After Ms. Warren dropped him off, Mikey found the spare key in the usual hiding place and quickly unlocked the door and ran upstairs to his room. Mikey wished himself up a new HDTV and XBox 360 with that Halo game his mom thought he was too young to play. Mikey snickered as his room expanded slightly into Jon's room to make room for the new equipment. Soon, Mikey was totally absorbed in the game. His fun was interrupted, though, when he heard the garage door opening. Looking at the clock, Mikey realized it was 2:00: the time his mother came home from her job as a secretary. "Shoot" Mikey "swore" under his breath, "she'll wonder why I'm home and where all this stuff came from." Thinking quickly, Mikey grabbed the stone and said, "I wish that Mom thought she had bought all this stuff for me and I wish that Mom thought I got a half day off school today!"
The stone did his thing, and not a moment too soon as Mikey turned to see his mom walking through his door. "Hey, sweetie," she said, "how was your half day?"
Mikey turned back to his game and droned, "Good."
Linda Madison looked around his room and said, "Well, since you got a couple hours to play before I got home, why don't you turn that thing off and come help me with some chores."
"But Mom..." Mikey whined. This was not what he had in mind when he wished for a half day off.
As usual, the whiny tone of Mikey's voice irritated his mother. "Don't 'but Mom' me young man," she said with a shriller voice. "Don't make me regret letting you have that stupid system. Its just a waste of time. Now I'm going to change and then go downstairs to the kitchen. If this thing isn't turned off and you down there by the time I get there, you're in deep trouble!"
Mikey was annoyed and deeply disappointed; he didn't want to have to do stupid chores and if this was how his mom was going to act about the Xbox, he may wind up wishing he didn't have it. Then an idea struck him. Grabbing the stone, Mikey said, "I wish Mom didn't mind me playing as much Xbox as I want, because she likes playing it even more than I do!"
