Sabrina Grimm's life was a collection of odd events. But sitting in her grandmother's living room with three massive brown bears might have been the oddest of them all.
The bears had arrived in the company of a curly-haired blond woman with dazzling eyes. Her face was round and tanned, with dimples in her cheeks and a dainty nose sprinkled with golden freckles. Her name was Goldilocks. Yes, the Goldilocks, only twenty years older and overflowing with a nervous energy that kept her rushing around the living room rearranging furniture to her liking. She moved lamps and rugs, switched chairs with tables, and even took down family portraits and rehung them on different walls. When she moved something, she would step back and look at it, mutter something incomprehensible to herself, stick her tongue out, and then move it again. If she liked where it landed she would beam with pride and say, "Just right."
Sabrina sat uncomfortably in a loveseat across from the group. Her sister, Daphne, sat next to her, chewing on her palm-a quirky habit she had when she was very excited or happy. The only other witness to Sabrina's strange company was the family's two-hundred-pound Great Dane, Elvis. He seemed just as nervous as Sabrina; the dog's head swung back and forth from Goldilocks to the bears and then to Sabrina. He let out a soft, confused whine.
Sabrina shrugged at him. "Welcome to Ferryport Landing, Elvis." The dog let out a soft bark.
"How long are we going to wait?" Sabrina whispered to her sister.
"Granny said she'd come and get us," Daphne whispered back. "Maybe we should offer them something to drink, to be polite."
Sabrina nodded. "Would anyone like anything to drink?"
The bears grunted and huffed and the blond woman responded in a series of short grunts. When they had finished chatting, Goldilocks turned to Sabrina and informed her that the biggest of the bears liked Earl Grey tea, very hot. The second biggest would prefer hers iced. The littlest of the bears would love some chocolate milk if it wasn't too much trouble. Being from New York City, Sabrina had seen many crazy people talking to animals: She'd once seen a man discuss Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo with a one-eyed mutt and its filthy rubber chew toy. In this case, however, the woman talking to the animals wasn't crazy. Animals really did talk to her.
The girls excused themselves and went into the kitchen with Elvis in tow. There they found a little girl in red pajamas huddling in the corner. She had a sad face framed by amber curls that fell across her shoulders. Her name was Red Riding Hood. Sabrina immediately wished she had stayed in the living room with the bears. Red had been a homicidal lunatic the day before, but when she was cured Granny had invited the child to live with the Grimms.
"Are they gone yet?" Red asked. She was extremely shy.
"No," Daphne said. "But they're friends. You don't have to hide in the kitchen."
Red didn't look convinced.
Daphne went to work preparing the drinks while Sabrina spied on Goldilocks through a crack in the kitchen door. Goldilocks was still rushing around the room reorganizing the Grimms' possessions.
"She's giving me a headache," Sabrina said.
"Don't spy," Daphne scolded. "It's rude."
"I can't help myself. Aren't you curious about her? I mean, what did Dad see in her?" She studied the woman's features. Goldilocks was pretty and she seemed nice in a ditzy kind of way, but she was no Veronica Grimm. Sabrina's mother was a knockout.
"Love is weird," Daphne said. "We can't know why Dad was in love with her."
Sabrina laughed. "What do you know? You're only-" She stopped herself when her sister flashed her an angry look. She was already treading on thin ice with Daphne. She didn't need to make their relationship any worse. "Yeah, that's true. We can't know."
"Red, are you going to join us?" Daphne asked the little girl.
Red shook her head vigorously and sank back into her hiding space.
The girls left her there and returned to the living room with the drinks. Sabrina found the three bears sitting on the couch, shaking the last few gumdrops out of a jar Granny Relda kept on a coffee table for guests. The biggest bear gestured toward the jar as if to say "MORE!" It made Sabrina uncomfortable. She hated when she saw animals behaving like people. Animals shouldn't eat gumdrops! They shouldn't drink tea or chocolate milk, either.
"This is a bad idea," Goldilocks fretted, sitting on an ottoman, then jumping back up to move a vase. "I shouldn't have come."
"No, you did the right thing. We've tried everything to wake them up. You're our last hope," Sabrina said, nearly panicked that the woman might turn and walk out of their lives. They had been searching for her for so long.
"Have some tea," Daphne said.
