Zacktastic (15 page)

“Uncle Max,” I whisper.

“Yes. He turned everyone against me. And then, with the force of the other families behind him, he banished me and my entire family here, to the thirteenth parallel, for a few dozen centuries.”

“Centuries?”

“You have no idea how hard it's been, being up here,” Linx says. “We have a window down to the world, but we can't access it.”

“How did you escape?”

“It was you.”

“Me?”

“You see how powerful you are. You broke
a force field that had the strength of twelve genie families, by providing the portal for me to break through.”

“Portal? My bottle? You came through my bottle?”

Linx reaches behind him and produces my scuffed-up green bottle. The bottle I'd been bummed out to get for a birthday present. Now I'm so happy to see it! I worried I'd never see it again! I reach for it, but Linx holds it back, too far for my fingers to grasp. “I wasn't supposed to lose sight of it,” I explain. “Uncle Max said bad things would happen.”

“It allowed me to come back. Nothing bad has happened, has it? You have a puppy. Would you like another?” Before I can answer, a chocolate-brown Lab trots across the floor. “Two dogs in one day. That's not so bad for one birthday boy, now is it?”

“What about Quinn?” I ask. “We're twins, you know. It's her birthday, too. And I think all
she wants is to go back home.”

“Are you really worried about what Quinn wants right now?” Linx asks. He's got the bottle hovering just above his flattened palm. It's spinning slowly, around and around, and the way the light from the stars is hitting it, it seems to be changing colors. “When has she ever been worried about you?”

Somewhere, deep in the background, I think I can hear a phone ringing. But I'm not sure. I can't quite make the sound out. It's like when you wake up and you sort of remember your dream, but not enough to actually know what it was about.

“Watch this, Zack.” Linx snaps his fingers, and the bottle shines bright green, like an emerald. Brighter and brighter. There are claps of thunder and then lightning flashes striking the bottle. Linx cackles, and I squeeze my eyes shut. But even with them closed I can still see the brightness of the bottle hovering above his hand.
And then it starts to dim. I open one eye just a slit, and the bottle is glowing like a night-light.

“Power,” Linx says. “It means I can take all the light from all the stars in the world and put it here in this bottle. And with a wink of my eye, I can disperse it again, throughout the sky. I can make the sky explode within a storm, and just as quickly I can make the storm dissipate.”

“Holy smokes,” I whisper.

“Without power, I'm just as helpless as young Trey, being beat up by the bullies. Your uncle was my bully, Zack. He took away my power. But you've given it back to me. And in return, I'm willing to grant your dearest wish.”

18

M
Y
D
EAREST
W
ISH

“I
know my dearest wish,” I tell Linx.

“I knew you would, Zack. I knew you would.”

“But do I really get to make it? Uncle Max said I couldn't make wishes for myself. He said the genie bite means I'm supposed to do that for others.” I lift my right leg and wiggle my big toe. Both of the dogs turn their heads to look at the squiggle and dot, and their ears perk up like maybe it's a bone or a ball for them to play with. “He said
that
was my destiny.”

“Don't you worry about what Max said,” Linx tells me. “We just determined that he isn't
the most trustworthy genie, didn't we? Didn't he lie to you—about many things, over the course of many years?”

My gut twists because I have to nod. Uncle Max
did
lie to me. “He had his reasons,” I say quietly.

Without thinking about it, I reach a hand toward my foot, but Linx's voice is loud and stops me mid-reach: “Don't touch that! Don't even think about it! You have a wish to make!”

He's right. I do have a wish, and I can feel the words of my wish building inside me, like they are physical objects. They feel heavy and important.

“I wish,” I begin. My toe tingles. I fold my leg up and I squeeze my toe as I keep going, “that my dad—”

“GET YOUR HAND OFF YOUR FOOT!” Linx roars at me, sending a gale-force wind from his mouth that practically blows my hair off my head. The dogs both jump off the chair and hide
behind it, whimpering. My heart is
boom-booming
in my chest. Partly from the weight of what I was about to say, but mostly because Linx has just yelled louder than I've ever heard anyone yell in my life. His words are still echoing in my ears.

“I'm . . . I'm sorry,” I stutter. “I didn't know—” But then I cut myself off. Because something is emerging from the green bottle hovering above Linx's palm. Or I should say someone.

“Uncle Max!” I cry.

It's him!

Or at least it's his head, getting larger and larger at the top of the bottle, like a balloon that's being blown up. When it gets to its regular size, he says, “Hello, Zachary. It seems you've summoned me in the nick of time.”

“I summoned you? How?”

“You squeezed your toe,” Uncle Max said.

“My toe? This whole time,
that's
how I could've reached you?”

“You needed to have your bottle close by,
too,” Uncle Max says. “But it is indeed.”

“Holy smokes,” I say. “I can see through your head. I mean, when you talk—I can see straight through your mouth to the sky behind you. It's transparent, or translucent, or something.”

“It's a hologram,” Uncle Max explains. “I'm here, but I'm not entirely here.”

“And he's no concern of yours,” Linx says. “Just squeeze your toe again and send him packing. You've got an important wish to make.”

