The Secret Ingredient of Wishes Read Free Page A

it. And she could never let that happen again.
    With her brother and parents gone, Mary Beth was the closest thing Rachel had to family. And they protected each other with a fierceness reserved for few others. Even though the thought of leaving her sent Rachel’s heartbeat into warp speed, the only way to ensure she didn’t accidentally bring any harm to Mary Beth or her family was to leave town. Put space between her and wishes she couldn’t bear to have go wrong. Loneliness had to be easier to live with than being responsible for ruining more lives.
    â€œI’m sorry, Mae. I’ll fix it. I promise.”
    *   *   *
    She had a little money saved. Not much, but it was enough to get her out of town and keep her from going hungry until she could figure out a permanent solution to her wish problem. From the hall closet, Rachel unearthed the spiral-bound map her parents had used to plan all of their vacations when she was little, and she carried it to her room. The pages were smooth and sturdy from lack of use. They made a low slapping sound when she pulled her thumb along the edges. Closing her eyes, Rachel fanned through it again. After a few seconds, she stopped and looked down at the page. Ohio.
    â€œNo,” she said and tried again.
    Delaware.
    â€œDon’t think so.”
    Missouri.
    â€œShit,” she grumbled. She tossed the map onto the foot of the bed. A few pages fluttered from the impact and the blue of the Atlantic Ocean caught her attention. Grabbing the spiral, she pulled the map back into her lap and studied it. North Carolina. She traced her finger across Tennessee and farther along I-40 as it stretched the length of both states, ending at the coast. “A beach could be nice.”
    Half an hour later, Rachel had a duffel bag of clothes on her shoulder and a box of keepsakes, including her box of collected wishes, which she couldn’t leave behind, tucked against her side. After one last check of her room to make sure she had everything she wanted, Rachel pulled the door shut behind her. She ran her hand along the smooth stretch of wall at the top of the stairs where her brother’s door would have been—if she hadn’t made him disappear. She stopped herself from whispering goodbye, and then she walked away.

 
    3
    Not long after Rachel passed the North Carolina border, her relief at finally making it out of Tennessee evaporated. A rockslide had taken out part of the interstate that wound through the mountains and forced her to detour onto a smaller highway that headed more south than east. Her map sat abandoned on the passenger seat as she focused on following the steep, curving mountain roads.
    She must’ve missed the signs signaling the end of the detour after the road flattened out again because the other cars she’d been with since somewhere after Knoxville had disappeared. Most of the towns she drove through now were blink-and-you’ll-miss-it small, and she cringed at the thought of living somewhere where everyone knew you. Rachel had grown used to the anonymity that came with living in a larger city, and even though she’d lived in Memphis her whole life, she kept to herself and no one besides Mary Beth noticed.
    She was just thinking about the new places she would discover at the end of her drive when her car sputtered to a stop in the middle of one of these tiny towns. She glanced at the car’s dashboard, where the needle on the gas gauge hung below E. She was sure the last time she’d checked, barely fifteen minutes ago, she’d had close to half a tank. “Shit.” She slapped her palm on the steering wheel, heaving a frustrated sigh.
    Rachel’s right calf, stiff and sore from hours of driving, cramped as she got out of the car. Even lifting her feet as high as she could, her shoes still scraped the concrete as she walked. Branches from knobby oak trees hung across the narrow street, their leaves