Zoe reached in her pocket and pulled out a hair tie. She gathered her hair up in a ponytail and wiped some sweat off the back of her neck. “WHY does it have to be so HOT?”

“The old lady said things would heat up. In all ways. To test my metal.”

“Metal?” Doug asked. “What metal?”

“I haven’t figured that out. The only metal I have is this thing around my neck.”

Glitter swirled and popped, and the shower doors became golden-colored elevator doors, with a golden coin slot, shaped like a soap dish, poking out of the middle.

Doug stepped in closer to me. “Is that token actual gold? Like, all the way through?” He reached for it, pulled it up to his mouth, and bit it. “Owww! It burned my tongue!”

“Well, why did you put the burning thing in your mouth?”

“I’ve seen people do that with gold in movies. To test it, to see if it’s real. I didn’t know it was that hot! You sure you don’t have a Triple T branded on your chest?”

I panicked and pulled my shirt out to look. “I hope not!”

Then, the token started to spark. And smoke. There was only one thing for me to do. I reached for the token and it came off in my hands. I had to juggle it back and forth to keep it from burning my palms. On about the third juggle, it shot straight into the coin slot.

“Flames, you stay here this time. We’ll be right back.”

I slapped my palms together and then pulled them apart. The doors opened. Zoe, Doug, and I jumped into a glitter shower that would take us to who-knows-where.

*  *  *

The inside of the elevator was cool, like on our trip to the zoo. But this time it was a smooth ride. And dead quiet. I started humming to break the silence—and the tension—in the air.

“This is eerie.” Zoe walked slowly around the elevator, smoothing her hands against the walls. “I can hear my heart pounding.”

“I sure hope we’re not going up,” Doug whimpered.

Doug’s been with me on a couple really high adventures, once to the top of an Egyptian pyramid, and then to the year 1935, to the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge before it was completed on both sides. That one was the scariest of all. We escaped into the elevator just as the Badger brothers, the two guys who will do anything to get my token, flew off the edge of the bridge and into the fog.

“Doug, I think I can hear your heart pounding too,” Zoe said.

Finally, after another few minutes of deafening silence, the doors opened.

*  *  *