“What are you asking me?” she says. “What is this? Why are you bothering me?”

I squeeze her hand tight. What did you expect? I think.

“I’m not giving up,” I say. “I’m going to find you—the old you. I’m going to rescue you from the monster in the fairy tale. I’m going to bring you back.”

She blinks at the book. She shakes her head a few times as if clearing it of a dream. “That would be nice, Rosie,” she says, and then she looks away as if I’ve already left the room.

I close the book and pull it onto my lap, fingering the edges, knowing that any help my mom could offer is not worth hoping for. I know she’ll sit all day staring at the sea, forgetting me, the book, everything, like a ghost herself. I’m on my own.

I call Germ and leave her a message, just checking in. And then I set my mind to the first thing I need to do. Booby traps.

There’s an old movie Germ left here once called Home Alone, about a boy who has to protect his house from thieves, and I rewatch it to see how he lays traps for the bad guys, taking notes in one of my school binders. Homer said no human weapon can hurt a witch—I haven’t forgotten that. But even he said he didn’t know everything about witches.

Based on what I learn, I get a shovel and a twenty-pound dumbbell I find in the attic. I turn broomsticks into spears; a jar of pennies, some soda cans, and some string into a homemade alarm system; and a box of nails into a gruesome paddleboard bat. There’s an axe that hangs on the wall down in the basement, but I decide to steer clear of the basement altogether. I just don’t have the courage to go down there now, even in daytime.

I break glasses in paper bags and place the bags by my window to use as bombs. Then I take a long tour through the fuse box and watch an online video about how to get wires to spark.

Once I’m finished with the traps, I turn to my mom’s bedroom, not the one in the attic but the room that is supposed to be hers. Despite her general indifference to most things, it makes me nervous to sneak in without her knowing. So I try to do it as quietly and quickly as possible.