The Enchantress Returns (11 page)

“It’s from the Fairy Godmother,” Xanthous said and flew up into the air to retrieve it—apparently a fairy didn’t need wings to fly. He hovered in the air a few feet above the ground while he read it, keeping it out of the twins’ sight.

Alex and Conner stood below him. Xanthous’s eyes grew large as he read the note from their grandmother. “I see,” he said when he was finished reading. He floated down and faced the twins.

“Your grandmother would like me to pass along some information to you,” Xanthous said.

“Yes?” Alex asked. They were practically vibrating with anticipation.

“We believe your mother is in our world,” Xanthous said. “That is all.” He placed the envelope on his shoulder and the flames devoured it.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Conner asked, unsatisfied with the update.

“Neither, it’s just information she’d like you to have at this time,” Xanthous said.

The twins let out exasperated sighs. Knowing more almost made it worse.

Later that night, Alex pulled Conner into her bedroom to
speak with him privately. She turned up her radio so Lampton’s canine hearing couldn’t pick up what they were saying.

“Mom’s in the fairy-tale world,” she said to him. “You know what that means?”

“What?” Conner asked.

“It means I think Grandma may have lied to us,” Alex said. “How else could Mom have gotten there without her knowing about it? Maybe she isn’t the only fairy who’s capable of traveling between worlds.”

Conner nodded.

“I don’t think Grandma lied to us,” Conner said. “I think we’re just mad at her right now so now we’re trying to blame her for anything we can.”

Alex rubbed her tired eyes. She knew he wasn’t altogether wrong.

“Just a few days ago I was worried about Grandma and angry with Mom, and now I’m worried sick about Mom and furious with Grandma,” Alex said. “It’s crazy how fast things can change.”

“Yeah, it is,” Conner said with a sigh.

“How do you think Mom got there, then?” Alex asked him.

Conner thought on it for a good moment. “I wonder if there’s more than one way to get into the Land of Stories,” he said.

Alex’s head jerked back up at him. She had spent so much time hugging books and trying to re-create their last portal, she’d never thought about other options.

“Like what?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know,” Conner said. “But if Grandma’s storybook had the capability, I’m sure she would have created other ways over the years, right?”

“It would only make sense that she would have created other ways to come and go,” Alex said, thinking out loud. “Not for her, necessarily, but for the other fairies she recruited to help spread the stories around our world—right?”

Conner’s eyes widened and he pursed his lips.

“What’s your question?” Alex asked him.

“I hate that you guys know when I have a question!” Conner said and then asked, “Are you sure there’s no way you could make a portal on your own?”

Alex would have loved to believe that she was capable, too, but knew in her heart that if she was, she would have surely found a way by now.

“No, it was Grandma’s magic,” Alex said. “I just… I just…”

“Turned it on?” Conner asked.

“Right,” Alex said.

“Then I wonder if Grandma has anything else we could turn on,” Conner said.

Another thought dawned on Alex as soon as he said this. “And maybe that’s why she didn’t know where Mom was,” she said, nodding to herself. “Maybe someone had gotten hold of something, like her storybook, and used it to get to Mom.”

They looked to each other and small smiles appeared on their faces. They weren’t smiles of happiness, but smiles of achievement. They knew they were on to something—they could feel it.

“But
who
?” Conner asked.

CHAPTER SEVEN

LOOSEY GOOSEY

The next evening the twins sat in the living room and watched the news with Lampton. He sat with his nose just a few inches away from the screen, completely mesmerized by it. His head was tilted and a single ear was raised.

“I must say, of all the technologies in this world I’ve been introduced to, this is by far my favorite!” Lampton said with a wagging tail. “The television is remarkable!”

“I’ve seen Magic Mirrors do much more impressive things,” said Xanthous, perched by the window, devotedly watching
the neighborhood. “Although one thing I think I definitely could do without is the
fire alarm
. If I set it off one more time, I swear I’m going to yank it off the wall and smash it into pieces.”

“Well, with all due respect, being on fire in this world is never a good thing,” Conner said.

Xanthous raised an eyebrow judgmentally and turned back to his window. The flames on his shoulders rose in spite.

A bright flash suddenly filled the room. The twins looked up, and floating down from the ceiling was another sky-blue envelope, just like the day before. Once again, Xanthous flew up to retrieve it and read the new note from their grandmother in midair, away from the twins’ curious eyes.

When he was finished reading he placed it on his shoulder and let it burn away before returning to the ground.

“We’re leaving,” Xanthous said and immediately had the twins’ full attention. “Sir Lampton and I are being called back into our world.”

“Why?” Alex asked.

Xanthous took a moment to compose his response.

“The Fairy Godmother needs us there more than she needs us here,” he put simply. “But don’t worry, she’s sending in a replacement to watch over you.”

Conner grunted. “Oh, great,” he said with a massive eye roll. “Who’s going to babysit us now? Bingo and the tooth fairy?”

“No. Mother Goose is replacing us,” Xanthous said.

Alex and Conner stared blankly at him and then at each
other. Was he being serious? Xanthous didn’t seem like he had much of a sense of humor.

“What?” Xanthous asked them, with no trace of sarcasm. “I’m serious. She’s flying in from Europe tonight.”

“
The
Mother Goose?” Conner asked. “As in the ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill’ Mother Goose?”