Goldilocks ignored the offer and went to work rearranging the books in the family's huge bookshelf. "Your dad told me he didn't want to see me anymore and I tried to respect that. I moved to New York City and lived there for a long time. I had a nice little apartment in the East Village close to where CBGB's used to be. Then I heard he and Veronica had moved to Manhattan. I never went to see him. It was the only way I could say I was sorry, and now, here I am. I know you need me to help him now, but when he opens his eyes and sees me standing over him I don't think he's going to be happy. And your mother! She's going to think I'm…I'm a harlot."
"What's harlot mean?" Daphne asked.
Sabrina knew and thought Goldilocks might be right. "A harlot is-"
"I asked Goldilocks, not you," Daphne snapped.
Sabrina frowned. Daphne always turned to her whenever she didn't understand a word.
"A harlot is a woman with a bad reputation," the woman explained. "A harlot is a woman who kisses another woman's husband."
"My mom will get over it," Daphne said matter-of-factly.
Goldi turned to the three musky-smelling bears. "What do you think I should do?"
They stared into the woman's eyes and shrugged at the same time.
"A lot of help the three of you are!" Goldi scolded then turned back to Daphne. "What is keeping your grandmother?"
"Same old Goldi," a voice said from across the room. Everyone turned to find a tall, handsome man with a mop of blond hair and a nose that had seen the knuckles of one too many fists. He wore a trench coat with hundreds of extra pockets sewn into it. Uncle Jake smiled at everyone. "Just as impatient as ever."
Goldilocks frowned. "Jake Grimm!"
"You ready to get this show on the road?" he asked her.
The blond beauty bit her lower lip. "Just a second," she said, then snatched a paperweight from the coffee table and set it on the bureau. She stood back and admired it, then smiled with satisfaction. "OK, let's do this."
She followed Jake up the stairs with the bears lumbering behind her. Sabrina and Daphne followed them, unfortunately downwind of the bears' special brand of funk. Elvis followed reluctantly.
"Are you coming?" Daphne said to Red, who had crept back to the couch now that everyone was leaving.
Red shook her head. "This is your family. I don't belong."
Daphne rushed back down the stairs and took the little girl's hand in her own, then pulled her to her feet. "C'mon."
At the top of the stairs, they met Granny Relda, a chubby, stout little woman with wrinkles lining most of her face. She had white hair streaked with faint traces of her old fire-engine red. These days she rolled it all into a bun on the top of her head, though wisps of it escaped through the course of a day. She had changed from her nightgown into a bright white dress and a matching hat with a sunflower appliqué in its center. She smiled and hugged Goldilocks as if she were one of her own children.
"It's good to see you, Goldi," she said in her light German accent. Granny had grown up in Berlin and moved to America when she married the girls' late grandfather, Basil.
Goldilocks smiled. "It's been a long time."
Granny led everyone into a spare bedroom furnished with a full-length mirror and a queen-size bed. Lying comfortably on the mattress were Sabrina and Daphne's parents, Henry and Veronica Grimm. Both were deeply asleep. Granny Relda sat down next to her slumbering son and took his hand in hers. For the first time since Sabrina had met her grandmother the old woman's shoulders didn't look as if they were carrying the weight of the world.
Goldi stepped over to the bed and looked down at Sabrina's parents. "Relda, I-"
Granny Relda stopped her. "I know what you're going to say and it's nonsense. There was never a need for an apology. What happened to Basil was not your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault."
Sabrina watched Uncle Jake's eyes drift to the ground.
"I'm not sure Henry feels the same way," Goldi said. Sabrina saw the expression the odd woman gave her father. It was clear that even after all the years they had been apart Goldilocks still loved him. "How long have they been like this?"
"They disappeared two years ago," Daphne explained. "They were like this when we found them about three months ago."
"We've tried everything to wake them up," Sabrina added.
"What about Prince Charming?" Goldilocks said. "He seems to have a knack for this kind of thing."
"He also has a habit of marrying the women he wakes up," Granny said. "Might be coincidence, but his kiss seems to have a power all its own. I'd rather not chance it."
"I don't want William Charming for a stepfather," Sabrina grumbled.
Uncle Jake crossed the room and patted Poppa Bear on his furry arm. "Good to see you again, old man," he said. "And the boy. He's getting big."
"You know the bears?" Goldilocks asked.
"Oh yes, Poppa and Baby Bear helped me retrieve a phantom scroll from a Romanian constable a few years back," Uncle Jake explained.
