Magic Nation Thing by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Read Free Book Online

least bit sneaky ever got past her, which probably came from all the years she’d been on the alert for little-brother surprise attacks.
    Poking Abby, Paige said, “Okay. What is that for? Why did you cross all your fingers just now? Do you always do that when we’re almost to my house? I’ll bet you do, and I can guess why.”
    Abby laughed. “I’ll bet you’re wrong, but what’s your guess? Tell me.”
    Paige smiled in the lopsided way that usually meant there was an unfunny part to what she was going to say. “I’ll bet it’s because of my darling little brothers.” She pointed at the crossed fingers on Abby’s right hand. “Like, that one’s saying, ‘Please, no egg on my head today.’” And then, pointing to the other hand, she said, “‘And no catsup in my backpack.’”
    Abby laughed and said, “Yeah, right! But no, not really. It’s for Tree.” And then, before she had time to bite her tongue, she went on. “I promised to keep them crossed for her to be the one to nab the arsonists.”
    “Arsonists. Really?” Paige’s blue-green eyes went neon bright, as they always did when anything mysterious or slightly gross came up. Paige was really into stuff like that. So then of course Abby had to tell all about Tree’s problems with her first surveillance assignment, and how she was trying again dressed as a bag lady. Paige thought Abby’s idea to disguise Tree as a bag lady was “absolutely insane.” Which meant she liked it a lot.
    Paige had met Tree only a few times but she had been super impressed. Which was to be expected, since Paige was so into noticing the way people looked. She was the one who’d said that Tree had an insane figure, and that her face was a combination of Jennifer Lopez and the Olsen twins.
    “So, do you think the disguise is going to work?” Paige asked eagerly. “Do you think she’ll catch the arsonists?”
    “Only if she’s lucky,” Abby sighed. “At first I thought the bag lady thing was a good idea, but now I’m not so sure. I mean, no one is going to start a fire or do anything suspicious while someone’s around, even if it’s just an old bag lady.”
    “Well, how do detectives usually do it? Do that survey… whatever you call it?”
    “Surveillance,” Abby said. “Well, sometimes they sit in a car like they’re waiting for someone. Or if there’s an empty apartment nearby, they rent it for a few days and sit in a window with some binoculars. Or they pretend to be workers doing something in the area. Like fixing phone lines or weeding a garden. My mom has a couple of guys she hires to do things like that.”
    Paige thought for a minute. “Well, I think we ought to help,” she said. “I don’t think we could make anyone believe we’re phone repair people or gardeners. But maybe we could.”
    “Wait a minute—” Abby tried to interrupt, but Paige went right on.
    “I know. We could take a soccer ball and pretend we’re just kids practicing for a big soccer game. I think that’s a great idea. Don’t you?”
    Abby shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. Your parents would never let you hang out in that part of town and my mom wouldn’t let me either.”
    Paige sighed and nodded slowly. “No, I suppose they wouldn’t.” She grinned slyly. “At least not if they knew about it. But what else can we do? Think of something.”
    Nothing sensible had come to mind by the time the bus reached their stop, but when Abby started to get up, Paige pulled her back down. “Wait,” she said. “Sit down. This bus goes to Van Ness. If we stay on for a few more blocks we’ll be almost there.”
    “No. We can’t do that,” Abby protested. “How can we? And besides, where are we going to get a soccer ball?”
    “You’re right.” Paige frowned. “So there goes the soccer-playing idea.” Then her eyes got that neon glow again. “But I have some chalk in my backpack. If anyone starts getting suspicious we can draw some hopscotch squares and