Hand-Me-Down Magic #2 Read online

  Dedication

  For my daring and delightful nieces and nephews, the best cousins my kid could hope for: Ellen, Amy, Shane, Brennan and Milena

  —C.A.H.

  For my mom

  —L.U.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1. Delightful and Daring

  2. A Possibly Perfect Present

  3. Madame Del

  4. Fortunes for Everyone

  5. Madame Alma

  6. Something Black and Fuzzy

  7. A Full Moon

  8. Look Out Below

  9. Closed Eyes

  10. A Cursed Cousin

  11. The Very Scary Shadow

  12. An Important Mission

  13. A Dozen Cats

  14. Fraidycat

  15. The Best Fortune-Teller Around

  Acknowledgments

  An Excerpt from Hand-Me-Down Magic #3: Perfect Patchwork Purse

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Books by Corey Ann Haydu

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  1

  Delightful and Daring

  -Del-

  There were only sixteen hours to go before Del’s Delightful and Daring Dress-Up Party. She had been counting down the hours for an entire week. It was a tradition because Del loved birthdays, and Abuelita loved hosting parties, and the whole family loved cake and party hats and singing one round of “Happy Birthday” followed by one round of “Feliz Cumpleaños” at the top of their lungs.

  “How many people are coming?” Alma asked. She was putting together goody bags for the guests. She’d helped Del pick out stickers and sparkly pens and three different kinds of chocolate. “This seems like a lot of chocolate.” She gestured to the enormous pile. Their littlest cousin, Evie, couldn’t stop eyeing it. It was so tall that Alma couldn’t see over the top of it from her seat at Abuelita’s kitchen counter. The pile was so tall that Evie had named it Chocolate Mountain and said they should keep it just like that forever.

  “Like a million people,” Del said. “Pretty much everyone ever. And they’re all going to be dressed up! I can’t wait to see what everyone’s wearing!”

  “A million?” Evie repeated. She was bouncing up and down on her toes. “Really?”

  “No, not really,” Del said. She rolled her eyes at Alma. But Alma looked nervous, like she thought there really might be a million people shoved into Abuelita’s apartment tomorrow too. “More like twenty. But still. That’s a lot. That’s more than were at my party last year. But I’m going to be another year older, so it makes sense.”

  “Twenty is a lot less than a million,” Evie said, huffing. “You’re not very good at math, Del.”

  “Not as good as you, I guess,” Del said, laughing.

  Evie thought about this. “Do you think I’m good enough at math to count all these chocolate bars?” she asked.

  “Why don’t you try?” Del said. Evie started counting pieces of chocolate very loudly. So loudly, in fact, that Abuelita and Titi Rosa came into the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about.

  Abuelita made a startled noise—“Oh!”—and smiled. Del and Alma turned to see what she was looking at. She was facing the window that looked out at the backyard. And right there, perched on the birdbath, was a little black kitten. It was dipping its paws into the birdbath, then shaking them off, over and over, like it was trying to figure out something very important.

  “What a darling gatito!” Abuelita said. “¡Hola, mi gato!” she called out to the kitten.

  The kitten jumped in surprise, and the jump made it stumble all the way into the birdbath with a cute kitteny splash. Del thought the kitten might be scared, taking that fall. But instead it seemed interested in the water. It licked it. It pawed at it. It jumped out of it, then right back in.

  Del had seen a lot of stray cats before, but never one that acted anything like this one.

  “It’s time to start winding down,” Titi Rosa said, directing them away from the window and the now-very-wet kitten.

  “But we have so much decorating left to do!” Del said.

  “And so much chocolate to eat—I mean count!” Evie said.

  “I’ve never been to a delightfully daring dress-up party,” Alma whispered to Del. She sounded nervous.

  “Don’t be a fraidycat!” Del said. “This party is going to be perfect.”

  “I hope so,” Alma said. “And I’m not a fraidycat. I just get scared of new things sometimes.”

