Charlie had only seen her great-aunt once or twice in her entire life, so she wasn’t sure she’d even recognize the woman. However, as the minutes dragged on, that proved to be less and less of a problem. No one drove up the driveway to collect her grandpa.
Suddenly, a bright flash shined out from her grandpa’s house. Charlie peeked through the window to see what had caused it. It was hard to see past all her grandpa’s furniture, but Charlie saw that a beautiful older woman had appeared in the living room. She had bright blue eyes and long white hair, and she wore a sparkling robe and headband made of silver flowers.
“Conner? Are you ready yet?” the woman called to him.
Charlie heard thumps as Mr. Bailey came down the stairs from the second floor.
“Sorry, I just remembered to pack!” he said.
“What do you mean, you just remembered?” the old woman asked. “We’ve had this trip planned for months. Are you taking the memory potion I left you?”
“I was until I forgot about it,” Mr. Bailey said. “I found it in the fridge this evening and everything came back to me. You wouldn’t believe how worried I was without it—I couldn’t remember where you were and thought something terrible had happened to you when we were kids.”
“You crazy old man,” she said. “When I bring you back home, I’m going to leave a note in every room of your house to remind you to take it. Now come along, everyone is so excited to see you. Red’s throwing an elaborate banquet for you, but fair warning, it’s just an excuse to perform her one-woman rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Oh, and word to the wise, Goldilocks broke another hip teaching her grandkids how to do back handsprings. You know how sensitive she gets about injuries, so don’t call attention to it—especially if Jack and Froggy start joking about it.”
“My lips are sealed,” Mr. Bailey said. “I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, too. I’m not even there yet, but it already feels good to be back. Lead the way, Alex.”
Another bright flash of light beamed out of the house. It was a few moments before Charlie could see again. By the time her eyes adjusted, her grandpa and great-aunt had vanished. Charlie knew they couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air, so she climbed through an open window and searched the house.
“Grandpa? Aunt Alex?” she called. “Where’d you guys go?”
Suddenly, Charlie heard a mysterious vibration coming from above her. She followed the strange noise all the way up the stairs and into the attic. The attic was covered in dust and filled with boxes of her grandpa’s old junk. Charlie searched the room for whatever was making the odd sound but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
Just as she was about to give up and head home, Charlie spotted something out of the corner of her eye. In the middle of the dusty floor was a large emerald-green storybook she had never seen before. Charlie picked up the book, blew the dust off the cover, and read the golden title across the top.
“The Land of Stories?” she said. “Hmmm, that sounds familiar.”
Although she was convinced her eyes were playing tricks on her, Charlie watched in amazement as the storybook’s pages started to glow….
The End
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank Rob Weisbach, Alla Plotkin, Alvina Ling, Heather Manzutto, Derek Kroeger, Rachel Karten, Lindsey Tillotson, Eugene Shevertalov, Marcus Colen, and my wonderful team at ICM.
The Land of Stories series would not have been possible without Megan Tingley, Melanie Chang, Andrew Smith, Nikki Garcia, Jessica Shoffel, Carol Scatorchio, Jackie Engel, Kristin Dulaney, Svetlana Keselman, Emilie Polster, Janelle DeLuise, Bethany Strout, Jen Graham, Sasha Illingworth, Virginia Lawther, and everyone at Little, Brown.
Thanks to Jerry Maybrook for surviving over a dozen audiobooks with me, and to the incredible Brandon Dorman for bringing my words to life.
Last but not least, thank you to Will Sherrod, Ashley Fink, and Pam Jackson, and of course my family. Your love and patience has made this adventure possible.