Hand-Me-Down Magic #2

scary. And I know it’s true because last year Cassie saw a black cat, and that same day she broke her leg playing soccer even though she was the best soccer player in school.”
“Oh!” Alma said. “Oh no! I must have been wrong. It’s probably a black dog. Or a black raccoon. Or, I don’t know, a black boa?”
“No,” Del said. “You said a black cat. A very unlucky black cat on my birthday.”
“I’m sorry!” Alma said. “I’m sure I’m wrong! None of my fortunes have come true yet. Yours all came true right away. I’m not good at this the way you are.”
Del looked a little less nervous. “That’s true,” she said.
“You have nothing to be afraid of,” Alma said.
Del nodded. She didn’t look sure, though. She looked scared. And Alma wasn’t used to Del being the scared one. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like it one bit.

7
A Full Moon
-Del-
Del wasn’t in the mood for a backyard slumber party anymore.
“We saw a black kitten out there yesterday,” she said. “I need to stay away from all black cats.”
“You’re afraid of that kitten?” Alma asked. She’d never heard of Del being afraid of anything at all.
“I’m not afraid,” Del said. “I’m just being careful because of my fortune. I can’t let a black cat cross my path. I need to just sleep in my own bed. And stay inside tomorrow. And the next day. And probably forever.”
“You were so excited about your backyard slumber party,” Alma said. “Let’s at least give it a try.”
Del wanted to say no, but Alma was giving her big worried eyes, and Evie was pulling on her arm, and Del had always wanted to have a sleepover in the backyard. This might be her only chance. And besides, Alma was right. None of Madame Alma’s fortunes had come true the way Del’s had. Maybe it would be okay.
Alma, Del, and Evie walked out to the backyard. Alma had secretly set up the tents while Del was saying goodbye to all her guests. One tent was for Abuelita, and the other was for the cousins. In the cousin tent, Alma had laid out three sleeping bags and three pillows and all the cozy blankets she could find at 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue. And best of all, Alma had decorated the tent with streamers and balloons and a big shiny banner that said Happy Birthday! on it.
“Oh, wow,” Del said. “This is so cool. How did you do this? It’s . . .”
“Magical!” Alma finished Del’s sentence with Del’s favorite word. But Del wasn’t so sure she wanted to hear that word right now.
“And I brought out cupcakes!” Evie announced way too loudly. Abuelita had already said no when they asked if they could eat cupcakes out in the tent before bed.
“Shhhhh,” Del and Alma said together. But Evie couldn’t keep a secret.
“Look!” Evie said. She had one of Abuelita’s cozy blankets around her shoulders. She opened up the blanket to show the box of leftover cupcakes she’d been hiding underneath.
Del smiled. Maybe everything really would be fine! Maybe there was no such thing as a bad fortune! Maybe Madame Alma hadn’t seen a black cat after all! Their tent was so pretty. Those cupcakes looked even better now than they had at the party. Alma had brought out her mother’s phone and was playing music to dance to. It was everything a slumber party was supposed to be.
But before Del could take even one bite of cupcake, they heard a sound.
“Oh no!” Abuelita cried.
Del, Alma, and Evie ran out of their tent. “What’s wrong?” Del asked when they got to Abuelita’s tent. Everything seemed normal. There was a sleeping bag and a pillow and her own stash of cupcakes, in spite of her rules.
“What is it?” Alma asked.
Abuelita pointed up. All three girls tilted their heads to follow her finger. She was pointing at a big, gaping hole in the tent. A hole so big that when you looked up, you could see the full moon in the sky.
“Well, that’s sort of pretty,” Alma said.
“Can we stay in this tent instead?” Evie asked. “This is so cool!”
“The moon,” Del said, her voice a little shaky. “Just like your fortune said.” Del had been hoping maybe Madame Alma wasn’t so good at telling fortunes. But here was Abuelita underneath the moon, just like Madame Alma had predicted.
And then it started to rain. Within moments, everything in the tent was soaking wet.
“Oh no!” Abuelita said. “This isn’t what I expected when you told my fortune!”
Del looked at Alma. “This isn’t a very good fortune at all,” she said.
Before she finished her sentence, Del heard a little purring sound. A cat. Maybe a kitten. Maybe a little black kitten. She ran straight inside the house and all the way upstairs, and refused to come back downstairs no matter how many cupcakes Evie offered her or how many times Alma said the fortune was probably wrong.
Del was pretty sure she wouldn’t be leaving the house ever again.


8
Look Out Below
-Alma-
In the morning, Alma found Del and Tío Victor on the front stoop. Del and her dad liked to sit out there in the mornings. This morning, they looked like they were watching something. Tío Victor’s white car was parked right in front of the building, but they weren’t watching that. A few women on the corner were in an argument about where to get coffee, but Alma didn’t think they were watching that. Next door, a painter was painting the shutters on their neighbor’s building. But that’s not what they were watching either.
Del and Tío Victor were watching something across the street, in the playground. Alma squinted. It was Evie, chasing squirrels and laughing. Del was pretty sure she could hear her chattering away at them, too, telling them all her secrets. Evie could find the fun in absolutely anything.
Del and her father were both holding forks. The leftover cupcakes were