The Unusual Suspects

Once she was confident her grandmother and Mr. Canis were asleep, Sabrina shook her sister awake and the two of them crawled out of bed. They crept out of their room and down the hall to Puck's bedroom.

"Don't step on the plate," Sabrina reminded her sister as she opened the door. Inside the boy's magical forest room, the sun had set, replaced by a sea of stars, each blinking brightly just for Puck. The boxing kangaroo was asleep in his ring and the roller coaster had been turned off. All was still, except for the cascading waterfall splashing into the lagoon.

The girls crept along the path around the lagoon and then into some heavy brush. Eventually, they came to a trampoline on which Puck was sound asleep. The Trickster King was wearing a pair of baby blue footie pajamas that had little smiling stars and moons on them. Held close to his face was a soft pink stuffed unicorn with a rainbow sewn on its side. If only Sabrina had brought a camera, she could have also recorded his thumb in his mouth.

"Time to wake up the sleepy monkey," Sabrina cooed in baby talk, doing her best not to roar with laughter.

Daphne giggled but held her hand over her mouth.

"Wakie-wakie, eggs and bac-ie," Sabrina continued.

Puck stirred in his sleep but didn't wake. A big stream of drool escaped his mouth and ran down the front of his pajamas.

"Does someone have the sleepy-sleepies?" Daphne said mimicking her sister's baby talk.

"Time to come back from dreamland, precious," the older girl said, shaking the boy roughly. Puck sprang from his sleep, with wings extended from his back. He waved his big pink unicorn like a deadly sword and slashed at the children.

"Nice jammies," Daphne snickered.

"I especially like Mr. Unicorn," Sabrina laughed.

"His name is Kraven the Deceiver," Puck corrected, before realizing what he was holding and who was with him. He tossed the stuffed animal aside and fluttered down to the ground.

"We've got a plan for tomorrow and you're going to help us," Sabrina said.

"Forget it," the boy answered. "Tomorrow I'm telling the old lady to find another bodyguard for her stinky offspring. It's beneath me!"

"But this plan requires a lot of a mischief," Sabrina said.

Puck's eyes lit up. "I'm listening," he said.

"We're going to get into the boiler room tomorrow to search the tu

"The old lady will be furious."

"I know, but I'm willing to take the heat if it saves someone's life."

"Fine, what's the plan?"

Sabrina reached into her pocket and took out her set of keys.

"Where'd you get those?" Daphne asked.

"I've been swiping them off Gra

Puck's eyes lit up and he looked at Sabrina as if he had never seen her before in his life. "You stole those keys and made copies?"

She dropped her eyes. "Yeah," she said, thinking she felt disapproval.

"That's wonderful," the boy said, eyeing the girl like a child watching a fireworks display. He was in complete awe of her. He grabbed both the girls by the wrist and dragged them through his "room." "Let's put them to use, then!"

Once they were in Mirror's room, the three children stepped through the reflection and came out into the Hall of Wonders. Mirror was standing in front of his own full-length mirror, sucking in his plump belly and making muscle poses like a body builder.

"Doesn't anyone in this house sleep anymore?" he asked.

"We need some help," Sabrina said.

The little man rolled his eyes and let out his belly. "Very well, what's the scoop?"

"We need something that will help us get into the boiler room at school," Daphne said. "The door is locked, so we need something that will turn us invisible or let us walk through walls."

"Children, this isn't Wal-Mart," Mirror replied. "I don't have everything, but there is something that might help. Follow me."

As they followed Mirror down the long hallway, Sabrina read the golden plaques on each of the doors, a favorite habit developed on previous visits: LEPRECHAUN GOLD; FLOOR PLANS FOR GINGERBREAD HOUSES; TALKING FISH; GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE; TIK-TOK MEN; CALIBAN-the doors went on and on. What was Mirror going to offer them?

Soon, he stopped at a door with a plaque that read THE PANTRY. He held out his hand and Sabrina gave him her key ring. He searched through her collection and found the one that unlocked the door. Everyone stepped inside where, much to the girls' chagrin, there stood an old, run-down refrigerator.

"I've never heard of the magic refrigerator," Daphne said. "Is that a Grimm story or someone else?"

"There's no such thing as a magic refrigerator," Mirror said as he opened the door. "It's what's inside that's important."

He opened the fridge, bent down, and rummaged around inside. He pulled out a bag of rotten carrots. "I really have to toss these out," he mumbled. He opened a carton of milk and took a sniff, his face crinkling up in disgust as he closed the carton and put it back in the refrigerator. Finally, he took out a package of juice boxes and handed them to the kids.

"Drink me," Daphne read.

"This is from Alice ’s Adventures in Wonderland," Sabrina said, happily. "This will make us shrink?"

"To about the size of an ant," Mirror said. "At that size you could just walk under the door and get into any room you want. But you'll need these, too." He reached in and pulled out several individually wrapped snack cakes. They looked just like the kind Sabrina used to buy at the deli near their Manhattan apartment, but the label said, EAT ME!

"These will make you big, but don't eat too many, they're not exactly Atkins friendly," Mirror warned. "Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum sold these for a week at their convenience store before your grandmother confiscated their stock. The town was filled with giant children. It took us a week to sort it out."

"We'll need four of each, I think," Sabrina said.

"But there's only three of us," Daphne argued.

"I have a feeling the great detective Wendell Hamelin is going to change his mind about being a loner," her sister replied.

The next day at school, the trio walked down the crowded hallway toward the boiler room. Sabrina scrutinized every kid along the way. Any one of them could be a giant spider or a frog-girl, but besides being exhausted, they all looked just like every other kid Sabrina had ever seen. At least her suspicions about Wendell proved correct. He was waiting for them by the doorway with a handkerchief and a ru

"I've been doing some thinking and I believe that joining forces might be a great idea, but under a couple of conditions," he said, rushing to join the group.

"What conditions?" Sabrina said.

"I handle all the dangerous work," the chubby boy said, puffing up his chest like a tough guy.

The children looked at one another and fought off a laugh.

"Fine," Sabrina said. "I think we should have a look in the tu

"I agree, but there's a problem," Wendell said, wiping his nose again. "They changed the locks on the boiler room door."

Sabrina reached into her backpack and tossed the boy an Eat Me cake and a Drink Me juice box.

"What are these?" he asked.

"The key to the new lock."

"You want to do it now?" Daphne cried. "Ms. White will notice I'm gone and come looking for me."

"We'll worry about that later," said her sister. "Lunchtime is too busy and the bad guys will probably be watching after school. We'll wait until the bell rings for class and once the hall is empty, we'll get started."

Soon enough, the bell rang, and the kids filed into their classes. Sabrina, Daphne, Puck, and Wendell milled around, trying to appear as if they were on their way to class without actually going anywhere.