I guess I'm with Mil. It's good, us all living in one place.”

“Yeah,” said Jason, going over to Michael and hugging him. “It makes you, like, a proper brother.”

“Steady on, mate,” said Michael. “Not in front of the genies!”

“I don't want to go back either, Jess.” Jason turned to his sister. “I'm sorry.”

Jess looked toward the shopwindow and out at the gray morning.

“Jess?” asked Milly.

“I did have my heart set on getting back to London….” Jess spoke quietly and her eyes were far away. “I wanted to go back to our old lives so much. But after everything that's happened this last week…I guess it doesn't seem so important now.”

“So, you don't want to go back either?” said Milly.

Jess took a deep breath. “No. London's not going anywhere. I'll go back one day. But in the meantime…” A grin broke out on her face. “I want to stay here!”

Milly gasped in relief and ran to hug her. Jason hugged her too. She pulled away and looked at Michael, suddenly uncertain.

“Oh, come here, you,” said Michael. He grabbed Jess and swung her around. She squealed, sounding very much like Milly for a moment.

“Ow!” Skribble gasped loudly.

Everyone looked at him—and saw that the book was starting to shake.

“What's happening, Skribble?” Milly asked anxiously. “Is the book about to say something?”

“I don't think so!” Skribble gasped as silver and purple sparks began flying across the book's pages. He had to duck and dodge and dance to avoid them. “It's more than that! It's…
Oh!
” he gasped as the sparks zoomed together and formed lines of bright light in the air above the book. Then they began to swirl like a mini tornado. With a cry, Skribble was sucked out of the book and started floating helplessly up into the whirling haze of light.

“Skribble!” Milly shouted.

“Keep back!” gasped the bookworm.

The pages of the book below him turned and thrashed like an animal in pain. Faster and faster the blaze of light swirled until Skribble's body could barely be seen in its center.

“What's happening?” cried Jess.

Skribble's only answer was a heartrending scream.

Milly flung herself onto her knees as the light grew blindingly bright. “Stop it!” she begged Vega. “Whatever you're doing, stop it, please! He's been punished enough—save him before it's too late!”

A
smile flickered across Vega's face. “No, child. This is the way it must be.”

Michael could just see the little worm's wide eyes through the swirling magic. “But what's happening to him?”

“What he has craved for almost two thousand years,” Vega said softly. She moved closer to the blaze of light. It grew bigger and bigger, swirling up to the ceiling, and in the center of it, Milly and the others saw Skribble's shape begin to change. They caught the impression of a tall, thin man with a high forehead, the jutting twirls of an impressive moustache.

“What's going on?” Jess breathed.

“His magic is being restored,” Sabik announced. “It would seem he has fulfilled the terms of his punishment.”

“But how?” said Milly.

“He has helped all of you achieve your
true
heart's desires,” Sabik said simply as the vortex of light grew wider and brighter still.

“But he didn't do any magic,” said Michael, transfixed. “We didn't even make a wish.”

“You did not need to,” Vega told him. “The terms of Skribble's punishment stated that he would regain his powers if he helped a worthy subject
achieve
his heart's desire—and that he has done….”

“I don't get it,” said Michael.

“I do,” said Jason slowly. “Our real hearts' desire wasn't to be genies or to go back to London. We just wanted to be happy, and we thought that those things would
make
us happy.”

Milly looked up at Jess. “But now we're happier here in Moreways Meet, aren't we?”

Jess smiled. “So long as we have less frozen pizza, I guess so!”

“Keep this up and you two are gonna make me puke,” Michael complained, but he was smiling as he said it.

“Whether great or small, true magic comes from within,” said Vega. “Although his intentions were not noble, Skribble has helped you recognize what it is that you truly want.”

“To make a go of being a proper family,” Jess declared. “Wherever we happen to be living.”

As she spoke, the light began to unravel from around Skribble. There was a silver flash and a puff of smoke and
Skribble was once again a bookworm.

He flopped onto the page, exhausted.

“I thought he was supposed to be a genie now,” said Milly.

“Fear not,” Vega told them. “Skribbaleum's powers have been fully restored—but he must remain in this body until he regains strength enough to revert to his true genie form.”

Milly went cautiously over to the book. “Skribble?”

The bookworm lifted his head feebly, but did not speak.

“Take him from the paper,” Sabik told Milly gently. “Both he and the book are awash now with many magics. These magics will intermingle and bind both together forever unless Skribbaleum is taken from the book at once. He must be placed somewhere safe while he recovers.”

“Our lamp,” said Jess quickly. “Put him in there, Milly.”

“A fitting place,” said Vega. She watched as Milly picked up the twitching bookworm, carried him over to their battered old genie lamp, and slipped him gently inside through the spout. As she did so, her genie costume seemed to shimmer about her—and suddenly she was back in her nightdress and rabbit slippers. She quickly saw that Michael, Jason, and Jess were back in their pajamas, too,
and felt a pang of sadness mingled with relief that things could now get back to normal.
No
, Milly corrected herself,
not normal. Better than ever
.

“Hear me, Skribbaleum El Lazeez Ekir,” Sabik rumbled. “Learn your lesson well and never again take your magic for granted. You have the power to achieve great things. Use that power well from this day on.”

“And now…” Vega strode over and picked up the handbook. “It is time for us to leave you.”

