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Alyssa was not having a good day!
Her older brother had been fighting with her all afternoon.
Her mom kept giving her jobs to do, like feed the baby, change the baby, give the baby his bath.
And her baby brother just didn't seem to want to stop crying.
It was almost more than a seven year old girl could bear! All she wanted to do was to go to her room and get away from everyone, and so that's just what she did.
The chair in Alyssa's room was large and comfortable, and as she curled up in it, she began to think about the days events.
She wished her big brother wouldn't pick on her so much.
And she wished that her mother wouldn't give her so many jobs to do. She really wished her baby brother wouldn't cry so much.
She just wished her life could be different!
Suddenly her bedroom window blew open. The room got very dark, and she heard a loud bang and saw a puff of white smoke. When the smoke cleared she saw the strangest sight she had ever seen!
There, standing in the middle of the room, was a funny little man with a long white beard, a blue robe and a pointy hat!
"Hello Alyssa" he said in a deep, gruff voice. "I am the Wizard of Wishes, and you seem to have to have been wishing for a lot of things today!"
"You seem like a nice young lady, and so I will show you how to make your wishes come true."
Then he reached inside his robe and pulled out a beautiful spinning crystal. As it spun it reflected every color of the rainbow, and the colors sparkled and danced.
"When you want to make a wish," he said, "you must squeeze the crystal very tightly between your hands, so that it stops spinning. Then your wish will be granted."
And in an even deeper and gruffer voice he said, "But you must never let go of the crystal, for if you drop it or lose it, well, I'm afraid even I don't know what will happen to you."
And then there was another puff of smoke, and the Wizard vanished, but before the smoke cleared she heard his deep voice say "Goodbye Alyssa, good luck!"
While the crystal spun in her hands Alyssa wondered what she should do.
Could the Wizard have been telling the truth?
There was only one way to find out!
She squeezed the crystal tightly in her hands and thought about her rotten day and wished she could just get away from everyone for awhile.
Suddenly she felt quite dizzy, and the room seemed to be spinning.
And then she wasn't in her room anymore.
She was flying through a long dark tunnel with no end in sight!
She wondered what she had gotten herself into now!
When the dizziness passed, and she didn't feel like she was spinning anymore, Alysssa opened her eyes and found herself in the middle of a desert.
The sun was awfully hot, and the sand was even hotter!
There were a few palm trees and a small pond of water in front of her, but other than that, there was nothing but sand for as far as she could see.
She walked to the top of a sand dune and looked in every direction, but there was nothing to be seen but more sand.
She was truly away from everything here!
She went back to the trees and sat near the water hoping someone would come along.
Alyssa sat there for what seemed like forever, but no one came. This was certainly not what she had wanted.
It was so hot, she wished she were somewhere cool, with at least some people around!
She didn't realize it, but she had been holding the crystal very tightly as she thought about where she would like to be, and all at once the dizziness and spinning feeling came back, and she wasn't in the desert anymore.
She was standing by a stream in a cool damp forest.
The trees must have been hundreds of feet tall because she couldn't see the tops of them.
There were strange ferns and plants that she had never seen before.
And there, on the muddy bank of the stream, were footprints!
Thank goodness, at least there was someone here!
She started to follow the tracks in the mud, and soon she came to a clearing with a very strange little village in the center.
There were mud huts, and open fires, and people, at least Alyssa thought they were people.
They were all hunched over, not really standing upright, and had very long arms and huge heads.
Everyone was clothed in what looked like animal skins, and they all had long shaggy hair. The men carried clubs, and even the women and children had poles or sticks in their hands.
And now they had noticed her!
Soon everyone was gathered around Alyssa, and it was getting mighty uncomfortable!
The men grunted and muttered at her.
The women pulled at her long brown hair, and the children poked and prodded her with their sticks.
This was much worse than any torment her brother had ever put her through!
Just when she thought she couldn't take any more of this, everyone stopped and turned their heads toward the forest. Something was coming, and it was making an awful lot of noise!
Alyssa could see trees being brushed aside and knocked over. Whatever this was, it was going to be big!
And then the last tree was pushed aside, and there it was.
Standing at the edge of the clearing was a fifty foot tall dinosaur, and it looked hungry!
The villagers had started to scatter and Alyssa was left alone in the clearing.
The beast was looking at her as if it were wondering if she would make a tasty snack, and Alyssa certainly didn't want to end up being a dino-treat, so she squeezed the crystal as hard as she could and wished she could get out of there in a hurry!
There was no spinning or dizzy feeling this time.
Instead she found herself in a rocket ship hurtling away from the earth at a fantastic speed.
She looked back and saw her home planet getting smaller and smaller.
"Where in the world have I wished myself to now?" she wondered.
When she could no longer see the earth behind her she looked out the front of the ship as saw a strange planet with rings around it coming into view.
The rocket seemed to be doing everything automatically, so she just sat back and waited for whatever was to come next.
The ship landed on a platform in the middle of a city made of bright shiny metal.
There were three suns in the sky, and a loud hum, like machinery, was coming from all the buildings.
Alyssa climbed down the ladder from the ship and was met by a large robot who moved around on one wheel.
"Welcome to the planet Noworkus." said the robot in a buzzing sort of voice.
"Here you will have no jobs to do and no responsibilities." he said. "We robots do all the work. You may do whatever you wish, no one will ask anything of you."
"You are the only human to ever visit our planet."
Alyssa didn't think that sounded too bad, she could lay around all day and wouldn't have to take orders from anybody.
"I'll give it a try!" she said, and the robot left.
Alyssa wandered through the cold metal streets, and looked in the cold metal buildings where all the cold metal robots were busy doing whatever it was they were doing.
She began to get a little lonely and homesick, and she wondered if she'd made a big mistake wishing for the things she had.
She certainly wasn't any happier here.
Then she heard something whirring and clacking and grinding behind her. She turned to see a crazy looking robot coming at her!
His arms were swinging and Alyssa felt one cold pincher grab her shoulder.
She was trying to run but the robot had a firm grip on her arm, and she dropped the crystal!
She knew she was done for now, the crystal had shattered on the cold metal street, and the robot was shaking her and calling her name, "Alyssa, Alyssa, Alyssa!" it kept saying.
And then she woke up.
She was in her big comfortable chair at home, and her mother was gently tapping her shoulder and saying "Alyssa, Alyssa, wake up, it's almost time for supper."
It had all been a dream! She was safe and had never been so happy to see her mom.
She hugged and kissed her mother, and then ran down the hall to the baby's room and kissed him too.
Alyssa went running through the house looking for her brother, hopeing maybe she could get him to tease her or pick a fight with her. Anything at all, she was just so happy to be home!
Alyssa had learned a lot about herself today. She knew now that her life really wasn't so bad, that it was pretty good actually!
And there was no place she would rather be than home!
"That girl sure is happy now!" thought Alyssa's mother as she straightened up the room.
"But how on earth did her shoes get so full of sand?"
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