Free Magic Nation Thing by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Page A

her to say she did it, and she said okay.” Paige was staring at Abby in openmouthed amazement when the Bordens’ Mercedes SUV pulled up.
    “What? What do you mean?” Paige was asking when her mother honked, and she went down the steps, looking back at Abby with what was turning into a squinty-eyed, really suspicious stare. Abby stood on the front steps while the SUV pulled away with Paige glaring at her from one window and Sky waving enthusiastically from another. Abby waved back while her mind was busy elsewhere. Busy thinking, “Now you’ve done it, you idiot. Now you’ve really done it.”
    It wasn’t long afterward, probably as long as it took Paige to get home, that the phone rang. “What do you mean you were the one who figured out who set the fire?” Paige demanded. When Abby insisted she couldn’t talk about it on the phone, Paige kept saying, “Why not? I want to know right this minute.” And then finally, “All right, then. Tomorrow morning. Okay?” And Abby had to agree.

10
    A BBY LAY AWAKE FOR a long time that night asking herself how she could have been so stupid as to tell Paige that she was the one who had solved the arson case. Because now she would have to explain how it happened to be the truth.
    Of course there was no logical, believable explanation. Not even one that Abby really believed herself. At least not for sure. After thinking it through about a million times, she finally decided that if there was any way to make Paige understand, it was to start at the beginning. As embarrassing as it would be, she was going to have to go into a lot of background stuff, such as Dorcas’s crazy stories about Great-aunt Fianna and the other weird ancestors—and even more embarrassing, the whole Magic Nation thing.
    Finally she turned on the light, and, getting out her notebook, she began to write down all the things she would have to tell Paige and the order in which she would do it. The list started out:
1. According to my mom, her side of the family is descended from ancestors in Ireland or Wales who were some kind of psychic types. Especially one great-aunt named Fianna.
    2. So the story goes, this Fianna person said that a lot of our ancestors could do stuff like read minds, and get messages about someone by holding one of the person’s belongings in their hands.
    3 . The main reason my mom decided to become a detective was that she thought she could use some of the weird stuff she’d inherited to solve crimes. Only she’s not very good at it. Not good at the weird stuff, that is. Actually she’s a pretty good detective.
    4. It looks like I might be the one who inherited some stuff. At least when I hold something that belongs to someone else in my hand, sometimes—not always, but once in a while—I can see a kind of vision about the person. That was how I found out about the arsonist.
    After she’d written and rewritten the list several times, she practiced reading it out loud. As she read, she tried to imagine what Paige’s reaction might be to each thing on the list. Her first guess was that Paige wouldn’t believe her and would just say something like “You’re making that up, aren’t you?” But then again—considering how crazy Paige was about all kinds of fantastic stuff—maybe not. After she’d thought some more, Abby began to guess that if Paige did get angry at her, the main reason might be because Abby hadn’t told her before.
    The next morning the conversation started just inside the gate of the Barnett Academy the moment Abby got off the bus. Paige was right there waiting for her, and she hardly had both feet on the ground before Paige pounced like a cat on a mouse. Grabbing Abby by the straps of her backpack, Paige pulled her down the driveway as she whispered, “Okay. So tell me.”
    So Abby started the telling, and she hadn’t gotten very far when she began to realize that nothing she’d imagined about Paige’s reaction came even close. She’d rehearsed what