Hand-Me-Down Magic #1 Read online

  Alma’s shoulders drooped. There was so much she didn’t know about her own family. She wasn’t sure if she could ever catch up. She wasn’t sure she would ever fit in anywhere at all. Not like Del did.

  Titi Rosa shrugged. “I never felt much magic anywhere at all,” she said. She winked at Alma again. Titi Rosa had been living on Twenty-Third Avenue for even longer than Del and Evie and Alma had been alive. If it was okay for Titi Rosa not to see magic everywhere, maybe it was okay for Alma too.

  6

  Stoop-Sale Surprise

  -Del-

  “Stoop-sale time!” Abuelita said when Del, Alma, and Evie arrived at the Curious Cousins Secondhand Shoppe the next day.

  “What’s a stoop sale?” Alma asked. Del lit up.

  “It’s when someone puts all their old stuff on the stairs outside their building—their stoop—and we all get to go look through it and buy the best things.”

  “Like when we put things we don’t want anymore on the stoop?” Alma asked, thinking of books and coats and old toys they had sometimes put outside the building. The objects would always be taken by someone within an hour.

  “Sort of. But more official,” Del said.

  “So, like a yard sale?” Alma asked.

  “Sure!” Del said.

  “I love yard sales!” Alma said.

  “Well then, you’ll really love stoop sales!” Del said. Del was practically jumping up and down with excitement. That was normal for Del. But she was excited to see that this time, Alma was practically jumping up and down too.

  “Why do we go to stoop sales?” Evie asked. She was wearing a sundress and a hat as if she were going somewhere very fancy. Del had told her stoop sales weren’t like that, but Evie never listened.

  “Good question,” Abuelita said. “We go to find special things to share with our customers, with our neighbors.”

  “Magical things,” Del said.

  “That’s right,” Abuelita said. “Magic is meant to be shared. It doesn’t belong to any one person. It belongs to us all. And stoop sales are the perfect place to find some hand-me-down magic.”

  Today’s stoop sale was at the end of the block. There was a stoop sale somewhere nearby at least a few times a month.

  “Maybe they collect pianos,” Del said. Del and Abuelita liked to play Guess What Will Be There when they went to stoop sales. It was a pretty easy game to teach Alma. And Alma was turning out to be very good at it. They walked down their tree-lined street naming possible items.

  “Maybe they’re selling a bunch of tutus,” Alma said.

  “Maybe there will be a unicycle,” Del said.

  “Maybe they’ll have moose slippers,” Abuelita said. They passed by the little playground with three swings, one slide, and one almost-too-high set of monkey bars. Someone had turned on the sprinkler, and a few kids were running back and forth through water sprouting up from the pavement. Del figured she’d bring Alma there later. Alma would love playing in the water.

  “I bet there’s a pink umbrella,” Alma said.

  “A stuffed elephant.”

  “A golden picnic basket.”

  They walked by the buildings of Twenty-Third Avenue. Each building was brick and about the same height. But every building also had something that made it unique. A heavy brass knocker. Flower boxes with orange flowers in the windowsill. Strings of lights hung around the door. Or, in the case of Alma and Del’s building, a bright purple door.

  “I bet there will be a gallon of silver paint.”

  “Twenty pounds of peacock feathers.”

  “A car!”

  “A puppy!”

  “Maybe it’s where Oscar’s hiding! Maybe we’ll find him there!”

  It was fun to guess what might be there, but stoop sales were also serious business. Abuelita trusted Del to pick out the best things from the stoop sale to resell in the secondhand shop. And Del would have to teach Alma all about that responsibility. Sometimes it meant fixing broken things or painting faded things or seeing something special in something that looked boring.

  Today Del was drawn to a huge jewelry box at the top of the stoop. The box itself was pretty: gold satin with little pearls sewn onto the top. But inside was even better. Bangly silver bracelets and long strands of turquoise beads. Huge mood rings and a bunch of friendship bracelets. Del picked out a necklace with a big red stone pendant and a simple gold ring that looked like the one her Dad wore. Alma had found a book of photographs of sunsets and a miniature painting of a bowl of fruit.

