The Magic Half (15 page)

“No,” said Miri.

Sissy looked like she had smelled something nasty. “Pardon
me,
you brat. You clearly were raised in an outhouse. Now get along. I’m too hot and tired to give you a smack, but my brother would be delighted. Horst!”

“Horst won’t come,” said Miri steadily.

“Miri!” Molly said with a warning look.

“I don’t care. I’m not going to let her stop us, not now.” Miri looked at Sissy’s stiff, plump face, her fussy mouth and prim hair. “Listen, Sissy—”

“Who
are
you?” burst out Sissy. “How do you know my name?”

“I’m from the future,” said Miri. Molly’s eyes widened, but she said nothing. “And I’m taking Molly home with me. Your mom isn’t going to throw her in that orphanage place, and neither of you is ever going to have to deal with her again. But at the moment, we’ve got things to do, so you can just butt out!” Miri was flushed with anger. She wasn’t going to let any snotty teenager boss her arou— A sudden thought made her freeze. Sissy was going to end up with the house. Miri’s own family bought it from her. At some point, Sissy was going to put the horrible wallpaper in Molly’s room. What if she found the lens and threw it out? The whole thing would never happen! Miri almost groaned out loud. Me and my big mouth!

Sissy turned to Molly. “You have the nicest friends, dear. Get to your room afore I take a belt to you!” For a second, she sounded like her brother. She whirled around to Miri. “And as for you, I’m going to call the sheriff in one minute if you don’t get your trashy little two-bit self out of my mother’s house!” Her eyes were bulging with rage.

Oh boy, thought Miri. I blew it. Molly sent her an agonized look. What to do? Kiss up. Quick! “Sissy,” she began in what she hoped was a friendly voice.

“Don’t you Sissy me!”

“Let me explain. I really am from the future. Really!” Miri tried to look trustworthy.

“You’re a loony!”

“Okay, I’m a loony. But it’s true, and it’s also true that Molly’s going away with me, so you don’t have to fuss about her anymore. You and your mom will inherit everything from Grandma May—” Miri could see that caught Sissy’s attention.

“What about Horst?” Sissy asked suspiciously.

“Like I said, Horst is gone.” Miri didn’t know how Sissy would feel about that—he was her brother after all. Better emphasize the money. “So you’ll get everything. Everything. You’re going to end up with all of it.”

“How do you know?”

“I’m from the future,” Miri said patiently. She began to get an idea. It might work. “I fixed it all up for you,” she said with a big, toothy smile.

“
Nobody
is from the future,” cried Sissy, stamping her foot. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Molly shot a desperate look at Miri. Should we run for it? her eyes asked.

Miri shook her head slightly. The glass had to stay on the wall. “Listen,” she began again. “I’m going to tell you some things that are going to happen. You’ll see. I really do know the future.” Her brain reeled around, trying to remember things. “America’s in a Depression now, right? Well, it’ll be over soon.”

“When?” asked Sissy.

Shoot! Miri didn’t know. When
did
it end? She had to keep talking. “And after the Depression, there’s going to be a war, a big one, with Germany. With a guy named Hitler. See if I’m not right.”

“Honestly! That’s ridiculous. I never heard of him,” snapped Sissy.

“Just wait. You will!” Miri could tell she had her attention. “And then we drop a big bomb on Japan, because we’re fighting them, too.”

Sissy rolled her eyes. Clearly, she didn’t believe a word.

Miri thought wildly. “There are going to be people called hippies in the sixties. Lots of colors and— and—music. Rock and roll. There’ll be the Beatles. You’ll hear about them, for sure. Oh, and some astronauts will go to the moon! I can’t remember when, but they do. You’ll watch it on television, which is another big thing that’s coming. It’s like a movie in your own house.” She nodded hopefully at Sissy. Believe me, believe me, she thought. “And cell phones! Those are telephones you can carry around in your pocket. And—um—there’s Martin Luther King Jr. You’re going to hear a lot about him. Just you wait.”

Sissy tapped her foot against the floor. “You’re nuts.”

Miri took the plunge. “And you’re going to have children—more than one, I’m pretty sure—and you’re going to live here until the twenty-first century, and then your kids are going to take you to live with them in Ohio. Marion, Ohio. You’re going to sell the house to the Gill family. You are. And”—Miri took a deep breath—“you’re going to put up purple wallpaper with orange vines in Molly’s room. Sometime, you’re going to do that.”

Sissy’s floppy mouth hung open. Miri had her now.

