NEITHER MR. SANCHEZ nor Sally Overton-Black questioned Sam as she left the house. She stepped outside and was welcomed by a wall of heat and sun. August in Oregon wasn’t as hot as August in Los Angeles, but today it was trying. And it was a sticky warmth here, the kind that instantly coated her skin with sweat and made her shirt stick to her back.
Sam surveyed the yard. Aunt Vicky and Hannah stood by the chicken coop talking to Armen, while Lucas and Caitlin stood in the shade of a nearby tree. There was no sign of Ashander, but that didn’t mean he was gone. He could still be out there, watching. It made Sam feel special to know that she mattered to him. And to know that even in a normal-looking yard, there was still magic at work.
But now she was supposed to send Caitlin inside, and that meant interacting with Lucas. Sam gnawed her lip. After their fight yesterday, that did not seem like an appealing prospect. She tried waving at Caitlin from a distance, but her sister didn’t notice. With a sigh and a gut full of lead, she walked over.
Aunt Vicky and Hannah watched as Sam crossed the yard. They didn’t just glance over and then turn back to their conversation—they watched the whole time and even smiled. It was … odd. Sam knew how to enter and leave a room in Caitlin’s shadow, how to hide in her room when she heard loud voices, how to eat a meal without ever once looking up into anyone’s eyes. But it was different here with Aunt Vicky and Hannah. They always found her. Sometimes it felt like having a spotlight pointed right at her face. She gave them a little nod, and it seemed to make them happy.
Lucas was in the middle of some story about a camping trip but fell silent as Sam approached. She was too embarrassed to look him in the eye and focused on her sister instead.
“How did it go?” Caitlin asked with her earbuds still in.
“Okay,” Sam said, and shrugged. “They want to talk to you now.”
Caitlin nodded, playing it cool. She turned and headed toward the house.
Sam wasn’t fooled. She could see the hardness at the edge of her sister’s mouth, and in her shoulders. The way she seemed to be putting on another piece of armor with every step.
Why hadn’t Sam said something encouraging? It wasn’t so bad. They seem nice for people keeping our family apart. Or even, They didn’t ask about that night. Anything to make Caitlin less nervous. Caitlin would have done that for her.
“Hey,” Lucas said, knitting furiously. Sam hadn’t even noticed him take the needles from his bag.
“Um, hey,” she said.
Sam watched him knit as the silence stretched between them, thin and brittle. It would take so little to shatter it, and yet Sam couldn’t figure out how. Luckily, Aunt Vicky joined them, though it probably meant being subjected to even more questions.
“Are you okay?” her aunt asked.
Surprised, Sam nodded.
Not What did you tell them? What did you say? Only … Are you okay?
“Do you have any advice?” Aunt Vicky wiped her palms on her shorts. “I haven’t done this before.”
Sam thought about it; she really was an expert at this point. “They want you to be honest,” she said finally. “They’re really big on that.”
“I can do that. Honesty is one of my best skills,” Aunt Vicky said, and she looked up at the trees instead of at Sam. Sam looked away from people, too, sometimes. When she was nervous.
“They also want you to talk a lot.” Then, to put Aunt Vicky more at ease, Sam added, “But I’m not great at that part.”
Aunt Vicky nodded. “Me, neither. I always think of what I want to say afterward, but never right when I’m supposed to be saying it.”
“Me, too!” Sam burst out, then shrank back again, suddenly overwhelmed with guilt. It was a test of loyalty, she reminded herself. It didn’t matter if Aunt Vicky was nice to her. She had to stop wobbling and stay focused on the quest. She had to actually be loyal.
Which meant she should use this moment to find out more about her aunt. To maybe find out what she loved.
“Is that your wedding ring?” Sam pointed to her aunt’s hand, ignoring the fresh pang of guilt as she did so.
Aunt Vicky held her hand out for Sam and Lucas. Sam peered closely, trying to hide her interest. The gold band was dinged and smudged, but it was kind of radiant, like in the riddle. Aunt Vicky said, “I wanted something simple. It has an inscription on the inside, the first thing Hannah said to me on the day we met. Hers has what I answered.”
“What does it say?” Sam asked. She realized she wasn’t asking just for the test, but because she actually wanted to know.
“Yeah, was it a knock-knock joke?” Lucas asked. “That would be funny.”
Aunt Vicky laughed. “No. We were in college, and I was working on my laptop in a very busy coffee shop. Hannah asked if she could share my table. When I looked up and saw her, she was so pretty that I couldn’t think. My brain just … went away. I said, ‘Yes, I’d like another latte.’”
Sam laughed in spite of herself.
“I don’t get it,” Lucas said, but he was laughing, too.
“Neither did she,” Aunt Vicky said. “Lucky for me, she found—finds—my social ineptitude charming.”
Sam liked the story. She didn’t want to, but she couldn’t help it. It made her think of her mother sitting at the kitchen table in their condo, drinking her glass of red wine and twisting her own wedding and engagement rings around her finger. Around and around, as if she were trying to secure them in place or take them off.
