Be Careful What You Wish For (9 page)

I glanced up from the ground and saw to my shock that it wasn’t Judith.

Clarissa hovered over me, her red shawl tight around her shoulders, her black eyes staring intently.

“You!” I cried angrily, and started to scramble to my feet.

“You are unhappy,” she said softly, frowning.

“Your wishes have ruined my life!” I cried, furiously brushing dead leaves off the front of my sweater.

“I don’t want you to be unhappy,” she replied. “I was trying to repay your kindness.”

“I wish I’d never met you!” I cried angrily.

“Very well.” She raised the round red crystal ball in one hand. As she raised it, her dark eyes began to glow, the same scarlet color as the crystal. “I will cancel your third wish. Make one final wish. Since you are so unhappy, I shall grant you one more.”

I could hear the crunching of the leaves close behind me. Judith was catching up.

“I — I wish I’d never met you!” I cried to the Crystal Woman. “I wish
Judith
had met you instead of me!”

The crystal glowed brighter until the red light surrounded me in its glare.

When it faded, I was standing on the edge of the woods.

Whew
! I thought.
What a relief! What a great break!

I’m so lucky!

I could see Judith and Clarissa standing in the shade of a wide tree. They were huddled together, talking intently.

This is the perfect revenge
! I told myself.
Now Judith will make a wish — and her life will be totally ruined!

Chuckling to myself, I strained to hear what they were saying. I was dying to know what Judith would wish for.

I’m pretty sure I heard Judith say, “Byrd, why don’t you fly away!”

But that didn’t make any sense.

I was so happy! So deliriously happy!

I was free, totally free!

I suddenly felt so different. Lighter. Happier.

Let Judith have her wishes
! I thought gleefully.
Let her see what it’s like!

Tilting my head, I saw a juicy brown earthworm
poke its head up from the ground. All of a sudden, I was feeling pretty hungry. I jabbed my head forward and caught the end of the worm. Then I ate it.

Very tasty.

I fluttered my wings, testing the wind.

Then I took off, flying low over the woods.

The cool breeze felt so refreshing against my feathers.

As I fluttered my wings harder, swooping higher into the sky, I glanced down and saw Judith. She was standing beside Clarissa.

Judith stared up at me from the ground, and I guess she got her first wish — because she had the
biggest
smile on her face!

CONTENTS

About the Author

Q & A with R.L. Stine

Make a Wish!

Fortune-Telling: Tools of the Trade

Word Search: Sam’s First Wish

Haunted Sports: Gaming Ghosts

A Terrifying Peek at
MY FRIENDS CALL ME MONSTER

Bonus material
written and compiled by
Matthew D. Payne

R.L. Stine’s books are read all over the world. So far, his books have sold more than 300 million copies, making him one of the most popular children’s authors in history. Besides Goosebumps, R.L. Stine has written the teen series Fear Street, the funny series Rotten School, as well as the Mostly Ghostly series, The Nightmare Room series, and the two-book thriller
Dangerous Girls.
R.L. Stine lives in New York with his wife, Jane, and Minnie, his King Charles spaniel. You can learn more about him at www.RLStine.com.

If you were given three wishes, what would you wish for?

R.L. Stine (RLS):
That’s really hard. The truth is my biggest wish came true: I wanted to be a writer — and I am. But if I do have two wishes left, I’d use one wish to travel back in time. And I’d use the second one to make sure I got back to the present!

The main character in
Be Careful What You Wish For
is an enormous klutz on the basketball court. What’s your most embarrassingly klutzy moment?

RLS:
It was just a couple of years ago. I was talking to a big crowd of important TV people and I told a story that I thought was really funny. But no one laughed. That got me so flustered that as I left the stage, I tripped and fell!

Did you play any sports as a kid?

RLS:
No, I didn’t play sports — unless you count Ping-Pong. But I loved to watch sports — especially football. In Ohio, everyone is crazy about football and I am still nuts about it. Go, Buckeyes!

Your stories often take place in everyday schools and neighborhoods. How do you keep current on what kids are up to?

RLS:
My readers keep me up-to-date. Kids write to me and send me loads of messages at
www.rlstine.com.
Thanks, guys.

There are Goosebumps books, websites, DVDs, and even a video game. Are there any new places where you’d like to see Goosebumps go?

RLS:
I love all the games and movies and DVDs — but most of all I like writing and having kids read my books. It’s a real thrill for me that my books are read all over the world. You know what they call Goosebumps in France?
Chair de Poule —
that means chicken flesh. Cool, right?

You’ve introduced readers to many fantastical fiends like the creatures in your latest book, Goosebumps Horrorland #7:
My Friends Call Me Monster.
Do you ever scare yourself with your creations?

RLS:
I never scare myself — and scary books and movies never scare me. The truth is, scary things make me
laugh!
I guess that means I’m a little weird, but it’s true.

To find out R.L. Stine’s favorite photography
subject, pick up the new collector’s
edition of
SAY CHEESE AND DIE!

