by Debbie Dadey
A sign was taped to the door. “Closed?” the crowd of kids groaned together.
Adam called, “The comic book store has candy.” The mob ran across the empty parking lot to the shop next door.
“I’m getting two notebooks and the biggest box of candy they have,” Natalie said as they dashed up to the glass door. A big sign hung on that door, too.
CLOSED.
“What’s going on?” Penny said. “Why is everything closed?”
“We could walk down to the A&P grocery,” Luke suggested. It was a long walk, but his growling stomach made him desperate for food.
Natalie shook her head. “There’s no time. We have to get to Mr. Leery’s house.”
“What’s wrong?” Penny asked, seeing the stricken look on Natalie’s face. “I’m sure your parents will drive you to another store to buy a new notebook.”
“It’s not that,” Natalie said, rubbing her forehead.
“Then what’s the problem?” Luke snapped. “I’m starving here.”
“You know how I can sense things?” Natalie said.
“You don’t have to brag,” Luke said impatiently.
“I am not bragging,” Natalie told them. “In fact, this is one time I wish I wasn’t so good.”
“Why?” Penny asked.
Natalie leaned against the closed comic book store. “Because I just got the feeling that something very bad is going to happen right here in Morgantown, and it’s going to happen soon.”
Penny and Luke looked at each other.
“I think I feel it, too,” Luke said.
Penny closed her eyes and concentrated. Sure enough, she felt a prickly feeling deep in her stomach that reached all the way up to her throat. Penny’s eyes flew open. “It’s our links! They’re calling us. We have to go. NOW!”
3
“Closed! Closed! They’re all closed,” Alex wailed, grabbing Luke’s arms as he turned to head back home. “It’s the end of the world.”
“No, it isn’t,” Luke said, pushing Alex away. “At least, not yet.”
They watched Alex zigzag down the street, pounding on the closed store doors.
“He has no idea,” Natalie said.
“If he only knew about goblins,” Penny added.
“Or how bad trolls stink,” Luke added. He’d had the misfortune of smelling one up close not too long ago.
The three kids couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of their friend catching a whiff of the underarm of a troll.
“What’s so funny?” boomed a voice behind them.
Penny, Luke, and Natalie slowly turned and looked up into the face of Officer Lumpkus. He peered down at them, his hands on his hips, and waited for an answer.
“Um . . . ,” said Penny.
“Er . . . ,” added Luke.
Buttercup dived deep in Natalie’s pocket as Natalie stepped right up to the police chief. “We were just giggling about something that happened at school,” she fibbed.
Officer Lumpkus wagged his finger in front of Natalie’s nose. “Learning is no laughing matter,” he said. “Now, quit all that racket and get home. You are wasting precious homework time!”
“Y–y–yes, sir,” Natalie stammered.
Buttercup peeked out Natalie’s pocket to watch Officer Lumpkus march down the street.
“Get home,” he snapped at the other kids.
“Maybe his police cap is on too tight,” Buttercup squeaked. “He certainly is a grump.”
“Is standing on the sidewalk illegal?” Luke asked Natalie.
“Not that I know of,” Natalie said. “Neither is laughing. Maybe he’s just having a bad day.”
“He did look a little green in the face,” Penny said. “He must be sick.”
“We don’t have time to worry about Officer Lumpkus,” Luke said. “Our links are calling us. We have to go.”
The kids hurried to the small cottage at the end of Rim Drive.
When they reached Mr. Leery’s yard, Dracula swooped down from a dead oak tree, landing right in front of Luke. Dracula bounced up and down with each word he spoke. “Hurry! Hurry!”
“The flying reptile is right,” Kirin said, poking her head out the front door. “Leery needs you. Now.” The unicorn stepped aside to let the three Keyholders enter.
Mr. Leery was slumped at his desk. He lifted his head and gave them a small smile.
“Oh, no,” Penny said. “Mr. Leery is worse.”
“And so is Mo,” Buttercup added.
Mo was sprawled across the desk in his cat form.
“But you can’t be sick,” Natalie whined. “You promised me my installation ceremony.”