“And here’s the thing, Sissy. When you do that, when you put up the wallpaper, you’re going to find a little piece of glass taped to the wall, right near the floor.” Miri’s eyes were locked on Sissy’s. “If I’m wrong about any of what I’ve told you, you can take the glass down and throw it away.” She heard Molly gulp. “But if I’m right, leave it. Don’t touch it and don’t let anyone else touch it. Do you promise?”

“What if I don’t?” Sissy was trying to look like she didn’t care.

“You’re going to get all the money, the house. You’ll end up with everything. All you have to do is leave the glass alone. Come on, Sissy.” Miri struggled to keep her voice calm and quiet.

Sissy didn’t say anything.

“If I’m wrong about any of the things I’ve said, you can do what you want. But if I’m right . . .”

Sissy’s eyes moved from Miri to Molly. Molly’s gray eyes looked steadily back.

“I’m leaving, Sis,” she said, very softly. “I’ll never ask you for anything again. Please?”

“Well,” said Sissy huffily. “What is it you want?”

“Just promise to leave the glass where it is,” pleaded Miri. “That’s all you have to do.” She waited, almost not daring to breathe.

“Why?”

“Because Molly can’t come home with me unless you leave that glass there.”

Sissy looked suspiciously from one girl to the other. She tapped her heel. She pursed her mouth. “All right. It’s ridiculous.”

“You promise?” prompted Molly, straining forward as if she could push the word from Sissy’s mouth.

Sissy sighed deeply. “All right. I promise.”

There was a pause. Then—

“Come on!” said Miri, pulling on Molly’s hand.

“Yippee!” Molly leaped forward, galloping toward Horst’s room.

Sissy whirled around to watch them go, a strange expression on her face. “Molly!” she called.

“What?” Molly paused and looked back.

“Are you really going somewhere?”

“Yes!” Molly shouted.

Sissy fiddled with her gloves for a moment. “I think you’re full of baloney and I don’t believe a word you’re saying, but—well—just in case, sorry,” she said quietly. “Sorry about . . . you know.”

Maybe she’s not so bad, Miri thought, surprised.

Molly grinned and waved. “Don’t worry. Bye!”

Leaving Sissy silhouetted against the dark hallway, the girls plunged into Horst’s room and swarmed up the ladder. Once in the attic, the slats of light told them that the afternoon was moving into evening, and they hurried, bumping their heads and knees, through Molly’s secret passageway for the last time. Out of the closet and kneeling by the baseboard, Molly drew the fragile glass from her pocket. “Hope it doesn’t break,” she whispered. “It’s got to last a long time.”

“It lasts,” Miri assured her.

Molly lifted the tiny glass to her eye and peered through it. “Who knows when I’ll get another chance to see clear,” she said.

“You can get another pair when we get home,” said Miri confidently. “Mom isn’t just going to kick you out. She’ll get you some glasses, I bet you anything.”

“Why should she?” said Molly doubtfully. “She doesn’t know me from Adam.” She reached out a finger to stroke the lens and sighed. “Oh well. I’m getting pretty used to everything blurry.”

Molly peeled a piece of cellophane tape from a roll—Miri supposed that dispensers hadn’t been invented yet—and they attached the delicate glass to the baseboard. It glinted there like a little window.

“There it is,” said Miri. “Just where I found it.” It would wait patiently for her, right there, for many years. She turned to Molly. “You ready?”

Molly grinned. “Yup.”

Miri pulled out the second case, the one containing her new glasses. “I think it’ll be safer if we both look through a lens,” she said, cracking the plastic frame and trying not to imagine what her mother was going to say about that. She held out half a pair of glasses to Molly.

“Let’s hold hands. Don’t you think?” asked Molly anxiously.

“Good idea.” Miri took Molly’s thin brown hand in hers. “Okay, on the count of three, lift it up and look through it with one eye. Gotta keep the other one closed. Okay?”

“Yes.” Molly’s voice was tense.

“One.” Molly’s hand clenched hers. “Two.” Miri was having trouble catching her breath. “
Three.”

CHAPTER
16

T
HEY STRETCHED UP
against the gum of time while Molly’s room sank down, and then, with a sickening heave, the two girls were pushed through, gasping, into the center of the ten-walled room. For the first moment, they just hung on to their stomachs.

Miri blinked.

The afternoon was only long shadows now, and pink light. But—

“Is this my room?” breathed Molly, staring.

“Yes, but it didn’t look like this when I left,” Miri replied, turning about to survey the wreckage. Purple wallpaper hung in long strips from the walls, showing jagged triangles of yellow plaster in between. All of the furniture had been pushed to the center of the room and covered with an assortment of plastic sheets. But none of this was what made Miri suddenly breathless.

