To save time, we decide to ride Jonah’s skateboard to the bears’ cottage. Well, Jonah really decides because I still don’t think it’s a safe idea. But at least we won’t be going downhill. Somehow, we all pile onto the skateboard — Jonah, me, Prince, and Goldie, plus the bag of maple syrup bottles — and ZOOM through the town.

When we reach the bears’ cottage, we come to a stop. The Bear family is outside in their yard, painting. Mother Bear, Father Bear, and Kid Bear have three easels set up with canvases on them. They’re all wearing smocks and painting beautiful pictures of the forest. If I weren’t still a little scared of the bears — well, the parents — it would be an adorable scene.

“Hi!” I call out, my voice shaking.

“Yay!” Kid Bear says. “Mom, Dad, my new friends are here! And look, they have a skateboard. I really want a skateboard,” she tells us.

Father Bear turns around, his brown eyes narrowed. “Friends with people. Will wonders never cease?” he asks. He clears his throat. “Human children, I need to tell you that —”

I feel a lecture coming on. “That we should never have broken into your house,” I interrupt, “eaten your porridge, sat in your chairs, or slept in your bed. You are absolutely right. We are so, so, so sorry.”

There’s a pause.

“You sat in our chairs?” the dad asks.

Oops.

“Yes,” I say.

“But we didn’t break them!” Jonah calls out.

“We’re glad to hear that,” Mother Bear says. She clears her throat and pushes up her glasses. “Our daughter told us about your apology gift and the trade you’d like to make. If you have the jugs of honey, we’ll give you our extra straw mattress.”

Yes!

I pull one of the bottles of maple syrup out of the bag and hold it up. “There are two more in here for you,” I say.

Father Bear stares at the bottle in my hand. “That looks awfully dark for honey.”

“That’s because it’s not honey,” Jonah reports.

Mother Bear frowns. “The deal was for honey!”

“I did say honey,” Kid Bear adds, looking at us with big, brown, disappointed eyes. “I was really looking forward to having some on my porridge this morning.”

“This” — I say, stepping closer with the bottle — “is maple syrup. It’s sooo delicious! You can put it on pancakes or French toast. Or even porridge!”

“We don’t want that maple … thing!” Father Bear growls. “We want honey!”

“Honey, honey!” Kid Bear chants.

This isn’t going the way I thought it would.

Goldie takes the bottle and holds it out toward the bears. “But just take one sniff at how good it smells. Mmmm,” she says, inhaling. “So sweet!”

“I said no!” Mother Bear growls.

Goldie’s face crumples, and her hands shake. Some of the syrup spills onto a pile of snow that the bears must have shoveled off the walkway.

Everything’s a mess.

Woof! Prince licks some of the maple-y snow. Woof-woof. His tail is wagging.

“Prince likes it!” Kid Bear exclaims.

“Oh, yeah, maple syrup is good on snow,” I say. “It’s a maple snow cone.”

“Can I try?” Jonah asks me.

“Sure,” I say. “The snow looks pretty clean.”

Jonah reaches down, grabs a chunk of maple-drizzled snow, and tastes it. “Now this is good.”

Kid Bear grabs a chunk of maple snow and pops it in her mouth. “Yum!” she announces. “This is amazing. Like ice cream! Mom, Dad, I bet it would be great on my porridge.”

I guess the mess is a tasty mess?

Mother Bear steps forward and takes the bottle from Goldie. She sniffs it. “Well, that does smell good.” She hands the bottle to Father Bear.

He also sniffs it. “I must say that it does.”

“Okay,” Mother Bear says. “We’ll try it on our porridge. If we like it, you can have the mattress. You can come in, but please try not to eat any of our food or take a nap in our beds. Or break any of our chairs.” She raises an eyebrow.

A totally fair ask, considering.

We go inside. There are three bowls of porridge cooling on the table. I hold Prince in my arms, just to be on the safe side.

Mother Bear pours some maple syrup in each bowl and stirs each one with a spoon. “Okay, come and get it.”

The bears sit down at the table and place their napkins on their laps. For bears, they have excellent table manners.

Father Bear blows on his porridge. He dips his spoon in and brings it to his mouth.

I hold my breath.

Please like it!

Father Bear’s brown eyes widen. “This is absolutely delicious!”

Mother Bear eats a spoonful. “So tasty!”

Kid Bear gobbles up her porridge. “Maple syrup for the win.”

Phew! Jonah, Goldie, and I exchange relieved grins. It worked!

Father Bear stands up. “Okay, you have a deal. We will trade you the straw mattress for the maple syrup.”

“Yay!” Kid Bear says.

Goldie’s face melts in relief. “Thank you!”

Father Bear disappears into the bedroom and returns with a straw mattress.

We did it!

Goldie accepts the mattress from Father Bear and thanks him again.

Father Bear sits back down, and the Bear family continues eating.

“Um, Abby?” Jonah asks.

“Yeah?” I say.

“How are we going to lug that mattress through the forest and up the rocks?” he asks.

Good question.

I look at my watch. It’s already after 5:00 A.M. in Smithville. We only have about eight Bebec hours left. And we still have no gold.

Too bad we can’t skateboard up a cliff.

“This mattress is really hard to carry,” I say when we get outside with it.

