Moon Mirror by Andre Norton Page A

just like a girl.
    “Alex,” she was able to say that quite naturally, and her voice did not sound too queer, “Matt, maybe he'll find his mom now, he was just looking in the wrong place. She's not here any more. You remember last Christmas when you went with Mom to see Santy Claus at the store and you got lost? You were hunting mom and she was hunting you, and at first you were looking in the wrong places. But you did find each other. Well, Matt's mom will find him all right.”
    She thought that Alex wanted to believe her. He had not pushed away from Rick entirely, but he looked as if he was listening carefully to every word she said.
    “You're sure?” he asked doubtfully. “Matt—he was scared he'd never find his mom. He said he kept calling an’ calling an’ she never came.”
    “She'll come, moms always do.” Lesley tried to make that sound true. “And Lizzy will help. Lizzy,” Lesley hesitated, trying to choose the right words, “Lizzy's very good at getting things done.”
    She looked beyond to the evidence of Lizzy's getting things done and her wonder grew. At first, just after it had happened, she had been so shocked and afraid, she had notreally understood what Lizzy had done before she and Matt had gone again. What—what had Lizzylearned during that time when she had been in the other place? And how had she learned it? She had never answered all their questions as if she was not able to tell them what lay on the other side of that door, or whatever it was which was between here and there.
    Lizzy's work was hard to believe, even when you saw it right before your eyes.
    The bulldozer and the other machines which had been parted there to begin work again Monday morning—Well, the bulldozer was lying over on its side, just as if it were a toy Alex had picked up and thrown as he did sometimes when he got over-tired and cross. And the other machines—they were all pushed over, some even broken! Then there were the growing things. Lizzy had rammed her hands into the pockets of her dress-like apron and brought them out with seeds trickling between her fingers. And she had just thrown those seeds here and there, all over the place.
    It took a long time for plants to grow—weeks—Lesley knew. But look—these were growing right while you watched. They had already made a thick mat over every piece of the machinery they had reached, like they had to cover it from sight quickly. And there were flowers opening —and butterflies—Lesley had never seen so many butterflies as were gathering about those flowers, arriving right out of nowhere.
    “Rick—how—?” She could not put her wonder into afull question, she could only gesture toward what was happening there.
    Her brother shrugged. It was as if he did not want to look at what was happening. Instead he spoke to both of them sharply.
    “Listen, shrimp, Les, it's getting late. Mom and Dad will be home soon. We'd better get there before they do. Remember, we left all the things Matt and Lizzy used out in the summer house. Dad's going to work on the lawn this afternoon. He'll want to get the mower out of there. If he sees what we left there he'll ask questions for sure and we might have to talk. Not that it would do any good.”
    Rick was right. Lesley looked around her regretfully now. She was not frightened any more—she, well, she would like to just stay awhile and watch. But she reached for Alex's sticky hand. To her surprise he did not object or jerk away, he was still hiccuping a little as he did after he cried. She was thankful Rick had been able to manage him so well.
    They scraped through their own private hole in the fence into the backyard, heading to the summer house which Rick and Dad had fixed up into a rainy day place to play and a storage for the outside tools. The camping bags were there, even the plates and cups. Those were still smeared with jelly and peanut butter. Just think, Matt had never tasted jelly and peanut butter before, he