Hand-Me-Down Magic #1 Read online

  Dedication

  For my magical treasure,

  Fia Frances

  —C.A.H.

  For Amelia,

  so she can see the magic in herself

  —L.U.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1. 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue

  2. Fitting In

  3. Tuesday’s Last Customer

  4. A Belief in Silliness

  5. Part-Time Magic

  6. Stoop-Sale Surprise

  7. Rainbow Pants and a Striped Hat

  8. Oscar and Ice-Cream Sandwiches

  9. Crowns for Queens

  10. Perfect Day

  11. The Big Fight

  12. On the Nightstand

  13. An Almost Apology

  14. Nowhere to Be Found

  15. A Big, Big Mistake

  16. No More Words

  17. Curious Cousins

  18. Belonging

  19. Not a Unicorn, Not a Mouse

  20. No One and Everyone

  21. Felix Sanderson’s Lucky Day

  Acknowledgments

  Excerpt from Hand-Me-Down Magic #2: Crystal Ball Fortunes

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  1

  86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue

  -Alma-

  The Curious Cousins Secondhand Shoppe was located in a brick building with a purple door and flower boxes full of purple pansies at 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue. It was Alma’s favorite building on the street, but competition was tough. She also loved the bakery that always smelled of cinnamon. She loved the building next door with its stained-glass windows and the one next to that with an enormous flower wreath on its door and a baby-size gnome perched on its stoop.

  Alma had been missing Twenty-Third Avenue. She had been dreaming about being right here, with her best friend in the world, her cousin Del. Del’s real name was Delfina, but she said that never felt right to her. Del was always the name that fit her best.

  “You’re here you’re here you’re here!” Del cried the second Alma stepped out of her parents’ old-fashioned green car.

  “I’m here I’m here I’m here!” Alma shouted back, and in no time at all, the girls were hugging and screeching and talking so fast that no one else could possibly catch a word of it.

  “You two might as well have your own secret language,” Alma’s mother said with a laugh. “The rest of us don’t have a chance of keeping up.”

  “We should totally invent a secret language!” Del said, missing the point.

  “Or learn how to communicate without words!” Alma said. She stared down her cousin. She raised her eyebrows. She stared even harder. Del stared back, and Alma was sure they were talking through their brains.

  Del must have thought so, too, because she exclaimed, “You want a tour of the shop! I heard you! You said you’d been waiting all day to see it!”

  Alma still had her polka-dotted suitcase next to her on the sidewalk. She had actually been thinking that she’d like to go up to her new apartment and take a deep breath. She and her parents had driven six hours from their old home on the lake to their new home in the city. Along the way, they had stopped for grilled cheese sandwiches and at a gift shop to buy a frame for the picture Alma had taken of the lake. She wanted to hang it above her bed at her new home, in her new bedroom, above the Curious Cousins Secondhand Shoppe.

  But more than that, she wanted to have a best-friend cousin and an awesome first day and a secret no-words language with Del. “Okay,” Alma said. “Maybe for a minute.”

  Every summer, Del spent a month at the lake with Alma and Alma’s parents. And every Christmas, Alma spent a few nights with Del and Alma’s father’s side of the family. There were dozens of cousins and titis and tíos. So many that Alma always lost track when she was trying to count them up.

  This would be the first time Alma lived near her whole family. She loved visiting for Christmas, and she loved when Del visited her for the summer. She was pretty sure she would love living here too. But she would miss the icy-blue lake and her big bedroom that looked out at the dock. She loved drawing, and it was especially fun to draw the lake as she admired it from her window. She would miss the fireplace in the living room and how quiet it got at night.

  It was very rarely quiet at 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue. The first floor was the Curious Cousins Secondhand Shoppe and Abuelita’s garden out back, with its huge four-person hammock and dozens of herbs. The second floor was Abuelita’s home. Del lived on the third floor with her family. Their cousin Evie and her family lived on the fourth floor with Titi Rosa. Alma and her parents would be moving into the apartment on the fifth floor. She would have to get used to the long walk up the four flights of stairs. She would also have to get used to the hustle and bustle of the city, her nosy little cousin Evie, and enormous family dinners at Abuelita’s.

