Magic Nation Thing by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Read Free Book Online Page B

dog?”
    “That old lady with the dog,” Abby said, pointing.
    Looking in the direction Abby was pointing, Paige said, “Oh, her. But how can she help? How can one old bag lady…?” She glanced over her shoulder to where at least a half dozen guys were moving toward them, their slow, swaggering saunter becoming faster and more purposeful.
    “No. Not a bag lady,” Abby told her. “It’s Tree.”
    “Tree?” Paige stared and then delightedly started to wave. “Tree…,” she was shouting when Abby grabbed her arm and whispered fiercely, “Shhh.” There was a creak to Abby’s voice as she said, “We have to act like we don’t know her. So we don’t give away her disguise.”
    Paige nodded uncertainly. “But what…? How can she make those guys leave us alone if they think she’s just an old homeless woman?”
    “I don’t know,” Abby said desperately. “But remember, don’t act like you know her. Just pretend we want to pet her dog. If we’re lucky maybe those guys won’t bother us with somebody right there watching.”
    But then Tree raised her head and saw Abby and Paige walking toward her, and just behind them a circle of teenage guys. A threatening circle that got tighter and louder until suddenly Tree stood up straight, snatched off her gray wig, and, reaching into her bag lady-type canvas purse, pulled out a pen and a small black notebook.
    “All right,” she said in a sharp, official-sounding tone of voice. “You boys want to give me your names?” Pointing at the nearest kid, a big overgrown hulk with a lot of gold chains around his neck, she demanded, “You first. Your name and address?” The kid stared goggle-eyed. “Why? Who…,” he stammered. “Who’re you?”
    “You want to see my badge?” Tree’s voice snapped angrily. The kid shrugged, turned, and walked away. And the others did too, scattering in every direction.
    On the walk to Tree’s car, Paige talked a lot, telling Tree how they had been planning to help her, and how grateful they were that she’d been able to scare off the gang of toughs by pretending she was an undercover policewoman. Tree didn’t say much and Abby could guess how she felt about having to blow her disguise to rescue them.
    “I guess your disguise won’t work anymore,” Abby said ruefully.
    Tree shrugged, raising her wing-shaped eyebrows. “I don’t suppose so,” she said. “It will probably take about ten minutes for it to be all over the neighborhood that the old bag lady with the dog is really some sort of undercover police.”
    Paige gasped and said, “Oh, I didn’t think about that. I’m sorry. We just wanted to help and instead we messed everything up.” Grimacing, she turned to look at Abby and then looked quickly away. “It was my fault,” she told Tree. “Abby said we shouldn’t come down here but I wouldn’t listen to her.”
    One of the things Abby liked about Paige was that when one of her ideas didn’t work too well, which happened quite a lot, she never tried to put the blame on someone else. And what she had said was true. It hadn’t been Abby’s fault. Except in a way it was. She should have tried harder to talk Paige out of doing such a crazy thing. The rest of the walk to the parking garage and the ride to the Bordens’ house in Tree’s car was pretty uncomfortable, and Paige was still apologizing when she got out of the car.
    Back at the agency Tree went to get cleaned up and Abby sat in the office feeling bad and wishing there was some way she could make it up to Tree. But then Tree came back dressed in her own clothes and looking a little tired, but otherwise as gorgeous as ever.
    “Look,” she said. “It’s okay. I don’t blame you. I probably couldn’t have used the bag lady disguise much longer anyway. So don’t feel bad about it. Oh, yes. There’s a message on the phone from your mother. She says she won’t be home until eight and you should go ahead and heat up the leftovers from last night and