Poppa Bear let out a low grunt.
"Retrieve or steal, Jacob?" Goldilocks asked disapprovingly.
"To-may-to, to-mah-to," he replied with a sly grin. "Goldi, you and the bears have given up a lot to come here. You do realize you're trapped in Ferryport Landing? The barrier won't let you out."
Poppa Bear gave a long bark.
"He says it was time to reunite his family," Goldilocks explained. "Momma Bear was here, and Poppa and Baby Bear were not. They had all hoped the magical barrier would eventually fall down and they would be reunited, but no such luck. He says it's better to be trapped together than apart for another day."
"I don't mean to be rude," Sabrina interrupted. "But we've been waiting a long time for this. Could we get started?"
Goldilocks nodded and turned to Uncle Jake. "So, Jake, you're the expert on magic as far as I can tell. I just plant a kiss on Henry and he'll wake up?"
"That's the word on the street," Uncle Jake said. "Snow White and Briar Rose both explained what happened with them. Briar said there's no special trick to it. Just pucker up and lay one on him."
"Briar Rose said 'pucker up and lay one on him'?" Sabrina asked. She couldn't imagine such a demure woman being so…vulgar.
"I'm paraphrasing," Uncle Jake said sheepishly, then turned back to Goldilocks. "Just kiss him."
"What about Veronica?" Goldilocks said. "She needs a kiss from someone who loves her. I can't wake her up."
Daphne took her by the hand. "Your kiss will wake up Dad and then he'll kiss Mom."
"And all of this will be over," Sabrina added.
Just then, the full-length mirror leaning against the far wall began to shimmer and shake. Its reflective surface rippled like a bubbling brook and when it calmed, a big, bulbous head materialized in the reflection. He had deep-set eyes, thick lips, and a heavy brow. A crackling thunderstorm ignited the sky behind him.
"WHO INVADES MY SANCTUARY?" he bellowed. Red Riding Hood jumped and tried to run from the room, but Daphne held her hand tight.
"It's us, Mirror," Granny said. "No enemies here."
The lightning faded and the face brightened. "Oh, am I missing something?"
"Sorry, Mirror," Daphne said. "We were just about to call for you. Goldilocks is here. She's going to smooch my dad. We think it will wake him up!"
Mirror glanced around the room at the many guests and smiled. "Hello, Ms. G. It's nice to see you again."
Goldilocks returned the smile. "Still looking great, Mirror."
Mirror smiled. "Thanks. I owe it all to Botox and my trainer."
"Again, folks, can we do this?" Sabrina said.
"OK, here goes," Goldilocks said. She tucked her blond curls back behind her ear and leaned in close. Sabrina held her breath in all the excitement and realized everyone else was doing the same. They had all waited so long for this moment. There had been many nights when Sabrina was convinced it would never happen. But, now, finally, her family would be reunited. Things might go back to normal.
And then someone farted. Everyone turned in the direction of the horrible noise. There, standing in the doorway, was Puck, a shaggy-haired boy who, like Red Riding Hood, had been adopted by Granny Relda. He was somewhere in the range of four thousand years old, though he looked like he might be twelve. He was wearing pajamas with robots fighting monkeys all over them and had on a sleeping cap so long that the end dragged a herd of dust bunnies behind him. He scratched his backside with a wooden sword and scowled.
"You people have woken me up. I was going to come out here and complain that it sounded like there was a pack of bears running through the house and look what I find! A pack of bears!" Puck turned to Granny Relda. "I suppose you have invited them to move in, as well. You've never met anyone you didn't hand a set of keys to. I mean, after all, you've invited a murderous lunatic who only wears one color."
"I'm sorry," Red Riding Hood squeaked.
Then Puck turned to Daphne. "A chunky little monkey who eats us out of house and home."
"Hey! I'm not chunky. I'm big-boned."
"Yeah, like a brontosaurus!" Puck snorted and turned to Sabrina. "And then there's this one. A girl so ugly burn victims stare and point at her. So let's have some bears move in, too. Why not? Maybe we could invite a couple of giants while we're at it, or maybe a bunch of those idiot Munchkins from across town. We've got plenty of room! Why not turn this place into a bed-and-breakfast for every second-rate Everafter with a hard-luck story?"
"Puck, that's not very nice," Granny said. "We're sorry we woke you but Goldilocks is here. She's going to kiss Henry and wake him up."
