As we flicked through the book I watched Amanda's eyes light up at many of the pages that went by. Once or twice she paused as if ready to point out a particular fantastic idea or impossible whim that might have been dreamed up by a genius or a madman. But in the end she settled on one page in particular and for a long time remained silent.
I scanned the page and yet still remained mystified by just what had caused her to settle on this one in particular. Secretly I willed her to open her mouth and tell me what was so special about a page devoted to wood-cuttings of old traditional hand-made toys.
"This is going to sound wierd," she said at last.
"Amanda, I just used a magic ring to turn you into a book and back again...I think we can accept wierd as a motif for this whole experience."
"Ok, but did you see the movie "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang"?"
"Sure...the creepy child-catcher scared the shit out of me, still does." I wondered where this was going, was she going to tell me that she fantasized about becoming a flying automobile?
"Do you remember the scene where they hid from him in the toy shop?"
"I think so...didn't the four of them dress up as jack-in-the-boxes?"
"Yes."
I noticed that Amanda was blushing.
"You mean you want to be a jack-in-the-box?"
"Not a real one...just a costume, like in the film...I always wanted to hide in the box and jump out on someone...take them by surprise."
I smiled at Amanda's bashful admission and found that I was quite fond of the idea myself.
"On one condition," I said as I held up the ring, "I get to be the one you surprise!"
A second later I wished that Amanda was living and breathing jack-in-the-box.