The Christmas Genie Read Online Free PDF Page B

or move out of our parents’ house. We’ll never get married or have kids of our own. We’ll never be in charge of anything.”
    â€œYeah, but we’ll never die of old age, either,” Abigail said. “We’ll never get gray and wrinkly and senile.”
    â€œMy dad has hair growing out of his ears and nose,” said Alyssa. “It’s gross.”
    â€œMy dad has to go to the bathroom, like, every fifteen minutes,” Olivia said.
    â€œSee!” said Andrew. “Being young forever will be
great
! We’ll never have to get a job and workfor a living. We’ll never have some mean boss tell us what to do. We’ll always be taken care of.”
    â€œOh, yeah? By who?” Mia asked. “Your parents aren’t going to be around forever.”
    â€œOh, just forget about it,” Ava said. “But if you ask me, it would be a whole lot better to live forever than it would be to have something silly, like a lot of money or candy.”
    â€œI agree,” Mrs. Walters said as she pulled the next index card out of the bowl.

WISH #5:
I WISH THE BEATLES WOULD GET BACK TOGETHER.
    â€œMine!” shouted Anthony.
    â€œWhat?” Christopher asked. “You mean those disgusting bugs?”
    â€œAre you kidding me?” Anthony asked. “You really don’t know who the Beatles were? They were only the best rock and roll group in history.”
    â€œNever heard of ’em,” said Christopher.
    â€œMy dad gave me a bunch of his old Beatles albums and I listened to them,” Anthony said.
    â€œThey were great. But the Beatles broke up a long time ago.”
    â€œWait a minute,” Ella said. “Aren’t some of those guys
dead
?”
    â€œYeah,” Anthony said. “To fulfill my wish, they would have to come back to life. Can you do that, Genie Bob?”
    â€œPiece of cake,” Bob replied.
    â€œThat’s creepy, bringing dead people back to life,” said Sophia. “It seems immoral, or illegal, or something. It sounds like human cloning.”
    â€œBut if we brought the Beatles back to life,” Anthony said, “they would make more great music.”
    â€œHow do
you
know?” Mia asked. “Maybe their new music would be
terrible
. They made all their records when they were young. If they made music now, it would be boring old dead-guy music.”
    â€œIf we’re going to bring somebody back from the dead, why bring back the Beatles?” asked Elizabeth. “Why not bring back Abraham Lincoln? He was a great man.”
    â€œOr we could bring back Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, or Gandhi,” suggested Hannah.
    â€œGandhi?” asked Christopher. “Who’s
that
?”
    â€œSome Indian dude,” Logan said.
    â€œIf I was going to bring back somebody from the dead, I would bring back Mel Blanc,” said Alex.
    â€œMel Blanc?” we all asked. “Who’s he?”
    â€œHe was the guy who did the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, and a bunch of other Looney Tunes characters,” Alex told us. “He’s my hero.”
    â€œOne guy did all those voices?” asked Isabella.
    â€œYeah. Mel Blanc did Barney Rubble in
The Flintstones
too,” Alex said. “Most people don’t know that.”
    â€œAnd you want to bring
that
guy back from the dead instead of Abraham Lincoln?” asked Elizabeth.
    â€œWell, yeah,” Alex said. “Then we would have more Looney Tunes cartoons. When Mel Blanc died, all those characters died with him.”
    â€œYou mean to tell me you can get any wish you want,” asked Hannah, “and the best you can come up with is that you want to see more cartoons?”
    â€œWell, I’d like to have a beach house too,” Alex said.
    â€œYou kids are pathetic,” said Genie Bob. “I hope the rest of ya came up with better wishes.”
    â€œMe too,”