Hmm. How do I explain the rest? Fairy tales are complicated. “But sometimes we want to mess up the stories. If they have unhappy endings. Like in The Little Mermaid. In the movie, she gets married, but in the real story, the Little Mermaid dies!”

Jonah gasps, horrified.

“I know. That’s why we changed it. Anyway, we should get moving. What time does your watch say?” I ask.

He looks down at his bare arm. “I’m not wearing my watch.”

“What? Why not? I told you, you need to wear your watch whenever we go through the mirror!” Doesn’t he listen to anything?

“But … but … but … I didn’t believe you!” he cries.

I groan. “Well, then, we have no way of knowing what time it is back home. We have to be back before Mom and Dad get out of bed at seven. If they find our beds empty, they’ll have panic attacks. So we can’t stay too long here. Just long enough for your memories to come back.”

“Ruff, ruff!” Prince runs ahead of us among the trees.

“Wait, Prince! Hold on!” Jonah calls. He starts running after Prince. Then he turns around, and for the first time since we got here, he gives me a smile.

A second later, he trips over a broken tree branch and falls on his flannel butt.

“Jonah, you have to be extra careful here, okay? You don’t know what’s just around the corner! We don’t even know where we are yet!”

“I’m fine,” he shouts, popping back up and continuing to run.

I follow him and Prince until we see a gap in the trees.

“Wow,” Jonah says.

Wow is right. In front of us is a huge, beautiful, storybook castle. It’s made of yellow stone and capped with a blue roof and pointy blue turrets, and it’s even surrounded by a moat. The water is sparkling and multicolored, reflecting the autumn leaves around us.

“Hey, Abby?” Jonah calls. “Which fairy tale has a castle in it?”

“A lot of them,” I say.

“Does Jack and the Beanstalk have a castle?” he asks.

“Yes, but I don’t see a beanstalk,” I say. Then I laugh. “You always ask about Jack and the Beanstalk.”

“I do?”

“You do. Maybe we’re in The Princess and the Pea,” I say as all three of us walk across the drawbridge. “That’s the one where a princess has to feel a pea under twenty mattresses.”

“But how could she feel a pea?” Jonah asks. “Wouldn’t it get squished? They should have used a bowling ball.”

There’s a large silver knocker in the center of the blue door. I lift it and let it bang.

We wait. No one comes to get us.

“Hello?” I call loudly. “Anyone here?”

There’s no answer.

“It looks deserted,” Jonah says.

Prince barks three times and then runs around the side of the castle.