I nod, and Jonah and I rush off toward the magic spinach patch.

But instead we come to a pond. It looks calm and beautiful at night. The reflection of the moon on the water makes it look like there are two moons.

Prince barks and laps at the water.

“Was this here before?” Jonah asks. “I don’t remember going for a swim.”

“We went the other way, remember?” I say worriedly. We don’t have time for this! I look at my watch. It’s five o’clock back home. Five! O’clock! School is done! It’s almost dinnertime! “The pond is huge. It’ll take an hour for us to walk around it.” I can’t even see the sides of the pond — that’s how big it is.

“Maybe someone left a boat somewhere around here,” Jonah says.

We scan the darkness for something that might float. A canoe would be good. Not that a canoe worked out so well for us in The Frog Prince.

But maybe there’s a log … Or a helicopter.

“There’s nothing but leaves,” I cry. “And twigs. We could make a raft out of sticks.”

Prince picks up a twig in his mouth and drops it at my feet. Aww. What a good cat-dog.

But seriously, how are we going to get across that pond?

“Abby, look!” Jonah cries, pointing.

“What?” I ask.

I gasp.

A large black-and-white duck with a bright yellow beak is coasting right through the watery moon and across the pond.

“Do you think it’s evil?” Jonah asks.

I smile with relief. “No. It’s the duck from the original story! The one that gave Hansel and Gretel a piggyback ride — make that a duckyback ride — across the lake to their house! Hello! Ms. Duck?” I call out. “Hello?”

“Why do you think it’s a girl?”

“Why wouldn’t it be a girl?”

“I bet you one lollipop that it’s a boy,” Jonah says.

“Jonah! Did you take a lollipop on our way out?”

“I took my lollipop on our way out.”

I snort-laugh. “I do not want your sock-drawer, Prince-licked lollipop.”

“Your loss, fancy-pants.”

The duck starts swimming over to us.

“Wow, that’s one big duck,” Jonah says as the duck reaches the shore. “I think we can all fit on its back.”

“Hello there, duck,” I say. “Do you think you could give us a ride across the pond? We’re in a big rush.”

Please, please, please don’t be an evil minion working for Patty, I think.

“Sure,” the duck says, and swims closer.

It talks?

It talks.

It edges sideways so we can all climb on.

“You don’t work for the witch, do you?” Jonah asks before we get on the duck’s feathery back.

“No,” it says.

“As if it would tell you if it did,” I mutter.

“Are you a girl or a boy?” Jonah asks. “Settle a bet?”

“Girl,” the duck says.

“Wahoo!” I say. “Pay up.”

Jonah hands over his gross lollipop. “This is going in a trashcan as soon as I see one,” I tell him.