CHAPTER 21

Mom and Dad were as flabbergasted as I was. They didn’t have the answers to my questions, either. But one thing was for sure: their secret smiles were as sparkly as ever.

In fact, I had never seen so many teeth on display at the mosque before. Yellow ones, white ones, missing ones, crooked ones, perfect ones, braced ones and even gold ones. All in the most

I couldn’t WAIT to get to school and ask Mrs. Hutchinson what was going on.

When we got home, I found a shiny quarter on the driveway, which I decided was an extra piece of luck. I snatched it up quickly before Maryam saw it, and shoved it into my jeans. That’s when I felt the $10 bill Dad had given me for weeding. I had completely forgotten to donate it at the mosque, so I shot upstairs to my secret underwear hiding place to keep it safe.

I put my hand into the back of the closet to fish out my green underwear, but something was different.

The envelope of cash from the talent contest was there! With all the money. Every bit of it.

I screamed all the way back down the stairs, tripped over my own foot and crawl-hopped through the hallway into the kitchen, where everyone was.

Mom and Dad looked extremely confused.

“It was in my secret hiding place!”

“Wow. That’s. Wow. Alhamdulilah,” said Mom, which basically means “thank Allah.”

“Who else knows about the hiding place?” asked Dad, scratching his head again.

“Nobody. Just me.”

“That’s a mystery . . .” said Dad. “So weird.”

“Wait!” shouted Maryam, and she darted up the stairs at the speed of light.

“What’s gotten into her now?” said Mom.

Maryam came back with her phone in her hand. “Look, look. This explains everything.”

She unlocked her phone and brought up a video on the screen. It was a video of me. Or was it a Well, at least I looked as if I was the star of some sort of zombie show. I didn’t have blood all over my face or anything, but I was definitely different than usual. Maryam was saying things to me, but I was just walking around like I couldn’t hear her.

“I recorded this after the talent show, when Omar came into my room AGAIN. But I was so sleepy I forgot all about it, and I only just remembered,” said Maryam. “Now look carefully at his hand. He’s holding a white envelope!”

We all looked up from the phone at each other’s faces.

declared Maryam. “He moved the money when he was sleepwalking!”

Dad laughed. “Wow. And this whole time, we were going nuts thinking someone had stolen it.”

I opened my mouth wide like a shocked emoji.

“Why do you think you hid it, Omar?” asked Maryam.

“Well, I was thinking about the money before I slept and that you’d be really jealous about it . . .”

For that, I got a whack on the arm from Maryam, and Maryam got an eyeballing from Dad. Then Maryam got a pinch on the arm from me, and I got an eyeballing from Dad.

Then Esa said,

and Mom decided it was time for lunch.

By the time food was on the table, we’d stopped being shocked and found it hilarious instead. I couldn’t wait to tell Charlie and Daniel, and give the money to the mosque. We giggled about it for the rest of the day.

Poor Lancelot Macintosh, I thought. He never should have been a suspect at all. And it turned out

not me or Daniel or Charlie! I guess she’s not such a bad big sister after all . . .