Aunt Vicky glanced over toward the chicken coop and Hannah. The lines around her eyes softened and faded, and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
She seemed to really love her wife. The riddle contained the word beloved, which was often used in weddings. Maybe getting married was the stuff of dreams for Aunt Vicky. But how could Ashander expect her to take her aunt’s wedding ring? What a horrible thing to do, especially now that Sam knew how much it meant to her … and probably to Hannah, too.
But that’s what loyalty meant, right? Staying true to someone no matter what happened. No matter what awful thing they told you to do.
Sam needed to keep looking. Maybe there was something else that Aunt Vicky loved even more. A gift more precious than it seems.
When Aunt Vicky looked back at Sam, her gaze caught on Sam’s hand. Sam realized she’d put on the ring with the blue stone—the ring from Aunt Vicky’s plastic bin—for her talk with Mr. Sanchez and never taken it off. Her mouth felt dry, and she couldn’t swallow. She covered the ring with her other hand, but she knew she was too late.
“Lucas, go talk to your father for a minute,” Aunt Vicky said. “I’d like to talk to Sam alone.”
“Sure!” Lucas said, stowing his knitting.
“He doesn’t have to go—” Sam said, frantic. Suddenly she wanted him here, wanted him close. Where was Caitlin?
Lucas gave Sam a puzzled look.
“It’s okay,” Aunt Vicky said calmly. She nodded to Lucas, and he headed off. “I’m not angry, Sam. I just wanted to talk to you alone. But we’re not really alone, see? Hannah and Armen are right there, and Sally and David—Mr. Sanchez—are just through that door with your sister. So you’re safe, okay?”
Sam’s heart beat so fast that answering was not an option. She managed to nod. Not because she believed her aunt, but because she knew she was supposed to.
Aunt Vicky put her back against the tree trunk, not so much leaning as collapsing. “I used to collect stuffed animals,” she said slowly. “They covered my bed and filled up every corner of my room. My mother used to say I had too many, and that I was going to drown in them. But every single one of them had a name and a personality.”
Sam said nothing. She could not move. She didn’t expect Ashander to come to her rescue, but silently she begged Maple to appear, or Birch, or even Cedar.
“But you already knew about the stuffed animals, didn’t you?” Aunt Vicky asked. She pointed to the ring on Sam’s hand.
“I’m sorry. I—” Sam said. “I’ll give it back.”
“That ring used to be the crown for the Queen of Squirrels,” Aunt Vicky continued. “I could never get it to stay on her head, so she wore it on her tail.”
That’s where Sam had found it, on the stuffed squirrel’s tail. The stone was the same blue as Maple’s dress.
Sam twisted the ring off and held it in her shaking palm. “A crown?”
Aunt Vicky looked at the single cloud visible in the sky and seemed to choose each of her words carefully. “I had elaborate scenarios worked out. The queen’s greatest ally was the Pirate Princess of Bundom. She was the good kind of pirate. The princess and I escaped to the high seas as often as possible.” Aunt Vicky glanced at the ring in Sam’s hand, but she didn’t take it. “Those were very hard years in my life, Sam. But when I was struggling the most, Pirate Princess saved me. She was my best friend. She was always there for me, like your books are for you.”
Sam looked away from her aunt’s sad eyes, a thickness growing in her throat. The quest, she reminded herself, and swallowed down her guilt.
The Pirate Princess of Bundom sounded very much like the stuffed bunny Sam had seen on her aunt’s bed. And the adventures Aunt Vicky was describing were most definitely the stuff of dreams.
And what could be more precious or beloved, what could bring more joy or be held more dear, than the companion who helped get you through the bad times? Sam knew how she felt about her books, her stories.
Maybe the answer to the riddle wasn’t the wedding ring at all.
“Do you still go on adventures?” Sam asked quietly, because how could she take the rabbit if Pirate Princess was still going on missions?
Aunt Vicky offered her a small smile. “No, we’re both retired from the adventure business. I’ve got other ways to get through tough times now. A therapist. A wife. Some really good friends.”
Sam held out the Queen of Squirrels’ ring again. “I’m really sorry.”
“No, you hold on to that for the queen and me,” Aunt Vicky said. “There are a lot of dangers in these woods, Sam. You might need the queen’s magic.” She put her hand on Sam’s shoulder, gently, and Sam got the impression that “the woods” didn’t just mean the nearby trees.
“But there’s no danger from me, Sam,” her aunt continued. “There never will be.”
Aunt Vicky clearly meant well, and Sam gave her a small nod to indicate that she’d heard. But promises were the wrapping paper around a gift, bright and appealing. You never knew what was actually inside until you opened the box.
Sam did slip the ring back on her finger, though, and it tingled against her skin.
Aunt Vicky wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist. “You know what?” she asked, suddenly standing straighter. “I think now is the perfect time to learn how to hold a chicken. Don’t you think? You’re going to love it, Sam, I promise!” And just like that, she started walking toward the coop.
Sam’s heart gave a little leap. A little wobble. This time, Sam let it.
Holding chickens!
Caitlin came out of the house and called for Hannah to go in next. Aunt Vicky motioned for her, too. “Come on, girls!”
