Free The Sisters Club by Megan McDonald Page B

Sherlock Holmes on us!) I took a picture of our three pairs of feet, something to remember this night by.
    Then we ate blue cupcakes (I stole one of Alex’s magazines for the recipe) and mini bunny slippers I made out of marshmallows, frosting, and sprinkles.
    “These are yum!” said Joey.
    “I’m not eating mine,” said Alex. “Too cute. You could sell these — you should go into business.”
    For dessert, we toasted marshmallows by candlelight.
    Joey took out a fondue fork, put three marshmallows on it, and held it up to the candle. “Just like camp!” said Joey. “And this is the campfire.”
    “This is great! How’d you ever think of this?” I asked Alex.
    “I read it in a magazine,” she said. “What else?”
    “What, like the Marshmallow Times ?” I asked.
    “Kidding!” she said. And we all died laughing, remembering Marshmallow Toes.
    “If this is the campfire, we have to have a spooky story,” said Joey.
    “Three Sisters!” Joey and I yelled at the same time. “The Three Sisters” is our favorite story. Alex tells it the best, because she always changes it around to keep us guessing.
    “C’mon, Alex! Tell it! Tell it!” Joey said. And I took up the chant. “Tell it! Tell it! Tell it!”
    “OK, OK. You don’t have to get so hyper. I’ll tell it.”

 
     
    FULL LONG-NIGHT MOON
    Starring Alex
     
     
    Me: Once a long time ago there were three sisters —
    Joey: Just like us?
    Me: Just like us. All three sisters were going to be married.
    Joey: Even me?
    Me: Even you, Duck. OK, so the story goes, one dark night they arrived at the inn where they were each to meet their true loves, who were to have come down out of the mountains that day. But something happened — something terrible. Nobody showed up.
    Joey: Nobody?
    Stevie: Not even one out of three?
    Me: Shhh. Listen. Nobody showed up, and the three sisters were brokenhearted. They wept all night. One was certain her love had been killed in a blinding snowstorm. Another thought hers had drowned in a mountain lake, and the third was convinced that her love was buried in an avalanche way up high at the snow line.
    They wept and wept until . . . the next day. Finally, they hiked to the foot of the mountain. They made a crude headstone out of wood, and each sister decided to carve the name of her true love in it to mark the place of his death.
    The oldest sister went first.
    Stevie: Of course!
    Me: The oldest sister carved the name of her true love. When the other two sisters saw the name, they went faint. Each of their true loves was one and the same!
    Joey: They all loved the same guy?
    Me: Yes, but he had disappeared. They never, ever saw him again.
    Stevie: What a creep.
    Me: Don’t you mean what a stinkard?
    Stevie: A pox on him for sure!
    Joey: What happened then?
    Me: Years later, after the sisters died, there was a terrible earthquake, which split the mountain into four mountains. To this very day, they call the mountains the Three Sisters.
    Joey: You said four.
    Me: Three are together. One is off in the distance — Mount Bachelor. But nobody could live near the Three Sisters.
    Joey: Why not?
    Me: The mountains are volcanoes. Every two thousand years they erupt, because the sisters were so angry at the guy.
    Joey: Why couldn’t they live there the rest of the time?
    Me: Oh. Well, because of the moaning. Oooooo, Aaahhhhhh. The chilling sound could always be heard whistling and moaning through the mountain passes, and it haunted the people of the village of Acton below. Some said it was just the wind. Others were certain it was the three sisters, moaning for their lost love.
    Joey: Really?
    Me: Some got so frightened, they moved away. But no matter how many villagers came and went, the Three Sisters stayed together, forever, for the rest of time.
    Joey: You gave me shivers.
    Stevie: Me, too.
    Me: So be it. That is the Legend of the Three Sisters. Just look out the window.
     
     
    (The three sisters climb on Alex’s bed and