"Oh no!" I cried. "Do I have to?"

"Yes!" said Mum. "Aunt Felicia is looking forward to seeing you."

"But it's so boring at Aunt Felicia's house," I said. "There's nothing to do."

"You can take Charlie for a walk," suggested Mum.

Taking Charlie for a walk wouldn't be too bad so I put my coat on and set off for Aunt Felicia's house. Aunt Felicia's lives at the other side of the village, right next to Mudwood. It doesn't take very long to get there on my bike and I was soon knocking on Aunt Felicia's front door.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT.

Aunt Felicia opened the door and slowly leaned towards me. Her big, sloppy lips wobbled right in front of my face.

"Give your Aunt Felicia a big, sloppy kiss then," she said.

'YUK!' I thought.

As Aunt Felicia moved closer I just managed to turn my head to the side.

SPLAT! Aunt Felicia's big, sloppy lips squelched against my cheek…

It was GROSS. "Hello, Aunt Felicia," I said. "I've come to take Charlie for a walk."

I tried to get Charlie ready for his walk as quickly as I could, but as soon as he saw his lead he went mental. Charlie was so excited that he ran round and round in circles chasing his tale.

"SIT!" I shouted. "SIT!" It took ages to get him to calm down but eventually he sat still long enough for me to put his lead on.

I opened the front door, shouted goodbye to Aunt Felicia, and Charlie pulled me off down the path.

"Slow down, Charlie," I shouted.

But Charlie didn't slow down. He pulled me all the way to Mudwood.

As soon as we got there I let Charlie off his lead and he went wild.

He rolled in the mud, he zoomed off into long grass and he whizzed off into the trees. When Charlie finally came back he had a huge stick in his mouth.

"That's much too big," I said. "Couldn't you have found a smaller stick."

Charlie dropped the stick at my feet and wagged his tail.

"All right, all right," I said, and picked up the huge stick.

"FETCH, BOY!" I shouted, and threw the stick back into the forest.

We played fetch for ages but after a while Charlie came back without his stick.

"Where is it boy?" I asked. "Go and fetch your stick."

Charlie ran off into the trees again and came back with a stick. It wasn't the big stick he'd had before. This one was much smaller.

"That's better," I said.

Charlie dropped the stick at my feet and then sat there wagging his tail and panting. As I bent down to pick up the stick I noticed something strange. There was something shining on the stick.

'What could that be?' I wondered. I picked the stick up and looked at it closely. There were seven little gold stars carved into the stick.

'How strange,' I thought, and held the stick up for a closer look.

As soon as I lifted the stick up, Charlie started barking and jumping up for it.

"Stop it Charlie," I said. "Keep still."

But Charlie did not keep still. He kept on jumping up for the stick and he nearly knocked me over.

"I wish you would keep still," I said, as I gave the stick a little flick, pretending I was going to throw it.

Suddenly, there was a big flash of light that almost blinded me. I closed my eyes quickly and when I opened them I was surprised to see that Charlie was standing still for once. He wasn't moving a muscle. In fact, he was standing as still as a statue.

I looked at the stick in amazement and noticed that one of the stars had disappeared. Now there were only six stars left.

'This must be a magic wand,' I thought. 'I bet it can do anything. I'll have to keep this to myself.'

I couldn't wait to get home and try the wand out properly so I set of back to Aunt Felicia's house. "Come on Charlie," I called. "Let's go home."

I expected Charlie to go racing past me towards Aunt Felicia's house, but Charlie didn't move. He was still standing their like a statue.

'Oh dear,' I thought. 'I will have to wish him back to normal.'

"I wish Charlie could move again," I said, and gave the wand a little flick.

There was another flash of light but this time I kept my eyes open. I saw sparkles of golden dust fly from the end of the wand as one of the stars disappeared. There was only five stars left now but at least Charlie was back to his old self. He ran around happily all the way back to Aunt Felicia's house.

I said goodbye to Aunt Felicia and managed to escape without getting another one of her horrible sloppy kisses.

I couldn't wait to try the wand properly so as soon as I got home I raced upstairs to my bedroom and shut the door.

'Now!' I thought. 'What shall I wish for?'

My first wish was easy. I wanted to be rich.

"I wish I could have a dumper truck full of gold every single day," I said and gave the wand a flick.

There was a bright flash of light and one more star disappeared in a cloud of golden dust leaving only four on the wand.

'This is easy,' I thought.

A loud rumbling sound filled the air and I rushed to the window. I could hardly believe my eyes...

An enormous, grey dumper truck was backing into our driveway. In the back of the truck there was a mountain of gold coins.

"YIPPEE!" I shouted… "We're rich."

I thought that having all that gold would be fantastic. I'd be able to buy anything I wanted.

That night I went to sleep and dreamt about all the things I would be able to buy with the gold. A new laptop, a pony, a Nintendo Wii, a limousine and lots of cool books. It would be fantastic.

The next morning, a loud noise woke me up.

'What on earth is that?' I wondered, sleepily.

I went to the window, looked outside, and saw another enormous, grey dumper truck backing into the driveway.

'Oh dear!' I thought, as a second mountain of gold was dumped in front of our house. The mountain of gold was so high that it covered the front door and we couldn't get out of the driveway. That wasn't too bad but after a couple more days the whole front of the house had been covered by the mountain of gold.

"This is terrible!" cried Mum. "It's going to squash the house."

I looked out of window at the mountain of gold coins that were pressed against it. I couldn't even get out of the house to spend any of it. Mum was right… it was terrible. There was only one thing I could do. I would have to get rid of the gold.

I ran upstairs to get the wand from its hiding place under my pillow. I thought it would have been safe there but when I got to my bedroom I was horrified to find my two little brothers playing with it.

"Get off that wand you little toads," I shouted and snatched the wand back.

"Give it back. Give it back," they yelled.

"I wish you really were toads," I shouted, and gave the wand a flick. "Then I could keep you locked up in a tank."

There was a bright flash of light and my brothers disappeared.

"Oh no," I said, and looked at the three stars that were left on the wand. "What have I done?"

"Ribbitt, ribbitt," said my brothers as they hopped towards the door leaving a trail of frog slime on the carpet.

"Yuk," I said. "Mum will go mad." I waved the wand again. "I wish you were in a tank," I said. FLASH…And there they were, safe and sound in the tank.

I looked at the magic wand in my hand and realised that another of the stars had disappeared. Now there was only two stars left and I still had to get rid of all that gold.

"I wish this gold would all go away," I said, and gave the wand another little flick. There was a bright flash of light and one more star disappeared. Now there was only one star left on the wand but at least the mountain of gold had disappeared and we'd be able to get out of the house.

I sat down on the floor in my bedroom to have a good think.

I had to be really careful what I whished for now. There was only one star left on the wand. That meant only one more wish. I could still wish for anything in the world. Anything I wanted. I could still have a brand new laptop, a pony of my very own, an amazing new Nintendo Wii, a long black limousine and lots of cool books. I could have anything at all. But I could only have one thing…so which one would it be?

"Ribbitt, ribbitt." I looked round and saw my two pesky little brothers watching me from inside their glass tank. They looked very miserable.

"Ribbitt, ribbitt," they said.

I looked at their sad, Toady eyes and tried to think what it was that I really wanted, but every time I thought I'd decided, one of my brothers said something.

"Ribbitt."

Then I made up my mind.

It was easy really. There was only one thing I really wanted. There was only one thing that could make me really happy.

I closed my eyes, held up the wand and gave it a little flick.

"I wish-"

Well… what do you think I wished for?

The End

Merlin's Wand © Tower View Primary School 2008