ANNABELLA LU WAS ON a mission.

Her cousin Jenny Feng had been missing for several weeks, with no clue as to what might have happened. At twenty-two, Jenny was known to disappear for a few days at a time. She was a free spirit who loved music and followed several bands to their concerts all over the country. She had friends everywhere and often crashed at their houses. There was nothing wrong with what she did, but she usually neglected to tell anybody she would be gone. After her college graduation, she continued to live with her parents in Stony Brook, and they worried about her as if she were still a young child.

“Hi, Aunt Tina,” Lu said when her aunt opened the front door.

“Annabella!” Aunt Tina exclaimed. “What a surprise!”

Lu unlaced her roller derby skates and left them on the doorstep. She knew that Aunt Tina liked things to be neat and clean. Rolling around her house on skates would be frowned upon.

“I’m guessing you haven’t heard from Jenny,” Lu said as the two of them hugged.

Aunt Tina’s smile fell, and the worry lines grew more pronounced around her eyes.

“I want to be positive,” she said. “It’s not like this hasn’t happened before. But not for this long without any word.”

“What do the police say?” Lu asked.

Aunt Tina shrugged dismissively. “They have no idea. They tried to locate her using her cell phone, but there’s no signal. I just don’t know what else to do.”

Tears welled up in Aunt Tina’s eyes, so Lu gave her a reassuring hug.

“Would it be okay if I checked out her room?” Lu asked. “Maybe there’s some clue that was missed.”

“Please do,” Aunt Tina said.

Lu wasn’t looking for just any clue. She had a very specific target…the fortune card from the Oracle Baz machine.

Lu ran up the stairs to the second floor, taking two steps at a time. Though Jenny was older than Lu by eight years, the two cousins had always been close friends. Jenny was like the cool older sister that Lu never had. She had introduced Lu to all kinds of music and movies and even played roller derby with her for a while. It wasn’t until Jenny left for college that the two had drifted apart.

Jenny’s room was very familiar to Lu. She had been there countless times. So when she opened the door, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Whoa,” she said to herself.

The room was spotless and tidy…the exact opposite of the way Jenny kept it. Aunt Tina had been busy. Not a single piece of clothing was on the floor, the bed was made, and the bathroom counter was free of makeup.

Lu went straight for the vanity, which had a triple mirror and a padded seat. It had several small drawers, perfect for collecting all sorts of items both valuable and not. Lu had been through the drawers many times. Jenny had no problem with that. She said she had nothing to hide.

Lu went drawer by drawer, yanking them open and digging through years of accumulated junk. She found makeup and brushes, hair clips and a curling iron, vitamins, and notepads. In other words, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. They could easily have been her own drawers at home.

She turned her attention to several wooden jewelry boxes that rested on top of the vanity. One held just that: jewelry. Jenny had loads of earrings, pendant necklaces, and silver rings. A second box held a stack of instant photos. Lu did a quick scan and saw that they were mostly selfies and casual shots of Jenny’s friends and family. There was even one of Lu and Jenny together, making pouty kissy faces. It made Lu laugh and feel sad at the same time.

The third box had more promise.

It held a collection of cards that advertised band performances and parties, along with ticket stubs from concerts that dated back a few years. Lu slowed down and looked at each of them, noting the dates in case one might offer a clue to where Jenny was headed when she dropped off the face of the earth.

When Lu was nearly at the bottom of the pile, she scored.

“Yes!” she exclaimed.

The card, made of heavy paper, was roughly the size of a credit card. It was ivory-colored, with deep brown lettering that gave it the feel of an antique that had been printed a century before. On one side was a drawing of a crystal ball with fanciful writing above it: The Oracle Baz.

On the other side was the fortune.

SEIZE THE MOMENT. YOU MAY NOT GET ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY.

FOLLOW YOUR HEART.

“Any luck?” Aunt Tina asked. She stood at Jenny’s door, looking pained.

Lu quickly palmed the fortune card so her aunt wouldn’t see it. It would have been tricky to explain why she thought it was important.

“Not really,” Lu said. “I thought maybe some of these tickets might give me a clue, but they didn’t. Sorry.”

“I’m so worried,” Aunt Tina said.

Lu went to her aunt and gave her another hug.

“Me too,” Lu said. “But Jenny is going to be okay. I really believe that.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I just have a good feeling,” Lu said. “We’re going to figure this out.”

Lu slipped the fortune card into her back pocket and headed for home.

Mission accomplished.