Free Petal's Problems by Lauren Baratz-Logsted Page B

Big Moment today with these flowers, and it won't mean half so much without you there."
    "C'mon," Annie said again. "If you come down to the wedding, I won't try to stop you if you want to spend the whole time with your eyes squinched shut babbling weiofyoihfaifihweiw. But please don't spoil the day for Aunt Martha."
    "Ohhhhhh, fine. " Petal at last consented.
    ***
    Large crowd made up mostly of strangers. Organist playing old-fashioned songs. Frilly lace-edged white socks that kept slipping down our ankles.
    Not exactly our idea of a good time, but Aunt Martha looked happy enough as she stood beyond the entrance of the aisle some way behind Zinnia.
    "Oh, I wish Mommy and Daddy could be here," Annie said.
    "It seems wrong, them not being here," Durinda said.
    "I know," Georgia said. "It's Daddy's sister waiting to come in."
    "And Mommy's brother waiting for her in front of the altar," Jackie said.
    "It's too bad they both disappeared when they did," Marcia said.
    " Yugfawliuefa, " Petal said.
    Then a disturbing silence occurred, and we don't mean the pause before the Wedding March. It was the silence created by Rebecca not saying "or died," given what Marcia had said before Petal had said " Yugfawliuefa. "
    We all looked around us, filling with a worry and dread worthy of Petal.
    Where was Rebecca? We were sure she'd come into the ballroom with us, and yet now she was nowhere to be seen.
    "She's missing," Marcia said, "but there's someone else I don't see in the room either."
    As soon as she said it, we saw she was right.
    Crazy Serena wasn't in the room.
    "Maybe she went to the bathroom?" Durinda suggested.
    "I don't think that's where Crazy Serena is," Jackie said, "although she is in France."
    "I don't think it's a coincidence they're both not here," Georgia said. "I have the feeling something evil is going on." Georgia knew something about evil.

    "Do you think Crazy Serena has abducted her?" Petal finally piped up, having opened her eyes and ceased to babble.
    "That's exactly what I think," Annie said gravely. "I think Crazy Serena has taken Rebecca, for whatever reason, and the only way to get her back is for you to use your power. Read Crazy Serena's mind. Figure out where she's taken Rebecca and what she plans to do with her. Read her mind, Petal. Please."
    Petal reeled back in horror at the very idea of using her power to peer into the dark reaches of Crazy Serena's crazy little mind.
    But then Petal did something we could never have imagined her doing, not in a million years.
    She stopped reeling backward and instead came forward, forcefully.
    " Stop the wedding! " she shouted.

ELEVEN

    Okay, it was a little melodramatic, we grant you that. But who could blame Petal? Her sister had been abducted. Her aunt had done the abducting. How could a wedding take place until we got Rebecca safely back?
    But hang on here.
    Did we really want her back? Hmmm...
    Oh. Right. Of course we did.
    We looked at Petal and couldn't quite believe what we were seeing, what we were hearing.
    In the history of the universe, no Huit had ever been more likely to refuse the call to adventure than Petal. She'd already refused it once, when she refused her power after its arrival, and we'd assumed she'd go on refusing it throughout eternity, and what sort of person does that? Maybe Georgia had once refused her gift when it arrived too early, but none of us, not even contrary Georgia, would refuse her power. Except for Petal.

    And yet now...
    "No one in our family," Petal spoke clearly, "has tormented me for as long or with such glee as Rebecca. She's made me feel stupid and she's made me feel small. But none of that matters now. She's my sister. I have to do this, no matter how much it scares me."
    And then Petal tilted her head at an angle and began spinning around slowly as though she were leaving no stone unturned in her quest to read Crazy Serena's mind, as though she were trying to catch the frequency of all of France.
    "Got anything yet?"