Samantha gazed up and down Central Park West. The street swarmed with cars, buses, delivery trucks, and cabs. She’d walked all the way from Buffy’s apartment with Uncle Paul in silence, his flip-flops slapping against the pavement. Gradually he seemed to have regained a little bounce in his step, though Samantha didn’t want to ask him any more questions just yet. The message from her father seemed to have seriously affected him, although she had no idea why.

She watched as her uncle stepped forward and raised one hand in the air. He looked like he was going to wave at an approaching taxi. Then he put his hand down. He put the tips of both index fingers to his lips as if he was about to whistle. Then he stopped himself.

He was a master of super-secret travel, but he clearly was having trouble with regular travel just now.

Samantha smiled.

She bent down and rested the trombone case on the sidewalk. Then she flipped the latches and opened it. She pulled out the umbrella and began to wave it at the traffic.

“Taxi!” she called. “Taxi, taxi!”

Suddenly her uncle was rushing over to her.

“Waitaminute, waitaminute!” he said. “Put that away.”

Samantha stopped waving the umbrella.

“I’ll cancel the plane tickets,” said Uncle Paul. “Then…PSST!”

“PSST!” she repeated cheerfully as she stowed the umbrella back in the trombone case.

“Thanks, Samantha,” he added. “I guess I was so distracted thinking about those clogs that I forgot about super secrets for a minute.”

Samantha still wasn’t sure what that was all about, but it was good to have Uncle Paul back again.