Graceful

  He said it was like …

  Magic!

  Yes!

  No, I mean it WAS magic!

  What do you mean?

  I mean, there’s no way heads aren’t going to turn when the star of the biggest movie of the summer comes into a supermarket. Grace must have done it.

  OMG, you’re right!!!!

  The Hamburglar is never wrong.

  GTG, thanks!

  Rory: OMG did you fix it somehow so Jake can go out in public without being recognized?

  Grace: Maybe.

  You did?! OMG, I’m crying. I can barely see to type. How can I thank you? Why did you do it? How did you do it?

  I kept thinking about what you said the other day about how hard it was for Jake, and you were so kind to drop everything and come with me to the library when you were dealing with Madison and her mean comments, and I thought if only there was a way to make it so that when Jake didn’t want to be recognized, he wouldn’t be. It’s called a glamour. It’s like a mask he puts on so he looks different to other people.

  Like when Amanda and Leo went back in time to your birthday parties!

  Yes! That’s how I knew I could do it, since Angelina had done it to them. He’s not really changing or anything. He still looks like himself, except when he doesn’t want to.

  I’m going to need to tell him. He’ll eventually realize it’s not a coincidence that he keeps going out and not being bothered by fans.

  I know.

  THAT will be an interesting conversation!!

  I think he’s ready for it.

  I think you’re right. I love you for doing this. I know it’s not as big a deal as giving David his dad and grandfather back, but it’s going to change his life, and mine!

  You’re welcome. XOXO

  Enough about me! How are YOU doing?

  Good. Working some things out. I hope it doesn’t take too long to find the vortex once we’re all together.

  Have you tried on your own?

  A few times on my front lawn. I held onto the handles with the rods right in front of me, but the ends didn’t move, no matter what direction I turned in. They’re supposed to swivel toward what you’re looking for. Wherever the vortex is, it must be too far from my house for the rods to pick it up.

  We’ll help any way we can.

  I know, thanks!! Btw, is Amanda okay? It seemed like she wanted her space or whatever, so I haven’t wanted to bother her.

  I don’t know. She’s been doing stuff this weekend with her friend Stephanie, and I don’t want to get in the way. I got the cupcake like Angelina said, but Amanda wasn’t home when I went to bring it to her house after dinner Friday. I’ll make sure she got it when I see her in school tomorrow.

  I’m sure she wouldn’t think you’re in the way. You’re one of her best friends.

  I know. But Stephanie is her oldest best friend besides Leo of course. Like Annabelle is mine, and Bailey is yours. No matter how much you lose touch or grow apart as you get older and make new friends, no one will ever know you like the friends you had when you were little. Don’t forget about them. That’s your lecture of the day. :0)

  It’s a good one. I’m going to go give Bailey a call! XO

  XO. Thank you again for what you did.

  Aw shucks, it was nothing. :P

  Dear Julie,

  Uncle Roger has the BEST surprise for my friend Connor in the history of surprises. Remember, Connor’s the one who works for my uncle after school sometimes since he wants to be an inventor when he grows up? Well, he didn’t want to wait that long, so he’s been working on a super-secret project (actually, it’s a pair of 3-D glasses that people who wear glasses can comfortably wear). I know this because David is working on it with him as his beta tester (that’s someone who tests devices in early stages), and David told me. He and I agreed not to keep secrets from each other. ANYWAY, Connor showed my uncle his prototype (that’s like a sample, sorry if I keep explaining all the inventor lingo!), and my uncle thought it was great! He suggested a few ways to tweak it, like offering a version that snaps onto your real glasses, and now he’s going to help Connor find an investor (that’s someone who puts money behind a product to help it get started)! But the surprise is that while Connor was in school the other day, Uncle Roger hired a company to make fifty samples based exactly on the prototype, so that people can start wearing them, and then buzz will build around them! (Buzz is like gossip, but the good kind! Like when people are all talking about something new, and then everyone wants one!)

