here for a while. Then Iâll come out.â
Mrs. McNeill fires up the auger, drills through the frozen circle of ice, and leaves me a bucket and a rod with a lure on it because the bait shop was out of minnows. The lure looks more like a silver feather than a fish, so Iâm not expecting much when I lower it into the hole.
But apparently, any magic fish dumb enough to get caught in the same spot three times is also dumb enough to think a piece of shiny metal might be good to eat. The tug comes right away, and I reel in the fish.
Same sparkling eye.
Same raspy voice.
âRelease me . . . and I will grant you a wish.â
Chapter 6
The Third and Fourth Wishes
âPlease let . . .â
Iâm about to wish for Dashaâs English to get better, for her to pass that awful test so she can be in classes with me. But then I realize this is the third time Iâve caught the wish fish. This fish didnât say anything about a limit, but in stories about genies, the third wish is pretty much the end of the road. (My first two-part wish, about Roberto and my fear of the ice, only counts as one, I think. Especially since the real Roberto Sullivan still doesnât know I exist.)
What I really want is to make this one a triple wish.
Please let Dasha learn English faster so she can pass her test, and please let Drew be awesome at his basketball tryouts so heâll make the team and then his dad will leave him alone, and please let Dasha and me both place in the top three in our feis so we can move up to Novice.
But maybe it was the double wishing that first time that madethe fish mess up with Roberto. So I decide to stick with a single wish.
âPlease let Dasha pass her language test,â I whisper, and I let the fish go. Iâm tempted to stick the lure right back into the water to see if I can catch it again and make Drewâs basketball wish, but that seems like it might push a magic fish over the edge.
I pack up and walk out to where Drew and Mrs. McNeill are sitting. âHowâs it going?â
Drew grunts.
âSlow,â Mrs. McNeill says, bobbing her pole up and down. âBut feel free to join us.â She nods toward the auger, and I use it to drill myself a hole. The auger blade spins, and it sinks in, leaving a shiny donut of shaved ice around the hole. It takes a while to hit water; the ice must be at least twelve inches thick by now.
I sit down on my bucket, drop a line, and pull out my phone to try Abby again.
Charlie: Is your class over? I need advice.
Abby doesnât text back right away, so I put my phone back in my pocket. Pretty soon, we all start getting bites.
âYou must be our good-luck charm, Miss Charlie!â Mrs. McNeill says, using a pair of pliers to twist her lure out of a fishâs mouth.
âWhat about your four-leaf clover charm?â I ask, laughing.
She shakes her head, dropping her line back in. âIâm wearing it, but it wasnât doing a thing for me until you showed up.â
The fish only bite for about half an hour. By the time it slows down, itâs getting dark anyway, so we head in to shore and deliver our fish to Billy.
Mrs. McNeill says it again. âCharlieâs our lucky charm!â
âThanks.â I smile and accept my twelve dollars for todayâs perch, feeling just as lucky as she says I am. In fact, I feel downright sparkly.
My sparkly luck hangs in there for most of January. The weatherâs been great for fishing, with cold nights so the ice gets thicker and sunny days so the fish can see the lures. By the week of the feis, I have more than four hundred fifty dollars for my solo dress.
âDo you think I should go with blue or orange?â I ask Dasha as weâre lacing up our soft shoes at dance on Sunday. âMom says blue matches my eyes, but I like how bright the orange dresses are.â
âI think both look nice,â Dasha says.
âLetâs
Annabel Joseph
Rue Allyn
Willa Sibert Cather
Christine d'Abo
Serenity King, Pepper Pace, Aliyah Burke, Erosa Knowles, Latrivia Nelson, Tianna Laveen, Bridget Midway, Yvette Hines
CJ Whrite
Alfy Dade
Kathleen Ernst
Samantha-Ellen Bound
Viola Grace