For his sake, that would be nice. I pat him on the head. “Don’t get your hopes up. But let’s go see.”

“We should jump over the fence and look at what’s outside of the field,” Jonah says. He runs over to the fence and starts shouting. “Jack! Where are you? We’re coming!”

I laugh. “Way to not get your hopes up.”

At the fence, I bend down to give them a lift. Prince jumps over it first. Then Jonah, and then me.

“Good work,” I say.

“Oh, wait,” Jonah says. “Where’s my Cubs hat?”

“Um …” I look through the fence and see it hanging lopsided over some spinach. “There.”

“Let me just hop back over. Be right back.” Jonah starts to climb the fence when a huge white bird flies out of nowhere and dives down toward my brother.

“Jonah!” I yell.

My brother falls back down to the ground.

The bird tweets at him angrily.

“It doesn’t seem to want you to go back there,” I say.

That’s when I notice a sign above the field’s fence. In all capital letters it says: VEGETOPIA RESIDENTS: KEEP OUT OR ELSE!

“Does that mean I can’t get my Cubs cap back?” Jonah cries. “Who knows when we’ll get back to Chicago? I need my hat!” We grew up near Chicago, but our new house is across the country in Smithville.

“Hmm. Well, technically we’re not Vegetopia residents …” I say.

Tweet! Tweet! Tweeeeeeeet!

The massive bird honks and flaps its wings.

“But good luck explaining that to the scary bird,” I add.

Jonah sighs. “Good-bye, Cubs hat. It was fun.” He makes a sad face, and we turn away from the fence.

To the left of us is a pond. To the right of us is a forest.

“Let’s go the forest way,” I say. “I’m not in the mood to go swimming.”

“You’re never in the mood to go swimming,” Jonah grumbles.

“To the forest!” I declare, and head into the woods. Jonah and Prince follow close behind.

This forest is dense. There are lots and lots of tall trees close together. I can hear the leaves rustling in the gentle wind, but I can’t feel it.

“Let’s walk until we get to something,” I say.

“Like a beanstalk?” Jonah asks.

“Like anything,” I say. “Something that might tell us which fairy tale we’re in.”

As we march through the forest, I notice that the sun is slowly lowering in the sky. It must be late afternoon. That’s not good. That’s never good. We need daylight. Who wants to be in a forest in the dark? Not me.

Forests have bears. And wolves. And other things that will eat us.

Who knows what could be in here? Fairy tale animals sometimes have magic powers! Really. I’ve met talking frogs. And talking reindeer. There could be talking lions. Or fire-breathing dragons. Or evil unicorns.

I wouldn’t mind seeing a unicorn, actually. But a non-evil one, of course.

How awesome would it be to bring a unicorn back with me to Smithville? I could have a unicorn pet! Maybe it would be pink, with a sparkly horn. It would make all my friends jealous.