The rest of the day sailed on like a seven-masted schooner. Kallie knew she could count on Pole to be the voice of reason. She dismissed all the strange happenings as mere coincidence—what else could they be?—and did her best to put them and the box out of her head.
Still, Anna had sown a tiny seed of doubt, which already began to take root. On the very odd and unlikely chance Anna was right, something terrible was going to happen, and Kallie had no way of knowing what it would be, let alone how to prevent it.
That afternoon was gym class. Physical education was the least offensive of all the nonacademic subjects as Kallie recognized the body’s need for daily, vigorous activity. She owned a well-worn copy of Brain Training: Physical Exercises to Enhance Academic Achievement. She lifted one arm and circled the other while performing deep lunges.
“Bench!” called Coach Mandala.
Kallie frowned and took her seat. She continued drawing giant infinity symbols in the air, known as lazy eights. Next she began yawning while massaging her cheeks. “Energy yawns,” she said to Anna. “Provides oxygen to the brain while relaxing the eyes. Helps promote motor control.”
Anna joined her.
As Kallie waited for her turn to sub into the flag football game, her eyes wandered to Anna’s shorts—the same ones she’d sported the first day they’d seen each other in the marketplace. Anna followed Kallie’s gaze and then ran her hands over them, concealing spots where the threads had worn thin.
“I have a trunkful of designer clothes at home. Really expensive stuff,” said Anna, “but Mrs. Winslow doesn’t like me dressing too fancy. She’s worried someone might get the idea I’m extremely wealthy and try to abduct me. She’s such a worrywart.”
“I like that shade of yellow,” said Pole. “It reminds me of my mother’s homemade lemon curd.” He grinned.
Kallie rolled her eyes. “How long do you have to live with Mrs. Winslow?”
“Well,” said Anna thoughtfully. “I told you my parents were magicians, right?”
“The Amazing Alonzo and his Alluring Assistant Ava,” said Kallie, recalling the previous conversation.
“Well, then,” she sighed. “I suppose it’s time I tell you the whole truth…”
“Jones! Glud! Offense!” shouted Coach Mandala. “Rodriguez—Defense!”
Kallie and Anna took to the field, but since neither could catch or throw, they hung as close to the sidelines as possible without stepping out of bounds, so as to avoid any unnecessary contact with the football. Pole was on the opposing team and stood facing them.
“You see,” said Anna. “My father is a marvelous magician. He can do all sorts of amazing illusions. But he is most famous for his magic cabinet—an enormous, elaborately carved wooden box. He can make people and objects disappear.”
Another box. One that makes people disappear. Kallie was sorry she’d asked.
“Well, he’d inherited the magic cabinet from another old magician he’d met in a pub one dark and stormy night. That magician had inherited it from another, who had inherited it from another, who…”
“Yes, yes,” said Kallie. “We get the idea. Go on.”
All eleven players were on the line of scrimmage preparing to run downfield, but Anna kept talking. She was able to talk at such a high speed she could get a thousand words out in an instant.
“The old magician said the cabinet possessed powerful magic—but you could use it only once each night. He warned my father never to do the trick more than once. Not ever, or…”
“Jones! Glud!” shouted Coach. “We’re playing football here! Not having afternoon tea! Rodriguez—stay focused!”
Kallie glanced along the line at Ivan. He was the quarterback and was shouting numbers. The football was snapped, and everyone began to run downfield, except the three who strolled along in no particular hurry.
“Anyway, this one night…” Anna’s voice dropped low. “… After my father had made my mother disappear and reappear, he was offered a great sum of money by a mysterious stranger in the audience to repeat the trick. It was so much money, my father couldn’t say no.”
“Touchdown!” shouted Jonah. He was doing a ridiculous dance in the end zone. Kallie thought it made him look like a cross between an amorous gorilla and an agitated chicken. Coach Mandala barked several instructions, and the players began to reorganize.
“So,” said Anna. “Reluctantly, my mother stepped into the box a second time and disappeared. Except when it was time for her to return, the box remained empty.”
“Wasn’t she behind the stage?” asked Pole. “I know that trick. It works with trapdoors or mirrors.”
Anna shook her head. “I told you, the box was real. It was magic. But it was cursed. My father had ignored the warning by doing the trick a second time, and so my mother was gone. My father spent all night trying to get her back, and when nothing worked, he stepped into the box himself to try to find her and bring her back, but then he disappeared, too. I’m staying with Mrs. Winslow until they return.” Anna smiled. “Which should be any day now.”
The ball flew so quickly across the field Kallie didn’t have a chance to warn Pole. It hit him in the stomach, knocking him to the ground.
“Wake up, Rodriguez!” shouted Coach Mandala. “This isn’t a slumber party!”
Kallie and Anna helped Pole to his feet. The wind had been knocked out of him. They stopped talking, keeping their eyes open for more assaulting footballs, but Kallie couldn’t help but think about what Anna had told her.
After school, Kallie and Grandpa took their usual walk down the steep sidewalk toward the lake. As Pole suggested, she put the box so far out of her mind it was as if it had never existed. She felt almost lighter as they made their way back home—though she did notice Grandpa Jess was walking a bit slower and puffing a bit more than usual.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Never felt better,” he said.
Grandpa Jess was a poor liar. She linked arms with him. They made it back up the incline together.
Kallie’s father came home at his usual time. He washed up, and they all sat down to dinner. Grandpa Jess made sugar shack crêpes with ham and eggs and plenty of maple syrup. It was like breakfast, dinner, and dessert all in one. Kallie complained it was unhealthy as she passed Grandpa Jess her plate for a second helping.
“You need to start learning the family recipes,” he said. “Or when I’m gone, they’ll be lost.”
Kallie’s stomach jerked. “Don’t talk like that, Grandpa.”
“Oh, pay him no mind,” said her father. “Grandpa Jess is as strong as an ox. He’ll outlast us all.”
“This was one of your mother’s favorite meals,” said Grandpa.
Kallie’s eyes darted toward her father. She held his gaze a moment, trying to discern his thoughts, but his expression was unreadable.
“That was delicious,” he said. “I’m stuffed.” He lifted his plate and took it to the sink, where he began to clean up.
After dinner, Kallie and her father played a few games of chess. He adored strategy games like chess, Go, Nine Men’s Morris, and Mancala. He’d taught her these at a very young age and praised her often, claiming she had developed into quite a worthy opponent.
Content with having won once, Kallie went up to her room and got ready for bed. She was about to doze off when she overheard her grandfather and father talking in the kitchen. At first, they spoke in hushed voices, which grew increasingly louder.
“You can’t get away with this forever,” said Grandpa. “One day the truth will come out … and then you’ll have to pay for what you’ve done…”
“That day isn’t today,” said her father. “You’d do best to let sunken ships stay sunk.”
“Ah, but the truth always rises to the surface. The truth is unsinkable.”
“Yes, well, they said that about the Titanic, didn’t they? And where is it now?”