The Christmas Genie Read Online Free

her card in. Mrs. Walters swished the cards all around with her hand, closed her eyes, and pulled one out of the bowl.
    As it happened, it was
mine
! Mrs. Walters read it out loud to the class.
    â€œThat would be cool to have all the money in the world,” David said.
    â€œYou could buy anything,” said Abigail. “Anything you wanted.”
    â€œThat’s the idea,” I said.
    â€œYeah, let’s go with that one,” Matthew said. “What’s the point of wishing for anything else? We’re ready.”
    â€œSo that’s your wish?” said Genie Bob. “That was fast. Ya sure ya don’t wanna think it over a little?”
    â€œYup,” I said. “That’s what we want. All the money in the world.”
    â€œIs that your final answer?” asked Genie Bob.
    â€œWait!” said Mia from the back row. “Can I just say one thing? If you had all the money in the world, Chase, a lot of people would want to rob you. Did you think of that?”
    â€œSo what?” I said. “If I had all the money in the world, I could build an electric fence around my gigantic mansion. Anybody who tried to rob me would get the shock of their life.”
    Mia is a pain. No matter how good things are, she can always find some bad news. That’s why Alex and I call her “the wet blanket” behind her back.
    â€œYou wouldn’t be able to go out in public, you know,” said Mia.
    â€œWho needs to go out in public?” I said. “If I needed anything, I’d send my flunkies out to get it for me.”
    â€œSo you would just stay home all the time, Chase?” asked Mrs. Walters.
    â€œSure, why not?” I said. “My house would have every video game and movie in the world. I’d have a cool game room, my own skate park, a food court, a swimming pool—”
    â€œEven so, I think it would be boring to stay home all the time,” Ashley said.
    â€œYou know, it just occurred to me that if one person had all the money in the world,” said Natalie, “then nobody else in the world will have any money at
all
.”
    â€œWell, yeah,” said Logan. “Duh!”
    â€œBut if nobody else had any money, you wouldn’t be able to buy anything,” Natalie said.
    â€œWhy not?” I asked.
    â€œHow could a store stay open if they didn’t have any money?” asked Natalie. “They couldn’t buy any stuff to sell to people. They’d have no inventory.”
    â€œNatalie makes a good point,” said Mrs. Walters. “All the restaurants would have to close too, because they couldn’t buy any food.”
    â€œAnd if you went into a store to buy something, they wouldn’t be able to give you change,” Natalie said, “because
you’d
have all the money in the world.”
    â€œIf I had all the money in the world,” I said, “why would I need change?”
    â€œThe point is, there would
be
no stores,” said Mia. “No McDonald’s. No Wal-Mart. No Staples. No malls. No nothing. They’d all go out of business.”
    â€œNo Abercrombie & Fitch?” asked Abigail, visibly upset. “No Hollister? No Aéropostale? Where will I go to shop?”
    â€œYou couldn’t shop,” said Alyssa. “There would be no stores. Chase would have all the money. You’d have to make your own clothes.”
    â€œThe whole economy would collapse,” said Mia. “Your money would become worthless pieces of paper. We would have to go back to living off the land, the way people did thousands of years ago.”
    â€œI never thought of it that way,” I admitted.
    Maybe having all the money in the world wasn’t such a great idea after all. Hmmm, this wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought it would be.
    â€œSo you’ve changed your mind, Chase?” asked Mrs. Walters.
    â€œI guess so,” I said.
    â€œWait a minute!” Genie