"Who? What?" the boy said.
"Goldilocks, my father's former girlfriend," Sabrina said. "She's going to kiss him and break the magic spell that's kept him and my mother asleep for two years."
"There's a magic spell on them?" the boy said. "I thought they were just really lazy."
Sabrina growled.
"We're glad you're here, Puck," Granny Relda said.
"I'm sure you are," the boy said, letting out another fart. This one was so loud it made Elvis jump in fear. "Is there any food at this shindig?" Granny shook her head. "You people throw the lamest parties."
"Goldi, please, just kiss my dad," Sabrina cried.
Goldilocks nodded, leaned in, and nervously touched her lips to Henry's. The kiss was gentle and a little longer than Sabrina would have liked. It was clear to Sabrina that it had a big impact on Goldilocks. Her face was bright red and she looked as if she had just been caught doing something illegal. But her expression was nothing compared to the looks on the faces of Sabrina's uncle and grandmother. Both of them looked defeated.
"What? What's wrong?" Sabrina asked.
"It should have worked already," the old woman said.
"Try again," Uncle Jake urged.
Goldilocks bit her lip but did as she was told. She took a deep breath, as if it might be her last, and bent over to kiss Henry once more. When she was finished she hovered there, inches from his face, and whispered something Sabrina couldn't hear.
"Perhaps Goldilocks has fallen out of love with Henry," Mirror said. "It has been more than fifteen years since they were a couple."
Goldilocks shook her head but said nothing.
"Then what's wrong?" Sabrina cried, fighting a bubble of panic and despair rising up into her throat.
"Let's try one more time," Daphne said hopefully.
"It won't help," Uncle Jake said. "Briar said the result would be immediate."
Granny nodded sadly. "I've read accounts of these spells being broken. The moment her lips touched your father's he should have woken up. This must be some unique version of the spell. We'll just have to go back to the drawing board and find another solution."
Daphne flashed Sabrina a look that said "don't freak out," but it was too late.
"This has been a stupid wild-goose chase!" Sabrina exclaimed. "The Master and the Scarlet Hand are probably getting a big laugh out of this right now!"
"Don't give up hope, Starfish," Mirror said.
"Give up hope! I haven't had any hope in two years."
"Bummer!" Puck said. "Well, maybe whoever is pounding on the door downstairs can wake him up."
"Puck, could you answer it for me?" Granny asked.
"What am I? The butler?"
"I'll get it," Sabrina said. She needed to get out of the room. The disappointment was hanging in the air, threatening to suffocate her.
"Whoever it is, don't forget to invite them to move in with us," Puck said sarcastically. "Don't forget to show them where the towels are!"
"Freaking out isn't helping Mom and Dad," Daphne said as she raced down the stairs after Sabrina. "Everyone wanted Goldilocks to wake up Dad. So it didn't work. Exploding in frustration every time we have a setback is, well, annoying."
Sabrina marched to the door, then turned to face her sister. "First of all, you don't even know the meaning of most of the words in that last sentence. I'll be angry and upset if I want. I have a right to be angry. My life is horrible."
Sabrina threw the door open and there, standing on the porch, was a rail-thin woman with a hooked beak of a nose and eyes like tiny black holes. She was dressed entirely in gray. Her handbag was gray. Her hair was gray. When she smiled, her teeth were gray.
"I think it's about to get a lot worse," Daphne groaned.
"Hello, girls," the woman said.
"Ms. Smirt!" Sabrina cried.
"Oh, you remember me. How it warms the heart," she said as she snatched them by the wrists and dragged them out of the house and across the lawn where a taxicab was waiting in the driveway.
"Where are you taking us?" Daphne cried, trying and failing to break free from the woman's iron talons.
"Back to the orphanage," Smirt snapped. "You don't belong here. Your grandmother is unfit. She kidnapped you from your foster father."
Sabrina remembered the last foster father Smirt had sent them to live with. Mr. Greeley was a certifiable lunatic. "He was a serial killer. He attacked us with a crowbar."
"The father-child bond needs time to develop," Smirt said as she pushed the girls into the backseat of the taxi.
"You can't send us back to him," Daphne shouted.
"Sadly, you are correct. Mr. Greeley is unavailable to take you back due to an unfortunate incarceration. But don't worry. I've already found you a new foster family. The father is an amateur knife thrower. He's eager for some new targets…I mean, daughters."