Sam practically ran over to join them. She thought maybe Lucas would join, too, but he and his dad were leaning against the chicken fence, side by side, reading books. If there wasn’t chicken-holding on the line, Sam could see herself joining them.
“You’re going first,” Aunt Vicky said to Caitlin.
Caitlin raised her cast. “Uh, did you forget about this?”
“I did not,” Aunt Vicky said with a grin. “You only need one hand to hold a chicken properly.” She bent and picked up a chicken with what seemed like no effort at all. And the chicken didn’t even seem to mind! “You need to be firm,” she said. “A chicken likes to know she’s secure. That you’ve got her. The second she doubts you, that’s when she makes a fuss and tries to get away.”
Caitlin barely waited for Aunt Vicky to finish talking before she swooped down for her own chicken. It squawked and flapped its wings in her face.
“Adjust your grip like this,” Aunt Vicky said, illustrating on her own chicken.
Caitlin’s chicken calmed down almost instantly.
“Woo!” Caitlin said. “I’m holding a chicken! Sam, you’ve got to try this.”
Aunt Vicky chuckled. “How about it, Sam? You ready to try?”
Sam nodded and pointed. There was one chicken she wanted to hold more than all the others.
“Oh, you’ve taken a shine to Lady Louise!” Aunt Vicky picked her up as if she was fielding a grounder at one of Caitlin’s softball games. “Did you see what I showed your sister? Put your hand in this position, so her legs will be between your fingers.”
Sam did as she was told, and a second later, Aunt Vicky plopped Lady Louise into her arms. A large feathered wing whacked her in the nose, so she gripped a little more firmly. “I’ve got you,” she told the bird.
Lady Louise looked miffed, but settled. With the special grip, the chicken’s head was practically nestled against Sam’s chest, close to her underarm. She had her whole left hand free to pet Louise’s soft feathers.
“Well done, Sam! She clearly respects you,” Aunt Vicky said. “We’re not convinced she actually likes anyone, so respect is the most you can hope for.”
Sam stared into Lady Louise’s pitch-black pebble eyes and grinned. She couldn’t help it. There was a bird in her arms. And because of all the documentaries she’d watched with her dad, she knew that birds were actually dinosaurs, so …
There was a dinosaur in her arms!
Caitlin put her bird back on the ground, although it seemed more like the bird’s idea than Caitlin’s. “You’re better at this than I am,” she told Sam. “I’m going to call you Chicken Whisperer from now on.”
As far as nicknames from Caitlin went, this was the best one ever.
“What does that make you, then?” Sam asked, feeling emboldened.
“I’m a chicken wrangler,” Caitlin said. She had her earbuds in her hands, but still hadn’t popped them in. “Just not a good chicken wrangler.”
“Only way to get better is to try again,” Aunt Vicky said, and just like that, she’d picked up another chicken and handed it to Caitlin. Caitlin was forced to shove her earbuds back in her pocket. That alone was a miracle.
Mr. Sanchez and Sally Overton-Black stayed for almost another full hour. They interviewed Aunt Vicky last, then toured the house and yard, and even drank iced tea as they met the chickens.
When the caseworkers had spoken with Sam and Caitlin back in LA, everyone had worn tight expressions on their faces the whole time. Even their first caseworker, Mrs. Washington. Every conversation had been full of sharp angles and pitfalls and booby traps, or else the opposite: too-soft voices dripping the same phrases over and over. It’s going to be all right. It will get better. We just want what’s best …
Now Sam went from laughing one moment to feeling guilty the next to joking with Aunt Vicky the moment after. It was starting to get exhausting. There were times when she had no idea which way to feel at all.
When Mr. Sanchez and Sally finally left, Mr. Sanchez waved from the passenger seat of their car and called, “Nice meeting you, Caitlin and Sam. See you again soon!”
He said it like he was their friend. Sam stood in the shade of the front porch with her hands shoved into her pockets. But Aunt Vicky and Hannah and Caitlin stood in the driveway and waved back.
“Drive safe,” Hannah called.
Sam dodged aside as Aunt Vicky and Hannah went back inside, but stepped in front of her sister, blocking her way.
“Why did you wave to him?” Sam asked, genuinely confused. “He’s trying to make us forget that we want to go home!”
The Caitlin that Sam knew would tell her to shut up. To go to her room. To stay quiet and out of the way.
This Caitlin shrugged. “Actually, I thought they were both pretty okay. Mr. Sanchez’s glasses were a total dork-fest, though. I told him to up his game. We’ll see if he does for next time.”
She nudged Sam playfully with her shoulder. “Now move, nerd, I need more lemonade.”
Sam stood on the porch, stunned, as Caitlin walked past her and into the house. Armen said something and Caitlin laughed. Not even with the fake laugh!
Caitlin kept looking forward to the future, as if that was going to save them. But Sam knew better. She knew what they’d had before. She and Caitlin had had a system, and it had worked just fine. All Sam needed to do was find a way back to it.
Caitlin used to be Sam’s protector, but everything was different in Oregon, even that. Now it was Sam’s turn to save them. She needed to steal Pirate Princess and win the Golden Acorn, and she needed to do it fast, before the Caitlin she knew slipped away completely.