  It was a lot to get used to, but Alma was ready. She was almost sure.

  2

  Fitting In

  -Del-

  Del was sure that Alma would like the old rocking horse best of all. It was made of worn velvet and squeaked when it rocked. They found it all the way in the back of the store.

  “I think the horse is magical,” Del said. “I’m pretty sure. Can you feel the magic? I think it belonged to a princess, maybe. Sometimes I think it’s trying to talk to me. I bet someday it will ride away, right out of the shop, right out of the whole neighborhood! Don’t you think?”

  Del was sure her cousin would agree with her. That’s what cousins were for, after all.

  “It’s pretty,” Alma said. But she didn’t say much else. Del would just have to try harder.

  Del showed Alma the basket of scarves and the one dozen jewelry boxes. She showed her where they stored furniture and shoes and coffee mugs. Alma found the display of tiny spoons from faraway countries and cities all over the world. Del had been collecting them for years. Abuelita promised they would go to every spoon city someday.

  “Look, it’s Paris!” Del told Alma.

  Alma’s eyes shone, finally. “Is there one for Puerto Rico?” she asked. “I’ve always wanted to go.”

  “Of course there is!” Del said. “We found it when we visited last year. Maybe you’ll come with us this year!” Del was getting more excited by the minute. There was so much to show Alma!

  “This is the accordion. I hope we never sell it,” Del said, pointing out more of her very favorite objects. She grabbed a bejeweled blue tutu. “This costume was maybe worn by a famous ballerina. It probably was. What do you think? Are these real jewels?”

  “Maybe,” Alma said. “They’re really sparkly. Can we try it on and pretend to be famous ballerinas?”

  “Maybe later,” Del said. “But first I have to show you the rest of the neighborhood.”

  “But I’ve seen the neighborhood,” Alma said.

  “You live here now! It’s totally different!” Del held Alma’s hand tightly.

  “Oh, okay,” Alma said. She sounded unsure. Del would have to think of even more exciting stuff to show her cousin. She pulled her onto the street. Cora and Javi were right outside the door, hanging up posters of Oscar.

  “Oh!” Del said, ready to show Alma more things she needed to know about the neighborhood. “This is Oscar! He’s very important. He’s the best dog on the street. He likes bacon and balls and squirrels. He only barks when he wants to play and when he sees a squirrel.”

  Alma lit up. Del remembered that Alma loved dogs. “Where is he?” Alma asked his owners. “Can we play with him?”

  “He’s actually gone missing,” Cora said. “He’s bee
n gone for two days.”

  Del gasped. Oscar couldn’t be missing. He was such a good dog.

  “Will you look out for him?” Javi asked. Del nodded very, very hard.

  “We’ll find him!” she said. And she really meant it.

  “I’m good at finding things,” Alma said, and Del remembered the time Alma found her missing stuffed rabbit, Tammy. She could find anything. Alma had moved to Twenty-Third Avenue at the perfect time.

  They said goodbye to Cora and Javi and walked all the way up the four flights of stairs to the fifth-floor apartment. Del had decorated it just for Alma, with orange flowers, since orange was Alma’s favorite color, and drawings of Alma’s old home, and a photograph of the whole family together last Christmas.

  “Your new home!” Del said.

  “I can’t believe I live here now,” Alma said. She was smiling and frowning at the same time. Del didn’t know that was possible.

  “Don’t worry,” Del said. “I’ll help you fit in.”

  “I don’t fit in?” Alma asked. She looked worried, but Del knew there was nothing to worry about. 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue was the most wonderful place to live. It was festive and fun and filled with family all the time. She’d get Alma excited about all of it.

  “You will!” Del said.

