Curse of the Wish Eater (Frightville #2) - Mike Ford Page 0,2

county.”

Max’s mother looked at him. “Are you feeling okay?” she asked.

Max nodded. He didn’t mention that his father had never once made pancakes before.

“So, who were you talking about earlier?” his mother said. “All those people you wanted to know about? Elfie and Elsie? Those are funny names.”

Max hesitated. He didn’t know what was going on. If they weren’t playing a joke on him, was he dreaming? Or had the Wish Eater really granted his wish and he was now an only child? That was ridiculous, of course. But if it had granted the wish, where were his brothers and sisters now? If his family was teasing him, he decided, he could play that game too.

“Nobody,” he told his mother. “I was just joking around.”

“What do you say we go see the new Mutant Marauders movie this afternoon,” his father said. “Does that sound like fun?”

“Just us?” said Max. “Nobody else?”

“You can invite a friend if you want to,” his father said. “Otherwise, yeah, just us.”

Charlie had been begging their father to take them to the Mutant Marauders movie all week. There was no way he would let them go without him. Something was definitely up.

“Great,” Max said. “If you’re sure there’s nobody else who should come with us.”

His father laughed. “Well, your mother can come if she wants to.”

“Mutant Marauders?” Max’s mother said. “I think I’ll let you boys see that one on your own.”

“Looks like it’s just the two of us,” said Max’s father.

Max finished his pancakes, and went to get ready for the movie. He walked through the house, looking for any signs of his brothers and sisters. There were none. No toys. No clothes. Even the photos hanging on the wall showed only Max and his parents.

It was as if Elsie, Elfie, Charlie, and Arthur had never existed.

On the drive to the movie theater, Max tried to trick his dad into admitting that the whole family was playing an elaborate joke on him.

“Don’t Elsie and Elfie have a game this afternoon?” he mentioned as they drove past the softball field.

“Elsie and Elfie?” his father said, laughing. “My great-great-grandmother and her sister? I don’t think they’re in any shape to be playing softball. You know, since they’re dead and all.”

Max pretended to laugh too, as if he’d been making a joke. It was true that his sisters were named after his dad’s relatives, but it was a little weird how he could so easily pretend that his own daughters didn’t even exist. Part of Max was impressed by how committed he was to the joke, but another part started to feel uneasy about the whole thing.

He forgot about it during the movie, which was as awesome as he’d hoped it would be. But on the way out of the theater, he said, “We’ll have to come again with Charlie. He’ll love it,” and his father replied, “The kid you mentioned this morning? Sure. I’ll talk to his parents and make sure it’s okay with them, though.” Then Max felt the knot of worry in his stomach again.

He wanted to tell his dad to stop, that it wasn’t funny anymore. But he didn’t want to look like he couldn’t take a joke. He decided to wait and see what happened when they got home. Maybe while they were gone, his mother and siblings had put things back to normal. He bet that when he and his father walked in, everyone would be standing there with big grins on their faces, and the pictures of the whole family would be back where they belonged. Then he would laugh too, and they would all have spaghetti for dinner together like they always did on Saturday nights. He wouldn’t even mind if Arthur wanted to bang on a pot with a wooden spoon.

But when they got home and opened the door, the house was still quiet. The photos on the walls still showed only Max and his parents. There was no one watching TV, or making a mess in the kitchen, or listening to music that Max didn’t like. Instead, there was just his mother, sitting on the couch reading a magazine.

“How was the movie?” she asked.

“Great,” Max said. He sniffed the air, expecting to smell the scent of simmering sauce.

“Are you getting a cold?” his mother asked.

Max shook his head. “I was just wondering what’s for dinner,” he said. “It’s spaghetti night.”

“Spaghetti?” his mother said. “I guess that would be different. But I thought we’d order sushi, like usual.”

“Sushi?” said