  “Good work!” Abuelita said when they presented her with their finds. “Now you can pick out something small for yourself.”

  Del needed to look very carefully through the jewelry box to find the best possible object. She lifted up a heavy gold poodle brooch and looked underneath a velvet pouch that held one single silver button.

  Underneath all that was the perfect treasure. A pair of earrings. They didn’t look exactly like the earrings belonging to Tuesday’s last customer, the part-time invisible woman. But they were similar. They were gold at the top with tiny pink beads hanging from long metal chains. They made the same clinkety-clankety sound the other earrings made. And when Del held them, they made her feel the way Tuesday’s last customer had made her feel.

  Del didn’t have pierced ears. She said it was because she liked her ears just fine the way they were, but really it was because Del’s mother didn’t think she was old enough. Del’s mother didn’t think Del was old enough for lots of things. Alma’s ears weren’t pierced either. Del would have to remember to ask why. It was just one more thing the cousins had in common.

  And somehow, as if by magic, these earrings were clip-on earrings. The only kind Del and Alma could wear.

  Del clipped them to her ears. They didn’t feel light and fake and plasticky the way most clip-on earrings did.

  They were heavy and clinkety-clankety and almost certainly magical.

  7

  Rainbow Pants and a Striped Hat

  -Alma-

  While Del was looking in a dusty old mirror and Abuelita was measuring a grandfather clock with Evie’s help, Alma caught sight of a boy her age across the street.

  He stood out because he was wearing rainbow-colored pants and a striped hat that looked like the kind a train conductor would wear. But when Alma saw his face, she scrunched her eyebrows in concern.

  When Alma’s face looked the way the boy’s face looked, it meant she was sad. And when she felt that way, it helped to talk about it. So Alma approached the boy across the street.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. She sat down next to him. From here, the stoop sale looked even more exciting. There was a pile of rugs and three different spice racks. There was a basket of stuffed animals and another of doll clothes. And so many boxes of books. Alma wanted to look at it all. She couldn’t imagine anyone being sad, looking at a stoop sale like this one.

  But the boy in the rainbow pants and conductor hat was about as sad as anyone Alma had ever seen.

  “That’s my best friend Ethan Copper’s house,” the boy said with a sigh. “He’s moving away.”

  Alma knew a little bit about what that felt like. Moving felt like saying goodbye to a part of yourself. It felt like jumping and not being sure when and where you’d land. It felt like you were forgetting some very important thing you had to do, all day long, all the time.

  It felt strange.

  “I just moved,” Alma told the boy. He relaxed a little.

  “You did? Do you miss your best friend?” the boy asked. He was near tears. His voice shook.

  Alma bowed her head. “No,” she said. “My best friend’s right there.” She nodded toward Del. The boy nodded too. He was a very serious boy, in spite of his not-serious-at-all clothes.

  “That’s lucky,” the boy said.

  Alma had been busy feeling left out and confused and sad and worried and excited and awkward. She hadn’t remembered to feel lucky too. But the boy was right. Missing a la
ke was easier than missing a best friend.

  8

  Oscar and Ice-Cream Sandwiches

  -Del-

  The good luck started with Del’s mother. They ran into her on their walk home when Alma was trying to tell Del about a sad boy with a striped hat. Del’s mother was sitting under everyone’s favorite tree. The one that hung down very, very low. The tree was a weeping willow that reached so far to the ground that Del and Alma called it a sobbing willow.

  “How was the stoop sale?” Del’s mother asked.

  “It was great!” Alma said. “Look what Del found!”

  Del leaned an ear toward her mother. Del’s mother didn’t usually like the things Del found at stoop sales. So Del waited to hear about how clip-on earrings could hurt your ears or how earrings that big weren’t right for little girls to wear. But instead, Del’s mother smiled.

  “Beautiful!” she said. “Can I try one?”