  So that’s the big news here! Do you have plans for Halloween? I haven’t dressed up since I was nine, but apparently in Willow Falls it’s a big deal, so I have to come up with an outfit.

  w/b/s

  Tara

  PS: I’m sorry about dumping all that stuff on you in the last letter. I feel much better. It’s amazing the power of the pool hole! I can go there anytime I need a break from life. I think I will be okay.

  PPS: One more thing … it turns out I’m a writer and didn’t even know it! Guess you might have suspected it after you got that huge box of letters a few months ago, but I never thought of myself that way. My dad said he would help me try to get a story published some day! And that we could try to write a book together! Me = didn’t think I was good at anything special. I’m enclosing a photocopy of my first story The Day Tara the Great Destroyed the Zombie Queen and Then Ate a Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Try not to laugh, since I wrote it a long time ago! I hope you like it!

  PPPS: Loved the picture of your adorable dog Rapunzel! I didn’t expect her to be a black lab with such short hair! Thank you for explaining what irony means, because I never really got that till now!

  I plop down on the front lawn. Five more minutes to go. I’ve had to wait a week for the others all to be free at the same time. Amanda’s been busy with marching band, Tara started taking fencing lessons, and Leo’s friend Vinnie convinced him to try out for soccer. Basically they’ve all been leading these totally normal lives, while I’ve been going to school during the day, then staring into the window of Angelina’s store the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out where half of everything went. Getting inside must have been a one-time deal, because the key no longer works.

  I didn’t tell any of them about the stuff disappearing, or how panicked I am about finding the vortex. They may have promised to look out for me, but I can’t expect them to drop everything all the time. Bailey’s the one person I can confide everything in. I know she’s not going anywhere. Even though she obviously hadn’t been camping with Leo, Amanda, Ray, Tara, and Rory the night they learned about the vortex, Bailey would have been here if her mom hadn’t surprised her with tickets to a charity fashion show in River Bend. I couldn’t let her turn down something like that. Connor and David weren’t there that night, either, and even though they offered to come with me, too, I knew they’d have more fun working on Connor’s secret invention (which everyone seems to know about but me, so maybe it’s not that secret after all).

  My hand drifts up to the spot above my ear. Little tufts are just starting to grow in the bald spot. I hope my sunglasses came in handy after sacrificing a clump of hair for them!

  Leo arrives first, then Amanda, then Ray and Tara pull up in Ray’s car, leaving only Rory still missing.

  “Do you think Rory’s seen the picture yet?” Tara asks as soon as she’s hopped out of the car.

  Before I can ask what picture, Amanda says, “I don’t think so. We’d have heard the screams of horror.”

  “Remember, this is Rory we’re talking about,” Leo says. “She’s survived much worse embarrassment than this.”

  “True,” Amanda says, “but that’s when people didn’t notice her. Now she’s dating a movie star.”

  “Sort of dating,” Tara corrects her. “Not officially until she’s older. Remember her dad made Jake sign something?”

  I thought that was only a rumor, but the ins and outs of teen romance aren’t something I c
an really relate to.

  “Anyway,” Amanda continues, “hopefully it’ll blow over and she won’t find out.” I notice she and Leo aren’t quite meeting each other’s eyes when they talk to the group.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Rory says, breathless. She drops her bike on the grass and joins our circle. “It’s been a crazy morning. So I don’t know if Grace told any of you guys about how we had to wear these pointy tinfoil hats last weekend?”

  Everyone acts like they didn’t hear her. Teenagers are strange.

  “Maybe this will refresh your memories,” Rory says, and pulls her hat out of her bike basket. She sticks it on her head and says, “So my mom took a picture of me wearing it because she thought it was really funny. Then this morning Sawyer was playing with our mom’s phone and somehow, I’m still not sure how, he accidentally uploaded the picture to the Internet! I can’t find my phone — I know, don’t say it! — so I haven’t been able to check where it went. Hopefully no one saw it!”

  Ray starts whistling, Amanda picks at the grass, Tara ties her sneaker, and Leo asks, “Does that cloud look like a moose to anyone else?”

  Finally Ray says, “Someone’s gotta tell her.”