  “How can you be scared when you’re going to be wearing this?” Del ran to the closet where she’d been storing her big surprise: two big, fluffy boas. They’d been planning their costumes for the party for a while, but this would be the perfect addition, Del was sure. She wrapped the orange boa around Alma and the purple one around herself.

  “What can go wrong when you have a boa?” Del asked. She twirled her purple boa and did a little birthday dance.

  Alma put her boa around Del’s shoulders. “You’re the birthday girl,” she said. “You should have both.”

  “Are you sure?” Del asked. She liked wearing both boas. It made her extra glamorous.

  “Positive,” Alma said.

  Del grinned. “Tomorrow will be the best day ever.”

  2

  A Possibly Perfect Present

  -Alma-

  Alma, Del, and Evie stood in front of Titi Rosa’s full-length mirror admiring their costumes. Alma knew Evie loved Titi Rosa’s mirror. It was carved with birds and flowers. Plus, it was fun to dance in front of.

  Alma usually liked the mirror too. But today she didn’t think she looked quite right in it. She was wearing an old dress of Abuelita’s from when she was a little girl. It was blue and puffy and shiny. She was also wearing a pair of butterfly wings that Del said looked perfect with the dress.

  “Are you sure this looks okay?” Alma asked her cousin.

  “Definitely,” Del said. “Do you think I need another tutu?” Del was already wearing three tutus, a flower crown, and sparkly leggings.

  “Yes!” Evie said. “You definitely need more tutus.” Evie had on a Superman T-shirt, a pair of overalls, and the big straw hat that Abuelita used when she gardened. She had a sticker of a star on her left cheek.

  “I think three’s the right amount,” Alma said.

  “I wish I had a purple tutu to match my purple boa,” Del said.

  Alma’s heart sank. She wished she’d known that Del wanted a purple tutu. That would have been the perfect gift for her birthday! Alma had spent the whole week trying to think of what Del would want. She’d gone to every store in the neighborhood, trying to imagine what Del might like best. She’d considered polka-dotted leggings from Dotty Designs, strawberry jam from the farmer’s market, and a comic about a crime-fighting unicorn from the comic-book store. None of those things was quite right.

  Finally, Alma had gone back to Curious Cousins Secondhand Shoppe. Just as she’d hoped, Abuelita had led her to the back room, where they stored all kinds of donations and odds and ends that they hadn’t put out in the store yet. Alma had found something for Del. She hoped it was perfect. She thought it might be perfect. It needed to be perfect.

  “I think you look great,” Alma said. “Very birthday-ish.”

  “Do I look delightfully daring?” Del asked.

  “You do,” Alma said. She really meant it, too.

  Downstairs in Abuelita’s living room, Del’s parents were decorating her birthday cake, and Alma’s parents were hard at work blowing up balloons in every possible color. Abuelita and Titi Rosa were setting up games to play. Titi Clara and Uncle Andy were trying to decide what music everyone
would want to dance to.

  “How should I help?” Alma asked.

  “You can answer the door,” Abuelita said. “Let in our guests.”

  “All of them? By myself?” Alma asked. Her hands felt a little sweaty. Her heart felt sort of fast.

  “I’ll help!” Evie said. Alma had never been so happy to have Evie butting in.

  “Before the guests come, we have a present to give you, Del,” Titi Rosa said.

  “But it’s not present time yet,” Del said. Still, she held out her hands, ready to open up her very first delightful and daring present.

  “It’s not the kind of present you open,” Abuelita said.

  “Oh,” Del said. “Well, where is it?”

  “It’s right here.” Abuelita smiled. Her eyebrows wiggled. Her wiggling eyebrows seemed to make her ears wiggle too. Alma tried to make her eyebrows and ears wiggle, but it wasn’t very easy.

  “I don’t see anything,” Del said, spinning around and around.

  “Your present,” Abuelita said, “is that you, Alma, and Evie can sleep outside tonight. Here in the garden. In your very own tent.”

  Del screeched. “That’s the best present ever! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  “De nada, mi cielo,” Abuelita said. She was smiling almost as big as Del.

