How do you make a bent stick stright?

Depending on what species of wood you are speaking of (The harder the wood the more difficult it will be) Is it a softwood or Hardwood? You can build a little makeshift "Steam Box" and place the wood in for a while and then take it out and place it in a jig to keep it straight while it cools and hopefully it will stay straight for you. Odd question though, most people want to know how to bend wood, which would be done in the same manner as I stated above except for the jig would be more the shape you wwanted. If too extreme of bend is called for the you would have to do it in stages.