“Who is this woman?” Henry asked.
“She’s our caseworker,” Sabrina explained. “When you vanished we were sent to live in an orphanage. She placed us with foster parents.”
“Horrible, evil foster parents,” Daphne said. “She sent us to live with a man who was terrified of soap!”
“Don’t forget the family that had a Bengal tiger living in their house!” Sabrina said.
“And the guy who rented us out as dogcatchers for his Korean restaurant.”
Veronica stepped forward and snatched Smirt by the collar. “Have you been mistreating my children?”
“I did what I thought was best,” Smirt sputtered as she tried to break free from Veronica’s grip. Sabrina remembered how much her mother enjoyed rock climbing—she was crazy strong. Smirt squirmed like a worm on a hook.
“If I ever see you within twenty miles of my children again you’ll wish you were never born,” Veronica said.
“Are you threatening me?” the caseworker said.
“No,” Veronica replied. “But my fist is.”
Smirt squeaked and scampered back onto the train.
“We have to throw some forgetful dust on her,” Sabrina said to Uncle Jake. “She knows too much. In fact, you should do the whole train.”
“Do everyone but Smirt,” Daphne said. Jake smiled and hopped onto the train with a handful of pink powder.
“Why not Smirt?” Sabrina demanded. “You told her everything. She’ll go back to New York City and tell everyone what she knows.”
“Exactly,” Daphne said with a grin. “She’s going to go back to the orphanage with this crazy story and they’ll think she’s a nutcase. They’ll fire her.”
Sabrina was astounded with the little girl’s plan. It was almost like something she would have concocted herself. In fact, it was better.
“Henry, Veronica, we have a lot of catching up to do,” Granny Relda said.
“I’ll say,” Veronica agreed.
“Forget it, Mom. We’re leaving as soon as the girls are packed,” Henry said.
“Leaving?” Granny cried.
Sabrina and Daphne eyed one another in astonishment.
Henry nodded. “We’re getting out of Ferryport Landing as fast as we can.”
ig brother, this is not one of your best ideas. You’re forgetting you’ve been off the radar for two years,” Uncle Jake said when he returned from the train. “Most people think you and Veronica are dead. Your apartment was sold. You don’t have a job. You’ve got a mountain of paperwork to go through before you can get at any of your money, and if you were smart you’d steer clear of that caseworker and the board of child welfare until you can prove that you and Veronica are really the girls’ parents. All of this will take weeks to sort out. Come back to the house—we can help.”
“He makes a good point, Henry,” Veronica said. “Maybe we should stay put until we get everything settled.”
Henry shook his head stubbornly. “Getting out of Ferryport Landing is more important than all those details. We’ll manage.”
Granny Relda’s face fell. She looked on the verge of tears. Sabrina had never seen her so upset. “But, Henry—”
“It’s not open for discussion, Mom,” he said sharply.
Sabrina’s mom frowned but kept her tongue. Everyone else looked uncomfortable.
The group trudged up the embankment quietly and found the family’s ancient car parked nearby. A quart of oil had leaked onto the sidewalk beneath its engine and a mysterious green fluid was seeping from the muffler. The old jalopy was a collection of illfitting parts from dozens of different car models and maybe a tank. Its best days were behind it—if it ever had best days. Now it looked like a wounded animal waiting for the Grim Reaper to come and put it out of its misery.
“Did you all come in this car?” Sabrina asked, looking around for another vehicle. “This old rust bucket is big, but you couldn’t fit everyone and the bears inside even if you squeezed.”
“That was my doing,” Uncle Jake said with a grin. He reached into one of his many jacket pockets and took out a small wooden box. Inside was a green dust that spun like a tiny hurricane.
Daphne’s eyes lit up with wonder. “What’s that?”
“It’s called stretching powder. Sprinkle a little of this on anything and you can make it as big or as small as you want. I blew a handful into the inside of the car. It’s big enough for a whole forest of bears now.”
“Gravy!” Daphne said, eyeing the green particles.
“Gravy?” Sabrina asked.
“It’s my new word. It means something is cooler than cool,” Daphne said, turning her attention back to Uncle Jake. “Where did you get it?”
“This is one of the first magical items I ever collected. Picked it up from the little old woman who lived in a shoe. She used this to get all seventy of her rug rats inside an old penny loafer.”