Witch Twins Series

by Adele Griffin

  “Oh, please. Dolores isn’t lost,” said Claire. “I bet she took a walk to let off some steam.”

  Luna thought on that. “I think Dolores went farther away than a walk, Clairsie,” said Luna. “My witch-sense has been bothering me.”

  “Loon, don’t be a doomsday prophet,” said Claire. Luna scanned up and down the street. Where could Dolores be? It was getting late, and there weren’t many places to hide on this movie set.

  Then it struck her. She knew exactly where Dolores had gone.

  “Aha!” she said. She jumped down from the fire truck. Before Claire and Justin could ask her where she was going, she sped around the corner of Pine Street to its back alley.

  After checking to make sure that nobody had followed her, Luna looked right and left, crooked her finger, and cast:

  “My ears are sharp and heart is strong. To find what’s lost, I’ll travel long, And if need be, along for miles! This spell is stored in one-star files.”

  Luna closed her eyes and waited for the spell to kick in.

  Then, with a leap of energy, Luna-the-dog bounded around the corner.

  Unfortunately, she bounded right into the middle of the movie. Melody, her parachute billowing, had just bounced from the trampoline onto the street.

  She looked surprised, then genuinely happy. “Hooray!” she called. “Hey, doggie!”

  “Woof! Woof!” barked Luna. Her hair flopped jaggedly over her eyes.

  “Cut! Perfect, Melody!” Willa shouted. “But where’d that mutt come from?”

  Mutt? Luna barked indignantly.

  “Here, doggie!” Luna heard her brother yelp. Uh-oh. Ever since she and Claire got their kittens, Justin had been bugging their parents for a dog. Already he was climbing out of the truck in quick pursuit.

  Justin was a fast runner, but Luna-the-dog was faster. She tore down the street in seconds. She felt strong and powerful.

  She did not pause to think about how to get to the park. Her sharp dog-sense knew to follow the river, then shortcut up through the woods. The route was mirror-clear in her mind’s eye (and a whole lot quicker than the bus).

  Hmm. I really must be part Saint Bernard or collie, Luna thought. My sense of dog-direction is terrific!

  But her common sense was less terrific. As soon as she saw the sign for Valley Forge Park, Luna bounded excitedly across the highway—and straight into traffic.

  Cars honked. People yelled at her. “Dumb dog! Watch where you’re going!”

  Embarrassed, Luna leaped over the guard rail and did not look back.

  Safe inside the park, she ran and ran and ran and ran. Her lungs seemed to be made of iron. It was amazing—she was Superdog! She’d never get tired!

  When she came to the lake, Luna paused for a delicious drink of water. Grandy would have been annoyed to hear her make such disgusting slurping noises. But dog rules were different from people rules.

  Refreshed, she made a beeline for Mount Misery.

  Well, almost a beeline. On the way, Luna spied a monarch butterfly that she felt a happy impulse to chase for a while. She jumped and snapped.

  I must be a very young dog to be this goofy! thought Luna. Maybe only six or seven in people years.

  As the butterfly fluttered high out of reach, Luna remembered her mission. She turned and ran headlong to Mount Misery, and to the secret cave. But at the entrance, she stopped. The cave had looked dark and uninviting to Luna-the-girl, and Luna-the-dog didn’t like it any better.

  She barked once, quizzically.

  The sound echoed roughly along the cave’s walls. Other than that, silence.

  She barked again, louder. Maybe Dolores had not taken the bus and trekked to the park, after all. Or maybe she had gone too deep into the cave to hear Luna’s barking? Luna did not want to go into the cave. It looked scary and cold. She snuffled at some foxtail and Queen Anne’s lace that sprang tangled along the cave’s entrance. She could not pick up any scent of Dolores.

  Her sense of smell was still no good.

  But Dolores had to be in that cave! Witch-hunches were almost never wrong!

  Ears alert, Luna plunged ahead. Her paws padded along the black earth. She heard the faint click of her nails and the pant of her breath. It made her feel unlike herself. It made her feel brave.

  The cave forked in two tunneling directions. “Woof!” Luna barked.

  “Who’s there?” From far away, a voice wobbled.

  “Woof!” Luna answered. She followed her ears and picked up the pace. When the cave narrowed and turned twisty. Luna kept her nose down, sniffing for a trail.