“What?” said Molly. “Bet you’re glad you’re getting new wallpaper. That’s the ugliest stuff I ever saw in my whole life.” She plucked a piece from the wall and brought it close to her face. “Plug ugly. Sissy got it cheap, I can tell.”

“Molly?”

Molly spun slowly around, trailing wallpaper from her fingers. “We did it, didn’t we? I wasn’t so sure—but here I am! In my room, or your room, or our room”—she spun faster—“my room, your room, our room!” She laughed. “It’s magic! For us!” The wallpaper fluttered behind her.

“Ooh, are you in the doghouse!” It was Robbie and Ray, standing in the doorway.

Molly collapsed dizzily to the floor and stared in silence at the two boys.

“What?” said Miri nervously.

“You are
totally
in the doghouse with Mom,” sang Ray. “She had to take down all this wallpaper, and you were supposed to help. Can you say
ball-is-tic,
boys and girls?”

“
We
helped,” said Robbie, grinning. “Mom loves our butts.”

Miri looked helplessly at Molly, who looked back at her, equally surprised. Why wasn’t anyone saying anything about the fact that there was an unknown girl sitting in the middle of the floor? Was Molly invisible?

“I think we’re going be seeing some significant upward momentum in this season’s stats, don’t you?” said Ray in a sports announcer voice. He turned to Robbie.

“Yeah.” Robbie grinned. “Despite a weak early season, the boys will be outplaying the girls this summer,” he added, holding a nonexistent microphone to his mouth.

“The girls have suffered serious setbacks, due to—”

“Them being girls,” Robbie interrupted, laughing.

It was all so normal. They showed none of the hesitation or even politeness they would have in the presence of a stranger. They were exactly themselves. Miri opened her mouth and closed it again. The boys stopped, waiting for her insult. When none came, they turned toward Molly. Did they expect her to say something? Did they even see her? She stared back at them, paralyzed.

Ray shrugged. “Whatever. Let’s Wiffle, dude.”

“No. Wiffle sucks.”

“No, you suck. I’ll let you hit first even though it’s my turn.” Squabbling, the boys descended the stairs and argued their way down the hall and out of earshot. It was completely and totally normal.

“Robbie and Ray?” whispered Molly, after a minute.

Miri nodded.

“Did they see me?”

“I don’t know,” Miri replied. Something very strange was going on here. She looked over to the cluster of furniture in the middle of the room. “A bunk bed,” she said quietly.

Molly followed her glance. “Yeah.”

“I don’t have a bunk bed,” said Miri. Molly’s eyes met hers, and they stared at each other in silence. It could only mean one thing, but that one thing was—impossible?

“Try the closet,” croaked Molly, making no move to rise from the floor.

“Right.” Sidling around the wallpaper and plastic sheets, Miri peered into the closet. Her collection of pants, coats, party dresses, and jackets was there—but next to it was another set. There were five dresses, a long bathrobe, some jeans, a pink corduroy jacket, and two coats that Miri had never seen before. Slowly, as if moving through water, she dropped her eyes to the floor. Neatly lined up were a pair of shiny black shoes and rubber boots. Tossed casually on top of them were two red sandals and a single sneaker.

Molly joined her in the doorway.

Miri shook her head. “I’ve never seen some of this stuff before.”

“Do you—could it—” The words couldn’t find their way out of Molly’s mouth.

“It can do anything,” breathed Miri.

Before they could say another word, Miri heard her mother’s brisk footsteps in the hallway. “Miri? Molly? Are you two up there?”

Molly looked at Miri, and her face was a wild flame of hope.

“We’re here,” said Miri, her heart thudding.

“And about time, too. I trust that you’re peeling the paper off the walls.” She was climbing the stairs now.

“Yeah,” Miri said hoarsely. “That’s what we’re doing.”

Molly flew to the farthest wall and jerked off a long strip of paper. Her back was toward the door, but Miri saw her hands shaking.

“All I can say is that you two are very lucky that your kind brothers offered to help me today, because if I had had to do this all by myself, I would be a lot madder than I am right now.” Mom stood in the doorway, surveying the walls with pride. “I think we did pretty well. If we finish the big pieces tomorrow, we can steam the rest of it off next week when Daddy comes. Then we’ll put up your dainty pink roses.” She chuckled. “Pink roses. Who would have guessed?” She wandered over to the wall where Molly was tearing paper furiously. “Look at you, working so hard.” Casually, she smoothed Molly’s hair and then dropped a kiss on the top of her head. Miri could hear Molly gasp. “Well, sweetie, don’t wear yourself to a nubbin.” She stopped on her way out of the room and nudged Miri gently. “Why don’t you help your sister instead of just standing there like a frozen pork chop?” She kissed Miri lightly on the cheek. “Get busy,” she growled.