“Well,” Uncle Hoogaboom tugged at his beard excitedly, “here goes, eh, Wiliken?”
Uncle Hoogaboom quickly removed the broken lock, and together, he and Wiliken opened the lid.
“Alakazam and alfalfa,” Beezel said softly. “Would you look at that!”
Mimi reached down into the chest. She scooped up a handful of silver coins and let them fall through her fingers. “Wil, you and Uncle Hoogaboom are rich!”
Wiliken and Uncle Hoogaboom stood side by side and stared down at treasure.
“We did it, Hoogaboom,” Wiliken said.
“Yes we did, son.” Hoogaboom slapped him on the back. “The Hoogabooms and Riebeecks are always stronger when they work together.”
Chapter Eighteen
That morning, when the sun came up, and Uncle Hoogaboom’s neighbors got dressed and ate their breakfast, they were greeted by the sight of a Spanish galleon in the canal outside their homes, where none had been the night before. A particularly concerned citizen, wondering if the ship had the proper permit to dock in the canal, had even called the police.
Wiliken and Uncle Hoogaboom were alarmed when they saw the crowd gathering by the canal next to the ship, but Hector, practiced with years of being in the Trimoni Circus, didn’t miss a beat.
“Did you two decide to donate the ship?” he asked Uncle Hoogaboom and Wiliken. They nodded. “In that case …” Hector took a deep breath. “In appreciation for all that the city of Amsterdam has done for their families,” Hector pontificated from the bow of the ship, his white hair waving in the gentle morning breeze, “Wiliken Riebeeck and Mathias Hoogaboom would like to donate this ship to the Scheepvaartmuseum!”
Beezel had read about that particular museum in the guidebook. It was Amsterdam’s maritime museum. The Magdalena would find a good home there.
Uncle Hoogaboom provided a spirited translation and the crowd burst into applause. Hector even got them to pull the ship closer to the canal’s side by tossing them ropes that he had lashed to the ship and instructing them, with Uncle Hoogaboom’s help, to pull in unison.
When the enthusiastic crowd had towed the treasure ship close enough to the canal’s edge and tethered it, the twins helped Hector and Wiliken use Uncle Hoogaboom’s lumber to create a gangplank.
That’s when several of the younger people who had gathered recognized Wiliken. He graciously signed autographs at the bottom of the gangplank while Hector acted like a guard at the top, refusing admittance to one and all.
“Sorry, folks, but until a few private effects have been removed, we can’t allow any visitors on board,” Hector said to the crowd, first in English, then more slowly in Dutch. “I’m sure you understand.”
At the first opportunity, Uncle Hoogaboom ran across the street to his shop and called the Nederlandsche Bank. Then Wiliken, Hector, Mimi, Beezel and Uncle Hoogaboom leaned on the ship’s railing and waited for the armored truck Uncle Hoogaboom had requested to transport the millions of dollars’ worth of gold, silver and jewels to the bank.
Beezel and Mimi got hungry while waiting for the bank truck and volunteered to make sandwiches for everyone.
“Besides, I need to check on Gumdrop,” Mimi said.
When they entered the shop, they saw Gaidic, standing at the window with her hand to her mouth, staring at the ship.
“Morning, Gaidic!” Mimi sang as she headed back to Uncle Hoogaboom’s apartment.
“Um, Hector’s over there.” Beezel pointed to the treasure ship sitting in the middle of the canal.
“It really is a Spanish galleon, isn’t it?” Gaidic said.
“It is,” Beezel said. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Hector will explain everything.” She ran after Mimi. “We’ll be right there. We’re bringing over some food to eat!”
When the twins brought the food back to the galleon, Gaidic was already on the deck of the ship, and she was asking questions.
“This has something to do with the treasure you’ve been talking about, doesn’t it, Mathias?”
“Well, er, you could say that, yes.” Uncle Hoogaboom fidgeted under her gaze.
“And you,” she turned to Hector. “You knew something the other night, when those two”—she pointed to a sheepish Wiliken and Uncle Hoogaboom—”made me leave early.”
“I did, and I’m sorry,” Hector said. “Gaidic, could you wait right there just a minute?” He pulled Wiliken, Uncle Hoogaboom and the twins aside. “I want to tell her about the Shrinking Coin,” he said.
