“Primo, you don’t underst—”
“Does it run in the family?” Primo says.“Will I become a Janara when I’m older, too?”
“No way, toad!” she says. “It doesn’t work like that.”
Then he asks if he lost in the Boar Hunt because the Janara were helping Rosa. “Janara do that, you know!”
“No they don’t,” Isidora says. “You don’t know anything. You lost because you’re a scamorza head and you’re not fast enough or strong enough!”
Before Primo can ask another question, Isidora cuts him off.
“You just don’t get it, do you?” she says. “No more questions about this—ever! And if you breathe a word—so much as one tiny little word—to anyone, you’ll be six inches tall and catching dinner with your tongue. Got it?”
Primo gulps. “Got it.”
At the end of the day, the Twins are hanging out with Maria Beppina on her steps.
“We’re about to head off to the bocce court,” Emilio says. “You coming?”
While they walk out of town together, Rosa won’t let it drop about Uncle Tommaso being a Janara.
Primo so badly wants to tell what he knows, he’s bursting! But then he thinks about what flies must taste like and keeps his mouth shut .
“Ah, just forget it!” Primo finally says. “There is no Janara. Emilio’s right. That old jar must have been in that wall for a hundred thousand years. And it’s probably not even witch oil in the first place!”
Rosa looks surprised for a minute. Then she says, “Yeah, that has to be it. It probably was just another one of your dumb ideas.” She makes the crazy gesture, twirling her fingers alongside her head. “Your stupid ideas, I mean. I should’ve realized it would all come to nothing the moment you showed us that jar.”
It is already hot enough outside to fry an egg, but Primo feels his face burn hotter.
“In fact,” Rosa says, “I bet you made the whole thing up! You probably stole that skeevo old jar from Nonna Jovanna and said you found it in the wall just to distract from me having won the Boar Hunt.” She raised both arms in the air. “From being the CHAMPION of the WORLD!”
“Ah, shut your beak!” Primo says, practically exploding. “You’re just the champion of some stupid game for kids!”
“Well, you’re the champion of nothing!” Rosa says. “And you’ll never know who the Janara is, you donkey brains!”
“I do know who the Janara is!” Primo says. “I just can’t tell!”
Maria Beppina’s eyes go wide. “You do?”
“Ah, phooey!” Rosa says. “Can’t you see he’s lying? Primo! He’s always got to be the center of attention! The one with the best plan. Well, his dumb plan to find the Janara tree didn’t work, and he couldn’t beat a girl at the Boar Hunt, so now he’s just downright lying about stuff!”
“Am not!” Primo says.
“Well, then who is it?” Rosa says. “Donkey. Brains.”
“It’s my sister!” Primo says. “It’s Isidora! Now who’s the donkey brains?”
Primo is happy for a moment, taking in the look of shock on all of their faces.
Then he thinks:
What did I just do?
7
GOADED BUT NOT YET TOADED
THE head of Diana is on the floor, and Primo has the bottle of witch oil in his hand. He’s trying to bring himself to use a couple of drops of it. Maybe it will turn him into a Janara? On the other hand, maybe his hair will turn blue and all his toes will fall off.
When he hears someone awake he quickly puts the head back.
“What are you doing up so early?” Momma says, walking in.
Following her is Isidora, who eyes him suspiciously.
Primo feels guilty about what he did. But why should he feel guilty? What’s the harm, anyway? If he was a Janara, he’d tell everyone! Besides, it wasn’t fair to make him keep a secret like that. And if Isidora was so worried about someone finding out, she shouldn’t have put the darn head back the wrong way.
But she keeps looking at him like she already knows he spilled the beans. Things get worse at breakfast. Maria Beppina comes down late looking sick. She doesn’t sit next to Isidora like she always does and she can’t look her in the face. That Maria Beppina! Primo thinks. She’s going to blow it!
Isidora knows something is wrong—he can see it! Primo really doesn’t want to be a toad.
At the stand, the only thing the Twins want to talk about is Isidora being a Janara.
“Are you sure about this?” Emilio says. “She admitted it to you?”
“Shhh-sh!” Primo says. “You want someone to hear?”
“Don’t be such a chicken!” Rosa says. “Isidora wouldn’t really hurt you.”
“She’s nice to you guys,” Primo says. “You have no idea how mean she really is! Why, I bet it was her playing all those tricks on you back in Mischief Season.”
“Ah, phooey!” Rosa says.
“If she really is a Janara,” Emilio says, “who knows what she might do to us to keep her secret?”
“But she’s Isidora!” Maria Beppina says. “Isidora wouldn’t hurt any of us.”
Then Primo sees her—his sister! Heading straight for them!
“Shh! Guys, shhh! She’s coming!”
Isidora is carrying a small crate. She nods hello and starts laying out figs.
The others don’t speak, which feels suspicious, because why wouldn’t they be speaking? Primo searches his brain for something to say, but he can’t think of anything. What could there possibly be to say?
Now Isidora must notice the awkward silence, because she’s looking from one to the other of them as she lays out the figs. Then she stops.
