CHAPTER 20

If anyone had ever told me I’d find myself holding hands with my stepsister someday, I’d have said they were crazy.

But that was before I met the Red Rocket.

Pearl patted its dashboard. “That’s my girl,” she said. “Don’t you let anybody tell you you’re over the hill. You keep this up and we’ll be at Redwood National Park by dinnertime.”

Pearl had been talking to her car ever since we hightailed it out of Grants Pass half an hour ago. She treated it like some kind of pet.

“Not every day you get to ride in a classic Ford Thunderbird convertible, is it, girls?” she said, glancing over the back of her seat to where Olivia and I were sitting, clutching each other for dear life. Pearl drove fast. Really fast.

Getting out of town had been an adventure. We’d just finished telling Pearl everything—well, everything except the fact that Great-Aunt Abyssinia was actually my fairy godmother—when a police cruiser pulled into the parking lot.

“Uh-oh,” Pearl had said, “looks like we’ve got company.” She drummed her flamingo pink fingernails briefly on the tabletop. “Tell you what, girls. I don’t know why I believe your wild tale, but for some reason I do, and my radar’s never let me down yet. You have to get up pretty dang early in the morning to pull the wool over Pearl Slocum’s eyes, yes sirree.” She crossed to the counter and rummaged briefly in her purse. “Here’s what I want you to do,” she said, passing a key to Olivia. “I’m going to distract Officer Norris with a piece of cherry pie—that’s his favorite—while you two slip out the back door and hide in the Red Rocket.”

We must have looked at her blankly, because she added, “My car. You can’t miss it. Get in the backseat and cover up. You’ll find a blanket there. I’ll be out as soon as I can.”

We did as she asked, and a few minutes later she slid in behind the wheel. “You were right,” she murmured. “That customer who was in earlier went and blabbed to the police.”

So much for my disguise. I should have saved myself the trouble of cutting my hair.

Pearl put the key in the ignition and switched on the engine, then leaned over the seat and adjusted our blanket. “It took two pieces of pie and a lot of smooth talk to convince Officer Norris that the fellow was just another greedy fool trying to make a quick buck,” she told us. “I swore on my grandmother’s knitting basket that you were a boy, Cat.”

I grimaced. “Thanks, I think.”

Olivia squealed as the inevitable toad popped out. It was trapped under the blanket with us.

Pearl lifted a corner of the fabric. “Hush,” she told my stepsister, scooping the toad up and tossing it out the window into the bushes. She eyed us thoughtfully. “I hope I know what I’m getting myself into here. There’s quite a hefty reward being offered for you two, you know.”

We must have looked scared, because she quickly gave us a reassuring smile. “Don’t you worry, though. My lips are sealed. Just make sure yours are too. No more toads until we’re out of town!”

The blanket went down again and she revved the engine, then backed out of her parking spot. As we began to pull forward, I felt myself start to breathe a little easier.

Then the car rumbled to a halt.

“Say, Pearl,” said a deep male voice. Officer Norris? I tensed, hoping he wouldn’t look in the backseat and spot the two girl-shaped lumps under the blanket.

“Yes, Charlie?”

“I just wanted to thank you again for the pie.”

“Anytime,” Pearl replied sweetly.

The Red Rocket rolled forward again, and we drove sedately out of town. Once we reached the freeway, Pearl twitched the blanket away.

“You can sit up now,” she told us, glancing in the rearview mirror. “Buckle up, please, we’re on a deadline here!”

I’d barely shoved my seat belt into the slot before she floored it. That was half an hour ago, and since then we’d been barreling down the Redwood Highway, a twisty road that snaked through the forests and mountains of southern Oregon toward the California border. I had a cast-iron stomach, but even I was feeling a little queasy, and as much as I missed him, I was really, really glad that Geoffrey wasn’t along for the ride.

“Yep,” said Pearl proudly, patting the dashboard again, “1966 was a very good year.”

We flew around another corner, and Olivia’s fingernails dug into my hand. I craned to see the speedometer. We were going seventy, but on this winding road it felt more like ninety. Probably because at the same time that she’d told us to buckle up, Pearl had pressed a button on the dashboard and the Red Rocket’s roof had retracted and disappeared into the trunk.

“No point wasting good sunshine,” she’d said. “Besides, I want you girls to have the full convertible experience.”

Thanks to the “full convertible experience,” Olivia had lost her Mariners cap somewhere back around mile marker twelve. Her curly blond hair flew out behind her like a flag until Pearl spotted it in the rearview mirror. She reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a scarf identical to the one holding her own bleached-blond updo in place. Not that there was any chance of it escaping, what with all that hair spray.

Pearl handed the scarf to Olivia and motioned to her to put it on, which my stepsister did reluctantly. She shot me a look, daring me to say anything.

