here’s my grandmother?” Red Riding Hood screamed. Her face was a contorted mess, like a sculpture made from Silly Putty whose features were twisted and stretched into horrible exaggerations. “I want to play!”
“Stay down,” Sabrina whispered to Daphne as Uncle Jake joined them on the floor.
Nottingham raised his sword and waved it in the air threateningly. “Child,” he said to Red Riding Hood, “take this overgrown tadpole and go or I swear I’ll—” but his threat was never finished. The Jabberwocky whipped its tail at him and sent him sailing across the room and into the dessert case. He let out a terrible groan and collapsed to the floor.
“Grandmother, are you in there?” the demented little girl called out, as she and the Jabberwocky stepped through the hole and into the diner. She searched with growing disappointment as patrons cowered under tables.
“Who are you looking for, young lady?” the queen called out with a trembling voice.
“My grandmother,” Red Riding Hood said. Her face suddenly went from rage to a sweet hopeful smile.
The Queen of Hearts smiled, too, or at least did something Sabrina guessed was as close as the nasty woman could get to smiling. “But child, your grandmother is dead. Don’t you remember? She was eaten by the Big Bad Wolf.”
Red Riding Hood sputtered and rocked back and forth on her feet. “That’s not true,” she said to herself, over and over again. “We’re playing a game. I have to find her so my family can be together again. She’s just hiding. Playing a game.”
“Oh, you poor thing,” the queen said. “You’re so confused.”
“That’s what they said,” the little girl agreed as her face darkened. “I’m confused. They said I had . . . imagination.”
The Jabberwocky leaned down to the little girl and licked her face with his long disgusting tongue, causing her to giggle. “Oh, kitty, are you bored? Do you want to play? I bet this lady would like to play with you.”
The Jabberwocky gnashed its teeth enthusiastically and turned to Mrs. Heart. It reached over and snatched her off the ground in one of its huge, taloned hands. She screamed and begged for help.
“Do something!” Sabrina whispered to her uncle. She didn’t like the Queen of Hearts, not even a little, but she didn’t want her to die, either.
Uncle Jake rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine,” he grumbled. He sprang to his feet and pointed a threatening finger at the brute. “Hey, ugly—put her down!”
“You know where my grandmother is! You know where the doggy is, too. Don’t you?” Red Riding Hood said.
“Yes, yes!” the queen cried as struggled to free herself. “He’s the one you want! Not me! There’s no need to kill me!”
The Jabberwocky gnashed its fangs and dropped the Queen of Hearts. It stomped across the room toward the Grimms, tossing tables and chairs out of its way
“Uncle Jake? It’s coming,” Sabrina cried impatiently.
“Working on it, kid,” Uncle Jake said. He searched his many pockets for something that he could use against the monster. Pennies, buttons, half a candy bar, and dozens of trinkets and necklaces were tossed aside. “I have just the thing in here. Where on earth did I put it?” But whatever he was searching for he didn’t find. The monster backhanded him so hard he crashed through the men’s room door.
The Jabberwocky beat on its chest and flapped its leathery wings. It shrieked and spit and then chaos ensued. The monster stomped its colossal foot down on the floor, causing a shock-wave that rolled through the diner. Chairs flew through the ceiling and walls, and exploded into the dessert case right above the still-unconscious Nottingham. Several cups of butterscotch pudding tipped over and dribbled down onto his head.
Sabrina scrambled across the room toward her wand. Just as she snatched it, the Jabberwocky leaped forward and set a heavy paw on Sabrina’s chest, pinning her arms at her side. She couldn’t move an inch. The monster craned its neck so that its nose was touching Sabrina’s and it sprayed its hot, pungent breath into her face.
“I want my grandmother and my doggy,” Red Riding Hood said as she crossed the room and stood over Sabrina. “And I want them right now.”
“You’re crazy!” Sabrina cried. “Your family is dead!”
“You’re making me mad and you’re making kitty mad, too!”
The Jabberwocky growled and gnashed its teeth.
“Fine! I give up,” a voice said. Sabrina recognized the voice as Puck’s but couldn’t see its owner. She heard a whizzing sound above her. It infuriated the Jabberwocky, which turned to face the boy, freeing Sabrina. She crawled back to her hiding sister and together they got to their feet. There was Puck, hovering in the hole in the diner, with his beautiful pink-streaked wings flapping in the sun. He held a slingshot that was loaded with a broken brick from the diner’s crumbling wall. He loaded the slingshot, pulled the brick back, and let it fly. It smacked into one of the Jabberwocky’s eyes and the beast shrieked. “You’ve beaten me, Grimms. Are you happy? You dragged me into this hero business against my will and now every time I turn around, I’m saving the day. Well, I hope you’re happy. I’m a hero now.”