I’m holding one end, and Goldie is holding the other. Jonah is standing between us, holding up the middle, with his skateboard under one arm. Prince is trotting along, looking like he wishes he could help.

“Let’s get it on top of our heads and we’ll walk single file through the forest till we get to the cliff,” Jonah says.

“Or …” I look at the skateboard. “We put the mattress on the skateboard and push it!”

Yup. That’s much easier.

“How will we get it up the cliff, though?” Goldie asks.

Another good question.

We hurry as fast as we can, pushing the mattress on the skateboard. Finally, we reach the frozen waterfall.

“Now what?” Goldie asks, looking up at the rocks.

We decide that Jonah will climb the rocks while Goldie, Prince, and I slide the mattress across the frozen lake and then hoist it up to him.

As Jonah starts his climb, I take a careful step onto the lake. This probably isn’t a great idea. But it seems sturdy?

Goldie glides onto the ice and twirls. “Whee! This is fun!”

She’s right. We slide the mattress across the lake. Prince pushes the skateboard across with his little nose. He’s so helpful!

When we get to the frozen waterfall, we lift the mattress up and up and up … and Jonah grabs on to the other end. He manages to maneuver the mattress onto the ledge. Hurrah!

But now Goldie and I have to climb up the rocks ourselves. Sigh.

First, Goldie and I watch from below as Jonah knocks on Rumpelstiltskin’s door.

The little window slides open and Rumpelstiltskin’s orange-brown eyes peer out. Then the window closes, and I hear him unlocking all his locks.

“Hello,” he says to Jonah. Then he looks down at me and Goldie, standing on the lake. “I should probably invest in a ladder for guests,” he adds with a shrug. “Next time.”

“Where’s Rapunzel’s hair when we need it?” I grumble as Goldie and I start to climb up the rocks.

“Who?” Rumpelstiltskin and Goldie ask at the same time.

“No one,” I say. I guess the fairy tale characters really don’t know each other. Except for Goldie and Rumpelstiltskin, of course.

Goldie, Prince, and I carefully climb up the rest of the way. Whew! We help Jonah push the mattress inside Rumpelstiltskin’s house, and gather inside the living room.

“What now?” I ask.

“Now you need to pull the straw out of the mattress,” Rumpelstiltskin says.

We find a zipper, open it, and all kneel and start grabbing out fistfuls of straw.

“Abby, you have straw in your hair!” Jonah says with a giggle.

“You have straw on your nose!” I tell him.

Finally, all the straw is in a pile on the floor.

“How are you going to spin the straw into gold?” I ask Rumpelstiltskin.

Rumpelstiltskin raises an eyebrow and shakes his head. “I don’t share my secrets!” he tells us. “Now step back! I need room.”

We step back.

And wait.

Rumpelstiltskin walks over to the straw. He stares at it. Then he does a strange little dance, kicking up his legs. He then picks up the straw with his arms and spins around fifteen times. Wow! He is actually spinning the straw.

The straw disappears in a puff of yellow smoke! I can barely see anything — the smoke is in my nose and my mouth and, ouch, in my eyes.

I cough and blink, and then I see it:

A pile of gold coins in his arms.

Seriously. Gold coins.

OMG. He did it!

“Rumpy, you are a rock star!” Jonah says.

“Do not call me Rumpy,” he snaps. “That’s a terrible nickname. It does not sound dignified at all.”

I give Jonah a look.

“Sorry,” Jonah says. “And thank you so much!”

“No problem,” he says. He dumps the coins on the floor, turns away, and sits on his big blue velvet couch. I want to ask him what’s wrong, but we don’t have much time. Goldie needs to get to the palace to free her dad, and Jonah and I need to get back to Smithville.

“Fill your pockets with the coins,” Goldie says.

Jonah, Goldie, and I grab palmfuls of coins and put them in our pockets. Prince helps by nudging more coins into our hands. When we’re all done, we stand up, our pockets heavy and bulging.

“Wait!” Rumpelstiltskin shouts.

Uh-oh. Here it is. Is he going to demand something else?

“Yes?” I ask cautiously.

“I see Kid Bear isn’t with you,” Rumpelstiltskin says. “I guess she changed her mind about being friends.”

“No,” Goldie says. “She’s just eating porridge with her parents right now.”

Rumpelstiltskin brightens. “Oh. So the friendship is still on? Even though you now have your gold?” He bites his lip. He looks worried.

Aww.

Goldie smiles. “Of course it is. I’m excited to make snow angels and have hot chocolate. And all those other fun things you mentioned. We’ll visit you tomorrow afternoon.”

Rumpelstiltskin claps. “I’m so happy!”

Me too. Who would have thought that Goldilocks, one of the three bears, and Rumpelstiltskin would end up being BFFs?

“You guys can make friendship necklaces!” I suggest. “Look at mine.” I show them the beaded one I’m wearing that says FRAP — Frankie, Robin, Abby, Penny. Maybe they can be RKBG — Rumpelstiltskin, Kid Bear, Goldie? Hmm. They could use a vowel in there.

“Fun!” Rumpelstiltskin says.

“Another time,” Goldie says. “When we’re not rushing to save my dad.”

Right.

We hurry back outside.

“Good luck,” Rumpelstiltskin says. “You’ll need it.”

Then he closes the door.

We have the hundred gold coins the king asked for. Hopefully we won’t need luck.