  Del jumped up and down. She twirled around and around. The doorbell rang, and Del screeched with happiness again.

  But Alma froze. She was feeling so nervous about all the new people at the party. Evie grabbed her hand and pulled her to the door. Alma knew it was just because Evie wanted to get her there faster, but she was happy to be holding her cousin’s hand anyway. The doorbell rang again. The party was really, finally beginning.

  3

  Madame Del

  -Del-

  Before she knew it, Del’s party was filled with friends and family, all dressed up. 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue was dressed up too. There were silver streamers everywhere, and balloons in every color of the rainbow.

  Del’s neighbor Anna had on a sundress, four different silk scarves, and a cowboy hat. Her friend Cassie showed up in a sparkly dance costume and a vampire cape. Even Oscar, the best dog in the whole neighborhood, came by with his owners, Cora and Javi. Cora and Javi apologized for not having on anything delightful or daring, but Del forgave them because they’d dressed Oscar up in a formal tux. He had a little bow tie and a little jacket and even a little top hat strapped to his head. Del thought he looked very dignified.

  Felix Sanderson was the last to arrive, and Del thought he looked best of all. He was wearing a brown vest with fringe all over it and plaid pants and a shirt that must have been from Dotty Designs and a hat he’d decorated himself with pictures of Del’s face and the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEL in green puffy paint.

  “Wow,” Del said.

  “I like birthdays,” Felix said. He handed over something else he’d made. It was a poster of Del’s face. And a paper bag filled with pictures of birthday hats and birthday cakes and birthday presents. “Pin the Birthday on the Del,” Felix said.

  Del was delighted. She loved games of all kinds, but especially, it turned out, games about her.

  “Can we play right now?” Del asked.

  Everyone played three rounds of Pin the Birthday on the Del, and Evie won every time.

  They had a costume contest and awarded Felix the top prize for his Del-themed outfit.

  They ate pizza with pepperoni and pizza with four different cheeses and two different onions and pizza with jalapeño and pizza with bacon and Felix’s favorite, pizza with french fries on top. They ate chocolate-caramel cupcakes and red velvet cupcakes and pumpkin cupcakes and plain old vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing.

  Eventually, Evie led everyone outside to Abuelita’s garden for a game of kick the can.

  “I don’t know the rules,” Alma said.

  “That’s okay!” Del said.

  “I’d rather watch,” Alma said.

  “Just try,” Del said. And Alma did, but her knees shook the whole time. Still, Del was impressed that she tried.

  Evie won kick the can, even though she was the youngest and the smallest.

  Finally, it was time for presents. Del opened up boxes of board games and art supplies and headbands. She unwrapped a soccer ball and a penguin night-light and four new books.

  She was saving Alma’s present for last.

  Alma brought it over, looking more nervous than ever. “I hope you like it,” Alma said.

  “I will,” Del said.

  “But I hope you really like it,” Alma said.

  “If you don’t like it, I’ll take it!” Evie offered, and everyone laughed.

  Alma’s present for Del was wrapped in gold paper and a silver ribbon. She’d tied a daisy on top, and somehow, like magic, it wasn’t drooping yet.

  Del admired the wrapping for a second before tearing it to pieces. What was inside was even better.

  “Oh,” Del said.

  “Ohhhh,” Evie said.

  “Ohhhhhhhhhh,” the rest of the guests said.

  Even though no one had ever seen one in real life before, they all knew exactly what it was.

  A crystal ball. The kind that could tell people’s fortunes. It was even better than ones Del had seen on TV and in movies. This crystal ball looked ancient, and Del was sure it had been passed down through a hundred magical generations, just like all the best magic. It was a hard-to-describe color: sort of purple and sort of silver and sort of yellow and sort of clear. It reminded Del a little of the mood rings she and Alma had found at one particularly great stoop sale. The crystal ball stood on a golden stand that needed a good shining. The stand had carvings of birds and flowers etched onto its surface, just like Titi Rosa’s beautiful mirror. It looked nearly as magical as the crystal ball itself!