  “Tell me what?” Rory asks.

  Amanda and Tara exchange a look. Tara gives a slight nod. Amanda pulls out her phone and reluctantly hands it to Rory.

  “Ugh, are you kidding me?” Rory says, slapping her forehead. “This isn’t even the one my mom took!”

  I peek over her shoulder. It’s a picture of her in the tinfoil hat coming out of the diner. She’s holding a white box just big enough for a cupcake. The heading on the photo reads, Jake Harrison’s “charity project” has strange fashion sense!

  Rory lays her head down in Amanda’s lap. “There, there,” Amanda says, stroking Rory’s hair. “I bet you just started a trend. By next week all the cool kids will want a hat like yours!”

  Rory just whimpers. Then she suddenly stops and sits up. “Hey! Soon no one will pay any attention to me again! Grace used her magic to make Jake look like an ordinary kid when he’s out in public. So the next time the paparazzi stalk me, they’ll see me with some random dude and think we broke up! I’ll be free to do embarrassing things again and no one will care!”

  The others cheer and pat me on the back.

  I hold up my hand. “All right, all right. Any of you would have done the same. Now let’s talk vortex!”

  Leo doesn’t have his mallet, so he just thumps his fist on the ground and says, “An official meeting of Team Grace — minus David, Connor, and Bailey — is now called to order. First on the agenda is to help Grace find the vortex so she can fully restore her powers.” He turns to me. “That’s right, isn’t it?”

  I nod.

  He continues. “So as chairman, I ask that each of you take a moment to think back to the night of the campout at Apple Grove. What did Bucky tell us about the vortex?”

  “I remember he said it wasn’t too far from where we were sitting at the time, right?” Tara asks. “Around the campfire?”

  Amanda agrees. Rory sits up and nods, too.

  Leo turns to Ray. “Do you remember anything else?”

  Ray shakes his head. “It was a long conversation. I had to fight to stay awake!”

  “Well, then,” Leo says, “I guess that’s all we have to go on. Sorry, Grace, I know it’s not much.”

  “That’s okay. I thought maybe if you guys were all together, it would spark a memory.”

  “It sparks a lot of memories,” Amanda says quietly. “That was a really great night.”

  The others nod. “Yes, it was,” Leo says, daring to look at Amanda full-on for the first time this morning.

  I grab the dowsing rods from the ground beside me and stand. “At least we know where to start. That’s a lot.”

  We pile into Ray’s car and head toward Apple Grove. When we get onto Main Street Tara says, “Emily loved the giraffe. Thanks, Grace!”

  “About that night at the store …” I begin. “There’s something I should tell you guys.”

  Ray slows the car. “I don’t like the sound of that. You’re not going to tell me those golf clubs I took are haunted by some evil spirit and I’ll lose every round?”

  “Nope. If you lose it’s all on you. But after we left the store that night, I saw that half the stuff inside was gone.”

  “Did we take too much?” Tara asks, sounding worried. “I can put back that magnetic chess set I snagged at the last second. I don’t even play chess!”

  “No, no, it’s not what you guys took. The store itself, it … changed.”

  From the front seat, Amanda gasps and whirls her head around to face the backseat. Ray gets startled by her sudden moves and screeches to a halt. Fortunately, there’s no one behind us.

  “Holy dooly!” he says to her. “Are you all right?”

  “Sorry!” she says. “But I can’t believe I forgot to tell you guys! You know the watch store on the corner when you first turn into the alley?”

  “Yeah,” we all say.

  “It’s gone!” she says.

  “You mean, it closed?” Rory asks. “Not that big a surprise.”

  “It’s more gone than that,” Amanda says. “Like, gone gone.”

  “We’re only a block away,” Ray says. “Might as well have a lookie-lu.” He pulls into a spot in front of the toy store and we all climb out.

  Leo falls into step beside Amanda as we head to the alley. “You just forgot to tell us? That seems like a strange thing to forget.”

  “I know,” Amanda says, but doesn’t explain further.

