Hand-Me-Down Magic #2

sitting between them.
“Cake for breakfast?” Alma said. She’d never had anything but breakfast food for breakfast. Her mother sometimes made breakfast for dinner, though, and she loved that. Maybe she would love this, too?
“We always do it the day after birthdays,” Del said.
“Take a fork,” Tío Victor said. “Taste a few.”
Alma happily did. It turned out all flavors of cupcake tasted even better in the morning.
“Do you feel better today?” Alma asked Del.
“She’s on the lookout for cats,” Tío Victor said. “I promised her there wouldn’t be any out on a busy street in the morning.” That seemed true to Alma.
“Abuelita’s fortune came true last night, so mine probably will too,” Del said.
“That was just a coincidence,” Alma said. She was pretty sure this was right. After all, she hadn’t predicted a rainstorm, just the moon.
“You really think so?” Del asked. She took an extra-big bite of cupcake. Del wouldn’t admit to being scared, but Alma had never seen Del so frightened. In fact, she’d never really seen her scared at all. But if Del was the scared one, that meant Alma would have to be the brave one. She took a deep breath.
“I really think so,” Alma said. “We should do something fun today. To make up for last night. We could even invite a bunch of people over again. Or do something silly. Wear our costumes to the store. Or sing a song in the middle of the street. Or tell fortunes with the crystal ball for everyone at the playground.” Alma looked at Del. She wanted Del to look brave and happy and unscared again. She thought maybe the corners of Del’s mouth were turning up. She thought maybe her eyes were starting to sparkle with excitement. She thought maybe Del wasn’t looking for a black cat anymore.
“That does sound fun . . . ,” Del said.
But before Del could agree to a plan for the day, they heard the painter next door shout “Watch out below!” He had dropped his can of paint. Alma, Del, and Tío Victor ran to the side of the building and didn’t get hurt.
“That was lucky!” Alma said. “See? Everything’s fine. You don’t have to worry about a bad fortune! I’m not a talented fortune-teller like you.”
Alma was absolutely positively sure this was true. Everything was fine. She wasn’t very good at magic or fortunes. She was just regular old Alma. And now she’d be able to go back to being shy, nervous Alma, and Del could go back to being brave, daring, and delightful Del, and all would be right at 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue.
Except.
Del was pointing at something.
She was pointing at her family’s white car.
But it wasn’t white anymore. The can of blue paint had splattered all over the car. Big splashes of blue covered the whole thing.
“A blue car,” Del said. “Just like your fortune said.”

9
Closed Eyes
-Del-
As if it wasn’t bad enough that Del’s father’s car was now blue, someone else was watching the whole scene.
Someone very scary.
The same black kitten from yesterday. It was dipping its paw into the blue paint, running away, then doing it again. It looked like it was trying to understand the paint, just like it had done with the water in the birdbath. It was quite the curious scientist. Maybe Del would have thought it was cute, once. But now it just seemed strange and scary and wrong. Why was this kitten everywhere all the time? Why wouldn’t it leave them alone? And why didn’t it act like the other stray cats in the neighborhood?
Little blue paw prints were taking over the sidewalk and street in front of Del’s house, and they made Del even more scared. She ran inside and hid behind Abuelita’s biggest, softest armchair. She was pretty sure a black cat couldn’t find her back there. She didn’t want that strange little kitten coming anywhere near her. It was dangerous! And bad! And who knew what would happen if she didn’t hide from it! If Cassie could break her leg from seeing a black cat, Del would probably go through even worse because of her black cat fortune! It just wasn’t safe to do anything at all.
Still, it wasn’t very fun to hide behind a chair all day. Del called out for Alma.
“Are you okay?” Alma asked when she found her behind the chair.
“Right now I am,” Del said. “As long as that cat doesn’t find me, I’ll be fine. But I’m bored.”
“I’ve never seen a cat at the playground,” Alma said. “Why don’t we go over there?”
“I can’t go back outside!” Del said. “Every time I go outside, that scary kitten finds me!”
“You’ve barely been outside,” Alma said.
“Well, when I was outside, the kitten found me,” Del said. She crossed her arms over her chest. She could be stubborn when she needed to be. And if she was going to avoid that black cat, she’d have to be very stubborn.
“Well, what do you want to do if we can’t go outside?” Alma asked.
Del was willing to do anything to forget about the crystal ball and her bad fortune. She and Alma played eighteen rounds of Candyland with Evie, and it didn’t help at all. Del taught Alma how to sing “Pon Pon Pon,” the song Abuelita always sang to Del when she was little. That made Del happy for a little bit, but she quickly felt scared again. She tried drawing pictures and practicing cartwheels and visiting all her titis. She even tried cleaning her room! None of it helped.
Del had loved that crystal ball. She loved magic. And she loved Alma for giving her the special present. She didn’t like being the fraidycat cousin.
“Maybe we can go outside for a little bit,” Del said. “But I’m going to close my eyes, and if you see the cat or hear it or anything at all, we’re going right back inside.”
“Okay,” Alma said. Del closed her eyes as tight as she could. Alma grabbed her