Don’t have a crystal ball-carrying woman wandering around your neighborhood forest? Don’t sweat! There are plenty of ways to make wishes without the aid of creepy old ladies. Here are a few:

THROW A COIN INTO A FOUNTAIN
and make a wish! Here’s the idea behind this wishing technique: The spirits who live in the water are more likely to grant your wish if you include a little payment. Seems like nobody does anything for free these days!

The next time you eat a turkey,
CRACK THE WISHBONE
with someone else. Whoever ends up with the larger piece will get to make a wish! Too busy to cook an entire turkey? No worries … fake wishbones are now available for mess-free wishing.

When you see a
ONE-EYED CAT,
spit on your thumb and then grind your thumb into the palm of your other hand while making a wish. Please make sure you saw a one-eyed cat first. We’d hate for you to go through all that spit-grinding trouble for no reason.

If you catch a
LADYBUG
, make a wish and then blow it
gently
out of the palm of your hand. If you blow too hard, you’ll just make the ladybug angry and she probably won’t grant your wish. And you’ll be light-headed. GENTLE.

After you spot a
SHOOTING STAR,
make a wish. But be quick about it — some say finishing your wish before the shooting star disappears increases the chance it will come true.

On your next birthday, make a silent wish when you
BLOW OUT YOUR BIRTHDAY CANDLES
. In order for the wish to come true, make sure you don’t say the wish out loud (to anyone!) and blow out
all
of the candles with one breath.

BLOWING AWAY AN EYELASH
is a simple way to make a wish, if one happens to fall out. Don’t PULL out eyelashes — only ones that fall out naturally have wishing power. Plus, that would really, really HURT!

The next time all the
NUMBERS ON YOUR DIGITAL CLOCK
match up (like 11:11), you can make a wish. After you make a wish, don’t look at the numbers until they change, or your wish won’t come true.

Nobody is sure where Clarissa, the Crystal Woman, came from. With her Crystal Ball and mysterious, wish-granting ways, she may very well be a fortune-teller! Of course, not everyone who has a crystal ball is a fortune-teller. And there are certainly many more ways to tell a fortune. Here are a few:

CRYSTAL BALLS
are one of the top fortune-telling tools, since they’re mighty handy for “scrying.”
SCRYING
is the art of fortune-telling that involves staring into an object (usually clear or reflective) to catch images of the future.

Many objects can be used for scrying. Cultures all over the world use pools of water to scry: from the Zulus of Africa to Polynesians to remote villagers in Siberia. Think of
that
the next time you go swimming.

Other, less popular, scrying tools range from the convenient (fingernails) to the dirty (a pool of ink in the palm of the hand) to the disgusting (the liver of an animal). That last method sounds similar to a fortune-telling practice used by the ancient Greeks —
ARUSPICY:
An animal is sacrificed and its entrails are read to predict the future (ewww).

THROWING BONES
involves throwing bones, shells, and other objects and then making predictions based on where and how all of the objects fall. This is a popular form of fortune-telling in Africa.

TAROT CARDS
actually started as game cards in the fifteenth century. It wasn’t until the 1700s that historians found records of fortune-tellers using the cards for readings.

PALMISTRY
(reading the palm) is a fortune-telling technique used all over the world, from India (where the practice is thought to have started) to China and Europe. The different lines of the palm are read to predict the future. Take a look at your palm right now. See the line that runs from the spot between your thumb and pointing finger that runs all the way down to your wrist? That’s your lifeline! Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the length of the line that predicts how long you’ll live.

Can you find all the words from Samantha’s first wish? Refresh your memory by returning to page 31, then grab a pencil and circle each word as you find it. Make sure to look down, across, AND diagonally.

Samantha’s performance on the basketball court may have been scary, but much scarier things have happened in the world of sports.

Many athletes are afraid to grace the cover of
Sports Illustrated,
worried that they will be hit with the infamous
Sports Illustrated
Curse. Throughout the magazine’s history, many teams and people who appeared on the cover suddenly had terrible things happen to them — a losing streak, an injury … EVEN DEATH.

Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH, is thought to be haunted. It was built on the site of the former Ohio State Penitentiary, where several prisoners died in a terrible fire. True or not, many Columbus Blue Jackets hockey fans blame the bad performance of their team on paranormal activity!

In 1999, professional wrestler Owen Hart fell to his death while performing a stunt in Kansas City’s Kemper Arena. It is believed that his ghost still haunts the arena, and there have been many reports of Hart, still in his wrestling costume, being seen in the rafters!

Baseball stadiums are ghost magnets, with examples of haunted fields found all across the country, from Angel Stadium in California to New York’s Yankee Stadium. When human bones were found during construction of Frontier Field in Rochester, NY, strange things started happening. Paranormal experts were even brought in to investigate!

Finally, we tip our hats to the athletes who never stop playing! In 1996, pitcher Eddie Plank was heard practicing in his Gettysburg, PA, house … where he died 70 years before!