The tree house was quiet for a long while after Grandpa Ephraim finished his story.

“It was only a broken arm,” he said eventually. “It could have been much worse for poor Gertie. But I’m sure you understand why I had to ask Victoria to leave.”

Micah privately thought that his grandfather should have had Victoria arrested.

“I woke up one morning a few months later to find your father screaming his head off on my front stoop. Only a few days old, mind you, and not a stitch of clothing on him. He was wrapped in a bath towel. If she hadn’t tucked a white feather in with him, I might not have known who he was.”

Possibly, Micah thought, Victoria was the kind of person they didn’t even want in prison.

“I never found out what happened to her after that. To be honest, I didn’t want to know. I don’t think Victoria ever understood love. Not really.” Grandpa Ephraim coughed. “I am glad I married her.”

“Why?”

“I’m glad because she gave me your father.”

“Oh.” Micah looked up through the branches of the tree. A couple of stars winked at him. “I don’t remember him as well as I should. Or mom. What they were like, I mean. I mostly remember how they looked. Sometimes, I worry I’ll forget that, too.”

His grandfather squeezed him around the shoulders in a one-armed hug. “Well, they were splendid people, if I do say so myself. And they gave me the best grandson in the whole world.”

When Grandpa Ephraim said things like that, Micah almost believed they were true.

They stayed up together to wait for the sunrise, even though the coughing was getting worse. “Your miracle?” Micah had to ask just one more time.

“I’m waiting for an answer. I hope I’ll have it soon.”

It took them a long time to climb down the tree house’s rope ladder. When he got to the bottom, Grandpa Ephraim had to hunch over his knees to catch his breath. When he stood up, he said, “Thank you for sharing this night with me.”

“It was the best I’ve ever had,” Micah said. Even as he said it, he was afraid that there would never be another one like it.

“It’s the best I’ve had,” his grandfather replied, “since I was ten years old.”

Grandpa Ephraim shook his head when he saw Dr. Simon’s car was parked on the street out front. Aunt Gertrudis must have insisted that he come over. Right before they walked in the door, Micah’s grandfather looked down at him.

“I do wish you and your friend had talked the Lightbender into coming for a visit,” he said. “It would have been something to see him standing in my very own house.”

“I don’t think he would fit in,” Micah replied as they stepped into the living room.

Grandpa Ephraim chuckled; the blub glub had come back. “That’s the whole point of him,” he said. “That’s the whole point of it all.”

Then he sat down on the sofa and started to wheeze.

It didn’t stop.

Grandpa Ephraim’s eyes were closed, his chest was heaving up and down, but he didn’t seem to be getting enough air. Then a horrible rattling sound joined the blubbing, glubbing, and wheezing.

Micah wasn’t quite sure what happened next, but he thought he must have called for help because Aunt Gertrudis appeared at the foot of the stairs. “Stop caterwauling.”

Dr. Simon, looking startled, was behind her. He ran to Grandpa Ephraim and checked his pulse. Then he swore and started pulling things out of the duffel bag he always brought with him when he made house calls. He only paused for long enough to point at Micah and say, “Get him out of here, Ms. Tuttle.”

Aunt Gertrudis took Micah to the kitchen. “You’ll stay right here if you know what’s good for you,” she said before she left.

He sat down at the table and stared at the daisy-patterned tablecloth for a hundred years. When Dr. Simon finally came into the room, he knelt beside Micah.

“Now, Micah,” he said, “I know we haven’t talked about this much, but you’re a smart young man and I know you can understand.”

“Is he gone?” Micah whispered.

Dr. Simon sighed. “Your grandfather is still with us, but you need to realize that it’s only going to be for a very little while. Okay?”

“Okay,” Micah said. Even though it wasn’t. Even though it never would be.

“Your great-aunt and I are going to bring his things down from upstairs and try to make him comfortable right here on the sofa. We’re going to do everything we can, but he doesn’t have much longer. The rest of the day at the most. You understand?”

“Okay,” Micah said. He couldn’t find another word.

Aunt Gertrudis appeared. She looked at Micah almost as if she wanted to say something, but she didn’t. She and the doctor headed upstairs to bring down Grandpa Ephraim’s bedding and his breathing machine.

Micah went into the living room to sit with his grandfather, but he stopped in the doorway. “Chintzy? What are you doing here?”

The parrot had just flown through the open front door. “I want to state for the record that it wasn’t my decision to make!” she squawked. She landed on the back of the sofa and stared sideways at Grandpa Ephraim. “Is he asleep?”

“Do you have a message?” Micah asked.

Chintzy shifted from foot to foot. “I have an answer.”

“I’m awake.”

Grandpa Ephraim’s voice was so weak that Micah wasn’t sure he’d actually said it until his eyes opened. He hurried forward and crouched beside the sofa.

“Answer?” Grandpa Ephraim gasped.

Chintzy’s feathers puffed. “No.” She took off without another word.

“No.” Grandpa Ephraim stared at the ceiling.

“What’s ‘no’ the answer to?” Micah asked.

“It’s the wrong answer,” he said. “They’re wrong.” It was hard to tell because of how he was breathing, but Micah thought he sounded angry.

Grandpa Ephraim reached out then and clutched at the front of Micah’s pajama shirt. “You have to go,” he said. “Circus Mirandus. Now.”

Micah shook his head. “I can’t leave you. Doctor Simon said . . .”

He trailed off. His grandfather’s eyes were clear and so very serious.

“Go,” he wheezed. “Bring him back. Lightbender. Miracle.” He released Micah’s shirt. “‘No’ is the wrong answer.”

The kitchen telephone hung on the wall next to the refrigerator. Jenny’s phone number was as easy to remember as she had said it would be.

A woman, who must have been her mother, answered. “I’m afraid Jenny’s getting ready for school,” she said. She had a faint accent. “I can have her call you back if you like.”

“It’s an emergency.”

“What kind of emergency?” her voice was concerned.

“Homework.”

“Oh. I’ll get her for you.”

Micah thought it said a lot about Jenny’s family that homework was considered a valid emergency.

A minute later, someone yawned into the telephone. “Micah? What’s wrong?”

“We have to get the Lightbender to come as soon as possible. This morning. You have a plan, right? Can you come with me?”

“Now? What about school? My parents won’t let me skip.”

“Just pretend like you’re going to school, and don’t get on the bus.”

“Micah,” Jenny said. “I can’t. My mom drives me.”

Micah couldn’t think fast enough. He needed Jenny with her advice and her plans. “Well try, okay? Meet me there.”

He hung up the phone before she could answer. Dr. Simon and Aunt Gertrudis were on their way down the stairs. They would see him leaving if he ran out the front door.

So he climbed out the kitchen window.