The Christmas Genie Read Online Free Page A

Bob said. “The kidhad a good wish. You should go with all the money in the world, so I can get out of here.”
    â€œYou said we have an hour,” Mrs. Walters said, “so be quiet!”
    Bob made a
hmmph
noise and shot a mean look at Mrs. Walters.
    â€œHow about just wishing for a pot of gold buried in your backyard?” suggested Alex.
    â€œThen you would have to dig it up,” Ella said. “Why not just wish for a pot of gold in your living room?”
    â€œLet’s not be so hasty,” Mrs. Walters said. “Let’s see what the rest of you wished for.”
    â€œFine,” said Genie Bob, looking at the clock impatiently, “Sheesh, I bet Santa Claus doesn’t have to put up with this aggravation.”
    Mrs. Walters pulled another index card out of the bowl.

WISH #2:
I WISH I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS.
    â€œThat was mine!” said Abigail, who sits in the middle of the room.
    I couldn’t believe Abigail wished for a million dollars. She lives in this huge house and her parents give her every stupid piece of jewelry and junk she wants. They must be millionaires ten times over already.
    â€œWell, that seems a little more reasonable,” Mrs. Walters said. “A million dollars is also a lot of money, but it would still leave a lot more money for the rest of the people in the world. To be honest, though, wishing for money seems a bit . . . shallow . . . to me.”
    â€œI’m shallow,” William said quickly. “I wish I had a million dollars. Let’s go with that.”
    â€œGreat!” said Genie Bob, clapping his little genie hands together.
    â€œWhat do you mean, let’s go with that?” said Hannah. “It’s not
your
decision, William! It’s
our
decision. We should have a class vote before we decide on
anything
.”
    â€œThat makes sense,” Mrs. Walters said. “All those in favor of wishing for a million dollars, raise your hand.”
    About half the class raised their hands.
    â€œAnd all those opposed, raise your hand.”
    The other half raised their hands.
    â€œWait a minute,” Ella said. “If we wish for a million dollars, who gets the money?”
    â€œI do, of course,” said Abigail. “It was
my
wish.”
    â€œI just thought of something. The wish wasfor
us
,” Elizabeth said. “
All
of us. Isn’t that right?”
    â€œYa get one wish,” Genie Bob replied. “What ya do with it is your business.”
    â€œIt’s not fair if we wish for a million dollars and Abigail gets to keep it all,” said Matthew.
    â€œThat’s right,” said Logan.
    â€œWhat if we divided the million dollars equally between all of you?” Mrs. Walters suggested. “That would be fair, wouldn’t it?”
    I rushed to take out my calculator. So did everybody else. 1,000,000 . . . divided by 25 kids in the class . . . equals . . . 40,000.
    â€œForty grand?” I said, disappointed. “That can’t be right.”
    â€œIt’s right,” Isabella said. “I got the same answer.”
    â€œForty thousand dollars doesn’t seem like so much,” Abigail said.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” said Anthony. “You can buy a lot of stuff with forty thousand bucks.”
    â€œYou can’t buy a house,” Olivia said. “Isn’t that right, Mrs. Walters? Houses cost a lot more than forty thousand dollars.”
    â€œThat’s true,” Mrs. Walters said.
    â€œMy parents paid almost a
million
dollars for our house,” Abigail bragged.
    â€œNone of us even
needs
a house,” said Isabella. “We all have a place to live as it is.”
    â€œHow about a car?” Christopher said. “Can you buy a car for forty thousand dollars?”
    â€œAbsolutely,” Mrs. Walters said. “You can buy a very nice car.”
    â€œCan you buy a Lamborghini?” asked Christopher.
    â€œI don’t