Red Riding Hood screamed. “I don’t want to play this game!”
“Hey, let’s play the quiet game,” Puck shouted at the little girl. “Your crazy talk is distracting from my heroics. If I’m going to be a good guy, then people are going to notice.”
Instantly, the Jabberwocky lunged at Puck, using its long claws to knock the boy out of the sky. Puck fell hard to the ground, unable to defend himself as the monster reached down and grabbed hold of him with one hand. It lifted Puck up to its face and examined him closely.
“Don’t worry, girls,” Puck shouted, almost laughing. “I’ve got all this under control!”
With one lightning-fast motion, the Jabberwocky reached over, grabbed hold of Puck’s magical pink fairy wings, and ripped them off his back. The sound was excruciating.
“Puck!” the girls shouted.
The fairy boy cried out in agony and the Jabberwocky tossed him hard against a wall. He didn’t get up again.
Sabrina gazed around the room, feeling as if the world were in slow motion. She had a terrifying sense of helplessness, the way she felt in so many of her recent nightmares, and she was tired of it. She squeezed the wand in her hand, and aimed it at the monster. Storm clouds suddenly filled the air. Lightning crackled and a bolt shot out of the sky and hit the Jabberwocky in the chest. There was an enormous explosion and the monster fell onto its back. A smoldering black burn remained where the lightning had struck the beast.
An electrifying sensation raced through Sabrina. She felt like she had plugged into a light socket and replaced her blood with its current. She could have sworn at that moment that her eyes were on fire and she was a hundred feet tall. The amount of raw energy she had at her disposal was incredible. She was shocked when the Jabberwocky stirred and crawled to its feet.
“You want some more? Fine!” she shouted. Another lightning blast caught the monster on the top of its head. It fell to the ground again. This time Sabrina took a step closer, only to have the beast’s head curl toward her. She was nearly bitten. Now, she was shaking, not from fear, but anger at the monster’s defiance of her power. How dare this thing continue to live!
She shook the wand angrily and summoned another crash of lightning, and another, and another until her ears rang from the deafening thunder that came with every bolt. “Stay down!” she shouted, unable to hear her own words, but the monster refused. It got up, again and again and again, and each time it took a step closer to her and her little sister.
Finally, the smoking hulk had backed them into a corner. Covered in wounds and burns, it shrieked into Sabrina’s face. She turned to her sister and slipped her hand into Daphne’s.
Just then, much to Sabrina’s disbelief, the Jabberwocky was lifted off its feet and slammed to the ground. The impact sent the girls tumbling over each other.
“I didn’t do that,” Sabrina said, staring down at the wand she still clutched in her hand.
“Doggy!” Red Riding Hood shouted, and clapped.
Sabrina turned to see what the little girl was raving about. There, standing over the monster, was an unusual man. He was excruciatingly thin, and wearing a suit that was several sizes too big for him. He had watery eyes and feeble hands. He also had a shock of white, unruly hair.
“Mr. . . . Canis?” Sabrina stammered.
“Mr. Canis!” Daphne cried, leaping up to race into his arms. Sabrina stared at their old friend, then grabbed her sister and pulled her back down. There was something different about him. He had bright blue eyes—the same color as those of his alter ego, the Big Bad Wolf.
The Jabberwocky didn’t stay down long. It fought its way to its feet and tore into the old man, pounding its huge paws into Mr. Canis’s chest. Despite the horrific blows, Mr. Canis seemed more than capable of handling the monster’s abuse and dishing out some of his own. One swing from his elderly fist sent the Jabberwocky sailing through the hole in the diner’s wall and into the parking lot. Cars went flying and pavement crumbled under its skidding body.
“Look! The doggy and the kitty are going to be friends,” Red Riding Hood shouted.
Sabrina got to her feet and pointed the wand at the deranged little girl.
“Where are my parents, you little psychopath?” she cried. The little girl snarled like a wild animal and lunged to scratch Sabrina across the face.
“They’re my parents!” she raged.