  3

  Tuesday’s Last Customer

  -Alma-

  “When a customer comes in, always offer them gofio first,” Del said. She had been giving Alma lots of instructions about working at the Curious Cousins Secondhand Shoppe. And about their city. And about their family.

  Alma listened while she practiced drawing Del’s eyes and mouth and nose. She wanted to get her cousin’s face exactly right.

  “What’s gofio?” Alma asked, wishing she already knew.

  “Candy made from ground corn!” Evie said, handing Alma an orange roll of paper. Inside was a sugary sweet powder that Alma emptied into her mouth. Evie was always underfoot. Sometimes Alma thought she was alone with Del or with her parents or just with herself, and Evie would pop up to tell her a fact or a joke or to ask for the hundredth time if Alma would play with her.

  This time Alma was happy Evie had popped up to tell her something.

  “Don’t you love it?” Del asked. Alma nodded. It was a new taste and texture. It made her mouth dry. But she liked how sweet it was. And she loved that Abuelita made it herself. “Everyone loves Abuelita’s gofio,” Del said.

  “I do too,” Alma said. “Maybe Abuelita will teach us how to make it.”

  “Great idea!” Del said. “Then when we’re grown up we can run a candy store together!”

  “With a pet store attached!” Alma added.

  “It can have orange walls,” Del said.

  “I don’t like orange,” Evie said.

  “Alma loves orange,” Del said, and Alma thrilled at having a best friend who knew her so well. At the lake, no one ever remembered Alma’s favorite color.

  “You should try to like purple instead,” Evie said. Del smiled. Alma smiled too. Then they both laughed. “What’s so funny?” Evie asked. “Purple’s not funny! It’s pretty!”

  Alma was laughing so hard that she didn’t notice when a final customer snuck in before they turned the sign from Open to Closed. And when Alma did finally notice, she forgot to offer her gofio.

  “Welcome to Curious Cousins!” Del said while Alma stood there forgetting. “Would you like some gofio?”

  Tuesday’s last customer nodded and took an orange paper cone filled with the candy.

  “Welcome to Curious Cousins!” Alma finally said, a little too late. She was trying her hardest to be like Del, but it wasn’t easy. Alma knew how to swim in the lake and how to help her mother shovel her long driveway and the name of every kid in her class and all the state capitals. But she wasn’t sure she knew how to be a part of her new life and her new family.

  “I love your clocks,” Tuesday’s last customer said. The clocks were Alma’s favorite part of the store too. They chirped and rang. They clanged and chimed. They made Alma smile.

  So did Tuesday’s last customer.

  Tuesday’s last customer had on a long silver skirt and a rainbow-colored sweater that looked a little like a cape. Dangling from her ears were enormous jangly earrings. They were gold on top and crystal on the bottom, and they looked like chandeliers. Her hair was in three long braids that almost reached her knees.

  “She looks magical,” Del whispered. Since Alma had arrived two days before, Del had listed at least two dozen magical things. The tree down the block that hung so low over the sidewalk the girls had to duck to get under it. Their titi Rosa’s glittery nail polish. Alma’s freckled knees. Abuelita’s dulce de papaya. The wind chimes in the store’s window. Yesterday she even declared the street itself magical. “I bet you’ve never lived on a magical street,” Del told Alma, “but now you do!”

  They watched as Tuesday’s last customer picked up objects and put them back down. She looked extra hard at a hippo figurine and an ancient quilt. She considered a tiny lamp with a fancy red shade.

  She didn’t buy anything.

  “More evidence that she’s magical!” Del said as they watched her walk out the door. “Magical people come to stores and look at everything and buy nothing!”

  “Lots of people do that,” Alma said.

  “Maybe lots of people are magical,” Abuelita said with a shrug. Abuelita had a special way of shrugging. It was one slow shrug followed by one very fast shrug and a lift of her eyebrows.

  Del and Alma loved that Abuelita shrug.

  “I wonder where she lives,” Del said.

