Page 35 - Book one - Flipbook

10

Dad Comes Home

JAXON PUTS THE newspaper on the kitchen table for his mom. He wonders where she is. He
hopes she isn’t in his room. He races up the stairs to make sure his bedroom door is still closed.

He hasn’t figured out how to make the shoes go away, yet. He can’t use his last wish. Looking at
the closed door, he thinks, I really don’t want to have the sneaker discussion with Mom.
He heads back downstairs to the kitchen, finishes the apple, and tosses the core in the trash
can. He looks at the clock and thinks, Where has the morning gone? But after giving it some
thought, he realizes a lot has happened this morning.
He’s still hungry, so he decides to have that bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice he didn’t
get to eat and drink earlier. He sits down at the table to eat, picks up the paper, and reads the

comics.
After a little while, he cleans his dishes and walks into the living room. Then he hears the front
door open. It’s his dad.
That’s right. It is close to noon.
His dad has a peculiar look on his face. He seems to be in a daze.
“What’s wrong, Dad? Are you okay?”
Jaxon hears something and turns to see his mom scurrying down the stairs. She looks at his
dad and asks worriedly, “Joe, are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Jaxon watches his mom come down the stairs. He’s thinking, Wow, Mom just shows up and

Dad’s home early.
“Not a ghost. But something is just not right.”
Jaxon looks at his mom. She winks at him and smiles.
Jaxon is a little confused about the wink. Then he decides his mom must know about him and
the necklace.
“Tell us what happened,” she says.
His dad shakes his head and begins to talk. “It started right after I spoke with Jaxon earlier

today. I hung up the phone and walked out of the office to the elevator to go to my meeting. The
elevator wasn’t there. It took me a minute to realize it really wasn’t there. I just stood there
staring at a blank wall.”
“So I walked up ten floors of stairs,” he says frowning, “Not fun.”