Hand-Me-Down Magic #2

and of dogs.
The kitten especially didn’t know that its shadow looked so big and scary. The kitten was still just a very small kitten. Its shadow was large because of the position of Del’s night-light.
And the kitten wasn’t stomping its paw or batting its tail around to be mean or scary or a monster.
The kitten had climbed into the tree outside Del’s window and it had found a silver streamer from Del’s birthday party.
The kitten loved that silver streamer. It batted the streamer, watched it move around, then batted it again. It was even more fun than batting Oscar’s tail! When the kitten accidentally pawed the streamer so hard that it fell to the ground, the kitten curled up in the crook of the tree and fell asleep. It dreamed of silver streamers and birdbaths and blue paint.
Del didn’t sleep at all. And she didn’t look outside her window to see how cute and small the kitten looked when it slept. She stayed at the bottom of her bed, underneath all her blankets, wishing she’d never ever seen that crystal ball or that little black kitten.
When Del got out of bed, she saw little blue paw prints all over the tree and the sidewalk in front of her building.
She felt her heart speed up. It felt extra big and extra loud. It made her ears ring and her mouth dry. It made her hands all sweaty even though they were also cold.
Del didn’t understand why those paw prints were still there or what the kitten had been doing or why. She didn’t understand anything but how scared she was.
And now she was more scared than ever.

12
An Important Mission
-Alma-
There was one fortune from Madame Alma that still hadn’t come true. She’d told Evie that she’d seen a mirror in the crystal ball. It hadn’t happened yet, but Alma knew that if Evie got her hands on a mirror—any mirror—something terrible would happen.
So Alma did what she had to do. She needed to protect her family from her cursed fortunes.
But she needed Del to help her. She knocked and knocked on Del’s door.
“I can’t come out!” Del called out at last.
“There’s still Evie’s fortune,” Alma said. “That hasn’t come true yet!”
“It will,” Del said. “And when it does, it will probably be terrible.”
Del didn’t sound like Del at all.
“I won’t let it come true!” Alma called back.
“Be careful,” Del said. She sounded tired. Fear was really exhausting, Alma knew.
Alma had a mission. She would make sure that Evie’s fortune never came true. And if Evie’s fortune didn’t come true, then maybe Del would stop being so scared, and everything could go back to the way it was supposed to be.
Alma went into every single room in all of 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue. She was looking for all the mirrors. She started on the top floor, where her family lived. She covered all the bathroom mirrors with towels and carried all the smaller mirrors out to Abuelita’s garden. She wasn’t quite sure what she should do with them, but maybe Abuelita would be able to help. At least this way, Evie couldn’t get hurt by her mirror fortune.
The second-highest floor belonged to Evie and her parents and Titi Rosa. Alma found a small handheld mirror in Titi Rosa’s room and a pair of mirror earrings in Evie’s mom’s room. Alma tried to move Titi Rosa’s full-length mirror, but it was too heavy to do on her own. She’d have to find some help.
Next, Alma went through Del’s home. She found a few compacts from Del’s mom and a pretty mirror that hung in Del’s family’s kitchen. Alma asked Del if she could look in her room for mirrors, and Del said no, but she opened the door a crack and handed Alma the mirror from her wall. It was the size of a book and had Del’s name on it. It was one of Del’s prized possessions.
Abuelita’s home didn’t have many mirrors, so Alma’s work was almost done. The garden was full of mirrors now. Alma was very careful with each of them, lining them up against the fence, making sure they were all standing up so that no one would accidentally step on a mirror and hurt themselves.
There was just the one big mirror left. Titi Rosa’s mirror. The one Evie loved. Alma couldn’t ask Evie to help her remove it, of course—Evie needed to stay far away from mirrors. Alma called Felix Sanderson’s house, but he was at soccer practice. Titi Clara’s finger would probably hurt too much from the rose prick to help Alma carry the mirror, and Alma’s parents would think she was being silly.
Alma needed her cousin. Her formerly brave, formerly up-for-anything cousin.
She needed Del.


13
A Dozen Cats
-Del-
Del had planned to stay in her room forever, but by about noon she was feeling pretty tired of hiding. Her room felt hot and stuffy. She’d left the book she was reading in Abuelita’s living room. And she hadn’t remembered to bring up any food to her room.
Plus, Del could hear all kinds of things happening on the street below. She heard her father laugh. She heard Titi Rosa singing. She heard Cassie and Anna and Evie drawing in chalk in front of the building, and she heard Oscar barking with excitement, like he did whenever he saw someone he wanted to play with.
If it weren’t for that scary black cat, Del could be outside with her friends and family right now! She wished the cat would just go away, bother another building on another street. She didn’t understand why the cat had to be hanging around 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue anyway.
By the time Alma knocked on her door again, Del was hungry and bored and hadn’t heard a single meow or purr in hours. Maybe it was safe to go outside, she thought. Just for a moment. Or at least downstairs for some cremita.
“Del, I need your help,”