“She must mean a lot to you, nephew,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “Maybe you should just show her how it works.” He took the Shrinking Coin from his pocket and placed it in the palm of his hand. As Wiliken and the twins watched, Uncle Hoogaboom put Hector’s hand over his, covering the coin. He leaned down close to Hector’s face and whispered the five magic words in his ear.
“The magic and the coin are yours now,” Uncle Hoogaboom said as he pressed the coin into Hector’s hand.
Hector was too overcome with emotion to speak at first. After he cleared his throat several times, he said, “I expect you’ll be helping me practice, Uncle, before I leave?”
Uncle Hoogaboom smiled and patted his back. “It would be my pleasure.”
Once they were back inside Uncle Hoogaboom’s shop, Beezel thought Gaidic adjusted fairly well to the realization that there was such a thing as zuufting in the world. Having a private demonstration of Hector’s new ability certainly helped.
“I’m just glad you are all okay,” Gaidic said to them after she recovered from watching Hector zuuft and un-zuuft her desk several times. “To think I let them in the house, those bad men.” She looked at the twins. “Pieter’s cousin, that Edwin, told me he accidentally locked himself out of the building. He showed up on my doorstep with that other man, Slear. Edwin told me he had to get his luggage out very soon or he would miss his plane. He said no one was answering the door or the phone. I went back to the shop and let him in with my key. How was I to know he was a madman?”
After the bank personnel removed the treasure from the galleon, Uncle Hoogaboom hired a security company to guard the ship until the Scheepvaartmuseum was ready to receive it.
Uncle Hoogaboom and Wiliken had assured the curator that the entire ship could be moved overnight as long as they did it before Hector had to leave for home.
“Oh, does he fly a helicopter?” the curator had asked the twins.
“Something like that,” Beezel said.
Later that afternoon, Uncle Hoogaboom called the police and asked them to pick up Edwin and Slear from his home. Leaving Gaidic downstairs to direct the police, the rest of them trooped up the stairs to the studio landing. On the way up, Uncle Hoogaboom reminded Hector not to say anything about the transfer of the Shrinking Coin magic.
“Let’s keep those two as confused as possible,” Uncle Hoogaboom whispered as he came to the landing, “for as long as possible.” He unlocked the door to the closet.
Mimi pointed to one clam. Ka-poof. Beezel pointed to the other. Ka-poof. Slear and Edwin stood staring at them.
Uncle Hoogaboom wagged his finger at them and said, “You two are going to go to jail. The police are on their way over here, now.”
“Oh, I don’t think so, old man,” Slear said as he pushed Uncle Hoogaboom aside and started to run down the stairs.
Mimi pointed at his back. Ka-poof. Slear was a clam again. He bounced down three steps and sat spinning on the fourth.
“Some people never learn,” Mimi said as she retrieved him. She brought Slear back up the stairs and set him down in front of Uncle Hoogaboom. Ka-poof. Slear was himself. He staggered a little, as if he were still dizzy from spinning.
“Mimi, Beezel,” Uncle Hoogaboom said as he scratched his beard, “I’ve been thinking. Maybe they both need another change or two. We don’t want any more trouble from them.”
“Sure.” Mimi pointed at Edwin. Ka-poof. Edwin was a clam. Ka-poof. Edwin was Edwin.
“Stop! I get it!” Edwin p
leaded. “No more, please!”
“Your turn.” Beezel pointed to Slear. Ka-poof. Slear was a clam. Ka-poof. Slear was Slear. “Want to try running away again?” she said as she pointed at him. He shook his head.
“Listen, girls,” Hector said thoughtfully. “Why take any chances with these two? What if they run off to the press with their little stories?” He waved a hand at them. “Just change them back into clams, and we’ll tell the police they got away.”
“NO! No…more…clams,” Slear blubbered. He turned to Uncle Hoogaboom. “I’ll be good this time, I swear. I won’t say a word to anyone about anything.” He pointed at Mimi and Beezel. “They didn’t turn me into anything.” He pointed at Uncle Hoogaboom. “You never shrank me.” He waved his hand at Hector and Wiliken. “You didn’t do anything either.”
As long as Slear was making promises, Beezel had one she wanted him to make. “What about Wiliken?” she asked. “Are you going to stop hounding him? Huh?” She pointed at him.