“I don’t believe it!” she says angrily. Isidora gives a hard shove to the crate, sending figs flying all over the street, and storms off.
The others look at each other.
“Well, um, we should really be getting back to the farm,” Emilio says.
“Yeah,” Rosa says, following him onto the cart. “Getting back.”
Maria Beppina, all red-faced, hurries away too, leaving Primo alone.
And vulnerable.
He picks up the figs and dusts each one off, placing them on the counter carefully.
When the noon bell rings, he shuts down the stand as slowly as he possibly can. He does not want to go home for lunch. But he has to.
And when he does, Isidora is waiting outside the door for him.
“Oh, hey,” Primo says. “I picked those figs up off the ground for you.”
Isidora punches him in the stomach. Hard.
“You think this is a game?” Isidora says. “You told Maria Beppina! You told the Twins!”
“Did not!” Primo says, doubled over.
“Then why were they looking at me like I had three heads and I wanted to eat them?”
“Well, your face does have that—hey! OW!!”
Isidora is pinching and twisting his skin so hard he has to get down onto his knees.
“Look, they guessed! I couldn’t help it. I would never have told them!” Primo says, begging from the ground. “You aren’t going to turn me into a toad, are you?”
Isidora lets go.
Primo’s arm is red where she was twisting it. “That really hurt!”
“Good!” Isidora says. “Consider it just the beginning.”
“Why do you even care that those guys know?” Primo says, getting up. “It’s so cool that you’re a Janara! If it was me, I’d tell everyone!”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Isidora says. “Not if you wanted to stay alive.”
“What are you talking about?”
Isidora shakes her head. Suddenly, she doesn’t even seem mad.
“You don’t understand anything, Primo,” she says, and walks
over to him.
Isidora reaches a hand toward his throat and Primo hops back, scared. But she isn’t moving to choke him. She’s just taking hold of what is hanging around his neck.
“This ring,” she says. “You think it’s magic. You think it saved you from the Manalonga. It didn’t do anything. I saved you from the Manalonga. And I had to pay for it, too.”
Then Isidora turns and walks away.
“Wait! What do you mean, you had to pay for it?” Primo says, calling after her.
But she’s gone.
8
CONVERSATION WITH A MONSTER
THE thing with Isidora is that she used to not be so mean.
Once, she was a great big sister. In fact, Primo idolized her. They used to do everything together. But then one day she started being angry and annoyed all the time and wouldn’t let him hang around her anymore.
Everyone said that was just what happens with big sisters, but now Primo isn’t so sure. What if she started acting all different because she had become a Janara? Maybe becoming a Janara turns a person mean?
Not that Isadora is totally mean. She still helps Primo with some things. Like the costume.
And the Manalonga.
Except Primo isn’t sure he believes it. Because it was his ring that saved him that day, wasn’t it? His magic ring!
At breakfast, he wants to ask Isidora about it, but he can’t get her alone. Then she and Maria Beppina head off to the mill to make a delivery.
Primo leaves, too. He goes in the other direction, however. Toward the bridge.
The bridge where he dared the Manalonga.
Zi Paulo, the farmer who lives next to the Twins, is coming the other way when he gets there. His cartload of hay takes up nearly the entire bridge, and Primo waits for him to pass.
The skinny farmer nods to Primo as he passes, and now Primo walks slowly up the ramp of the bridge, carefully sticking to the middle. The safety zone.
Near the top, he hears a voice from over the side.
Hey, Primo! Primo, is that you? It’s the voice of Dino. Hey, Primo! You’ve gotta come check this out! I found a snake in the mud under the bridge. It’s huge! It’s gotta be six feet long. I think it’s dead but I’m not sure. Can you come look?
“I know it’s not Dino!” Primo yells from the center of the bridge. “I know it’s you, Manalonga!”
Manalonga! Hah! the voice says. No, it’s really me! Dino! Come look! I think it’s starting to move.
The freaky thing is how much it does sound like Dino.
“Look, Manalonga, you’re not gonna trick me!” Primo shouts. “I just want to ask you a question!”
What? the voice says. Still like Dino.
“That day I leaned over the edge and dared you to grab me,” Primo says. “Why didn’t you do it?”
I have no idea what you’re talking about!
They keep going back and forth like this, with Primo asking questions and the Mana-longa insisting it’s Dino.
Finally, Primo tries a different approach.
“All I want to know is what scared you so much that day!” he says. “Was it my ring? Or something else?”
Suddenly, the voice under the bridge turns ugly and horrible—like bats screeching. It no longer even sounds human.
You think I am afraid of anything? the now vicious voice says. I know why you’re here, you sniveling brat. And I know why you came that day, too!
The hideous voice laughs, an awful sound that sets the hairs on the back of Primo’s neck standing on end.
Your ring! You’re so stupid you think it’s magic—you think it’s my ring! Well, there is no magic in that ring of yours. It was your sister who saved your life that day. The Manalonga lets out a sound of disgust. I was so close to grabbing you—I could feel it! And then that horrid Janara made it hail and pulled you away! She wasn’t supposed to do that, you know. She broke a rule. A very basic rule!
