Wishtree(26)

“Just eat Dad’s cereal, Jackson. You’ll poop for a week,” she answered.

A second later she appeared in the doorway, a dish towel in her hands. “Are you guys still hungry?” She sighed. “I’ve got a little mac and cheese left over from dinner. And there’s half an apple you could share.”

“I’m fine,” I said quickly. Back in the old days, when we always had food in the house, I would whine if we were out of my favorite stuff. But lately we’d been running out of everything, and I had the feeling my parents felt lousy about it.

“We have jelly beans, Mom,” Robin said.

“Well, okay, then. As long as you’re eating something nutritious,” said my mom. “I get my paycheck at Rite Aid tomorrow, and I’ll stop by the grocery store and pick up some food after work.”

She gave a little nod, like she’d checked something off a list, and went back to the kitchen.

“Aren’t you gonna eat your jelly beans?” Robin asked me, twirling her yellow ponytail around her finger. “Because if you want me to do you a big favor I guess I could eat them for you.”

“I’m going to eat them,” I said. “Just not … yet.”

“Why not? They’re purple. Your favorite.”

“I need to think about them first.”

“You are a weirdo brother,” said Robin. “I’m going to my room. Aretha wants to play dress-up.”

“I doubt that,” I said. I held a jelly bean up to the light. It looked harmless enough.

“She especially likes hats and also socks,” Robin said as she left with the dog. “Don’t you, baby?”

Aretha’s tail wagged. She was always up for anything. But as she left with Robin, she glanced over her shoulder at the front window and whined.

I went to the window and peered outside. I checked behind the couch. I flung open the hall closet.

Nothing. Nobody.

No surfing cats. No Crenshaw.

I hadn’t told anybody about what I’d seen at the beach. Robin would just think I was messing with her. My mom and dad would do one of two things. Either they’d freak out and worry I was going crazy. Or they’d think it was adorable that I was pretending to hang out with my old invisible friend.

I sniffed the jelly beans. They smelled not-quite-grapey, in a good way. They looked real. They felt real. And my real little sister had just eaten some.

Rule number one for scientists is this: There is always a logical explanation for things. I just had to figure out what it was.

Maybe the jelly beans weren’t real, and I was just tired or sick. Delirious, even.

I checked my forehead. Unfortunately, I did not seem to have a fever.

Maybe I’d gotten sunstroke at the beach. I wasn’t exactly sure what sunstroke was, but it sounded like something that might make you see flying cats and magic jelly beans.

Maybe I was asleep, stuck in the middle of a long, weird, totally annoying dream.

Still. Didn’t the jelly beans in my hand seem extremely real?

Maybe I was just hungry. Hunger can make you feel pretty weird. Even pretty crazy.

I ate my first jelly bean slowly and carefully. If you take tiny bites, your food lasts longer.

A voice in my head said, Never take candy from strangers. But Robin had survived. And if there was a stranger involved, he was an invisible one.

There had to be a logical explanation. But for now, the only thing I knew for sure was that purple jelly beans tasted way better than bran cereal.



Thank you for reading this Feiwel and Friends book.

The Friends who made

wishtree

possible are:

jean feiwel, Publisher

liz szabla, Associate Publisher

rich deas, Senior Creative Director

holly west, Editor

anna roberto, Editor

christine barcellona, Editor

kat brzozowski, Editor

alexei esikoff, Senior Managing Editor

kim waymer, Senior Production Manager

anna poon, Assistant Editor

emily settle, Administrative Assistant

liz dresner, Senior Designer

starr baer, Production Editor

Follow us on Facebook or visit us online at mackids.com

Our books are friends for life.



about the author

Katherine Applegate is the author of The One and Only Ivan, winner of the Newbery Medal. Her most recent novel for Feiwel and Friends, Crenshaw, spent over twenty weeks on the New York Times children’s bestseller list. She is also the author of Home of the Brave. Katherine Applegate lives in Tiburon, California, with her family. You can sign up for email updates here.