“You tell me right now or I’m going to fry you,” Sabrina threatened, deflecting the little girl’s attack and pointing the wand in her face. She could sense the clouds forming in the sky again. All she had to do was think it and the little girl would be a stain on the floor.
“I’m going to have my grandmother!” the little girl screamed in anger.
The air around Sabrina began to crack and pop. She knew she was about to unleash the lightning on the little girl and felt she had a right to do it. “You’re asking for it!”
Suddenly, the wand was knocked out of Sabrina’s hand. She turned and saw Daphne standing next to her.
“Sabrina, no!”
“Tell my grandmother I’m coming,” Red Riding Hood shouted. She lifted her hand and the ring on her finger cast a crimson light on the room. A moment later, both she and the Jabberwocky disappeared into thin air.
“How could you, Daphne? She’s got Mom and Dad!”
“Puck needs our help,” Daphne shouted.
The two girls rushed to the fallen fairy’s side, but Mr. Canis was already lifting him into his arms. “Get home, children,” he said roughly as he dashed away at an amazing speed. Sabrina had never seen anyone, man or Everafter, run so fast. Before the girls knew it, Canis and Puck were gone.
“Uncle Jake,” Daphne said, turning and racing to find their uncle. When they did, he was still unconscious. Their waitress, Farrah, was standing over him.
“Don’t worry, girls. I don’t think he’s too hurt,” she said. She tossed a glass of water into Jake’s face and he quickly opened his eyes. “We get a lot of drunks in here around two a.m. This works every time.”
Uncle Jake shook his head and looked around. “What did I miss?”
“Let’s just put it this way,” Farrah said. “It’s going to be a little while on the blueberry cobbler.”
After Glinda the Good Witch scattered forgetful dust on the bewildered human diner customers and Sheriff Hamstead checked to make sure everyone was OK, the family got a high-speed police escort back home.
“Granny!” Sabrina shouted as they ran into the house. The old woman called to them from upstairs and the girls raced to find her. They burst into the old woman’s bedroom and found her sitting next to Puck, who was in her bed covered in blankets. Both the girls tried to explain everything that had happened at the same time.
“Lieblings, it’s OK!” Granny shouted over them. The girls stopped talking and struggled to catch their breaths.
“Mr. Canis is alive,” Daphne said.
“Of course I am,” a voice said from the corner. They turned and found an exhausted-looking Mr. Canis sitting in a chair. The old man had never been the picture of health, but now he looked especially bad. His eyes were bloodshot and his face seemed to be hanging onto his head for dear life.
“It’s happening again?” Hamstead said when he stepped into the room and saw the old man.
“No, it is different this time,” Mr. Canis said as his blue eyes flashed in the dark room. He pulled himself to his feet and leaned against the wall. “The explosion changed some things in unexpected ways. I have access to the Wolf’s abilities but my control over him is . . . fading. I am also having some difficulties completing the change to my human form.”
He turned slightly to show the bushy brown tail sticking out the back of his trousers.
Sabrina turned to her grandmother. “Did you know he was still alive?”
“You lied to us!”
“Because I asked her to,” Canis said. “I wanted to save you from having to mourn my death twice.”
“I don’t understand,” Daphne said.
“He means he was going to kill himself,” Sabrina said. “Why?”
“Because I would rather die than let the Wolf loose again. Every one of his victims lives inside my mind. I hear them beg for mercy that never came. I see the terror in their faces as they died. I will never let him free again. His crimes are still destroying lives, including your own. You’ve seen today the repercussions of his violence.”
“You drove Little Red Riding Hood insane,” Sabrina said.
“I took her family from her,” Mr. Canis whispered. The old man hung his tired head.
Sheriff Hamstead turned to the girls. “Red Riding Hood has never been the same. When the Everafters from Europe came over on Wilhelm’s ship, she spent the entire voyage raving to herself, drawing these horrible pictures, and screaming through the night. Even the ogres were terrified of her. When we all got settled in Ferryport Landing, our first order of business was finding a place to keep her. We built the asylum at the top of Mount Taurus, hired a few Everafter doctors and nurses to look after her, and basically forgot about her. But she kept finding ways to escape, so something had to be done.”
“Spaulding Grimm went to Baba Yaga and asked her to cast the same spell on the asylum that she’d used to trap everyone in the town,” Granny Relda said. “It was a brilliant idea. Anyone who became a serious problem got sent to the asylum.”
“That’s where we put the Jabberwocky, as well,” Sheriff Hamstead added.