Luke jabbed Natalie in the side.
“Shh,” Penny said. “This isn’t the time to pester him about that.”
“But I’m not even an official Keyholder,” Natalie said, “even though I’m better than the two of you combined.”
“Are not,” Luke said.
“Am, too,” Natalie said right back.
“Not.”
“Too.”
Mo lifted his head. “Stop. Fighting. Must. Help.” His last word ended with a pitiful meow and then his head dropped down to rest on an open book.
“What’s wrong with Mo?” Penny asked, rushing to the stricken cat. “We thought you were both getting better.”
Mr. Leery’s eyes drooped, and it looked like he might slip right out of his chair. “We were,” he told the three apprentice Keyholders. “But there was another breach this morning—bigger than all the rest. It can only mean one thing. The Boggart Queen’s forces are definitely in Morgantown. I fear she has put a spell on the two of us.”
Kirin tossed her head and stomped her hoof. Dracula hiccupped a purple smoke ring. Buttercup squeaked and started chewing on Natalie’s shoelace.
“You have to find her,” Luke said.
“And send that nasty queen right back where she belongs,” Natalie added.
“Can’t,” Mr. Leery said.
“What do you mean, ‘can’t’?” Penny asked.
Mr. Leery looked at each of the three Keyholders with tired eyes. “Mo’s powers. My powers. They’re gone. The Boggart Queen has drained them.”
Penny hugged Kirin. “Can you help them?” she asked.
“I have tried, but I will try again,” Kirin said, gently prodding Mo with her horn. It was a known fact that a unicorn’s horn could cure any ill, but not this time. A curl of smoke rose from the spot where Kirin’s horn touched Mo’s fur. Mo hissed, but he was too weak to do anything about his scorched fur.
“Fire! Fire! Fire!” Dracula yelled, sending tendrils of his own smoke blowing out his flared nostrils.
Penny quickly patted Mo’s fur to make sure there were no sparks while Luke calmed Dracula.
Mr. Leery waited until everyone had settled down. “Mo and I cannot help fight the Boggart Queen,” he whispered. “Only you can save us, now.”
“What?” Luke, Penny, and Natalie said at the same time. But Mr. Leery didn’t have a chance to explain because right at that moment there was a knock on the door, and a very impatient knock it was.
“Grandma!” Penny gasped when she opened the door. “What are you doing here?”
She heard Kirin and Dracula scramble for hiding places behind her.
Penny’s grandmother held a big pot in her hands. She scooted past Penny before answering. “Why, I heard poor Mr. Leery was feeling under the weather and I said to myself, Gertie, what that man needs is some of my famous homemade chicken soup. So here I am!”
Mr. Leery managed a weak smile when Penny’s grandmother batted her eyelashes at him. The kids knew that Penny’s grandmother had a crush on Mr. Leery.
“Now, out of my way so I can heat up this soup,” Penny’s grandmother said.
Penny rushed to the kitchen to make sure Kirin and Dracula were out of sight. She saw the back door closing just as her grandmother whooshed past her to plop the pot on the stove.
“Don’t you child
ren have homework to do?” she asked the three kids as she hurried back into the living room. Then she helped Mr. Leery over to the sofa to get comfortable. Penny gently picked up Mo and placed him on a blanket right next to the old man. Mo purred his gratitude.
“Thanks to Mrs. Bender and her new rules, we have homework coming out our ears!” Luke complained.
Penny nodded. “Our principal totally changed into a new person over the weekend,” she said. “And now she’s made all these horrible new rules.”
Natalie shook her head. “She’s always been a grump.”
“But this is worse than usual,” Luke said. “It’s like the old Mrs. Bender disappeared, and someone else has taken her place.”
Penny’s grandmother laughed. “Maybe she’s a changeling.”
“A changeling?” Penny asked.
Mr. Leery jerked upright at the word, and Mo growled deep in his chest.
Penny’s grandmother fluffed Mr. Leery’s pillows and patted them until Mr. Leery relaxed again.
“Haven’t you heard the tales?” Penny’s grandmother asked.