“Life doesn’t get any better than this, does it, ladies?” Pearl hollered, her words whipped away by the wind.

“Actually, it does,” Olivia whispered to me through clenched teeth.

I looked over at her, startled. My stepsister had a sense of humor! “No kidding,” I whispered back.

The poor toad didn’t stand a chance. The wind swept it overboard practically before I’d finished speaking.

The sun was sinking lower in the sky, and as the car sped through the shadows of the towering fir trees that lined the highway, Olivia and I wrapped ourselves in the blanket and huddled closer together. Pearl finally took pity on us.

“Just wanted to give you a taste of real freedom on the road,” she said, pulling over and raising the Red Rocket’s roof again. As it snapped into place, she turned around to face us, her forehead puckered under the scarf. “Now, tell me again about this great-aunt of yours. How exactly is she going to help fix this mess you’re in?”

Olivia and I exchanged a glance.

“Um … ,” I began.

“Lean out the window when you talk, dear,” Pearl told me. “I’m not partial to toads. No offense or anything.”

I stuck my head out the window as the Red Rocket pulled off the shoulder and back onto the highway. “My great-aunt is kind of eccentric, but she’s really smart,” I replied, hoping that would satisfy Pearl’s curiosity. “She’s faced this kind of thing before.”

Pearl’s eyebrows did their disappearing act. “Really? Does this, uh, condition run in your family?”

“Not exactly,” I said, watching the toads bounce onto the grass by the side of the road as we picked up speed.

“I should think not.” She made the sucking noise with her teeth again, then shrugged. “Oh well. Probably best we find her anyway, her being family and all.”

As I sat back in my seat, Pearl popped a cassette tape into the slot on the dash. She grinned at us in the rearview mirror. “Perfect song for our getaway, don’t you think?” she shouted as the opening notes of the Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun” came blasting over the speakers. Pearl joined in gustily at the refrain: “‘And she’ll have fun, fun, fun ’til her daddy takes the T-Bird aw-a-a-a-y.’”

Olivia looked over at me and shook her head in disbelief.

I slid Connor’s cell phone out of my pocket. Coming up on Cave Junction, I texted to A.J. I’d been keeping him posted on our progress ever since we left Grants Pass.

ETA one hour, he texted back. GAA still at Jedediah Smith Campground, campsite 50.

I showed the phone to Olivia, who relayed the message to Pearl. Pearl didn’t mind flowers and gems inside her T-Bird. Just no toads. I guess I couldn’t blame her.

“And how does your friend A.J. know this?” she asked.

“Cat’s mom is an astronaut,” Olivia explained. “Fiona MacLeod Starr—maybe you’re heard of her? A.J. is working with her to help track Cat’s great-aunt from outer space.”

“You don’t say,” said Pearl, digesting this new information. She glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Well now, isn’t that something. I watch all the launches, you know. Always have, ever since I was a little girl. I’ll never forget that first moon walk.” She stuck her head out the window and looked up at the sky. “So is NASA tracking us, too?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“Toad!” shouted Olivia.

Pearl pulled her head back in as the creature tumbled over the back of her seat. The car swerved, sending me flying into my stepsister.

“Sorry,” I blurted out before I could help myself.

Now there were two on the loose. Pearl flipped the one in the front seat over her shoulder. It landed on Olivia, who shrieked and batted at it with her hands. She managed to knock it onto the floor, where the second one was hopping around, then whisked her knees up to her chin as I scrambled to capture them both.

When I finally had things under control again and the pair of toads wrapped in my hoodie, I gave Pearl a thumbs-up.

“Thank goodness,” she said with a shudder. “Pipe down now, okay?”

I kept very quiet for the rest of the trip.

An hour later, just as A.J. had predicted, we pulled into the Jedediah Smith Campground.

“What campsite did you say she’s at again?” asked Pearl.

“Fifty,” Olivia replied, with a spray of carnations and a large diamond. She handed the gem to Pearl. “Here,” she said. “Maybe this will help pay for gas.”

Pearl held it up and squinted at it. “Honey, if what you’re telling me is true, this here stone will not only pay for gas, it’ll fund my retirement. Thanks.”

She hit the button to retract the roof again now that we were off the highway and into the national park. Olivia and I gaped up at the trees. They soared far above us, reaching for the dwindling spring daylight. I’d been to a lot of places, but I’d never seen trees like these.

“Really something, aren’t they?” said Pearl. “I’ve always loved the redwoods. Did you know some of them are taller than the Statue of Liberty?”

“No way!” I said, then clapped my hands together in front of me, trapping my quarry. Cat Starr, Toad Huntress scores again. Pearl pulled over for a second so I could toss it to safety.

“Isn’t there a tree you can drive through?” Olivia asked, and the waitress nodded. “Can you take us to it?”