“But the spell that keeps everyone in the town is big-time magic. How did Red Riding Hood get loose again?” Sabrina asked.
Granny Relda turned to Uncle Jake. He seemed to sink into his clothing.
“Tell them, Mom. Tell them everything,” he said.
Granny’s face looked pained but she took a few deep breaths and stood up from her chair. She turned to a framed photo on the wall. It was of her and their grandpa Basil when the two were much younger. Sabrina guessed they were in their mid-twenties. Even though the photo was in black and white, it couldn’t hide the color in their faces. Their eyes and cheeks glowed. They were young and in love. Granny took the photo off the wall and looked at it lovingly.
“Oh, where to start? I guess at the beginning. When I was twenty-six I met a man at a party in Berlin. A week later I married him. His name was Basil Grimm.
“I didn’t know anything about the Grimm family really, other than what I had learned about Jacob and Wilhelm in school. All I knew was that Basil was a handsome, adventurous, slightly arrogant American who swept me off my feet. He told me we were going on vacation. It would be the last vacation we ever took, but we packed memories into it that would last a lifetime. We traveled the globe together on a two-year honeymoon.
“We went everywhere: Istanbul, Hawaii, Alaska, the Amazon, South Africa, the Galápagos Islands—it was exhilarating. Every morning we woke up in a strange new land, hungry to explore. These were some of the happiest times of my life. A year into the trip I got pregnant with your father, but it didn’t stop our adventure. We continued to travel even after he was born.”
Granny put the photo back and crossed the room to where another framed photo hung. This one was of the couple in a snowy landscape, running a dogsled. She took it off the wall and admired it.
“Before the two years were quite up, Basil got a letter from his sister Matilda telling him he had to come home. His brother, your great-uncle Edwin, had passed away, so we came to Ferryport Landing as quickly as we could. And then I was introduced to the family business.”
Granny put the photo back on the wall.
“Your Uncle Jake was born a year later, shortly after Matilda passed away from pneumonia. Basil was proud of his boys and was determined that they would carry on the family responsibility. Even when they were babies, he would stand over their cribs and read them fairy tales. When they were five, he set them loose in the Hall of Wonders, giving them free rein and sets of keys of their own. When other boys their age were playing baseball, Henry and Jacob were playing with magic wands and flying carpets and dragons. By the time they were young men, they were as apt at magical weaponry and lore as any Everafter in the town.”
Uncle Jake cleared his throat. “I’ll take it from here, Mom. When your father turned twenty, he was in love with someone. This was before he met your mother,” he explained. “She was an Everafter and it broke his heart to know she was trapped in this town. It broke my heart to see him so sad, especially on his birthday. I wanted to give him something special. So I turned off the barrier so she could escape.”
Everyone gasped, especially Sheriff Hamstead. “How?” he squealed.
“I snuck into Baba Yaga’s house and found her spell book. The spell I discovered was simple, and it would only shut the barrier down for a moment. It was all I needed. Hank’s girlfriend waited for the spell to take effect and then she stepped through. We both couldn’t wait to see Hank’s face when he saw her waving to him from the other side. We had no idea what we had done.
“Dropping the barrier also dropped a few other similar barrier spells, including the one Baba Yaga had put on the asylum,” Uncle Jake explained. “Anyone who had been put in there for the good of the town was freed, including Red Riding Hood and the Jabberwocky.
“Well, when I discovered what had happened, I went after the monster,” Uncle Jake said. “I chased it through the forest without even thinking about what I would do if I caught up to it, but I never got a chance to come up with a plan. It found me and I was cornered on a cliff.”
“I know the cliff,” Sabrina said, realizing that she and her uncle had faced the monster at the same spot.
“And Grandpa came to save you,” Daphne said.
“He was a hero who loved his sons,” Granny Relda said softly.
“He never came home, again,” Uncle Jake said. “They took him to the hospital and he died a day later. The monster disappeared into the woods along with Red Riding Hood, and they’ve been missing ever since.”
Sabrina looked into her uncle’s face and saw an old heartbreak.
“Your father needed some time to himself, so he left for New York City the day after the funeral,” Granny Relda said. “He met your mother shortly after and they fell in love. They moved back here for a year, and Veronica was inducted into the family business just like I was, but each mystery they uncovered unnerved your father more and more. He worried something would happen to his new bride and when she announced she was pregnant with you, Sabrina, they left town. Your father vowed to me that his children would have nothing to do with magic, Everafters, or the Hall of Wonders.”
