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Lewis was not, actually, all that bad. He was an only child, more than a bit spoiled and because his parents were always on the move jobwise , found it hard to mix and make new friends. “Could you make somebody like me?” he blurted out.
    “The whole country if you like,” offered Casimir obligingly.
    “No, no. Just Peter, Jack and Colin and … and … perhaps thepeople at school. You know, the teachers as well.”
    “Done,” Casimir smiled triumphantly.
    And with a sinking heart, Lewis realized too late that he had been very neatly outsmarted. It was then that the phone had started to ring. It hardly stopped all morning and most of his class came to say goodbye. Peter, Jack and Colin, he thought, had been really sorry about the dare but with the djinn’s magic floating round the place, he couldn’t be sure if they were telling the truth. The class had given him a wonderful send off but knowing that their feelings were the result of magic, left Lewis less than impressed and looking back on it, he was furious with himself for wasting his first wish.
    He shifted in his seat and sighed as he took stock of the situation. Mind you, it wasn’t all bad, he reckoned. Most of the time, he forgot that the djinn was there at all for it didn’t interrupt his thoughts or speak to him the whole time. In fact, it seemed that the only time he could talk to the djinn was when he was standing in front of a mirror. In this, he was totally mistaken, as he was soon to find out, but at the time he believed it and relaxed. It might, actually, work out quite well, he thought, looking on the bright side. Not everybody, after all, could have a wish granted every day. He might even have some fun!

    His mother didn’t stop talking from the time she met them at Edinburgh Airport till they reached the huge house she’d rented in Heriot Row. It had been pouring with rain when they’d landed and Lewis wasn’t at all sure if he was going to like living in Edinburgh. He looked round. The house was grey, the street was grey and the rain was grey. Even his father felt it. “We’re going to miss the sun and the sand, Lewis,” he said tiredly. “And, if anything, Aberdeen is greyer than Edinburgh!”
    “This is Mrs Sinclair, Bob,” his mother said as the door opened. “Lewis, say hello to Mrs Sinclair, our housekeeper.She has kindly agreed to stay on while the Robinsons are in America. I’ve been telling Lewis,” she said to the housekeeper, “that he’ll have to keep his room tidy so that you don’t have to climb all those stairs every day!”
    “That’s very kind of you, Mrs Grant,” the housekeeper replied, looking dubiously at Lewis. Jeans, long, black hair and very strange eyes. She hardly heard what Mrs Grant was saying as she tried to shrug off the feeling of unease that shivered through her.
    “Your room is right at the top of the house, I’m afraid, Lewis,” his mother was saying apologetically. “It’s a nuisance but none of these old Edinburgh houses have lifts.”
    Lewis looked at the housekeeper, a prim, starched-looking lady with iron-grey hair. “Don’t worry about me, Mrs Sinclair,” he said in his politest voice. “I’ll make my own bed and keep my room clean and tidy.”
    Had his mother not been so anxious to keep on the right side of Mrs Sinclair, she might well have shown some suspicion at this announcement. Since when had Lewis ever lifted a duster, made his own bed or picked up his clothes?
    Somehow Lewis managed to keep the smile on his face but his mind was in turmoil — for it hadn’t been him that had spoken , it had been the djinn! He felt slightly sick at the thought that the djinn had been able to make him say words that weren’t his own. Goodness knows what trouble that could land him in! He trembled slightly as he watched the suitcases being brought into the house, devastated by the knowledge that the djinn had more power over him than he’d thought!
    Nevertheless, he quickly cottoned on