  Del happily clipped one of the earrings onto her mother’s ear. Like magic, Del’s mother lit right up. “I love it!” she said. “A stoop-sale treasure!”

  Before Del could say anything, Oscar the dog came bounding up to the girls. Del yelped with excitement.

  Even Alma recognized him from the posters hanging up everywhere. “Oscar!” she cried. “We found Oscar!”

  “More like Oscar found us!” Del said. Oscar licked her hands and wagged his fluffy white tail. Today was turning out to be the greatest of days.

  Alma and Del brought Oscar back to his owners. Javi and Cora were thrilled to see their little dog.

  “How in the world did you find him?” Cora asked. Her eyes filled with tears.

  “Just good luck, I guess,” Alma said.

  “Seems more like magic to me!” Del said.

  As a reward for finding Oscar, Javi and Cora bought Del and Alma ice cream from the truck outside the park. Usually, the good ice-cream flavors were all gone by this time of day. But today Del and Alma were able to get chocolate-chip-cookie ice-cream sandwiches.

  Del’s heart was thumping.

  For dinner they ordered Indian takeout, and the deliveryman brought an extra order of garlic naan, Del’s favorite. While they were washing the dishes, Del’s favorite song played two times in a row on the radio.

  “Oops, the DJ must have made a mistake,” Titi Rosa said when the song started for the second time.

  But Del knew it wasn’t a mistake at all. She touched the earrings still clipped to her ears.

  It had to be magic.

  9

  Crowns for Queens

  -Alma-

  Before bed, Alma, Del, and Evie played a game of charades with Abuelita and Titi Rosa. Alma’s parents and Evie’s parents and Del’s parents were all in the garden gossiping, but Abuelita and Titi Rosa were always up for playing a game. In fact, Abuelita and Titi Rosa were being as giggly as Alma and Del sometimes were. Alma loved seeing Abuelita and Titi Rosa laugh like that. They had secret inside jokes just like Alma and Del had.

  “You won’t ever beat us!” Abuelita said.

  “We are the undefeated charades champion sisters!” Titi Rosa said.

  “Wait,” Alma said, “we play against Abuelita and Titi Rosa?”

  “Yep,” Del said.

  “And we always lose,” Evie said. “Right, Del?”

  “We usually lose,” Del said. “But not tonight. Because now we have Alma!” Alma shone with pride. She wasn’t sure exactly what her role in her family was, now that she lived here. But helping Del and Evie win at charades seemed like a great start.

  “You’ll never beat us!” Titi Rosa said. “Because we are the queens—”

  “Of charades!” Abuelita finished with a sneaky smile. Abuelita opened up her purse and pulled out two tiaras. They were plastic and shiny.

  Titi Rosa let out an excited yelp. She let Abuelita put one of the tiaras on her head.

  “You found those at the stoop sale?” Alma asked.

  “Who can say?” Abuelita said. “But they were clearly meant for the queens of charades.”

  “Well then, you’ll have to give them to us soon!” Alma said. Del grinned and gave her cousin a high five. Alma was glowing with pride and a feeling of cozy belonging. This is what she had hoped and hoped and hoped for back at the lake house. Plus, she couldn’t wait to draw pictures of Abuelita and Titi Rosa in their crowns later.

  Abuelita and Titi Rosa jumped to their feet to start their round of charades.

  And Alma wondered if maybe this was magic.

  But it couldn’t be. She didn’t believe in things like that.

  10

  Perfect Day

  -Del-

  In the morning, Del woke Alma up early.

  “Cremita time!” she announced. She felt extra jumpy and extra excited. She’d been feeling that way since Alma arrived, but today she was practically on the moon. “Do you know what cremita is? It’s like oatmeal but a million times better. Abuelita makes it with cinnamon. You’ll love it.”

  “I know what cremita is,” Alma said. Something in Alma’s voice sounded a little tired or a little hungry, but that didn’t bother Del at all.

  “Well, great!” Del said. “I’m in charge of stirring. It’s the most important part. You can do it next time if you want.”