Smirt slammed the cab's door shut and tossed a twenty-dollar bill at the driver. "You got automatic locks in this thing?"
Suddenly, the locks on the doors were set.
"To the train station, please," Smirt said. "And there's another twenty in it if you can make the 8:14 to Grand Central."
The taxi charged out of the driveway and tires squealed as it made a beeline toward the Ferryport Landing train station.
"You can't take us back to the orphanage," Sabrina said. "We're not orphans anymore. We found our mother and father."
"Such an imagination you have, Sophie," Smirt said. "There's really nothing as unattractive in a child as an imagination."
"My name is Sabrina!"
In no time, the taxi was pulling into the train station. Ms. Smirt pinched the girls on the shoulders and hustled them onto the waiting train. The doors closed before Sabrina and Daphne could make a run for it.
"Find a seat, girls," the caseworker said as the train rolled out of the station.
"Daphne, don't worry," Sabrina whispered as she took her sister's hand and helped her into a seat. Sabrina had many talents but her greatest was the ability to devise effective escape plans. While she comforted her sister, she studied the exit doors, windows, and even the emergency brake. A daring escape was already coming together when she noticed the complete lack of worry on her little sister's face.
"I've got this one covered," Daphne said.
"You what?" Sabrina asked.
The little girl put her palm into her mouth and bit down on it.
"What's going on, Daphne?" Sabrina continued, eyeing the girl suspiciously. Daphne had never plotted an escape. Escaping had been the exclusive domain of Sabrina Grimm for almost two years. What did her little sister have in mind?
"Zip it!" Ms. Smirt snapped before Daphne could explain. "I don't want to have to sit on this train for two hours with a couple of chatterboxes." The caseworker snatched a book out of her handbag and flipped it open. Sabrina peered at the title: The Secret.
"Ms. Smirt, have you ever heard of the Brothers Grimm?" Daphne said.
The caseworker scowled and set her book on her lap. "What do you want?"
"I was wondering if you have ever heard of the Brothers Grimm."
"They wrote the fairy tales," Ms. Smirt said.
Daphne shook her head. "That's what most people believe, but it's not true. The Brothers Grimm didn't write stories, they wrote down things that really happened. The fairy tales aren't made-up stories, they're warnings to the world about Everafters."
Sabrina was stunned. Daphne was spilling the family's secret to the worst possible person. They couldn't trust Smirt any further than they could throw her.
"What's an Everafter?" the caseworker snapped.
"It's what fairy-tale characters like to be called," the little girl explained. "'Fairy-tale character' is kind of a rude term. Like I was saying, the Brothers Grimm wrote about Everafters because they are real. Take Snow White. She's a real person and the story really happened-poisoned apple and all. Cinderella, Prince Charming, Beauty and the Beast, Robin Hood-they're all real people. They actually live here in Ferryport Landing. The Queen of Hearts is our mayor. Sleeping Beauty is dating our uncle."
"Debbie, you are going to look so adorable in your straitjacket," Ms. Smirt said.
"It's Daphne," the little girl said.
"Please be quiet," Sabrina whispered into her sister's ear.
"OK, kid, I'll bite. So, if fairy-tale characters are real, how come I haven't met any?" the caseworker said with a cackle.
"Because there's a magical barrier that surrounds this town that keeps the Everafters inside. Our great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Wilhelm Grimm and a witch named Baba Yaga built it to stop some evil Everafters from invading nearby towns."
"Oh, of course," Smirt said sarcastically. She slapped her knee and let out a ghastly laugh that sounded like a wounded moose. Sabrina had never seen the nasty woman laugh before and hoped she never would again. Daphne ignored Smirt. "The barrier has made people in the town angry, and a lot of the Everafters don't like us much," Daphne said. "But-"
"Daphne, stop. You've told her too much," Sabrina begged.
"Let me finish, Sabrina," Daphne said calmly. "Like I was saying, we have a lot of enemies in Ferryport Landing but we've managed to make a few friends."
Suddenly there was a tap on the window. Sabrina gazed out, expecting to see the Hudson River rushing past. Instead, what she saw nearly caused her to fall out of her seat. In the window was a familiar ragged-haired boy in robots-fighting-monkeys pajamas. Held aloft by two giant pink insect wings, he soared alongside the speeding train, grinning and sticking his tongue out at her. Sabrina had never been so happy to get a raspberry in her life.
