Genies Don't Ride Bicycles
Chapter 1
The Bottle
"What is it?" Melody asked Eddie. "Let me see."
"Keep your pigtails glued on," Eddie told her. "It's stuck." Eddie, Melody, and their friends Howie and Liza were in their favorite meeting place under the big oak tree on the school playground. The sun shone bright in the blue December sky, but none of the kids paid any attention. It was the first time they had noticed a strange object sticking out from the crack between two branches of the tree. Eddie tucked as hard as he could, but it didn't move.
Liza flung her blonde hair over her shoulder. "Maybe it's buried treasure."
"In a tree?" Eddie laughed.
"Let me help," Howie offered. Together the two boys tugged. All at once the object broke free and they fell backwards onto the ground.
Eddie held the object in his hands. "It's just an old bottle," he sighed as he looked at the slick green bottle. It had strange words scribbled across the side and a big gold stopper.
"Why don't you open it?" Liza asked. "Maybe someone put a secret message inside and it's been hidden for hundreds of years."
"If it's been hidden there for hundreds of years then why haven't we seen it before?" Eddie asked
Melody nodded. "We here every day after school. There's no way we could have missed it."
"It was hidden in that crack. Last night's windstorm probably loosened the tree limb," Howie suggested.
"If you're not going to open it," then give it to me." Melody reached for the bottle.
"I'll open it." Eddie pulled on the gold stopper. It didn't budge. He sat down on the ground and put the bottle between his legs. He pulled again with all his strength.
POP!
"Pew-whee! What's that smell?" Liza complained.
Eddie stood up and held the bottle toward his friends. "It's this old bottle. There's nothing in it except a sewer smell." He threw the bottle and the stopper into the yard next to the school.
"You shouldn't litter," Liza told him.
Eddie shrugged. "There's nothing in that yard but junk. One more stinky bottle won't make a difference."
The four kids looked at the yard behind the oak tree. A broken wooden fence, surrounded flat tires, broken bottles, and metal barrels.
"It sure is ugly." Liza shivered and pulled on her mittens. "Especially when the other houses have bright Christmas lights."
"I wish someone would clean up this place," Melody said.
"You might as well wish for a million dollars," Eddie told her. "No one's lived in that dump for years."
Melody sighed. "You're right. But it never hurts to wish."