  Alma nodded, and the two girls bounded downstairs.

  Abuelita handed Del the big wooden stirring spoon. But Del got distracted looking at her earrings in the shiny metal above the stove, and she forgot to stir.

  “Del? I thought you said stirring was the most important part,” Alma said.

  “Oh no!” Del cried, looking back down at the pot. She expected it to be burnt or lumpy or sticky. But it was somehow creamy and perfect in spite of her mistake.

  On the walk to the playground, Del looked up at a bird chirping in a tree. And she caught sight of something yellow and green and stripy.

  “My sweater!” she said. She jumped up a few times, finally reaching a sleeve and pulling it down. “This has been missing for months! It’s my favorite!”

  “I’ve never seen a sweater in a tree before,” Alma said.

  “Magic!” Del said. “It’s really happening! And listen!” Del did a little dance on the sidewalk. She was staring at her shoes, tapping them and stomping them and making Alma laugh.

  “I don’t hear anything,” Alma said. “I just see my crazy cousin dancing around.”

  “Exactly!” Del said.

  Del explained that all summer her sandals had made a very annoying squeaking sound. But this morning, there was not a single squeak.

  At the playground, Del’s favorite swing was free, and all the chalk drawings she and Alma and Evie had made the other day were gone—except for Del’s drawing of Alma’s lake house. The pink chalk home was still there, with a little pink chalk Alma in one of the windows. Alma couldn’t stop looking at it.

  “Wow,” Del whispered. “This is the best day ever!” Del wanted Alma to be excited about her lucky day. She wanted Alma to be the way she was last night—happy to be here on Twenty-Third Avenue together. She had the perfect thing to tell her to get her all excited again.

  A secret. Alma and Del loved telling secrets. Just like Titi Rosa and Abuelita were always doing.

  “I have a secret,” Del said. “I know you don’t know anything about magic because you haven’t been here for long enough, but these are magic earrings. The earrings are bringing the luck.”

  11

  The Big Fight

  -Alma-

  “Well, I wouldn’t tell anyone that a pair of earrings is bringing good luck,” Alma said, “because it’s not true.” She was getting tired of everything good happening to Del.

  “It’s definitely true!” Del said. “Look at my hair. It’s a whole inch longer. I’ve been saying I wished my hair would grow longer forever, and it never does. And last night it did!”

  Alma looked at Del’s hair. It didn’t look any longer. Alma was getting especially tired of Del acting like she knew ev
erything about everything. Alma knew things too. Alma knew all kinds of things!

  “You just want the earrings to be magical,” she said. “Just like you wanted that lady to be magical. Even Evie knows earrings are never, ever magical.” Alma wasn’t sure this was true, but she liked sounding sure about it. She wanted to feel sure about something in this new life of hers.

  Del’s face scrunched up. “Maybe you just aren’t able to see magic,” she said. “Maybe Abuelita and I can see things you can’t. Maybe when you’ve lived with us for longer—”

  “You think you know everything,” Alma said.

  “You think you know everything,” Del said.

  They both crossed their arms over their chests. They both stomped their right foot one time. They both made a hmph noise.

  Alma and Del didn’t look so similar, but sometimes it was very, very clear that they were cousins.

  “I’m going home,” Del said. “Don’t follow me.”

  “I’m going home,” Alma said. “Don’t follow me.”

  Of course Alma and Del lived in the same building, so they both had to follow each other home. But they didn’t speak a word.

  12

  On the Nightstand

  -Del-

  Family dinner was at Del’s apartment that night. At least fifteen people were coming, since so much of the family lived right on this very street. But Del decided to go to bed early.

  “You don’t want dinner?” her mother asked. “Titi Clara is bringing lasagna. You love Titi Clara’s lasagna.” Del loved most everything about family dinner. But tonight that didn’t matter.

  “We’ve barely seen you girls!” Alma’s father said. Alma’s mother and father had been so busy setting up their new home that Del had hardly seen them. They didn’t know how mad she was at their daughter.