“And calling me star boy?” Wiliken added.
“Sure, sure,” Slear said, sobbing as he put up his hands. “No more. I swear it.”
Beezel lowered her arm. “I hope you keep your promises, Mr. Slear. Because if you don’t, Mimi and I will come visit you.”
Edwin stood very still, as if any movement on his part might cause someone to point at him with dire consequences.
“Well, Edwin,” Wiliken said, “you’ve certainly clammed up.” He elbowed the twins.
The twins laughed. “Good one, Wil,” Mimi said.
Edwin cleared his throat. “I’ll behave. I swear it,” he whispered. “I just want out of this house. I won’t do or say a thing to anybody ever again.”
Hector winked at the twins and nodded with satisfaction.
Gaidic called up the stairwell, “De politie is er, Mathias! Ze komen naar boven!”
Uncle Hoogaboom told Wiliken and the girls, “She said the police are here, and they’re coming up.”
Two policemen came up to the landing and spoke to Uncle Hoogaboom in Dutch. He pointed to Edwin and Slear.
“What’s he saying?” Beezel whispered to Hector.
“I think he said that they broke into his studio and damaged his models,” Hector said.
Slear, overhearing Hector’s translation, grabbed one of the officer’s arms and said, “Yes, that’s right, I broke in! I smashed everything! Now please, arrest me! Lock me up! Just get me out of here!”
After the police left with Edwin and Slear, Uncle Hoogaboom and Wiliken drove Hector, the girls and Gumdrop back to the Merlin Hotel. Mimi had changed Gumdrop back into a ladybug and put her in her plastic container for the ride over.
As Beezel gazed out the car window, she pondered a theory she had come up with. She had given a lot of thought to the Dutch gnomes called kabouters, the scaffolding in Uncle Hoogaboom’s model and the tiny hat and sandwich wrapper she had found. She thought she knew what they all meant. It was time to see if she was right.
“Uncle Hoogaboom,” Beezel said, “I know I saw a tiny man inside the dollhouse room, and I was wondering … have you been shrinking people to help build the models? Is that who I saw? Someone like a construction worker?”
Hoogaboom smiled sheepishly at her in the rearview mirror. “Well, I can’t be sure exactly who it was you saw. But it was one of my night crew.”
“Your night crew?” Hector said.
“Yes, they are some friends who work for me.” Uncle Hoogaboom held up one hand and wiggled his fingers. “My arthritis keeps me from doing as much of the finer work in the models as I used to. Pieter and I could do all the major building ourselves, but there were so many little things that were becoming more difficult with age. Things like installing banisters, or in the case of the church, finishing the choir loft. So, we hired some good friends to work on our models at night. I zuufted them at nine each night and un-zuufted them in the morning before Gaidic came to work. Sometimes a member of the crew would forget to turn up for the un-zuufting. They’d spend the day shrunk as well.”
“Well, that sure explains the kabouters,” Mimi said. “Doesn’t it, Beez?” Beezel nodded.
“It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that the Hoogabooms are responsible for all the kabouters in Holland,” Hector said.
“Not all.” Uncle Hoogaboom chuckled. “But it is a good thing I gave the crew the day off on Monday. I knew I would be having company that evening. I just didn’t know it would include Edwin and Mr. Slear. Happily, my good friends will never have to work another day in their lives. There’s plenty of money for all of them.”
The rest of the week went quickly for the girls. Hector and Gaidic took them to the Rijksmuseum. Wiliken and Uncle Hoogaboom took them to the Rembrandthuis and the Van Gogh Museum again, as a special treat for Mimi. Then they drove them all out to the Keukenhof Flower Gardens to see the tulips, as a surprise for Beezel.
Uncle Hoogaboom and Wiliken came to each of the girls’ magic shows their last weekend in Amsterdam. Before they knew it, Sunday had arrived and they would be leaving in the morning. It was just as Beezel had thought; the time had flown by.
Beezel and Mimi decided that they wanted to do a private magic show on the Magdalena Sunday night just for Uncle Hoogaboom, Wiliken, Gaidic and Hector. Uncle Hoogaboom managed to run an electrical cord from a neighboring canal boat, and Gaidic found the girls some fairy lights to hang across the deck.
