I wished I wasn’t as strong as the Hulk any more, in case I hurt someone by accident.

But I felt good. Oh man, I felt . . . brilliant.

Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

Walking home with Evan.

‘All right,’ Evan demanded. ‘What’s happening?’

‘How do you mean?’

‘You know what I mean! Are you really . . . magic?’

I thought about this. ‘Yeah, I s’pose you could say that.’

‘But – how . . .?’

‘I wished upon this shooting star, I wished for a million wishes, and—’

‘Wait a minute,’ Evan said. ‘That’s not possible. A shooting star is just—’

‘I know, it’s just a meteor. A chunk of space-rock.’

‘So how can it grant wishes?’

‘I dunno. It just did, that’s all.’

‘But . . .’ Evan went quiet and a sort of lost-in-thought look appeared on his face. He does this look sometimes. It’s like he’s gazing off into the remote distance trying to make out something no one else can see, and he ignores everything else.

‘What?’

‘Can you prove it?’

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Wish for . . . an ice cream.’

To be honest I was a bit disappointed in Evan. I thought he might have come up with something more interesting than that. But then he is a bit of a greedy pig, so it’s not that surprising I s’pose.

‘Sure thing. What flavour?’

‘Vanilla and chocolate. Double scoop.’

‘Cone or tub?’

‘Cone.’

‘Do you want anything on it?’

‘Er, yeah, nuts and chocolate sauce.’

‘Did you get all that, Wish-Answerer? I wish for a double scoop of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, in a cone, nuts and chocolate sauce. Actually, make it two.’ I quite fancied one myself.

The two ice creams materialized, one in each of my hands, so suddenly it made me jump. I offered one to Evan.

Evan took it warily and peered at it as if it might hold some kind of explanation.

I licked mine. It was nice. ‘Go on, try it.’

Evan licked his. ‘It’s . . . real. It’s . . . delicious.’

‘Oh, yes, you only get good stuff with my wishes.’

‘But – I just don’t get where they came from. Stuff can’t appear out of nothing!’

‘It can with my wishes.’

‘But – how?’

‘It’s no good asking how, that’s just the way they work. It’s like – the laws of the universe. Gravity. That just works, doesn’t it, and no one knows how?’

‘But that’s my point! You’ve just broken the laws of the universe. You can’t make ice cream and chocolate and nuts out of . . . air. Things just work in a certain way, they always have done. One element doesn’t change into another, just ’cause someone says they wish it would! Gravity always operates in the same way. Water never flows uphill. Light always travels at the same speed. All that stuff. Those laws never change.’