“I left town after the funeral, too, and haven’t been back until yesterday,” Jake said. “I couldn’t let that thing hurt another person because of something I did.”
“Why don’t I remember any of this happening?” Sheriff Hamstead asked, suspiciously.
“I’m sorry, Ernest. I had to make you all forget. When news spread that a Grimm knew how to drop the barrier, things got very ugly. People were getting hurt and I had to find a way to stop it.”
“I’ve always wondered how I’d react if I knew I could break the spell. I hope I was a gentleman,” Hamstead said.
Granny smiled. “You were one of my heroes.”
The sheriff nodded. “I suppose I can’t be angry. I’ve scattered a lot of forgetful dust myself. Any other big secrets, Relda?”
The old woman grinned uncomfortably.
“Never mind,” the sheriff said.
Sabrina looked down at Puck. He was fevered, pale, and unconscious. “What can we do for him?” she asked.
“He’s hurt . . . badly,” Granny replied.
“We can’t let him die,” Daphne said as tears spilled onto her cheeks.
“We should search the Hall of Wonders for something that will heal him,” Sabrina said.
Granny pointed to a collection of empty tins, tubes, and bottles on the nightstand.
“Then we’ll try something else,” Sabrina argued.
“And we will fail, child,” Mr. Canis said. “He’s not like you. He’s not even like most of the Everafters, creatures touched by magic. He’s a creature of magic.”
“Then what? We just give up? We have to do something!”
“He needs to be with his own people. He needs to be in Faerie,” the old man said. “They will know how to help him.”
“Let’s go!” Daphne cried.
“We can’t,” Granny said.
“The barrier,” Sabrina whispered as she lowered her eyes. Puck was lying there in front of her, probably dying, all because of some stupid two-hundred-year-old spell.
“Wait, you said you knew how to turn off the barrier,” Hamstead said to Uncle Jake.
“Absolutely not,” Granny Relda said before her son could answer. “Red Riding Hood and the Jabberwocky escaped from the asylum when the barrier fell the first time. We can’t risk them escaping the town, too.”
“I have an idea that could solve all our problems,” Uncle Jake said.
Everyone turned to him and listened.
“The Vorpal blade,” Uncle Jake replied.
“You mean that thing Mr. van Winkle mentioned the other day?” Daphne asked.
“Lewis Caroll wrote about it in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It’s a magical sword and supposedly the only thing that can kill a Jabberwocky.”
“He’s right,” Sabrina added. “I read about it in the family journals. It not only killed the other Jabberwockies, but it also cut a hole in the barrier. The Black Knight used it to escape Ferryport Landing.”
“So you see,” Uncle Jake said. “We could use it to kill the Jabberwocky, rescue Hank and Veronica, and cut a hole into the barrier big enough to get Puck out so we can take him to the Faerie folk.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Daphne cried.
Granny Relda lowered her eyes. “Spaulding Grimm had the Vorpal blade destroyed. After he trapped the Jabberwocky in the asylum and had Baba Yaga cast the spell, he figured the sword was too dangerous to keep around. Someone could have used it to escape town. He had it broken into three pieces and scattered them. I don’t know who has the pieces . . .”
Sabrina’s heart sank. Puck would certainly die now.
“Except for one,” Granny finished. She opened a drawer in her nightstand and took out a swatch of green velvet. Inside was something long and heavy. She placed it into Uncle Jake’s hands.
Uncle Jake unwrapped the object. It was metal and shiny. He lifted it to reveal the hilt of a sword. Only a small jagged portion of the steel remained. An inscription was carved into the metal.
“What are we going to do with a broken sword?” Daphne said.
“I don’t know,” Granny replied. “But maybe we can find the other pieces. I believe the inscription is a clue Spaulding left for us in case we ever needed the sword again.”
Uncle Jake read it. “‘Find the daughter of the water.’ Who is the daughter of the water?”
“Even if we find this daughter of the water and get the other pieces, is there someone in this town who can put the sword back together?” Hamstead interjected.
“The Vorpal blade was supposed to be indestructible,” Uncle Jake said. “Spaulding needed to find someone with some seriously powerful mojo to break it. There’s only one person in this town who can do something like that.”
“The Blue Fairy,” Canis said.
“From the Pinocchio story?” Sabrina asked.
