Piper's Perfect Dream (11 page)

“So,” Piper said to Olivia, “you keep in shape while you're working by rolling up?”

“No!” Olivia giggled. She grabbed a napkin. And before Piper could even blink, she had rolled a knife, fork, and spoon inside the napkin in such a way that it stayed wrapped even when she flipped it in the air. It was almost like magic.

“This is part of side work, and for now you should just focus on this kind of stuff. Roll-ups, refilling ketchup”—she pointed to squeezable containers that came to a point, filled with an unappetizing red liquid mixture—“and sugar dispensers. No waiting on tables. Not yet, anyway.”

“Okay.” Piper kept nodding as if she understood. Hopefully, it would all make sense when she studied everything later. It turned out, though, there wasn't time.

“You can start right now and refill the sugar dispensers,” Olivia said. She took out a tray of empty dispensers. Then she waved toward a high shelf where a dozen large containers stood in a line.

Piper opened her mouth, about to explain how clueless she was, when the phone in front rang. Olivia backed away to answer it. “Okay, you're on your own,” she told Piper.

Piper paced in front of the containers. Which one held the sugar? She glanced around helplessly and looked straight through the cabinet door above the containers. There were unopened jars labeled
MUSTARD
and
PICKLES
, plus bags labeled
SALT
,
PEPPER
, and—Piper grinned—
SUGAR
!

She took out the bag, then used her sunray vision to see what sugar actually looked like. Okay, now she realized the sugar dispenser was the third from the right. When she lifted the container off the shelf, though, she had to laugh. It was labeled on the lid!

Now Piper had the dispenser. She had the sugar. She'd even found a scooper. She mentally patted herself on the back for that one.

It should be simple from here on,
she thought. The dispenser had a hole on top, and the sugar should slide right in.

She ladled out a heaping scoop from the container and poured the sugar over the dispenser. Sugar granules bounced off the top with a
ping ping ping
and scattered all over the floor. Only a few granules actually made it into the dispenser. Piper tried again and again with the same results.

“This is going to take a starday and a half,” she told herself. But she had to do it. She would acknowledge these negative feelings so they would pass like drifting clouds; then she'd get back to work.

She reached once again for the scooper. But then Pete walked in, holding another sugar dispenser—this one with its top screwed off. “Here's one more for you,” he said.

After that, it was easy to fill the dispensers. She just took off each lid, poured in the sugar, then closed it up. A short time later, she was done. But the table and floor were still covered with sugar. Piper gazed down, dismayed. Why couldn't the floor be self-cleaning?

“That's okay, honey,” Alice said, coming over to inspect the mess. “But it always makes me me feel better to leave a workstation as clean—”

“As you found it,” Piper finished.

“You too?” said Alice. “Good. Just use the broom and dustpan in the corner.”

Another confusing task! Piper eyed the long stick with bristles on one end in the corner. It didn't look like any kind of pan, so that must be the broom. Experimenting, she pushed it along the floor. To her surprise, it moved the sugar granules into a neat pile, almost by itself! Then she swept it all into the flat pan-thing that had been next to it.

She gazed at the pan a moment, half expecting the sugar to disappear into thin air. But of course, she was on Wishworld, not Starland, and the pan stayed full.
Next step: find a garbage can.
She spied one in the opposite corner and hurried over.
Ewww!
She wrinkled her nose. It was stuffed with actual garbage that smelled. No vanishing garbage cans here!
Disgusting!
Quickly, she dumped the sugar on top, then turned on her heel.

“Nice work,” said Alice, returning. “Olivia is in a booth in the back, doing homework. Why don't you join her, and in a little while you two can have dinner here? The least we can do is feed you!”

Olivia grinned. Her first Wishling compliment—it felt almost like Star Kindness Day. Now to find Olivia. She walked around the diner tables, all the way to the back and the very last booth.

Schoolbooks were spread across the table, along with pencils and pens and notebooks. But there was no sign of Olivia.

Piper's heart sank. She'd spent way too much time filling sugar dispensers. And now look what had happened. She'd lost her Wisher!

Piper had no idea
what to do next. So she sat down in the booth and idly leafed through the books, thinking. Wishling books were so heavy and cumbersome. How did students carry them around, much less hold them up to read?

“Concentrate, Piper,” she told herself. “Focus on Olivia!”

Where could she be? Why had she left so suddenly? Would she return?

Piper pushed aside
Our Nation's History Through the Centuries
to clear space to put her head down. She always thought better that way. But the history textbook bumped the math book, which nudged something called
Advanced Reading Material for the Young Scholar
, and they all fell onto the seat across the table.

“Ouch!” Olivia popped up, rubbing her shoulder. The books thudded to the floor.

“You were resting here the whole time?” Piper was amazed. “I'm so sorry I interrupted your time of rejuvenation.”

“Huh?” Olivia sounded confused. She blinked and shook her head. “I must have fallen asleep.”

Piper nodded encouragingly. It certainly made sense to sleep in the late afternoon. Although, as a general rule, she preferred an earlier naptime.

Olivia yawned. “I've been so tired lately.”

Piper leaned closer, a tingle of excitement running down her spine. Clearly, Olivia wasn't getting enough sleep. Most likely, she was anxious about a problem; worrying could keep anyone awake. And her wish must revolve around solving the problem.

But what was the problem?

Piper could almost feel the wish dangling in front of her, tantalizingly, as if she could reach out and touch it.

“Sometimes I have trouble sleeping, too,” Piper told Olivia in a way meant to encourage her to tell more. That was stretching the truth. So Piper crossed her legs at the ankles the way Starlings did if they told a fib.