“And at last we can restore it to its rightful place in our library,” said Vega. The book's pages fluttered gently, as if it was breathing out a sigh of relief.

“Bye, book,” Milly said softly. “I'll miss you.”

“You have not yet made your wish,” Sabik reminded them. “What is it to be?”

“A pony—a real one I can ride,” said Milly quickly.

“To go in a rocket,” put in Jason.

“To be able to transport ourselves anywhere we want,” said Michael.

“I want a nicer nose,” Jess blurted out.

The others swung around.

“What do you want that for?” said Michael in astonishment.

“I—I just do.”

He grinned. “You're mental.”

Jess hesitated and then grinned back. “Look who's talking!”

Sabik frowned impatiently. “Enough of this dalliance. Our time is short. If you cannot decide, you must leave it to us to judge what it is that you need.”

“Hey, wait a minute—” Michael began.

But Vega had already turned to a bookshelf in the art section behind them.
“As we take so shall we give!”

A ball of blazing light shot out from her finger. It hit the shelf and exploded in a cloud of sparks. All the children gasped and jumped back as a brown leather book appeared on the shelf. Its cover was smoking slightly.

Then Sabik turned and aimed a bolt of white light at the back of the shop. It burst into silver sparks as it shot past the map section.

“Please don't wreck the place,” Jason begged. “It's not even open yet.”

Vega smiled, her eyes catlike and glittering. Then she took hold of her lamp, and Sabik took hold of his.

“Perhaps one day we shall meet again,” said Sabik to the children. “Farewell.” With a mysterious smile he clapped his hands and both he and Vega vanished in a puff of gold smoke.

Jess stared. “This is just too, too weird.”

“What else is new?” said Michael. “I can't believe all
they've left us is some rubbishy, boring book.” He picked it up. “It's all in Latin or ancient Greek or something equally dumb.”

“It's got pictures in it,” said Milly, looking at painted scenes of animals and the stars and funny-looking people bathing in streams. “They're a bit strange, though. It's not much of a swap for
The Genie Handbook!
”

Jason frowned. “Could it be magic?”

“Nah,” said Michael. “Can't even read the title. Typical genie trick—it's just an old art book.” He shoved the book on a shelf and looked down at his robe, thoughtfully. “But you know, maybe that's a good thing! It's been fun having the handbook, but, well…”

“It'll be nice for things to just be quiet for a while,” Jess put in.

Michael smiled. “Until Skribble recovers, at least!”

“While we're waiting, I can go riding with Emily,” said Milly.

Jess nodded. “And I can get to know Colette, Jodie, and Natasha better. Go shopping and have sleepovers!”

“Maybe I can get Sarah Sellick's phone number,” said Michael thoughtfully. Jess elbowed him. “Hey!” He grinned. “Okay, maybe I can go around to Ben's and play Maximum Carnage—the nonmagic version! Jess can get Colette to nick all the best new games off Ollie….” He
winked at Jason. “You can come too if you want, Jase.”

Jason beamed. “I can?”

Just then there was the sound of a key turning in the lock of the shop door.

“It's Ann and Dad!” Milly gasped. “They must be here to get ready for the opening!”

“What are we going to say—” Jess began, but it was too late for discussion. Ann and Mark were already coming into the shop, their arms laden with bags and boxes. They stopped dead when they saw the children.

“Whatever are you lot doing here at seven thirty in the morning?” Ann exclaimed. “And in your pajamas?”

“We thought you were all still in bed,” said Mark. “We wanted to make a start on the preparations, and sneaked out of the house so we wouldn't wake you!”

“Er, we sneaked out, too, so we wouldn't wake
you!
” said Jess quickly. “We were so excited about the opening, we couldn't sleep….”

“And so we thought we'd come down and make sure everything was clean and tidy,” Milly added. “You know, dust the books…”

“Help get everything ready,” Jason chimed in.

Michael cleared his throat. “And we didn't want to get our clothes dirty, so we, um, didn't bother getting dressed.”

Ann's face was darkening. “But you're not even wearing shoes!”

“We, uh…” Jason racked his brain for a convincing explanation. “That is to say, we—”

“Hey! Wow!” Mark had walked down to the map section at the back to dump his bags, and now was staring around in delighted amazement. “You kids might be crazy, but you've done a great job!”

“We have?” Michael said, shooting a
what's-going-on
look at the others.

They followed Mark and gasped. The back of the shop was now decorated with gold and purple banners and streamers and a big sign saying,
GRAND OPENING!

“Oh, my goodness!” said Ann, her frown fading as she joined them. “It's amazing. Thank you!” She hugged them all. “Where did you get the stuff from? How did you do it?”

Jess gave a helpless shrug of her shoulders.

“I suppose we're just…magic!” said Milly.

Ann's eyes were shining. “Well, it's wonderful.”

Mark nodded. “Thanks so much, kids!”

Milly went over and hugged him. “So we're all ready to open then, Dad?”

“All ready?” Mark shook his head. “Nowhere near! There are the carpets to vacuum, the plates and glasses to
collect, the nibbles to go into bowls, cash to go into the tills….”

Jess grinned. “And clothes to go onto us!”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Michael slapped his dad on the back. “Give us a lift home so we can change, yeah? Then let's get on with making this the best bookshop opening ever!”