“Yes, of course
that
Mother Goose,” Xanthous said and looked at him as if he had lost his mind. “Is there any
other
Mother Goose?”

“What is she doing in Europe?” Alex asked.

“Someone has to continue your grandmother’s storytelling work while she deals with the crisis at home,” Xanthous said. “But I wouldn’t mention Jack and Jill to her, unless you want to hear her talk about conspiracies all night. Mother Goose has always been a bit of a… well…
handful
.”

Mother Goose was the only member of the Happily Ever After Assembly the twins hadn’t met in the Land of Stories, so they were looking forward to finally meeting her. However, the woman they expected her to be and the woman she actually was were very different
geese
.

A little past midnight, the twins were awoken by Lampton’s shouts.

“She’s here! She’s here!” Lampton called through the house. “Mother Goose is landing!”

The twins met in the hall, rushed down the stairs together, and followed Xanthous and Lampton into the backyard. They looked up into the night sky but didn’t see anything but stars and the moon.

“I don’t see anything,” Conner said.

“Trust me,” Lampton said with his ears raised. “I can hear her.”

Suddenly, a large silhouette flew past the moon. A large object was zooming toward them. The twins squinted, trying to see what it was. The closer it traveled, the more clearly they could see, riding on the back of a gigantic white goose, none other than Mother Goose herself.

“I have to admit, when you said she was flying in tonight, I wasn’t expecting this,” Conner said.

“Easy, Lester! Slow down, boy!”
Mother Goose shouted in a raspy voice. She yanked on the reins of her large bird.

They were approaching so fast, the twins and Lampton dove under a patio table, taking cover. Xanthous remained exactly where he was, not deterred in the slightest—he had seen Mother Goose land before.

The goose landed hard on the ground with such a thud the entire house shook behind them. It felt like a mini-earthquake.

“Good lord, Lester! You call that a landing?!”
Mother Goose reprimanded the horse-size goose.
“Meteors make softer impacts than that, you stupid gander!”

Lester rolled his eyes, or at least the twins thought he did. His webbed feet were planted deep into the lawn, and he struggled to pull them out.

Mother Goose was a short, stout elderly woman. She had curly gray hair under a pointed black pilgrim hat that had a silver buckle on the front. She wore a baggy green dress with a white ruffled collar, large boots, and thick aviator goggles around her eyes.

“Are we even in the right place?” Mother Goose said, looking around. “I can’t find my map—this is why I need to install a GPS in the back of your head.”

Her goggles made her eyes appear enormous and obviously impaired her vision because she didn’t see Xanthous standing directly in front of her.

“Hello, Mother Goose,” Xanthous said with the little enthusiasm he could muster. “You’re in the right place. Welcome to the Bailey home.”

“Xanny, is that you?” Mother Goose asked and took off her goggles. Her face was red, weather-beaten from the flight. “Oh, Xanny, I am so glad to see you! I was worried Lester had taken us to Tijuana again. He loves Mexico.”

Xanthous cringed at the nickname. “Besides the landing, I hope the rest of your flight went smoothly.”

Mother Goose hopped down from Lester with difficulty. “Oh, it was fine, it was fine,” she said. “Except when the
future pillow stuffing
here bumped into a 747 over Pittsburgh.
Stupid bird
.”

Lester slowly shook his head. Obviously, he had a different side of the story.

“Those damn planes have gotten so big they don’t leave much sky for the rest of us,” Mother Goose said. “I should have never encouraged the Wright brothers—biggest mistake of my life!”

She did a few windmill stretches and the joints in her back cracked like fireworks. Alex, Conner, and Lampton cautiously climbed out from under the table and approached her.

“Mother Goose, let me introduce the twins,” Xanthous began. “This is Alex and Conner—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah—I’ve met the squirts before,” Mother Goose said. She put her hands on her hips and looked them up and down.

“You have?” Conner said.

“It was years ago, when you were babies. I visited you with your grandma,” Mother Goose told them. She pointed to Alex and then to Conner. “If memory serves me right,
you
never stopped crying, and
you
peed all over me when I changed your diaper.” She leaned close to them, eyeing them seriously. “I let it slide the first time, but history better not repeat itself.”

Alex and Conner both gulped; now they knew what Xanthous had meant. Mother Goose’s serious face broke into a giant smile and she cackled loudly.

“Relax, kids! I’m just yanking your tail feathers!” she said. Mother Goose turned to Lester and pulled a large basket off the goose’s back. “Carry in my luggage for me, would you, boy?”

She shoved the heavy basket into Conner’s arms and he grunted under its weight.

“And you,” Mother Goose said to Alex. “Would you mind fetching Lester a bucket of vegetables? He needs to eat after such a long flight. Just no broccoli; it gives him gas.”

The goose looked at her with large eyes and an open beak—appalled she would give out such personal information.

“Don’t look at me like that, Lester, it does!”
Mother Goose said.

“You want
me
to
feed
him?” Alex said nervously and backed away from the oversize bird.

“Don’t be afraid of Lester, honey,” Mother Goose assured her. “He’s all squawk and no waddle.”

Xanthous and Lampton escorted Mother Goose inside the house. Conner lugged the basket behind them; it was so heavy he almost threw out his back. Alex went into the kitchen and tossed all the vegetables she could find into a large bowl for Lester.