  Del leaped up and hugged Alma so tight that Alma gasped.

  “Can you believe it?” Del said to her parents and Abuelita, who were watching all the fun.

  “Pretty!” her mother said.

  “Fancy!” her father said.

  “Be careful,” Abuelita said.

  The crystal ball was better than anything Del could have wished for. She had always wanted to be able to tell fortunes. She wanted to predict the future.

  She couldn’t wait.

  And she wouldn’t wait.

  She sat cross-legged on the ground and put her new crystal ball in front of her. She closed her eyes to concentrate. She adjusted her three tutus and made sure her flower crown was on tight.

  Fortune-telling was serious business.

  “I am Madame Del, the magical fortune-teller of 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue! I am here to tell your fortune!”

  4

  Fortunes for Everyone

  -Alma-

  Madame Del turned out to be a very good fortune-teller. Alma had known she would be.

  When Cassie stepped up to have her fortune told, Madame Del closed her eyes and made a humming noise. When she opened her eyes, she put her face very close to the crystal ball.

  “Oh!” Madame Del said. “I see . . . I see a woman in red!”

  “A woman in red?” Cassie asked. “Like, a scary woman in red?”

  Madame Del brought her nose all the way to the surface of the crystal ball. “No,” Madame Del said. “She looks very nice.”

  Alma was relieved. She didn’t want a scary woman in red showing up. She didn’t want anyone at all to get a bad fortune, even if she wasn’t sure the crystal ball was real.

  A few minutes later, Cassie’s mother came to pick her up. She was wearing a red dress!

  “Wow,” Cassie said. “That’s amazing!”

  “Did you see what Cassie’s mom was wearing when she dropped her here?” Alma asked Del.

  “Of course not!” Madame Del said. “Who’s next?”

  “Me!” Felix Sanderson said. He stepped up to the crystal ball. He straightened his bow tie.

  Madame Del closed her eyes. She made a hummin
g noise. She rubbed the crystal ball. Alma wondered how she knew to do all that. If someone gave Alma a crystal ball, she’d have no idea how to use it.

  “I see cake,” Madame Del said.

  “I just had cake,” Felix said.

  Madame Del leaned in closer to the ball. “Well, I see more cake,” she said.

  Felix shrugged and stood up. He stood up right on top of a discarded cupcake someone had left on the ground! His shoes were covered in cake!

  “Right again!” Felix said.

  Madame Del grinned.

  Alma couldn’t believe it. The crystal ball was really working!

  “Your turn, Alma!” Madame Del said. But Alma was scared. And shy. She didn’t want everyone watching her while her fortune got told.

  “Not right now,” Alma said.

  “Don’t be a fraidycat!” Madame Del said. Alma blushed. She didn’t like being called a fraidycat.

  Luckily, Evie interrupted. She sat down right in front of the crystal ball. “Tell my fortune!” she demanded.

  Madame Del closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. She put her hands just above the crystal ball. When she opened her eyes, she leaned in close.

  “Aha!” Madame Del said. “I see water!”

  “Are we going to the beach?” Evie said. Alma laughed. Evie loved the beach. She asked if they were going to the beach every single morning.

  “I don’t know,” Madame Del said. “I just see water.”

  “I bet it’s the beach!” Evie said. “Let me go get my swimsuit! Oh, and my bucket and shovel! Where did we put the umbrella?” Evie was off and running. But before she was able to get any of her beach things, Titi Rosa scooped her up.

  “Bathtime!” Titi Rosa said.

  “Noooooo!” Evie cried.

  “I was right again!” Madame Del said.

  Maybe it really does work, Alma thought. Madame Del looked very proud, and Alma was proud too. She had gotten Del the perfect present. And not only that, but it might be really and truly magical!

  Del told fortunes until it was time for her guests to return home. Alma thought that meant it was time to put the crystal ball away, but she always underestimated her cousin.