When the kids shook their heads, Penny’s grandmother plopped at the foot of the couch and told them, “Changelings are vile creatures, so terrible that even their parents try to get rid of them. Of course, what can you expect of trolls?”
Buttercup squeaked at the word.
“Trolls?” Natalie said to cover up her link’s squeak of terror. Buttercup snuggled deeper into Natalie’s pocket.
“Nasty creatures, trolls are,” Penny’s grandmother said. “They have these horrid little babies with green skin. Instead of trying to raise them properly, they snatch away humans and leave the little monsters in their place.”
Mo growled again, and his tail lashed across the cushions.
“Wouldn’t the human parents notice the difference?” Luke asked logically.
“You would think so,” Penny’s grandmother said. “But you know how distracted parents can be. Plus those trolls use magic that hides the true identities of their horrid offspring. In fact, they can make the changeling seem just like the human it replaced. But if you look closely, you can see their skin has a pea green tint to it. And no matter how hard they try, it’s impossible to get a comb through the matted mess of hair of a changeling.
“Thank goodness the magic only lasts a short while. And as the magic fades, those changelings get uglier and uglier. Not only in looks, but in the way they act as well. Can you imagine waking up one day to find a monster in your child’s room?”
“That happens every day at my house when I see my sister,” Luke said. “But Mom says all teenagers are like that.”
Penny’s grandmother laughed. “Oh, I do like a good story, don’t you? Now I better go check on that soup.”
Mo waited for Penny’s grandmother to leave the room, his tail lashing back and forth impatiently. “Could it be true, Leery?” the cat asked. His voice sounded more garbled than usual, as if he was having trouble forming the words.
“You mean that story about changelings is real?” Penny gasped.
“Not the way she tells it,” Mr. Leery said. “But as with all folktales, there are threads of truth running through them. It is up to you to unravel them.”
“What do you mean it’s up to us?” Luke asked.
Mr. Leery closed his eyes. “Maybe last night’s break in the border had something to do . . .” He paused, like it hurt him to talk before continuing, “. . . must . . . find . . . out.”
“How?” Penny asked. “What are we supposed to do?”
Mr. Leery was unable to answer because just then Penny’s grandmother returned carrying a steaming bowl. “Here we are. My soup will fix whatever ails you,” she said as she placed the chicken noodle soup on the small table beside Mr. Leery.
He opened his eyes and smiled at Penny’s grandmother, but when he looked at the kids gathered near the sofa, his face turned serious. “If only it could be that easy,” Mr. Leery said.
“Enough chit-chat.” Penny’s grandmother ushered the three kids out the door. “You children have homework to do, and Mr. Leery needs his rest. Now, off you go.”
And then she closed the door and left Penny, Luke, and Natalie out in the cold by themselves.
4
The next day Mr. Crandle piled so much work on his students he nearly forgot to let them go to lunch. When they got to the cafeteria, Mrs. Bender met them at the door. She shoved a loose strand of hair out of her face and then fingered her ugly necklace as she spoke.
“The lunchroom has been entirely too noisy,” she informed them. “From now on, lunch will be eaten in total silence.”
When Alex muttered, Mrs. Bender leaned over to glare at him. A strand of her hair broke free and flicked him in the nose. Alex’s face turned as pale as milk.
“After lunch,” Mrs. Bender added, “you will go directly to that disgusting area behind the parking lot.”
“You mean the playground?” Natalie asked.
When Mrs. Bender nodded, her bun came loose and hair flopped over her eyes. She shoved it behind her ears and locked her eyes on the kids. “It’s not a playground anymore,” she said. “Now it is a nature center instead of wasted play space.”
When the kids groaned, Mrs. Bender silenced them with a cold stare. “School is for working, not playing,” she snapped.
It didn’t take long to finish lunch. After all, nobody was in the mood to eat. Even if they had been, the unrecognizable gray and green lumps on their trays would’ve ruined their appetites.
Natalie scooped up a bite, but then let the lumps plop back to her tray. “What do you think this is?”
Luke stirred his lunch with his fork. “Looks like moldy boogers,” he said.