“If we have time.”

The T-Bird drew a lot of attention as we made our way slowly through the campground.

“Stay down, girls,” Pearl murmured, switching off the Beach Boys. She punched a button on the dashboard and the mechanism whirred as the rooftop slid back into place. We were going into stealth mode again.

A few minutes later we spotted Great-Aunt Abyssinia’s RV, and Pearl pulled in beside it.

“Nice wheels,” called Great-Aunt Abyssinia from her folding chair by the campfire.

She didn’t look the least bit surprised to see us. So much for stealth mode.

“The Rocket gets me where I need to go, on time and in style,” Pearl replied. She switched off the engine and gave the dashboard one last pat. “Yes sirree, baby, you did real good.”

She untied her scarf, checked her lipstick and hair in the rearview mirror, then got out of the car and crossed to where Great-Aunt Abyssinia was waiting.

“Howdy, Pearl,” said my great-aunt.

Pearl’s eyebrows fled under her stiff blond bangs again. “How did you know my name?”

Great-Aunt Abyssinia grinned. “Says so on your uniform.”

Pearl glanced down at her name tag and laughed. “So it does. Sorry, I’m a little jumpy. This day has been a little, uh, left of normal.” She extended her hand. “Pearl Slocum of the world-famous Pie-in-the-Sky Diner. Well, maybe not world-famous, but we do okay. And you must be the great-aunt these girls are so eager to find.”

“I guess I must be,” said Great-Aunt Aby, rising to her feet. Like the redwoods, she towered over all three of us. Unlike the redwoods, she was dressed from head to toe in fleece. Purple fleece. I caught sight of her hiking boots and nearly laughed. They were sporting matching purple laces. Great-Aunt Aby had accessorized.

My great-aunt shook Pearl’s hand. “Pie-in-the-Sky Diner, huh? Sounds like my kind of place.”

“It is if you like pie,” Pearl replied. “We serve seven kinds, one for every day of the week.”

“I’ll have to stop by sometime. I’m much obliged to you for bringing the girls to me.” She glanced over in my direction and ran a big hand over her own short locks. “Nice ’do, by the way, Catriona. Give it a shot of color and we could almost be twins.”

Olivia snorted, and I stepped on her foot.

“These two are in a heap of trouble,” Pearl told her. “But I guess you know that, what with them being all over the news and everything.”

Great-Aunt Aby stared at her blankly. She hadn’t heard! My heart sank. What kind of a fairy godmother had I been saddled with? One that didn’t even watch the news?

Pearl glanced back over her shoulder and lowered her voice. “Perhaps we’d better go inside, Mrs., uh—”

“Just call me Aby,” said Great-Aunt Abyssinia. She lumbered over to her RV and opened the door. “Come on in, then.”

Olivia wrinkled her nose as we followed her inside. The remains of my great-aunt’s dinner—in a pan containing a blackened mess that looked like it might have been some sort of stir-fry—were petrifying on the stove.

“You three hungry?” asked Great-Aunt Abyssinia.

Olivia and I shook our heads vigorously.

“Starved,” said Pearl.

“Have a seat,” my great-aunt told us.

The three of us squeezed in around the little dining table while Great-Aunt Aby took the pan and stuffed it inside the RV’s tiny oven, then rummaged in her cupboards and teeny refrigerator. Right, I thought scornfully. Like she really watches the Food Network. A few minutes later, though, she set down three plates of completely normal-looking bacon and eggs in front of us. Better than normal-looking, in fact.

“Breakfast-for-dinner night,” she announced, cracking open a bottle of her green gloop and taking a big slurp.

“I’d give you a job any day of the week,” Pearl told her, picking up her fork. “This looks mighty fine.”

My great-aunt pulled up a stool and perched at the end of the table, like a circus elephant doing a balancing act. “So, fill me in.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could say anything, Pearl held up a warning finger. “Not at the dinner table.”

I nodded, and nudged Olivia with my elbow.

“So it all began right after you visited us, Mrs., uh, Aby,” my stepsister explained. “I woke up doing this”—she pointed to the buttercups and diamonds that littered her plate—“and Cat woke up doing, um …”

“This,” I said, cupping my hands in front of my mouth to catch the inevitable toad.

Croak.

Pearl shuddered. “Puh-leez,” she said. “Some of us are trying to eat.”

“I see,” said Great-Aunt Aby, her eyes glinting behind her glasses. She plucked the toad from my hand and inspected it, then opened the door of the RV and released it gently onto the step. As it hopped off toward the woods, Archibald twitched his tail and leaped down from his perch on the bookshelf. “No, Archie,” said my great-aunt, quickly shutting the door of her RV again. “Toad would definitely disagree with you.”

