The Magic Half by Annie Barrows

him. He’s just bugging you because he hasn’t got anything else to do.”
    Robbie made a sound like a siren. “Once again, the SPCD arrives in the nick of time, saving this poor child from her cruel mother.”
    “Another child rescued from a life of misery,” added Ray. Reaching around Nell’s booster seat, he plucked the doll from her arms and began to sing, “Rock-a-bye, baby, on the tree— Oh no!” He shook the doll in his hands. “She’s trying to jump! I can’t hold her back! Ahh!” He pretended to fumble with it, and—so quick Nell couldn’t see—he tucked the doll behind his back. “Oh no!” he gasped. “She jumped out the window. Nell! Your baby’s in the middle of the road! She’s dead!”
    “Ray!” called their mother. “You didn’t!”
    Nell began to wail. “My Sierra!”
    “I didn’t do it, Mom,” protested Ray. “She jumped to her death. I tried to stop her.”
    Robbie joined in, chortling, “She had to get away from her cruel mother.”
    “She didn’t! She loves me!” howled Nell, with Nora joining in.
    “Well, you can go right back and get it,” announced their mother, slowing the car. “And then you can walk home.”
    “Aw, Mom, we’re just joshing.” Ray pulled the doll from behind his back and tossed it into the seat in front of him, where Nell fell on it with screams and kisses.
    “You guys are meanies,” said Miri. She hugged the top of Nell’s head.
    “And you can still walk home,” said their mother, pulling to a stop by the side of the road. “Out. That was a rotten trick, and I won’t allow that kind of unkindness in my car. Out.”
    “Mom!” moaned Ray. “We didn’t throw the doll out. We were just kidding!”
    “It was mean, and I won’t have it.” All of her children recognized the Don’t Mess With Me voice.
    “Nell’s meaner than we are,” grumbled Robbie. “A time-out for spilling milk. That’s crazy.”
    “Out.”
    “Mom! It’s sweltering!” pleaded Ray.
    “Out.”
    Silently, the boys climbed out of the car and stood on the side of the road with pathetic faces. As their mother pulled away from the roadside, Miri, Nell, and Nora turned for one final look from the back window. “Mom, they’re hitchhiking,” said Miri.
    Mom did not seem concerned. “Ha. They wouldn’t dare. And besides—nobody uses this road. They’ll walk.”
    “They’re bad,” announced Nora. “They stole.”
    “They lied, too,” said Miri.
    “They stole and they lied,” said Nell.
    Like Horst, thought Miri. But he stole and lied for real. He wasn’t fooling around like Ray and Robbie were. He didn’t joke, even when he was joking. She remembered his thick voice saying, “You reckon old Molly’s got an allergic to glass? Din’t she lose her specs just last week? Seems like glass and her just don’t get along.” That almost sounded like something Ray and Robbie would say, but it was a lot meaner coming from Horst. You could tell he just loved getting Molly in trouble. He probably took her glasses himself, Miri thought. Just to get her in trouble. He probably hid them—
    “Oh my God!” she said out loud.
    “What?” said her mother, braking again.
    “Nothing!” said Miri quickly. “Sorry. I just thought of something. Nothing.” That was it! She would bet anything in the world that Horst had taken Molly’s glasses and hidden them in the barn. She remembered the glinting light she had spied from the loft. She had thought then that it was jewelry, but it could have been glass. It could have been Molly’s glasses! All she had to do was dig them up.
    Miri began to whack her feet against the floor of the car. “This is taking forever,” she said.
    “Stop that,” said her mother. “We’re almost home.”
    Almost home. Almost.
    The tires crunched onto gravel.
    Finally.
    • • •
    The smooth handle of the shovel slipped against her sweating hands as Miri lifted the weight of it up and slammed it down with all her strength.
    There was a