  Frustrated, she barked again.

  “Hello?” It was Dolores, for sure. “Don’t hurt me, whatever you are!”

  Quickly, Luna followed the echoes of Dolores’s voice to where she finally found her, sitting in a small ball with her arms wrapped around her knees.

  When Dolores saw Luna-the-dog, a smile broke across her face and she jumped to her feet.

  “Hey, doggie! Where did you come from?” Dolores used her knuckles to rub Luna’s head. “You’re not wearing a collar. Are you a stray? Gosh, am I glad to see you, ole boy.”

  Ole boy? Luna whined. She did not like being mistaken for a boy dog.

  “I was getting kinda scared,” Dolores confessed. “But now you’re here to rescue me! And I always wanted a dog. Of course, we can’t have one because of my allergies. But if I had one, I’d name him Timbuktu. How ’bout it, ole boy?” Dolores chucked Luna under the chin. “You like the name Timbuktu?”

  Timbuktu? Luna whined again. No, she didn’t like that name at all.

  “Okay, lead me out of here, Timbuktu!” said Dolores.

  But Luna did not know how to lead either of them anywhere. She could not pick up the trail. She walked in a slow circle, then flopped down next to Dolores to think.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” Dolores put her hands on her hips. “What kind of dog are you? Don’t you know how to get us out?”

  Luna lifted her head and looked away, mortified. Obviously, if she had a real dog nose, she would have followed it back out of the cave, no problem. But to lead by her Luna nose … impossible. She sighed and scratched behind her ear.

  “Come on, ole boy! Take me home!” Now it was Dolores who was whining.

  Luna didn’t budge. After a minute, Dolores settled into a despondent lump on the cave’s floor. “Gosh. You don’t know the way out of here, either, Timbuktu,” she said, sounding frightened. “Oh, well, it’s not your fault. You’re just a dumb dog. Guess we’ll wait for my dad or the police. Or something.”

  Luna put a paw of sympathy on Dolores’s knee. In response, Dolores sneezed. Its echo sounded like a thousand sneezes.

  “My rock collection is fantastic, even if I didn’t find a fossil today,” Dolores said in the same nervous voice. “Not to brag, but I just know one day I’ll become a world-renowned geologist! And then people won’t see me as the sister of talented Melody Malady.”

  Luna wished she could talk, so that she could tell Dolores her secret: that she didn’t think Melody was so talented.

  Then again, a talking dog probably would have scared Dolores.

  Dolores sneezed again.

  Some help I am, Luna thought. I can’t make a real rescue, and Dolores is allergic to me.

  They sat together in silence. Every second, the cave seemed to grow colder and darker. They sat for so long that Luna began to daydream about chasing squirrels.

  “I wonder if anyone’s even noticed that I’m lost,” said Dolores.

  I noticed, thought Luna indignantly. Not that I’ll get any credit.

  Suddenly, Luna’s ear pricked up. What was that noise?

  There it was again, from far outside. “I swear, Mr. G, I’m not making it up!” shrilled the voice. “She told me it was somewhere over here by Miserable Mountain, or whatever it’s called.”

  Claire!

  Luna sat up. She barked and barked and barked and barked. She knew what had happene
d. Claire had remembered about the secret cave, and had led everyone to it.

  “Hey, I think I hear Lu—I mean, I think I hear a dog!” shouted Claire. Her witch-sense had recognized Luna’s bark.

  “I don’t hear anything,” Mr. G’s voice was worried.

  Luna nudged Dolores to get up.

  “Whadda ya hear, Timbugtu?” asked Dolores. Her voice sounded stuffy. As she jumped to her feet, she doubled over in another sneeze. “You wad be to follow you?”

  Luna barked some more. She nosed Dolores to move along. Yes, she had to be part Border collie.

  “Ogay, Timbugtu. Lead be oud!” said Dolores happily.

  Luna barked for Claire to keep talking.

  “We’re out here!” called Claire. “Yoo-hoo! The park ranger says look up.”

  Luna looked up. For the first time, she saw the glow-in-the-dark arrows pointing the way out. So they had never been in danger, after all. The signs were there all along!

  Confidently, she trotted ahead, barking, with Dolores close on her heels. They stumbled out into the late afternoon sun.

