I found the Wish Machine by chance in the attic. You can find the strangest things in our attic. The Wish Machine wouldn't have caught my attention if not for the bright white spots on its oval body - letters "W" and "M". I know all letters. Aunt Elly taught me all the letters a long time ago, when our king Howard was still young and would go hunting every day.

Then in the attic I didn't know that it was a Wish Machine and took it for an abandoned barrel which used to contain cedar infusion. One side of the wish barrel had a worn handle like barrel organs have. Sometimes in our courtyard we see an old organ-grinder with a lilliputian dragon on his shoulder.Bright emerald numbers were glowing between two letters on the barrel: nine naughts in a row and a five at the end. I know all numbers up to ten. I learnt them before I even learnt letters.

I noticed a sign on the handle, but I couldn't read it, because I can't make out words by joining letters yet. I thought then that it probably was an organ barrel. Only not the same as the old organ-grinder had, but maybe one which played different music. I turned the handle, and…