"So, what animal are you going to pick?" Parker elbowed me as we walked to school together.
"I told you, I don't know." Parker was my little brother, and he could be pretty obnoxious.
"Tell me again how you got it?" he pestered me. He was eight, and I knew he looked up to me, but having him following me around all the time was tiresome. I sighed and launched into my story.
"I went to the carnival yesterday," I started.
"With Beth Finko!" he interrupted.
"Yes, with Beth Finko. She went to chat with some friends and I saw a strange-looking tent."
"The fortune teller's tent!"
"Do you want to tell this story, or do you want me to?" I asked in an annoyed tone.
"You tell it, Chase."
I continued. "The fortune teller wasn't your typical fortune teller. He was a short, fat, balding man with a moustache. His name was Murphy."
Parker laughed. He thought Murphy was the funniest name he'd ever heard. I rolled my eyes.
"Murphy predicted my future, and when he was done, he showed me a big burlap sack. He said it was filled with magical stones. They each held a different power, but would only work if the picker's energy was in tune with the stone's. He said it was a very rare occurrence, but that he had a good feeling about me. I closed my eyes and stuck my hand in the bag, and they were all freezing cold, like the bag was full of ice cubes."
I had Parker's full attention now. He had heard this story at least twelve times since the previous day, and had been just as enthralled, each time. I guess I couldn't blame him, I had been pretty shocked myself, to feel ice cold stones in the middle of August!
"I dug around and suddenly felt one stone that wasn't cold. It was warm, like it had been sitting out in the sun all day. I grabbed it and it felt like it started to vibrate. I pulled it out of the bag, and it was glowing. Murphy couldn't believe it. He said that most people just try to pick whichever stone is the biggest."
"Show me the stone, Chase, I wanna see it again!"
I pulled a polished rock from my pocket. It was dark green with black swirls. I could feel the hum of vibration from it. The glow was too faint to see in the sun, but in the dim light of the strange fortune teller's tent, it had been very clear.
"Murphy said it was a jungle stone. He said that since plants in the jungle grow larger than regular plants, I could use my stone to make any animal grow huge, too. All I had to do was look at an animal, turn the stone over in my hand three times, and whisper the kind of animal I wanted to make bigger. And that's it."
Parker shook his head. "The rules, you forgot the rules!"
I rolled my eyes again. "Oh yeah, the rules. As I was leaving, he told me it would only work once, and the effects would last for four hours. He said not to use it anywhere indoors. And he said not to use it at the stroke of midnight."
"So, what animal are you going to pick?"
I shoved the stone back in my pocket. "Parker! That's the fortieth time you've asked me that! I have no idea what animal I'm going to pick, and if you don't quit bugging me about it, I'll wait until you're not around and do it without you!"
Parker's eyes grew wide. "Sorry, Chase. I'm just excited, that's all. I've never seen anything magical happen. If I had the stone, I'd pick a rabbit. Or maybe a spider, to scare the girls in my class. Or a poodle!"
He cracked himself up with that one, and even I had to let out a small chuckle at the mental image of a giant poodle running around our town for an afternoon. The truth was, I didn't really believe the stone would work. I mean, who believes in magic, right? A guy my age has no time for silly kid's tales. Maybe I would give it to Parker. I bet he'd love that. I reached into my pocket. When I felt the stone vibrate again at my touch, I thought maybe I should hang onto it for the time being. Parker could always have it later. He'd probably forget all about it in a few weeks anyway.
After school that afternoon, Parker and I were playing baseball in our front yard when three boys from his class walked by. They saw us and started laughing. "Hey, look, it's Pansy Parker who believes in magic! I bet you believe in the tooth fairy, too!"
I looked at Parker questioningly. He looked down at the ground and said, "I told my class about your stone and nobody believed me." He looked really upset.
I suddenly felt very angry and stormed over to the kids. Parker may be a pain in the butt most of the time, but he was still my little brother and it was my job to watch out for him. I growled, "Back off and leave Parker alone!"
To my surprise, the young punks sneered at me. "And what are you going to do if we don't? Do you believe in magic, too? Parker's older brother is a pansy, too!" They laughed. I glanced down at my balled fists and caught sight of a snail on the sidewalk. I was suddenly struck by inspiration. I pulled out the jungle stone and the bullies got quiet for a moment when they saw the faint glow of it in the dim light of dusk. I stared hard at the snail, turning the stone over in my hand three times. Then I held it up to my mouth and whispered, "Snail."
They looked down at the snail. Nothing happened. They started laughing again, even harder. That's when the snail began to glow like the stone. The boys didn't even notice, but Parker had come over and was watching it.
"Look," he said excitedly. "It's growing!"
Sure enough, the little garden snail was getting bigger. Before we knew it, the snail was the size of a deck of cards. Then it grew to the size of a bread box. It was vibrating and humming with the magic of the stone, and I was afraid it was going to explode. Bigger and bigger it grew, as we all stepped back to give it room to expand. We watched in shock as the snail grew to the size of our kitchen table. Then a minivan. No wonder Murphy told me not to use the stone indoors! The snail just kept on growing and growing, and all we could do was stare at it, our mouths dropped open in shock. Finally, when it was the size of our house, the snail stopped growing and the glow faded. Parker and I stood beside the snail craning our necks to look up at its huge shell. The other boys were in front of the giant creature, watching its eyestalks move around in confusion.
Finally, one of them broke the stunned silence. "A snail? You had a magical stone to grow any animal in the world and you grew a stinking snail? You really ARE a pansy!" Before he could continue his remarks, the giant snail lurched forward. The punks all screamed and started to run away. They didn't get very far.
The disgusting squelch Parker and I heard as the slimy creature crawled over the three punks was the most satisfying sound I had ever heard. We listened to their muffled shouts as the monster slowly made its way over them, and Parker and I rolled on the ground laughing. When the snail had crawled totally over them, they were laying plastered to the sidewalk by a layer of green snail snot that was so thick I knew they'd spend weeks in the bath and still not get all the gooey muck out of their hair. Their faces were frozen in terrified shock. Parker and I high-fived. Then we watched my magical giant snail crawl off into the sunset.
We didn't bother following him. We had already seen him do everything we could have ever possibly hoped for.