Catherine Russell

Age 13
S2, Stirling High School, Stirling

Katie and the Magic Lava Lamp

Katie raced away from the market clutching the lava lamp. She could hear the owner of the stall that she’d taken it from pounding after her.

Katie was in care because her mother had disappeared two years earlier. She often stole things for dares. She could feel the lamp bouncing roughly in her arms. Suddenly there was a loud popping noise and a veiled woman on a flying carpet appeared beside her.

‘I am the genie of the lamp and can grant you three wishes!’ the woman said.

‘I wish I was invisible,’ gasped Katie.

The stallholder rushed past her looking about in confusion.

‘Wow,’ panted Katie. ‘That was cool! I wish you were my Mum!’

The genie removed her veil and smiled. Katie gasped. It was her Mum.

‘What’s happening?’ she cried.

‘Do you remember the argument we had when I said you couldn’t go to the Busted concert because you had to study for your exams?’ asked Katie’s Mum. ‘You were really angry and wished that I would lighten up. Well, I’ve been floating in this lava lamp ever since.’

‘I wish that I had never said that,’ said Katie.

Everything went black, there was a whooshing sound and Katie found herself back in her old sitting room with a pile of notes in front of her.

‘Exams,’ she thought, and rolled her eyes. ‘I wish I knew what the questions were going to be.’