"That's not important. What's important is that I got it, though I think the batteries are dying. I wanted to pop in right next to the troll but this thing put me ten feet above him."
"Who's the Nome King?" Daphne said.
"You've never heard of the Nome King?"
The girls shook their heads. "Dad didn't tell us anything. Didn't we already cover this?" Daphne said.
"Henry forbid them from reading fairy tales, too," Granny Relda explained.
"He what? That's crazy. OK, the Nome King is from the Oz books--
Ozma of Oz if
I'm correct--the third of Baum's histories. The Nome King was the ruler of an underground kingdom underneath a land called Ev that was across the desert from Oz. I hear it's all condos and golf courses now. Anyway, Dorothy Gale washed up on the beach there after she fell off a boat."
"Dorothy is a little accident-prone," Granny said, rolling her eyes.
"I met her about a year ago. She's a tornado chaser in Kansas. She's got nerves of steel. Anyway, Dorothy managed to get the belt away from the little man and it helped her get back to Kansas. It works just like the magic slippers. Imagine yourself somewhere and--bingo-bango!--you're there!"
"And it runs on batteries?" Sabrina said, not quite sure if her uncle was pulling her leg.
"Yeah, twelve of the big ones and they get drained pretty fast. It costs me almost thirty bucks every time I use this thing--even if it's just to pop up across the street."
"You could always walk," Granny muttered.
"You haven't changed a bit, have you?" Uncle Jake said with a laugh. "Still antimagic?"
"I'm not antimagic. I just think it makes people lazy and is very addictive. Before you know it, all you can think about is magic rings and wands and flying carpets."
"That reminds me of a funny story. Once Hank and I got the magic carpet out and--"
"Why don't we use the belt to find Mom and Dad?" Sabrina interrupted.
"Sorry, 'Brina," Uncle Jake said. "You have to know an exact location. But don't worry, Jake Grimm is on the case. We're going to get your parents home in no time. That's why I came back to town."
Sabrina grinned from ear to ear.
"It's getting late and we all need our rest," Granny said. "We can start back up on this trip down memory lane in the morning."
"What about Puck?" Daphne said, tossing a slice of pizza into the air for Elvis to catch in his hungry jaws.
"He'll be back when he's ready. The boy has slept outside most of his life. He'll be fine," the old woman assured them. "Jacob, I'll get some blankets and a pillow for you. You can sleep on the couch tonight."
"Why can't I sleep in my own room?" Uncle Jake complained.
"It's not your room anymore," the old woman said. "I gave it to Mirror after you left."
"You gave my room to the magic mirror?" Jake cried. "He doesn't need his own room. You could put him in a closet and he wouldn't care."
"Come along, lieblings"
the old woman said, ignoring her son's complaint.
The girls climbed the stairs to bed, stopping in the bathroom to wash their faces and hands, and brush their teeth. Daphne slipped into her favorite pair of footy pajamas, then helped Sabrina put on an old T-shirt and flannel pajama bottoms. The sisters crawled into bed.
"Can you believe we have an uncle?" Daphne said.
"I can believe just about anything with this family," Sabrina answered. "I wonder why Dad never told us about him."
"I guess he was trying to protect us from all of this, but…"
"But what?"
Daphne pointed at a photo hanging on the wall. In it, two boys sat on a steep hill overlooking the Hudson River. Sabrina knew one of the boys was her father and had always assumed the other was a childhood friend. Looking at the second boy closely, she saw the now familiar quirky grin. "Well, there's only this one picture of Uncle Jake in the whole house."
"So?"
"So that's not how a mom acts," Daphne said. "Think about all the pictures Mom took of us. They were all over the apartment. Since we moved here, Granny's taken at least a million of us. There are pictures of Mom and Dad, Grandpa, and Mr. Canis all over the place. There's three dozen of Elvis in the living room alone. Why not Uncle Jake?"
"That is a little odd," Sabrina said.
"And why isn't there a journal for Uncle Jake on the shelves? It seems like Granny was trying to hide him from us," Daphne said. "She went to a lot of trouble to make it seem like he was never born."
*
A tap on the window woke Sabrina. Unsure if she had imagined it, she lay in bed until she heard it again.
Puck! He lost his keys and needs me to let him in the house.
She climbed out from under her blankets and went to the window. When she peered out she saw her father and mother standing in the yard below. Sabrina tried to open the window but couldn't, quickly remembering that Mr. Canis had nailed it shut for their protection shortly after the girls arrived.