“The same. The Blue Fairy is like a nuclear reactor of magic. She can grant any wish. She turned a wooden doll into a real boy. Even Baba Yaga doesn’t have power over life and death.”
“So, problem solved. We’ll find the other pieces and take them to the Blue Fairy,” Sabrina said.
“No one knows who the Blue Fairy is,” Granny Relda said. “I know she lives in town, but the spell she uses to disguise herself is powerful. I suppose I would want my privacy, too, if I could grant wishes and bring things to life. People would always want to take advantage of a power like that.”
“Then what’s the point of all this?” Daphne cried. “Even if we find the pieces, we can’t put them together. We can’t kill the Jabberwocky or get Puck to the Faerie folk.”
“Have faith, liebling,” Granny said, wrapping her arms around the little girl’s shoulders. “If Spaulding left us clues for finding the pieces, I’m sure he gave us a clue for finding the Blue Fairy so she can put them back together.”
“I’ll return to the forest and continue to track the girl and the monster,” Mr. Canis said as he stood up weakly.
“I’ve got to get a handle on what happened at the diner,” Hamstead said. “If too many humans drive by and see the destruction, I’ll have to dust the town again. Good luck with your search.”
The Sheriff and Canis left the room.
Granny sat down on the bed and took both of the girls’ hands in her own. “I’ve tried to keep you away from this for as long as I can.” The old woman sighed. “I thought if we hid from all of it maybe it would go away. Sabrina, I know you thought I didn’t care but I did. I lost my husband, my son, my daughter-in-law, and thought I would never see Jacob again. I couldn’t stand to lose the two of you. I didn’t want to put you in danger.”
“Don’t worry, Granny,” Daphne said as she hugged the old woman.
“We are Grimms. This is what we do,” Sabrina added as she hugged the old woman.
“We should get started on research, girls,” Uncle Jake said. “I’m sure if we dig into the journals, we’ll find some reference to this ‘daughter of the water.’”
“Maybe it’s a fish,” Daphne said.
“I’ve had that sword for decades and I’ve had a lot of time to think about what Spaulding meant. I don’t think it’s a fish, but I think you’re close,” Granny Relda said. She cupped her hand around Daphne’s ear and whispered something that made the girl’s eyes grow as big as Frisbees.
“No way!” Daphne cried as she inserted her palm into her mouth and bit down hard.
The sun was near the end of its decline by the time the girls and their uncle rowed out to the middle of the Hudson River in a tiny boat. Uncle Jake had been tight-lipped about his plan. When he reached the spot he was looking for, he dropped a bright orange anchor overboard.
“The Little Mermaid is the seventh daughter of Poseidon, the ruler of the sea,” he said as he fumbled in his pockets. Eventually he took out a small fishing rod. On it was a lure and a hook.
“What kind of magic is that?” Daphne asked.
“It’s not magic. It’s called a Pocket Fisherman. I bought it on the Internet,” Uncle Jake cast his line. “Spaulding knew what he was doing. Giving the blade to the Little Mermaid was a great way to hide it.”
Every time they mentioned the Little Mermaid’s name, Daphne jumped up in excitement, nearly capsizing the boat several times. She had seen a movie about the character at a friend’s house when she was five and spent entire weekends in the bathtub trying to grow fins. Of all the Everafters in the town, Daphne wanted to meet the undersea princess the most.
“I bet we’ll become best friends,” Daphne said. “She’ll invite me over all the time.”
“Sure, who wouldn’t want to spend all their free time at the bottom of the Hudson River?” Sabrina said. “Did you ever think that all of this is a wild-goose chase? We can’t exactly breathe underwater.”
“Don’t worry, ’Brina,” Uncle Jake said as he reeled in his line’s slack. “I know someone who can help us with that.”
It was several minutes before Sabrina noticed a tugging on the line.
“Looks like I’ve got a bite,” Uncle Jake said, slowly and cautiously reeling his catch in. Suddenly, he pulled back hard on the rod, and from the tension in it, it seemed as if he had hooked a big one. The fish was strong. A few times Sabrina was sure the fishing rod would be ripped out of Uncle Jake’s hands and dragged underwater, but her uncle was strong and soon he was pulling the fish onboard.
It was huge, probably weighing twenty pounds, with a white belly, gray skin, and a series of purple stripes on either side of its back. It flopped around on the bottom of the boat, smacking against the girls with its tail, and then it did something so shocking Sabrina nearly fell overboard.