Penny gasped. “Could it be?”
“I was joking,” Luke said. “Of course the cafeteria workers wouldn’t serve moldy boogers.”
“They might,” Penny said, “if they were changelings brought up by trolls.” She looked down at her tray. “Do you think these are troll boogers?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Luke said, but he didn’t eat any of it, just in case.
After lunch, all the kids lined up on the playground. Mrs. Bender, Mr. Crandle, and the rest of the teachers handed out shovels, hoes, and rakes.
“Now, dig,” Mrs. Bender ordered.
Natalie looked at the shovel in her hands as if it had teeth. “You have to be kidding,” she said.
Mrs. Bender spun around and glared at Natalie. The principal’s hair lashed in a gust of wind, reminding Natalie of a wicked witch.
“Believe me,” Mrs. Bender said, “I am not kidding. We must turn the earth to prepare it for planting. Now, dig.”
“But it’ll ruin my nails,” Natalie said. She held up her sparkly pink nails as if that was all the proof she needed.
Mrs. Bender gritted her teeth and leaned down close to Natalie until they were nose-to-nose.
“Dig,” Mrs. Bender said. “Or else.”
Natalie took a step backward and grabbed her shovel. She half-heartedly stuck it in the ground and dug up one tiny scoop of earth.
Penny waited until Mrs. Bender had walked away. “My grandmother and Mr. Leery were right,” she told Luke and Natalie. “Changelings have taken over our principal and the rest of the teachers. For all we know, all the adults in this town are imposters.”
Luke shook his head. “Don’t be a doofus. There’s no way anybody would want to trade places with Mrs. Bender.”
Natalie agreed. “Face it. The adults at this school have always been nuts. I even wrote about it in my . . .”
“I know,” Penny snapped. “But we don’t care about your stupid lost notebook. We have to find out how to unmask the changelings and send them back to where they came from. Maybe Mr. Leery is feeling better today. We’ll ask him.”
That afternoon the three kids knocked on Mr. Leery’s door.
“Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!” Dracula called from inside. They could see the little dragon t
hrough the window. He was bouncing up and down with every word.
Kirin stomped her hoof impatiently as the three kids pushed open the door. The unicorn rushed to Penny, nuzzling her hand with a worried whiff of air.
Penny hugged the unicorn, feeling the bond between them grow even stronger. “What is it, Kirin? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Mr. Leery and Mo,” Kirin said. “They have information that will help you. But you must hurry. Time is running out.”
Mr. Leery and Mo huddled on the couch, looking at the kids with worried eyes.
“I think I know what’s happening,” Penny said. “All the teachers must be changelings—even Mrs. Bender. They’re acting like monsters. You and my grandmother were right!”
Mr. Leery closed his eyes. “Changelings are able to replace humans, but only with the use of powerful magic. Which means the real people are imprisoned within the Shadow Realm, trapped there until the spell is broken.”
“Do something! Do something!” Dracula said. He hiccupped and a flame lashed out, burning Mr. Leery’s house shoes into ashes.
Mr. Leery slumped back on his pillow. “My powers obviously have been drained by the Queen’s evil magic. It’s part of her diabolical plan. It is up to you to unmask the Queen and her minions, break the spell, and drive them back across the border. It’s the only way you can rescue the kidnapped people from the Shadow Realm.”
“And if we fail?” Natalie asked.
Mr. Leery’s voice was no more than a whisper. “Then you, too, will be replaced by changelings, and be trapped forever on the wrong side of magic as servants to the evil Queen of Boggarts.”
Buttercup squealed and Dracula hopped onto Luke’s shoes, grabbing him tightly around the legs. Kirin moved closer to Penny. Luke, Penny, and Natalie looked at each other with fear in their eyes.
“Tell us what to do,” Natalie said bravely.
Luke nodded. “How do we unmask the changelings?”
Mr. Leery didn’t answer. He slumped back on the pillows and his eyes fluttered twice before closing. And then Mr. Leery and Mo fell into a cursed sleep so deep that no amount of shaking could wake them.