Ms. Smirt, however, was horrified. She screamed like she had just found her name on Santa's naughty list. She tumbled onto the floor and scampered underneath her seat like a cockroach. When she mustered the bravery to take another peek, Puck had already zipped ahead and out of sight.
"Did you see that?" Ms. Smirt stammered, slowly creeping back into the aisle and then dashing to the window for a closer look. "I must be tired. I thought I saw a boy out there. Flying! Outside the window!"
Just then, there was a horrible, eardrum-blasting clunk, followed by the screaming of metal on metal. Something sailed past the window and Sabrina watched as it disappeared. It was part of a door, much like the one the girls had stepped through to board the train. Sabrina looked back at her sister, who was grinning from ear to ear. "Did the two of you plan this?"
"Someone's got to do the thinking in this family," Daphne replied matter-of-factly.
A moment later Puck came strolling down the aisle with his beautiful wings extended proudly. "Well, well, well. Look at me. Here I am saving you two again. You know, you're really quite helpless and pathetic. It amazes me that you can even dress yourselves in the morning."
Ms. Smirt cried out and once again fell to the floor and scooted back under the seat.
Puck turned to Sabrina. "What is she doing down there?"
"Hiding, I guess."
Puck leaned down and poked his head under the seat. "I found you."
Ms. Smirt shrieked.
Puck lifted himself to his full height and laughed. "She's fun." He leaned back down and she screamed again. "I could do this all day. Can I keep her?"
Daphne shook her head. "You know the plan."
Puck frowned. "Fine!" he snapped, then dragged the caseworker out from under the seat and to her feet.
Daphne stepped up to the trembling woman. "Ms. Smirt, I have something to say to you."
Smirt said nothing and seemed unable to take her eyes off Puck and his wings.
"We are not going back to the orphanage. Not now, not ever. We are not going back to any foster parent, either. Our family is in Ferryport Landing and we're staying. You are never going to come back to this town. You are never going to bother us again. This is good-bye, Ms. Smirt."
"Right after the merciless kicking, right?" Puck said. "We talked about the kicking."
"I vetoed the kicking, remember?" Daphne said.
Puck scowled.
Just then, the train's conductor came over the speaker system. "Next stop is Poughkeepsie, folks. Next stop, Poughkeepsie."
Suddenly, Puck's face fell and his ever-present mischievous grin melted. "Uh-oh."
"What's uh-oh?" Sabrina cried, looking around. Every time she heard "uh-oh" something bad happened. It usually involved running from monsters or giants.
"The barrier," Puck shouted as he spun around and ran in the opposite direction of the train's rolling. "I forgot about the barrier!"
"Uh-oh," the girls said in unison. No Everafters could pass through the barrier, and so when the train passed through it Puck was sent sailing down the aisle. He flailed helplessly.
"How do you stop this thing?" Puck cried as he was pushed by the invisible force.
Sabrina remembered the emergency brake cord hanging on the wall. She ran to it and yanked the handle as hard as she could. Brakes screamed, and the train whiplashed as it decelerated rapidly. Unfortunately, it wasn't slowing down quickly enough, and Puck was fast approaching the steel door at the end of the train car. There was no way the train would stop before he slammed into it.
Puck flopped about like a fish in the bottom of a boat. Sabrina knew what he was trying to do. If he could spin around he could trigger a metamorphosis. Besides flying, he had the ability to change his body into animals and a number of inanimate objects. Usually he changed into things that would annoy Sabrina, like a three-legged chair or a skunk, but from time to time he could transform into something useful. Sabrina could do nothing but watch his awkward effort and cheer when he finally succeeded. His arms and legs shrank to thick, treelike stumps. His body plumped up hundreds of pounds and his skin hardened into a gray armor. A hairy horn erupted from the top of his head. In a matter of moments, Puck was no longer an annoying boy in desperate need of a soapy bath, but a full-size rhinoceros. He lowered his head and his diamond-hard horn plowed into the train door, blasting it off its hinges and causing a great commotion in Sabrina's eardrums.
"He turned into a rhinoceros," Ms. Smirt said.
"He does that," Sabrina said.
While she and Smirt stood gaping at Puck, Daphne grabbed Sabrina's arm and dragged her in the direction of the blasted door. Never once had the little girl led an escape, but Sabrina was too bewildered to argue.