“What rule?”
Janara aren’t allowed to use their magic during the day, you stupid fool! And not in their human form, either. It cost her dearly to save your life, and how do you repay her? By telling her secret! Oh, what the other Janara will do to her if ever they find out! Hah-hah-hah!
“What do you mean?” Primo says.
Didn’t you believe your sister when she told you that you had to shut up about her!?
Primo is so confused. He’s not quite sure what it all means—or if he even wants to understand what it all means.
“Why should I believe you?” Primo says. “You just hide down there all day hoping to snatch a kid! How would you know anything about what goes on up here? Or with the Janara?”
The Manalonga laughs again. There’s nothing I don’t know. How do you think I can imitate every single person you ever met?
The voice changes.
What you were talking about? Why are you two talking at all!
It’s Momma’s voice. Primo gets another chill.
“Even if you do know everything,” Primo says, “how do I know you’re telling the truth about what Isidora did for me?”
That’s the fantastic thing, the voice says, now back to its horrible tone. You don’t! Ha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
The laughing follows Primo back down the ramp until it becomes just the sound of rushing water. But even then, he can still hear it.
The laughing.
* * *
Primo wants to tell Isidora everything. About how sorry he is—about how he’ll make it all better. But she and Maria Beppina get back so late from the mill, Primo never gets a chance to talk to her alone. The next day, they’re supposed to go do laundry together, but Momma tells Isidora to stay home and help scrub the pots.
At the river, all the cousins are there, including Sergio, who hasn’t been around since the boar gored him. His ribs are bandaged up, but otherwise he seems fine.
“Hey, where’s you-know-who?” Rosa says to Primo.
“We-know-what?” Sergio says.
“Oh, right, you weren’t here!” Rosa says, excited to get to tell someone the big secret. “It’s Isidora. She’s a—”
“Hey!” Primo says, stopping her. “You can’t tell him!”
“What? But it’s Sergio!” Rosa says. “He’s gonna find out sooner or later.”
“Find out what?” Sergio says.
“ThatIsidoraisaJanara!” Rosa hurries to say, and then sticks out her tongue at Primo.
The only good thing is that Sergio doesn’t believe it.
“Isidora is just messing with you,” Sergio says. “What a bunch of idiots!”
Maria Beppina leaves, but the others argue back and forth over whether or not Isidora really is a Janara.
Primo does the laundry as fast as he can—for once!—and hurries to get home. He finds Isidora, but now she’s with Maria Beppina. Why can’t he ever get her alone!
Finally, he does. He goes to tell her that he finally understands, but Isidora cuts him off.
“Look, Primo,” she says, her whole manner changed. “It really isn’t fair that I haven’t answered any of your questions.”
“It isn’t?” Primo says, surprised.
“No, it’s not,” she says. “You are my little brother, and it was my mistake that you found what you found. So I want to share with you what it’s like.”
“What what is like?” Primo says.
“Being a Janara.”
Primo can’t believe it.
“You have always wanted to go the tree, haven’t you?” Isidora says. “The Tree of the Janara?”
“Well, sure,” Primo says. “But after what you said . . .”
“If you really want to go, I’ll take you,” Isidora says. “You and our cousins, too. Tell them to meet me on the watchtower wall in three days. At the eleventh hour.”
“What about everything you said? About not telling anyone your secret?”
“They already know my secret. What’s important is that they don’t tell it to anyone else. And after you go to the tree . . .” Isidora pauses. “Well, let’s just say I don’t think any of you will be telling secrets.”
9
A CHAPTER YOU REALLY SHOULDN’T READ IF YOU DON’T LIKE BEING TERRIFIED
THE three days take forever to pass. Primo keeps asking Isidora what it is going to be like at the tree, but she won’t tell him a thing. All she ever replies is: “You’ll see.”
The cousins arrive at the watchtower together to await the eleventh hour bell. Maria Beppina looks like she’d rather be anywhere but here, she’s so afraid of what’s about to happen.
Sergio, on the other hand, is treating the whole thing like it’s a big joke.
BONG-be-BONG-BONG!
The bells peal, and at the same instant, Isidora appears. Her timing is so perfect it’s spooky!
“Are all of you ready?” she says, the eleventh hour still tolling. “To go to the Tree of the Janara?”
BONG-be-BONG-BONG!
“I, uhm, er,” Maria Beppina says. “I just, well . . .”
She can’t stop hemming and hawing.
Isidora shakes her head. “Go home, Maria Beppina,” she says, taking pity on her.
Maria Beppina breathes a sigh of relief and hurries down the tower steps.
“Well?” Isidora says. “Are any of the rest of you brave enough?”
“Sure we are!” Sergio says, charging ahead. “Let’s go!”
Primo and Rosa follow behind Sergio and Isidora. Emilio pauses like he’s thinking about joining Maria Beppina, but he’s too curious not to come, and he brings up the rear.
Isidora leads them to the bridge, but rather than turn left to go downriver, she heads in the opposite direction, through a thicket of reeds.
The Secret Janara Page 3