  Alma had only been living on Twenty-Third Avenue for two days, but she knew what was coming. It seemed that Del was always ready for an adventure while Alma was always ready to slip back into their apartment building and play Guess Whose Footsteps Those Are in the stairwell.

  Alma was learning it was hard to say no to adventure-loving Del.

  In fact, it was pretty much impossible.

  4

  A Belief in Silliness

  -Del-

  “We have to follow her,” Del said. She needed to know more about that mysterious last customer.

  “We can’t follow a stranger!” Alma said. Del was getting used to Alma saying no. So far, since Alma had arrived, she had said no to dying her hair purple and going to a fortune teller and spending the night in the maybe-magical attic of 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue. Del thought the attic was probably a magical place where fairies and elves might visit. Alma thought it was just a dusty old room that made creaky noises and had too many shadows on the walls. Plus, it made her sneeze.

  “Well, I’m going!” Del said. She marched right out the door of the shop. She knew Alma would follow her, and Alma did.

  Alma followed behind her, past one dozen posters of missing Oscar and a very busy ice-cream truck, all the way to the bottom of the street, where they could both see the mysterious woman turn a corner and seem to vanish.

  “Oh my gosh, she turned herself invisible!” Del said.

  “She’s not invisible; she just turned a corner so we can’t see her,” Alma said.

  Del sighed. “You don’t get it.”

  Alma’s face fell, and they walked back to the shop in silence. Abuelita met them outside. She put one strong hand on Del’s shoulder and one strong hand on Alma’s. “I need some help closing up,” she said.

  “Did you think she was magical?” Del asked Abuelita when they were all back inside. Abuelita had kind eyes and black hair and a pretty blue scarf always tied around her neck. Del was proud every time someone said she looked like Abuelita.

  Abuelita did her Abuelita shrug. “Maybe we’ll find out,” she said.

  “I bet we will!” Del said.

  “Look, I can go invisible too!” Alma said. She ran down the street and hid behind a fire hydrant. “See? Invisible!” she called out, laughing. Del laughed too. Alma might not believe in magic, but she believed in sillines
s, and that was almost as good.

  5

  Part-Time Magic

  -Alma-

  Alma loved empanadas more than almost any food, even chocolate cake.

  “We should call them Alma-nadas,” Del said.

  “What a delicious Alma-nada,” Alma’s mother said with a smile. She’d tried making them for Alma at their house on the lake, but they weren’t as good as the ones Abuelita made.

  “More Alma-nadas please!” Evie said. Her plate already had a pile of empanadas. Her mouth was full of them too. But that didn’t stop Evie from reaching for more. Like Del, Evie had lived right here for her whole life. Even she knew more about Twenty-Third Avenue than Alma did.

  Alma wished she could live here on Twenty-Third Avenue with her big fun family and back at her quiet old home on the lake. She wanted to sit at Abuelita’s table and eat empanadas and sit on the dock at the house by the lake and skip rocks. She wished she could be in both places, all the time. That would be the best kind of magic.

  “We saw an invisible woman today!” Del announced after Alma had eaten her third empanada.

  “Me too!” Evie said. Alma smiled at her youngest cousin. Evie just wanted to fit in, like Alma.

  “Well now, that doesn’t make any sense at all,” Titi Rosa said. “How can you see an invisible woman?”

  “We saw her before she turned invisible,” Del said.

  “Ah, so she’s a part-time invisible woman,” Titi Rosa said. She winked at Alma. Alma loved that wink. She tried to wink back, but she was pretty sure it didn’t come out quite right.

  “Part-time magic is very common,” Abuelita said. Everyone listened when Abuelita spoke. Alma wondered if she was the only person in her whole family who didn’t believe in magic. At the house on the lake, they never talked about magic. But then, at the house on the lake, it was only ever Alma and her mom and dad, not a whole big family.

  “See?” Del said to Alma. “Abuelita believes in magic too. It’s part of our family! You’ll start believing in it soon, I bet. Don’t worry.”