Tasha K. Rookswater

It was Wednesday lunchtime before they all managed to get together again. As expected, the elementary school was closed, so there was no problem inviting Hunter and Masami over to Caden’s house for the day. Ruth didn’t normally come home for lunch, but she was allowed to if she wanted, so they had an hour. Mushroom and Duck reappeared; they hadn’t gone back to the Nouns’ world, but had decided to stay and see a bit more of the human city while they waited to discuss the witch situation. Ruth had advised them to stay near the university campus and tell anyone who asked that they were part of an experimental theatre group. It seemed to have worked; at least, they hadn’t gotten in any trouble. So there were seven of them in Caden’s room, including Paz, whose participation was the price of getting to have his friends over. “Just let her play with you,” Mr. Keller had said tiredly, before disappearing into his office for the day. “It won’t hurt you to make her feel included.” Right now sh

“They evacuated your school to ours while they try to get everything fixed,” Ruth explained. The six of them were headed back toward Ruth’s school now, at a walking pace since there’d been no sign of pursuit. “Rutherford Junior High--that’s where I go--is only about six blocks from Hesiod Elementary,” she added for the Nouns’ benefit. “It’s too cold for all the little kids to stand around outside, so they packed them into our gym. I went to check on you and Paz so I could text Dad you were okay, and your teacher said you hadn’t shown up today. And I thought, well, mysterious emergency the day after you found those glasses--I assume your friends know about everything?--anyway, I figured it was probably all your fault. Then Bethany said someone was setting off fireworks in the woods, and I thought, hey, Caden’s missing and stuff is exploding, gosh, could these things be connected somehow?” She shrugged. “So I followed the lights and the noise, and here I am.” “That was brave,” Mushroom