  A big crowd was there to meet them. Claire, Justin, Melody, Mr. G, a green-suited park ranger, and even Willa had all come to look for Dolores.

  “Dolores!” squeaked Melody. “We were so worried!” And she ran over to give her twin a hug.

  Dolores looked embarrassed, but she seemed pleased to be the center of attention for once.

  “Guess we’re gonna have to paint another set of glow dots even lower,” said the park ranger, “for our smaller visitors.”

  Mr. G lifted Dolores into the air, squeezed her hard, and set her down. “Dolores, kiddo, you had a lot of people scared.”

  “Bud I wuddn’t sgared!—achoo! —Timbugtu was—achoo—wib me!” wheezed Dolores. “Where’s Luna?”

  “She, um, said she was going to go look for you at the flower show. She told me to look for you here,” Claire answered.

  Dolores nodded. “I shuddn’t hab gone widdout delling sombuddy.”

  “Lucky that Timbugtu was around!” Claire winked at her twin. “Loyal and trustworthy to the end.”

  “I wonder whose dog he is?” Justin crouched down and looked into Luna’s eyes. “I feel like I’ve seen it around the neighborhood.”

  “He looks like a lot of dogs,” said Claire quickly.

  Justin wrinkled his nose. “Mangy old thing. He needs to spend a few hours at the pet groomer,” he said. “Someone gave him a real bad homemade haircut.”

  “Hey, I like his haircut,” said Claire. She threw an arm down around Luna as they walked to the car. “Nice work, sis,” she whispered.

  As if in imitation, Melody put her arm around Dolores. “I was worried about you, Dolores,” she said. “Jess and Bess help each other out so much in Double Delight, I think maybe I should take some pointers from them.”

  “Nod to brag,” said Dolores with a sneeze, “but I’b preddy iddepeddend.”

  To Luna’s dog ears, though, Dolores did not sound that independent. She still sounded scared. And Luna thought she detected something soft in Melody’s eyes as she looked at her sister.

  It was only for a moment, but it was too real to be an act.

  9

  Wrap and Print

  OCTOBER HAD ARRIVED. THE real October, not a movie-set version. It was a red-gold leaves and apple crisp October, and Claire loved-loved-loved it.

  “Just think! We’ve been sixth graders for six weeks! Think about it! Sixth graders!” Claire leaned back and stretched contentedly.

  She and Luna were sitting in the cafeteria eating butterscotch brownies with their friends Alexa, Adam, and Courtney. It was a cafeteria tradition at Tower Hill Middle School to celebrate the sixth week of sixth grade with butterscotch brownies. (The cafeteria staff also celebrated five weeks of fifth grade with peanut-butter brownies, and seventh-week seventh graders got rocky-road brownies.)

  “We are no longer middle school novices!” said Claire. Novice was one of her favorite new words. It was a fancier way of saying “beginner.”

  Claire had been using it a lot today.

  “Not to brag, but I’ve felt like a sixth grader for a long time,” said Luna. “Ever since the last day of fifth grade, in fact. And it’s not like we changed much. We’re still at Tower Hill Middle. We go to the same gym and auditorium. The only thing different is now you and Alexa have Mr. Lee for a teacher and Courtney, Adam, and I have Mrs. Shaw.”

  Claire thought her sister was being a bit persnickety as usual, but she was too happy to care. After all, not only was today their “six weeks of sixth grade” anniversary, but tonight was the opening of Melody Malady’s movie.

  In honor of the occasion, Claire had worn her gold shirt and her gold hat with the feather to school.

  “Claire, are you sure that’s the same gold outfit that Melody wore on her show?” Alexa asked.

  “Of course,” Claire answered. She dropped her last bite of butterscotch brownie into her mouth and swallowed it down with some apple cider from the jug that she had brought with her lunch.

  “It could be a copy,” said Courtney. “They sell those knockoffs everywhere at the mall.”

  “Oh, who needs you, doubtful doubters,” scoffed Claire. “All I can say is, it’s not a knock-off copy of me in the movie. ‘Mom, can I have some hot apple cider?’” She recited her line from the movie once again for the pure pleasure of it.

  “Ugh,” groaned Alexa, reaching for another brownie. “If I have to hear you say that one more time … ”

  “But I need people to recognize me. I don’t want to be a novice movie star,” said Claire with another swig.