“I know I do,” I say. “It's just I've been trying to reach him for so long.” I look back at the Max-head. “First I called, but it didn't even ring. It just sounded like . . . like emptiness. I'm sure that's another safety measure.”

The hologram head nods. “Genie Board Decision one thousand three.”

“But it's actually not safe at all,” I go on. “I didn't know what I was doing, and there was no one else to call because they couldn't see or hear me! Mom didn't even remember that I existed! I
thought I'd fly home to you. I was going to take a bus to the airport to get on a plane to come home. But when I got off the MA campus, I was shot back here like a rubber band.”

“Until the mission is complete, you can't travel more than a quarter mile from your genie assignment,” Uncle Max says. “But listen to me, Zack. Right now I need to talk to you about your wish.”

“No, Zack,” Linx says. “You don't need to consult anyone about your wish. You just have to make it. Tell me—what is the one thing that's been missing from your life? What is it that you wish?”

“Don't say it out loud,” Uncle Max says.

“Don't. Listen. To. Him,” Linx says. The words come out in sharp punches, like a fist pounding in anger. But when I gasp, he softens his voice. “It won't hurt to say what you've been thinking,” he says, almost sweetly. “Just say the words.
I wish
. . .”

“You only get one wish,” Uncle Max says. “You've got to wish him away. There are consequences to every action. You can't even begin to understand the consequences if you don't send Linx away.”

“But what about the consequence of getting Dad back?” I ask. “Isn't that the one that matters the most?”

“That's right, Zack,” Linx says. “That's all that matters.”

“Your dad is gone, Zack,” Uncle Max says. “It's a terrible thing, but you have to move forward. Even in the genie world, that's what you have to do.”

“He's lying again, Zack. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. And you want your dad—more than anything.”

“Linx is using what he knows about you,” Uncle Max says. “Remember when I broke the genie news to you this afternoon—I told you how much you can learn about a person by what his
wishes are, and that needs to be handled with care.”

“Of course I know things about you,” Linx breaks in. “I used to be the most powerful genie in the world. Why else do you think my b—I mean
your uncle
wanted to banish me? He was jealous. He was so jealous, he couldn't even see straight. But now that you've brought me back, I have the power to make your dearest wish come true. Maybe your uncle can't change the past, but I can. You can trust me, Zack.
I've
never lied to you.”

“You only get one wish,” Uncle Max says. “You must wish him gone. It's the only way to set things right.”

“You're in control, Zack. You don't have to do anything he says. Don't wish me gone. Wish
him
back.”

My head keeps turning back and forth between Uncle Max and Linx, like I'm watching a tennis match.

“You can have him back, Zack. It just takes
one wish. It's yours to make. Nothing else will matter.”

“No,” Uncle Max says. “There are
always
other things that matter. Don't you want to rescue Quinn? You can't do it if you give your one wish to the past.”

“Don't worry about what your uncle says,” Linx says. “And don't worry about your sister. Think of yourself. Think of Zacktastic.”

Zacktastic! Dad's name for me!

“You don't need any of the rest of them.”

The whole time they've been arguing, my heart has been beating to the words:
I wish I could have my dad back
. The words have been at the tip of my tongue, and my eyes are brimming with tears. But at that moment, when Linx says that—
you don't need anyone
else—something snaps in me, like the breaking of a spell.

Dad would've wanted me to worry about Quinn. Because she was one of the most important people in his life. He would've done anything to
protect her. And that's what he would've wanted me to do right now.

I miss Dad as much as ever, and my heart is pounding with all the love I ever had for him, and all the sadness I ever felt since he's been gone.

But there's only one thing to do.

19

A
CCEPTANCE

E
very feeling I've ever had is bubbling up inside me, like my body is a pot set on the stove to boil. “I wish Linx was gone,” I say.

There's a sound, like a snap. This time I think I know what it means. “Stand back, Zack,” Uncle Max tells me.

Uncle Max is a whole person now, outside the bottle. His hair is slicked back in waves, and he licks his index finger and whisks it through the air. A beam of light hits Linx in the center of his forehead. His skin glows at the spot, and then it travels through his body. Pretty soon he's all lit
up, from the inside out. The light from inside him casts a glow over everything, including me. I hold up a hand to shield my eyes from Linx's red light.

Linx snarls and moans and twists, like a wild animal. Around and around and around Uncle Max's finger goes, and when he points again, Linx flashes in different colors—purple, blue, sparkling glitter. All the while he is shrinking smaller and
smaller, until he's gone completely. Some sparkles remain, like fairy dust. I watch them until they, too, disappear.

“Did you kill him?” I ask.

Uncle Max shakes his head. “I couldn't even if I tried,” he says. “Genie Board Decision number nine.”

“So where is he?”

“In the thirteenth parallel,” Uncle Max says.

“The thirteenth parallel,” I repeat. “Isn't that where we—?”

Ruff!

I turn in time to see both of the dogs disappear, first the light one, then the dark one.
Poof! Poof!
And then the floor is gone, too. Uncle Max and I hover for a few seconds, and then we begin to drop. It's a floating kind of falling, down and down and down, until my feet gently find the ground. Real ground, in Mr. Heddle's office. I whiplash my head around, looking for Quinn, but she's nowhere in sight.