With his gaze locked on Oliver, Chris rose slowly from his chair. Potatoes and peas rolled from his lap to the floor. His face grew redder and redder. He clenched his hands into fists. Then, like an exploding rocket, he came galumphing toward Oliver.

Oliver gasped and turned quickly to the booby trap. His fingers moved quickly to set it up.

Please work! Please work! he thought over and over again.

The whole thing happened as if in slow motion. Chris loomed up before Oliver. Olivers foot stomped onto the lever. Oliver held on to the desire for the machine to work, picturing the soldier flying through the air just as hed pictured the plates crashing to the ground. And then, sure enough, the mechanism began to whir. The soldier launched into the air, sailed in an arc, and smacked Chris with his plastic, pointy rifle, right between the eyes!

Time sped up back to normal. Oliver gasped, awestruck, not quite believing it had worked.

Chris stood there, perplexed. The soldier fell to the floor. There was a small red mark in the middle of Chriss forehead, a dent from the hard plastic gun.

You little jerk! Chris yelled, rubbing his head in disbelief. Ill get you back for that!

But for the first time ever, he hesitated. He seemed too wary to approach Oliver, to sock him in the ear, or rub his knuckles against his head. Instead, he backed away as if he were scared. Then he stormed out of the room and upstairs. The sound of his slamming door resonated through the house.

Olivers mouth dropped open. He couldnt believe that it had really worked! Not only had he made his invention work at the last second, but hed literally made Chriss meal fall to the floor with his mind!

He looked down at his hands. Did he have some kind of power? Was there really such a thing as magic? He couldnt just suddenly start believing in it because of one little experience. But deep down he knew that he was different in some way, that he had some kind of power.

Mind swimming, he went back to his book and read, for the millionth time, the passage about Armando Illstrom. Thanks to his invention, Oliver had scared Chris away for the first time ever. He wanted to meet Armando Illstrom more than ever. And the factory really wasnt that far from his new school. Maybe he should visit him after school tomorrow.

But surely he would be a very old man now. Possibly so old that hed passed on. The thought made Olivers heart sink. Hed hate it if his hero had passed before hed had a chance to meet him, and to thank him for inventing the booby trap!