They saw Puck plow through the next car's door, and he was about to do the same to the one after that. Unfortunately, the train was packed tight with commuters. They cowered in their seats and hid behind their copies of the New York Times. No one was injured, but Sabrina suspected that many had wet their pants. She couldn't blame them. No one expects to see a charging rhino on their way to work. She and Daphne did their best to assure them that everything was under control as they ran past.
The girls reached the last car just in time to see Puck plow through its door and tumble out onto the tracks. The girls held hands and leaped to the ground below just as the train came to a stop. Once she had regained her bearings, Sabrina found that she and her sister were not alone. Uncle Jake, Granny Relda, and Elvis were waiting for them. Goldilocks hovered in the background, as did Red Riding Hood. The three bears stood at the back of the crowd with hairy arms crossed in disgust, and Puck was busy morphing back into his true form. But there were two people in the crowd that made Sabrina wonder if her mind wasn't playing tricks on her. Her parents, Henry and Veronica Grimm, stood right in front of her with arms outstretched.
"Mom? Dad?" she cried.
Henry and Veronica smiled and scooped her and Daphne into their arms. Tears fell from every eye, streamed down cheeks, and fell to the ground below. Veronica peppered them with kisses while Henry wrapped them up and squeezed.
"But Goldilocks's kiss. It didn't work," Daphne said.
"It worked," Veronica said. "But you know your father. He was always a late sleeper."
Henry stepped back and studied his daughters. "Girls, you look so different." He held Daphne's face in his hand. "You're so…big."
"You've been asleep a long time," Daphne said.
Henry turned to Granny Relda with questioning eyes.
"It's true. Nearly two years," the old woman said.
"Two years!" Veronica cried.
Henry looked as if someone had punched him in the belly. He stumbled back a little before righting himself. "That can't be true."
Daphne nodded. "It's true."
"But we're together now," Sabrina said, trying to shift the mood back to the happy reunion. All her worries over the last two years seemed to evaporate like dew in the summer sun. The incredible weight of being responsible for herself and Daphne lifted from her shoulders and for the first time in a long time she felt like what she was-a twelve-year-old kid.
Ms. Smirt scurried through the open train door. She pressed her bony hands across her gray suit to flatten wrinkles and struggled with a broken heel on one of her shoes. She straightened, as if mustering all of her courage. "These children are wards of the state, and they're coming with me, flying boy or no flying boy."
"Who is this woman?" Henry asked.
"She's our caseworker," Sabrina explained. "When you vanished we were sent to live in an orphanage. She placed us with foster parents."
"Horrible, evil foster parents," Daphne said. "She sent us to live with a man who was terrified of soap!"
"Don't forget the family that had a Bengal tiger living in their house!" Sabrina said.
"And the guy who rented us out as dogcatchers for his Korean restaurant."
Veronica stepped forward and snatched Smirt by the collar. "Have you been mistreating my children?"
"I did what I thought was best," Smirt sputtered as she tried to break free from Veronica's grip. Sabrina remembered how much her mother enjoyed rock climbing-she was crazy strong. Smirt squirmed like a worm on a hook.
"If I ever see you within twenty miles of my children again you'll wish you were never born," Veronica said.
"Are you threatening me?" the caseworker said.
"No," Veronica replied. "But my fist is."
Smirt squeaked and scampered back onto the train.
"We have to throw some forgetful dust on her," Sabrina said to Uncle Jake. "She knows too much. In fact, you should do the whole train."
"Do everyone but Smirt," Daphne said. Jake smiled and hopped onto the train with a handful of pink powder.
"Why not Smirt?" Sabrina demanded. "You told her everything. She'll go back to New York City and tell everyone what she knows."
"Exactly," Daphne said with a grin. "She's going to go back to the orphanage with this crazy story and they'll think she's a nutcase. They'll fire her."
Sabrina was astounded with the little girl's plan. It was almost like something she would have concocted herself. In fact, it was better.
"Henry, Veronica, we have a lot of catching up to do," Granny Relda said.
"I'll say," Veronica agreed.
"Forget it, Mom. We're leaving as soon as the girls are packed," Henry said.
"Leaving?" Granny cried.
Sabrina and Daphne eyed one another in astonishment.
Henry nodded. "We're getting out of Ferryport Landing as fast as we can."