  We all turn the corner together and gape. Gone gone is right! I was half expecting to see an out-of-business sign tacked up on the door. But the entire building is gone, like it never existed. When did this happen? “How have I walked by it all week without noticing?” I ask.

  “Don’t feel too bad,” Rory says. “That’s how it can be with the magic in Willow Falls. If you’re not looking for it, you usually don’t notice.”

  “Then why did Amanda see it?” Leo asks.

  “Out of all of Team Grace, she’s the most sensitive to magic,” Rory says. “Haven’t you noticed? That’s why she knew I’d met Angelina last year, and when Tara had, too. Right, Amanda?”

  Amanda nods in agreement, still staring at the alley. She’s been more quiet than usual recently, so I don’t want to make her more uncomfortable by putting her on the spot.

  “C’mon, guys,” I say, pulling them away. “I’ll show you the store, then we should really go.”

  They follow me down the narrow alley. The shoe-repair store and barbershop are still here, empty as always. Leo begins to drag his feet. “Um, does anyone else feel like the walls are kind of closing in?”

  We slow and look around. “The alley does seem kind of narrower,” Tara says.

  Now that she mentions it, the stores do seem closer to one another than before. There’s barely room for us all to walk side by side now.

  “This is super creepy,” Ray says. “Let’s hurry and get out before we’re turned into pancakes!”

  “Mmmm, pancakes,” Leo says, rubbing his belly.

  Rory grabs him by the sleeve and drags him along.

  “See?” I say, pointing in the store window. Then it’s my turn to gasp. It’s even emptier than it was before! Much more!

  “Wow!” Tara says, her eyes wide. “Where did everything go?”

  I can only shake my head.

  “Did someone break in?” Ray asks, trying the knob. It’s as locked as ever.

  “No offense,” Leo says, “but who would want this stuff? It’s mostly junk, right?”

  “ ‘It will open doors to wonders unimagined,’ ” I whisper.

  “Huh?” he says.

  “That’s what Angelina told me in the letter she left for me with the key.”

  He shakes his head. “Guess I can’t see it.”

  I want to argue that all this stuff meant something to someone
once, but it’s no use. Most of it’s gone now, anyway. But where? And why? And how?

  Amanda shivers. “Let’s get to Apple Grove before anything else weird happens, okay?”

  “Race you to the car,” Ray says, and we all take off at a run.

  Ten minutes later we’re hiking up the path to Apple Grove. The baby trees are only slightly larger than the last time I was here, the morning of David’s bar mitzvah, the morning my life changed forever.

  Amanda and Leo give the trees loving pats as we pass by, occasionally stopping to straighten one out or push some more soil around the base. The fountain in the middle is in better shape than I remember. They must have done some work on it.

  I follow them to the fire pit and pull out the dowsing rods.

  “Do you know how to use those?” Tara asks.

  “I was reading up on it,” I tell her as I adjust my grip on the handles. “First, I need to know what direction I’m facing.”

  “That’s easy,” Leo says. “There’s a compass on the edge of the fountain, see?” He points to a metal plate attached to the rim of the bowl. “Right now you’re facing south.”

  “Thanks. Okay, so then basically I hold them out like this, parallel to the ground, and they swivel around in my hands when I move. They’re supposed to straighten out when I’m heading in the right direction. Then, when I reach the energy source — in this case, the vortex — they’re supposed to stretch open wide in both directions.”

  “That’s a lot of ‘supposed to’s,’ ” Ray says.

  “Way to boost her confidence!” Tara scolds.

  Ray holds up his hands. “Don’t get your knickers in a knot, I was just kidding.”

  Tara tries to kick him, but he jumps back.

  “You said the rods can find things other than energy centers, right?” Leo asks. “Like oil, or water, or gold?”

  I nod.

  “Well, if you don’t find the vortex, maybe focus on the gold. Buried pirate gold!”

  “There aren’t any pirates in Willow Falls,” Amanda says.

  “Sure,” he says, “not now, but maybe the town was closer to water once. There was that river! At least until your great-great-great-grandfather dammed it up.”