She flicked a glance at Pearl and Olivia, who were plowing their way happily through their bacon and eggs. She plucked a book from her shelf and flipped through its pages, muttering to herself. Then she turned to me. “Could I have a word in private with you, Catriona?”

I followed her outside.

“I take it you’ve spoken with your mother,” she whispered.

I nodded again.

“Good. Not exactly the way we meant to tell you, but it couldn’t be helped, what with the space mission and all interfering with our schedule.”

I lifted a shoulder.

“How much does Pearl know?”

“I just told her that you’re my great-aunt,” I replied, prodding with the toe of my sneaker at the toad my answer produced.

“Good. Let’s keep it that way for now. How about Olivia?”

“Uh …”

“I see. Well, couldn’t be helped either, I suppose. Not under the circumstances.” Great-Aunt Aby laid one of her large hands on my shoulder. “I’m sorry that we were never properly introduced,” she said. “There’s actually rather a lovely ceremony involved.” She slipped a finger through the chain of my necklace and tugged it from its resting place under my hoodie. “Your mother and I would have presented you with this together,” she said, “and explained its history, and yours.”

I looked at her expectantly.

She blinked at me with her enormous, magnified eyes. “Not just yet,” she replied to my unspoken question. “Your mother’s been looking forward to the ceremony for many years, and I don’t wish to deprive her of her part in it. And it’s completely irrelevant information at the moment.”

I must have looked disappointed, because she paused, then sighed. “Well, I guess I can explain one thing.” She opened the book that she’d brought outside with her. I recognized the emerald green cover and worn binding—it was the same book she’d consulted the day she visited us back in Portland.

“Here,” she said, passing it to me and tapping her finger against one of its pages. “I meant to help, truly I did.”

I quickly scanned the page. It was an old fairy tale about two stepsisters. The nice one got the gift of diamonds and flowers, and the rude one got stuck with the toads.

“But that’s not what happened,” I told her, frowning. “You messed up, big-time.”

“It happens occasionally,” admitted Great-Aunt Abyssinia. “No real harm done, though.”

“No harm done?! Great-Aunt Aby, look at me!” I pointed to the pile of toads at my feet. “Do you have any idea what I’m going through here? Thanks to your stupid mix-up, I’ll probably never be able to go back to school again. And I’ll have to give up the bassoon!” I paced around the campfire angrily, heedless of the toads I was scattering under the giant trees. “Olivia will be fine, of course. She and her diamonds will be welcomed with open arms wherever she goes. The school will probably build a new gym or library in her honor or something.” I stopped and looked at my great-aunt accusingly. “There’s been a whole bunch of harm done, Great-Aunt Aby—and the worst of it is, my little brother has been kidnapped!”

“I know,” said my great-aunt sadly, hanging her head. She looked like a remorseful Saint Bernard caught swiping a steak off the grill. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”

“What is the plan, then? I say it’s time to wave your wand, or whatever it is you do, and hurry up and fix this!”

“That’s not exactly the way it works.”

“Well, make it work!” I told her. “I want Geoffrey back, and I want my life back!” I stalked back inside and slid into my seat. Olivia and Pearl were smearing jam—or what looked like jam, though it was an odd brown color—onto their toast.

“So, we have diamonds, toads, and a missing brother,” said Great-Aunt Aby, following me inside. “Got it. I think I’m up to speed.”

“Do you think we should call their parents and let them know that the girls are safe?” asked Pearl.

I shook my head. “Nope,” I said, heedless of what else came out of my mouth besides words. I was done worrying about toads. “The FBI is tapping our phones, trying to trace calls from the kidnapppers.” I explained briefly about the note I’d given Connor, too. There’d been nothing on the news yet to make me think my father had received it, though.

“I can get a message through if need be,” said Great-Aunt Aby, and I knew she was referring to the FGPS. She reached for her broom, and for a moment I thought she was going to mount it and fly away, but she merely began sweeping up toads. “Connor strikes me as a resourceful boy, though. Let’s be patient a while longer.” She emptied the dustpan out the RV’s door. “We need to hit the road for Portland soon. Long drive ahead of us.”

“Would you like to borrow the Red Rocket?” said Pearl.

“Nice of you to offer, but you’d be surprised at the speed I can coax out of this RV,” my great-aunt replied. “I can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve done for the girls, Pearl. I don’t want to impose on your generosity any longer.”

“Oh, you’re not imposing,” said Pearl.

“Nevertheless, you’re free to leave,” insisted my great-aunt.

Pearl laughed. “You aren’t going to get rid of me that easy, Abyssinia,” she told her. “This is more excitement than I’ve had in decades. Besides, now that I’m in it this far, I have to stick around and see how everything turns out.” She winked at Olivia and me, then turned back to my great-aunt. “So,” she said. “Where do we go from here?”