Magic Nation Thing Read Free Page B

Moorehead.
    Seeing and recognizing that face kept Abby from throwing the locket down immediately, and in that extra second or two she couldn’t help zeroing in on some other things that were flashing before her eyes. Such as the fact that Miranda was starting to cry, crying hard now and pushing at something—or someone. Pushing at a large man, wearing sport shoes and a denim jacket, who was holding her by her arms and pulling her toward…
    Toward what seemed to be a carnival ride. There was a small open vehicle, behind which a twisting metal track soared into the air. A track that was beginning to look more and more familiar. Beginning to look, in fact, exactly like the tracks of a well-known roller coaster in Disneyland. A scary roller coaster that Abby had been on more than once, and that certainly made some little kids cry when they thought about riding on it.
    And then the bits and pieces that made up the roller coaster scene were blurring and fading away and a moment later reforming into… a smiling Miranda sitting on the shoulders of the same denim-jacketed man, who was now standing in a long line in front of what looked a lot like Mickey’s House in Toontown.
    When Abby dropped the locket back into the envelope, the pictures faded, and she ran away to try to put the whole thing out of her mind, not thinking about it, or at least trying not to, even though she kept remembering how hard the Moorehead kid’s mother had been crying when she called Dorcas to ask her to take the case.
    No one had said anything about Disneyland. Nothing at all. But Abby, who had been to Disneyland several times when she was visiting her dad in L.A., was almost sure she’d recognized some familiar Disneyland places in the scenes that had flashed before her eyes. Sitting on her bed, Abby twisted her hands together, trying to rub out the quivering, living warmth of the pink locket and at the same time wipe away the feeling that she ought to tell someone about what she’d seen—or imagined seeing.
    It probably didn’t mean anything, she told herself. Not anything like the possibility of Miranda being at Disneyland right at that moment. And even if it did, that didn’t mean Abby ought to tell anyone about it. After all, the little girl didn’t seem to be in any danger. And if the man who had taken her to Disneyland was her father, maybe it was okay that the two of them were getting a chance to spend some time together. Abby could see how that might be true. Which meant she didn’t have to do something that would be as good as admitting that she, Abby O’Malley, really had inherited some weird powers from Great-aunt Fianna.

3
    A BBY WAS WORKING AT keeping her mind off the whole locket episode by concentrating on the tuna sandwich she was making when she suddenly realized that she ought to call Paige and ask if they could play some games on her computer or even just watch TV together for an hour or so. She wasn’t going to say, “Or anything else that might help keep my mind off that stupid locket,” even though that was definitely what she was thinking. So she called Paige’s cell phone number and, with her mouth still full of tuna, mumbled her question about whether it was a good time for her to visit. To her immense relief, Paige said, “Sure. Come on over.”
    Abby swallowed hard and said, “Okay. Great. I’m on my way.” All that was left to do was bolt down the rest of her lunch and leave a message with Tree, in case Dorcas got back early. And borrow a little bus money. The area where the Bordens lived was within walking distance of the O’Malley Agency if you had a lot of energy and a half hour or so to spare, but a long walk with lots of time to think was exactly what Abby wasn’t interested in at the moment.
    In the office Tree was at her desk finishing her lunch, some microwave-type spaghetti thing with lots of gooey tomato sauce. In spite of a mouthful of spaghetti, she managed a smile that would have looked