  “We all recognize you, Claire,” said Adam. “You’ve shown us the picture from Philadelphia Now! a thousand times. Next thing you’ll be saying is that you and Melody are pen pals.”

  Claire shrugged and patted her pocket, where she was carrying a letter from Melody Malady.

  In the letter, Melody had written that The Melody Malady Show had been canceled and that she probably wouldn’t be doing any more movies for a while. She said her mom and dad wanted her to concentrate on being a real kid. She didn’t seem too upset about it. But she had specially asked Claire not to read her letter to any of her friends, since it was a private, non-celebrity letter.

  Claire didn’t mind. Being a witch, she was used to keeping big secrets. She would never in a billion years show Melody’s letter around.

  Anyway, her friends might say that she faked the letter, too!

  That evening, the twins, Justin, their mother and Steve, their father and Fluffy, and even Grandy and Grampy all went to the Ritz Theater to see Melody’s movie.

  “Although I have no idea why I would waste my time with a G-rated movie,” groused Grandy as they waited in the ticket line. “That means no fun parts.”

  “Mother!” Jill Bundkin frowned.

  “Pay attention to the leaves,” said Justin. “That’s all my work.”

  “Even if this movie is a blockbuster,” said Claire, “Melody Malady won’t be in the public eye for a while. So I guess that means this is my last movie, too.”

  “I’m glad,” said their father. “You only had to meet Melody once to know she was under too much pressure.”

  “I’m glad, too,” said Luna. “It was awful enough when Claire was a pretend movie star. Imagine if she turned into a real one?”

  Justin made gagging sounds. Claire tossed her head. Doubtful doubters.

  The whole family filed into the theater and into one long row.

  The lights went dark as the previews started. Claire sank back into her seat with a thrill. She hoped that the camera loved her. Having the camera love you was an important part of being a celebrity.

  The music for the feature presentation began. Melody Malady’s name scrolled across the screen in sweeping letters. Claire felt a burst of pride for her newfound friend. Melody Malady was awesome!

  Double Delight opened with a rainstorm, followed by Jess and Bess�
��s orphanage scenes. Those parts had been filmed in Hollywood and were fun to watch, since Claire had never seen them before.

  Then came the part when Jess and Bess were adopted by villains, and they moved to Philadelphia. The camera panned over the skyline.

  “Hello, Philly!” yelled Justin. A few other people in the audience clapped and whooped.

  Claire tensed. The café scene was next, and here it was! The camera zoomed in for a long close-up of Melody drinking from a mug of hot apple cider. She was smiling her perfect-perfect-perfect dimpled smile. “Mmm. This is good cider,” she said.

  Then the scene was over.

  Claire leaned forward. “Hey!” she whispered loudly. “Did I miss myself? Was I in that? Did you hear anyone say ‘Mom, I want some hot apple cider?’”

  “Shhh! They must have cut it out!” hissed Justin. He made scissors of his fingers. “Snip, snip!”

  No! Claire could not believe it.

  The scene probably was in another part of the movie. Claire strained every eye muscle, hardly daring to blink, salamander-style, in case she missed herself.

  She salamander-watched the scene where Bess saved Jess from the robber.

  She salamander-watched the scene where Jess saved Bess from the kidnapper.

  Now they were coming up to the moon boots and parachute scene.

  Claire was beginning to be alarmed. The moon boots scene meant the end of the movie. Claire watched the screen as Melody seemed to jump effortlessly through the sky. As she landed with a swish and bounce, a dog tore into view.

  “Hooray!” called Melody. A huge, dimpled smile appeared on her face as she bent and hugged the dog.

  “Woof! Woof!” barked the dog in a long, Luna-eyed close-up.

  Claire’s eyes narrowed.

  They’d cut out Claire’s café scene, but added a Luna-the-dog scene?

  No way!

  But it was true.

  Now the movie was finished. The credits rolled. Claire La Dare’s name flashed up in a long list of other names. Justin Bundkin’s name appeared with the crew.

  Needles and newts’ eyes! She had been completely cut from the movie.

  “I was nowhere!” Claire moaned as they left the theater. Bitterly she crunched the real October leaves in her path. “And I didn’t even use my real name! So nobody will believe any thing!”