Free Magic in the Mix by Annie Barrows Page B

confusion. The point was not to hurt the target, but to harness the power of the mob for the greater Gill good. Swarming parents had long been forbidden, but swarming classmates, babysitters, and misbehaving siblings was very effective. Robbie, Miri, Molly, and the two little girls zoomed toward Ray, buzzing monotonously like overgrown mosquitoes.
    â€œGet outta here!” he cried, swatting at the closing circle of siblings. “Haters! I caught it! I won! Cut it out!”
    Suddenly, they heard the tingling sound of breaking glass.
    All six children went still and silent, too used to being the manufacturers of such sounds to be certain that they hadn’t caused it.
    â€œMama?” called Nora anxiously.
    â€œSorry!” It was Ollie’s voice, coming from inside the house. “Aah, sorry about that. Sorry, Pammy!”
    After a minute or two, their mother appeared on the front porch, looking harassed. “Don’t worry,kids. Ollie just broke one of the windows in the living room. Don’t worry about it.” Her eyes fell on the bedraggled lettuce under Ray’s arm. “That’s enough lettuce-ball anyway, kids. Come on in. You shouldn’t play with your food.”
    Reluctantly, they straggled in, Miri last of all.
    Ahead of her, Ray paused at the doorway to the living room. “Whoa, Ollie!” he yelped. “You
killed
that window, man!”
    Miri winced when she saw it. Ollie hadn’t just broken the glass. He had torn out the entire window frame, leaving a ragged hole on one side of the room. The wooden window frame, with bits of shattered glass still attached, was propped mournfully in a corner.
    â€œRot,” said Ollie briefly, sweeping up glass with a little broom. “Look at that wood.”
    â€œYou had to tear out the whole thing?” Miri asked. Poor house.
    Ollie nodded briskly. “Gotta do it while the weather’s still okay. I’m gonna tarp up the hole, of course. Just be a couple of days.”
    Their mother hurried into the room. “Frank says don’t start anything else without showing him first. Okay?”
    Ollie looked offended. “It was rotten.” He pointed to the remains of the window. “And so’s the bathroom window upstairs. The whole frame, you could stick your finger through it—”
    â€œNo,” said Mom firmly. “No new projects without showing Frank first. Okay?” She waited, her eyebrows raised.
    Ollie heaved the sigh of the misunderstood. “If you say so.”

    â€œFriday!” shouted Miri the next morning when her alarm went off. “Friday. Get up!” The shouting was for Molly, who never heard alarms. “Get up!
Up!
”
    No movement below.
    Miri hauled herself to the edge of the top bunk and looked down. Molly was awake. She lay flat in her bed with her hands folded on her chest like a corpse. “I feel terrible,” she said in a whisper.
    â€œTerrible?” Miri put on her glasses and inspected her sister. Was she lying? She did look weird, but maybe it was just how her hands were folded. “Which part of you?” she asked suspiciously.
    â€œI’m hot,” said Molly. “And my head hurts.”
    â€œHuh,” said Miri. “You want me to get Mom?”
    Molly nodded.
    There followed Mom’s sick-kid bustle. Thermometer! Juice! Aspirin! All other children warned to stay away!
    â€œNo one else is allowed to get sick,” announced Mom, placing five bowls of applesauce on the kitchen table. “That goes for you, too,” she said to Cookie, who had settled herself in the middle of the floor so that everyone had to step over her.
    â€œMe and Robbie can’t get sick,” said Ray, gulping milk. “We have to do that thing tomorrow.”
    â€œRobbie and I,” said Mom.
    â€œWhat thing?” asked Dad, plopping an enormous stack of toast on the table.
    â€œThat war thing,” said Ray, jamming an