Queen Liliuokalani: Royal Prisoner Read Free

rhetorical question, Maisie knew. But still she said, “
Fried
turkey?”
    Bruce Fishbaum pointed at her. He was a pointer, Felix realized.
    “Just you wait,” Bruce said.
    Neither Maisie nor Felix liked the way Bruce Fishbaum sat at the head of the table, as if he belonged there. They did not like the way he carved the pot roast, or served their mother and then them. They did not like how he poured wine into the Pickworth crystal, or held up his glass and said, “To the beautiful cook.” Nor did they like the waytheir mother blushed and cast her eyes down when he said it.
    Somehow, they ate their pot roast and followed their mother and Bruce Fishbaum into the Cigar Room for chocolate pudding.
    Finally, the time came when they could excuse themselves, and they did, eagerly. But all of the excitement of their trip had vanished. Maisie went into her room, and Felix went into his, and they each packed their suitcase halfheartedly. Their vacation would begin tomorrow. But instead of going home to New York City and spending the week with their father doing all the things they would have been doing if their parents hadn’t gotten divorced, Maisie and Felix were going to be with a woman named Agatha. Or Agnes.
    Just before Maisie climbed into her very high bed, she opened her closet door and reached into the trunk that had all the possible anagrams for Elm Medona written on its lining. She took out a small crown she’d hidden there. It glistened with what looked like real jewels, and Maisie ran her hand over them.
    Then, she placed the crown on her head andslowly—regally, she thought—walked over to the mirror.
Ha!
she thought. Great-Uncle Thorne had said they weren’t purposeful when they chose the objects in The Treasure Chest. But Maisie had seen the crown and known that it would take them somewhere far away, where kings and queens ruled. Maybe there would be jousting and knights in shining armor. Staring at her reflection, she curtsied.
    “Your Highness,” she said in a solemn voice.
    Maisie kept the crown on for a while longer, parading around her room and waving her hand in the funny half-swivel she’d seen Queen Elizabeth make. Finally, she took it off and put it inside her suitcase.
But wait,
she thought. The crown was bigger than most of the items they’d used before. Maisie retrieved her Mets fleece jacket. No, the crown wouldn’t fit in the pocket. Then she remembered that the fleece had an inside pocket that was deep enough to hold her catcher’s mitt when she played baseball. True, it left a bulge there, but so what? She tried, and sure enough, the crown fit. Satisfied, she got into bed and promptly fell asleep.

CHAPTER 2
Back to Bethune Street
    M aisie and Felix emerged from their train into Penn Station with a good amount of trepidation. Before they knew about this mysterious Agatha/Agnes woman, the idea of traveling alone by train for three hours and then arriving back in New York City had them positively excited, even though they had time traveled, the two of them tumbling through time and space, always in the exact same way: beginning with the smell of gunpowder and with their favorite smells in the air—cinnamon and Christmas trees and flowers in summer—and the wind whipping around them, then that nanosecond where absolutely nothing happened. They’d landed in a barn, the ocean, a busy marketplace in China,and a roller coaster in Coney Island—even in the midst of a herd of buffalo. There was always the figuring out of where exactly they were, and
when
exactly it was. And then finding the right person to give the object to. Surely nothing was more exciting than that.
    Except, once they returned home, it always felt like they had dreamed it. Life went right back to normal. They went to school or ate dinner. Their mother asked them what they were up to, but they couldn’t tell her. No time had passed in the present. Not even a second. Even though they’d stowed away on a ship or gone on a