“Jake Grimm!” the fish said in a gurgling voice. “You dirty, filthy, no good, pain in my fin! I should have known when I saw that lure that it was either you or your lousy brother!”
“How are you doing, Anthony?” Uncle Jake said as he set his rod into the boat. “I wish this could have been avoided, bud, but we need a bit of your special talents.”
“You’re a talking fish,” Daphne said.
“And you’re a master of the obvious,” Anthony said. “Are these your kids, Jake? If this brood is the future of the Grimms, I suspect your family is in deep trouble. So, what do you want?”
“We’re going to see the Little Mermaid and we need to be able to breathe underwater,” Uncle Jake explained.
“Not a good idea!” the fish warned.
“It can’t be avoided,” Uncle Jake replied. “The mermaid’s got something we need.”
“She’s in a foul mood lately. She’s been particularly abusive to her staff. Half of them have been turned into fish sticks. If she kills you, don’t come crying to me. I tried to warn you.”
“Kills us?” Daphne cried. “That’s crazy talk! The Little Mermaid would never kill someone. I know, I saw the movie!”
“She’s mean!” Anthony said as he flopped around the boat. “Mean, I tell you!”
“Shut your mouth,” Daphne cried. “I don’t believe a word you say.”
“Your funeral,” the fish gurgled. “All right, Jake. You know how this works. Make your wish.”
“Wait a minute. You grant wishes?” Sabrina interrupted.
“I’m a fish that talks and you’re having trouble with me granting wishes?”
“Why are we wishing to be able to breathe underwater? Why don’t we just wish we had all the pieces of the Vorpal blade? Why not avoid the headache!” Sabrina asked her uncle.
“Sorry kid, one wish per customer. I can’t grant multi-part wishes,” the fish said.
“Well, then I wish I had the Little Mermaid’s part of the Vorpal blade,” Sabrina said.
Just then, a seaweed-covered piece of metal materialized in Sabrina’s hands. She picked off the slimy plants and smiled. Its jagged end would fit perfectly with the other piece of the sword.
“All right, Jake,” the fish said. “I did my part. Now put me back in the water.”
“I really appreciate your help,” Uncle Jake said as he scooped the fish up and released him into the river. Anthony drifted back up to the surface and squirted water into Uncle Jake’s face.
“Next time, put a worm on that hook. If I’m going to be put out, the least you could do is feed me!”
The fish dove under the waves and was gone while the family eyed their treasure with awe.
“That was easy enough,” Sabrina said.
“Magic makes everything easier,” Uncle Jake said.
Daphne shrugged. “Granny says there is always a price for using magic.”
“Your grandmother just likes to do things the hard way,” Uncle Jake said.
Suddenly, there was mighty splash and a figure sprang out of the water. He was strong, with a barrel chest and big arms. His skin was green-tinged and he had kelp in his hair. He yanked an orange starfish from a belt around his waist and smacked it onto the top of Daphne’s head. He snatched her in his arms and dragged her under the water.
“Daphne!” Sabrina cried as she searched the surface for her sister.
Sabrina and Uncle Jake desperately called out for the little girl, but there was no reply. Had her sister just been drowned before her eyes? Seconds later there was another splash on the other side of the boat. This time, Sabrina got a better look at what kind of man it was. She noticed, to her shock, that he had a fish tail instead of legs. He slapped another starfish onto Uncle Jake’s head and before Sabrina could put up a fight, her uncle was dragged overboard as well.
Sabrina was all alone. She stuffed the sword piece into one coat pocket and out of another she took the Wand of Merlin. She studied the water, examining every ripple and preparing for an attack. When she heard the splash behind her, she spun around, causing the little boat to dip and roll. She lost her balance and the wand fell from her hand and rolled to the bottom of the boat. Before Sabrina could scamper down to retrieve it, the merman sprang into the boat, nearly capsizing it. He removed a scroll from a little bag on his belt and unfurled it, then cleared his throat and began to read.
“By the order or our lady, the princess, I do hereby place you and your co-conspirators under arrest for acts of thievery,” the merman declared.
“You don’t understand!” Sabrina argued, but the merman ignored her. He rolled up his scroll and tucked it back into his bag. Then he slapped an orange starfish onto the top of Sabrina’s head. The starfish’s five arms clamped down on her skull, acting like suction cups, and suddenly an odd sensation came over her. She literally felt like a fish out of water. She couldn’t breathe!
