Darren was fed up. After a bad day at school – too much Mathematics and French – he was wearily climbing the hill from the bus stop to his home. What a day! After those boring lessons, he had been picked on for nothing at lunchtime by the Grimley Estate gang. His attempts to impress Kate – a girl he rather liked despite mum saying he was too young for girlfriends – had gone from bad to worse with that Grimley Estate gang incident. To cap it all, he was bringing home a school report which was a complete disaster! Now, it was starting to rain!

Suddenly Darren saw a silver bracelet lying on the ground before him. He picked it up to find it was quite elastic, in spite of looking very solid, and out of interest he tried it on his wrist.

“I wonder who THIS belongs to?” he asked out loud.

“I’m yours Master,” replied the bracelet – much to Darren’s surprise, “and I can grant you almost anything you wish!”

After he had stopped gaping, Darren asked, ” Are you a genie or something?”

“No, but you can ask me almost anything, and I will make it so!”

“Okay, I want the weather to be hot and sunny.”

“Over what area Master?”

“Over the whole of the weather map on the telly.”

“The whole British Isles.”

“Yes.”

Suddenly there was a great wind, and the clouds were blown away. The wind stopped and a hot sun shone down. Not bad for February!

“Wow!” said Darren, “Ace! Well, okay then, I’d like to be outside my garden gate right now! “

Before he could blink Darren found himself standing outside his house.

“Yes!” yelled Darren, clasping his hands together. Then, after a thought, “I’d like to have an excellent – but believable – school report please!”

Darren removed that report from its envelope, and beamed!

“Thanks, that’s just right. Eh, what’s your name?”

“Whatever you choose to call me Master.”

“Mmm. let me think over that one.”

After his tea, Darren sat on his bed, completely surrounded by toys and sweets that he had wished for. He looked very thoughtful.

“Are you male or female?” he asked the bracelet.

“Neither, Master.”

“Mmm., okay then, I’ll call you `Silver`, to match your colour, if that’s all right with you.”

“Yes, Master.”

“And you can call me Darren.”

“Yes, Darren.”

“Right, now first of all I want Kate Smith of twenty – one Woodside Close to like me an awful lot! Secondly, I wish that everyone would think I was just ace, except my best mate Gordon and my cousin John – I’d like them to still see me as I am so’s they can keep giving me good advice. Especially John – he’s older and cleverer than us.”

“Darren, telephone!” yelled mum, up the stairs. Seconds later, Darren took the receiver.

“Hello, Darren, this is Kate from school. I was wondering if I could come over so we could work together on our history homework?”

Of course, Darren invited Kate over. Then he asked Silver to transport him to the shopping precinct where he knew the Grimley Estate gang hung out. There they all were, lounging about as usual. One of them pointed at Darren and shouted abuse. At a signal they all got up and began to approach Darren.

The next moment, they suddenly found themselves slipping everywhere, as though on ice, and then bombarded by a local hailstorm. By the time they could see again they were soaked to the skin, and Darren had vanished!

That evening Darren got on well with Kate, AND completed that homework! The next morning Silver made time stop for a few hours, so Darren could have a lie in! That evening he got together with Gordon and John, best friend and cousin, and told them all about Silver. One or two “miracles” soon put aside all their doubts.

To Be Continued.

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Paul Butters