“You do?” Olivia took a deep breath. “Usually I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow and I don't wake up until my alarm goes off. But lately I've been—”

“Sensing an evil presence lurking in your dreams. Dark and threatening. You can almost see it in your mind's eye whenever you close your eyes….”

Piper's voice trailed off when she caught sight of Olivia's put-off expression. “Uh, no,” Olivia said, leaning back against the bench, farther away from Piper.

“Oh,
starf
,” Piper muttered to herself. Now she had really freaked out her Wisher. And she really needed to gain Olivia's trust. It was so important in pinpointing the correct wish.

“Don't mind me,” she said airily, as if didn't matter that much. “That whole ‘evil presence' stuff? It was just part of a bad dream I had the other night.”

Olivia smiled sadly. “I've been having bad dreams, too,” she confided. But then she seemed to pull back once more and shrugged. “It's really no big deal. Everyone has bad dreams. I'm sure they'll just go away.”

She didn't sound like she believed it. And Piper didn't believe it, either. Bad dreams had a way of sticking around until you figured out what they meant.

“Girls!” Alice called from behind the counter. “Come and get your dinner.”

Reluctantly, Piper stood when Olivia did. They made their way to the front of the diner, where two heaping plates of food were waiting. Piper stared at her dish. She didn't recognize a thing. So she grabbed a nearby menu and leafed through the pages. There were tons of choices. How could she figure out what she was eating?

Her eyes stopped at the entry
HOT DOG
. She gasped. Wasn't that a Wishling pet? But right next to the words was a picture of a cylinder-shaped food in a bun. It looked nothing at all like those cute four-legged creatures. Luckily, there were other pictures, too. Piper identified her food as a veggie burger, sweet potato fries, one of those long green and bumpy things called a pickle, and coleslaw. She couldn't guess what that was, even squinting at the photo.

Partial to greens, she started with the pickle. It reminded her of cukumbrella, a crunchy vegetable that didn't need much light to grow. There were always lots to be found in the Flats.

Piper picked up her knife and fork to cut the pickle. But Olivia was just holding hers in one hand, so Piper did the same.
When on Wishworld, do as Wishlings do,
she thought. That was one of the sayings professors were always spouting. She took a big bite. Sour! Everything else was delicious, though. Piper decided she'd have this for every meal on Wishworld if she could.

In record time, Piper finished her dinner. Traveling to Wishworld used up so much energy! She had definitely needed to replenish. Meanwhile, Olivia just pushed her food around the plate. Piper was sure she was still thinking about her bad dream. If only she could get Olivia to open up again. She had to try. And this time, she'd take it slow.

“Maybe you'd like something else to eat?” she asked gently. “Some kind of comfort food?” Eating garble greens always made Piper feel better. “I can get it for you.”

“Good idea, Piper. Comfort food! But I'll take care of it myself.” Olivia jumped off her stool, went around the counter, and started working by the fountain area.

Piper grinned.

Olivia smiled back as she grabbed two tall glasses. In each, she put a spoonful of chocolate syrup and some milk. Then she filled the glasses with cold seltzer from the fountain tap. Olivia named everything as she went, so it was easy to follow.

Piper could barely contain her excitement when she heard
chocolate
. Even though she'd eaten a big dinner, she still had to try the tasty treat she'd heard about from other Star Darlings. But she did have to ask about the seltzer.

“Oh, it's just bubbly water,” Olivia explained, adding a bit more.

The drinks foamed to the brim, without one drop spilling over. Olivia mixed the glasses with a long spoon and plopped in straws. Then she pushed one across to Piper.

“Try it!” she said.

Piper sipped. “Startast—I mean fantastic!” The drink was starmazingly refreshing, with a yummy chocolate sweetness to it. But it had a fizz and pop, too, and might just have been the best thing Piper had ever tasted. Other Star Darlings had talked about soda and chocolate milk, but she doubted anyone else had had one of these on her mission. “What is it called?”

“It's a chocolate egg cream. I know, I know,” Olivia added quickly. “It doesn't have eggs or cream. So don't ask me why it's called an egg cream. And I'm not surprised you don't know it. Hardly anyone outside of New York City has heard about it.”

New York City?
The place name meant nothing to Piper. She supposed it was a very small town in the middle of nowhere. It had to be, for hardly anyone to know about this wonderful drink.

Piper reached for her trusty menu to find the listing. “Oh, you won't find it there,” Olivia said. “People wouldn't order it, anyway. It's just a New York thing. You know my parents are from there.”

“Okay, girls,” said Alice, reaching to clear Piper's empty glass. “It's getting late. Time for you to head out.” She looked at Piper. “Is someone coming to pick you up?”

Piper concentrated. Staring into Alice's eyes, she said solemnly, “Why don't I sleep over at your house?”

Alice sniffed the air. “There's that rhubarb pie smell again. How strange. Pete isn't even baking today!” Then she looked at Piper. “Why don't you sleep over at our house?”

Olivia looked surprised but not upset. A favorable sign, Piper thought.

“Sounds good,” said Piper. “I'm sure my grandma won't mind.” Holding in her laughter, she pretended to place a call on her Star-Zap. Her family had no idea she was on Wishworld. But she felt sure that if they had, they'd have been fine with her spending the night with this nice family.

The two girls cleared the rest of their dishes, then made their way to Olivia's home. It was just around the corner from the diner, on a street very much like the one she'd walked down earlier, with snug little houses and big leafy trees.

To open the front door, Olivia used a metal tool, twisting it into a hole below a knob. The inside of the house was just like the outside, Piper thought: cozy and colorful, with shaggy rugs covering brightly polished hardwood floors, small rooms, and lots of knickknacks spread on shelves and cabinet tops. In one alcove, framed photos and awards covered the wall. Piper examined them all closely.