The girls took magic requests from Wiliken, Gaidic and Uncle Hoogaboom. Even Hector got into the act and shrank Uncle Hoogaboom, so he could experience the magic of the Shrinking Coin once before they left.
“I wish I had been on the night crew all these years myself,” Uncle Hoogaboom said when Hector un-zuufted him after he had explored the ship’s deck in a miniature state.
It was getting late as the twins did their finale. Mimi changed Beezel into an eagle, and she soared up to the highest point of the mast while Hector kept a flashlight beam focused on her, for dramatic effect.
As Beezel perched atop the mast and looked out across the Amsterdam skyline, she promised herself she would come back someday and see it all again, even Magdalena in her new home. Then Beezel swooped down and landed on the deck in front of their small audience. They burst into applause. Mimi un-ka-poofed her and the twins took their bows.
Then, after a celebratory toast of apple cider, it was time for Hector and the girls to say good-bye.
“It’s been a great adventure,” Wiliken said to them. “I’m going to miss you guys. Hector, you bring these two to my next premiere, okay? I’ll make sure you get the VIP treatment.” Wiliken noticed the twins’ long faces and said, “Hey, you two, cheer up. We’ll see one another lots of times.”
“How do you know?” Beezel said, trying very hard not to cry in front of him.
“I know, because I want to learn some magic tricks myself, and you two will have to teach me!” Then he reached inside a bag on the deck and handed Beezel and Mimi each a small wrapped box. “Here’s something to remind you of our time here in Amsterdam. I found these in a box in my grandpa’s house. I think he must have collected them.”
“What is it?” Mimi said as she quickly tore off the wrapping paper.
Inside was a small gold box with an emerald inset on the top. “Oh, it’s so pretty. Thank you, Wil.”
“You’re welcome. Open yours, Beezel,” Wiliken said.
Beezel opened her package. She got a gold box as well, but hers had a ruby inset on the top. She was glad hers was different from Mimi’s. It meant more somehow. She smiled at Wiliken. “Thank you.” She was going to keep it her whole life and never, ever let it out of her sight.
“The stones are from the treasure ship,” Wiliken said. “I had them added on. And guess what? They’re puzzle boxes. I want you to figure them out on your flight.” He grinned at them. “Maybe it will keep you two out of trouble for ten minutes.”
With that, he kissed them both on the cheek and made them promise to call him re
gularly. Beezel knew that in Wiliken’s mind, she and Mimi really were the kid sisters he’d never had. She smiled. Wouldn’t he be surprised to find out how we feel about him?
Uncle Hoogaboom and Wiliken were now both very rich men, because they had thoroughly searched the ship on the day they had unshrunk it and discovered several additional chests full of treasure.
Wiliken, although he no longer needed the money, decided that he liked acting enough to keep doing it.
Uncle Hoogaboom had other plans. With Gaidic’s help, he was going to repair his damaged models and finish the model of the Noorderkerk. Then he was going to close his shop and go on a world tour.
Together, Uncle Hoogaboom and Wiliken decided that they wanted to turn Pieter Riebeeck’s house into the Riebeeck Miniature Museum for children. And they wanted Gaidic to be its director.
“You still might have to zuuft a thing or two now and then for me,” Uncle Hoogaboom told Hector. “Gaidic might need something for the museum.”
Hector was distraught about leaving Gaidic. She had promised to come to the United States and visit him in a few short weeks, but it didn’t cheer him up one bit. On the way to the airport, Beezel thought she saw actual tears in his eyes.
As the twins stood with Hector outside the airport gate on Monday morning waiting to board, Beezel thought about their visit. Wiliken Riebeeck. She still couldn’t believe it; she and Mimi had a crush on the same boy. Beezel shook her head. Things certainly were going to get interesting as they got older.
Then she thought of something else. If she and Mimi moved to different places when they grew up, the magic of the Changing Coin would no longer work. Beezel cheered herself up by thinking of the fun they would have when they visited each other.
We’ll make up for all that lost ka-poofing time, she told herself as she imagined Mimi and herself as two old ladies having a ka-poofing contest aboard a cruise ship.
Mimi looked positively gloomy. Beezel put her arm around her. The steward called their row on the plane for boarding.
The Trimoni Twins and the Shrunken Treasure Page 13
