“Oh, you know me … various pursuits. I have many irons in the fire, as they say.” Joel wasn’t aware of the origin of that particular expression, but he used it liberally. That was because he always had some project he was working on, some “big idea” that was going to make him rich. Finn thought some of his ideas weren’t actually terrible—the Cookie Toaster, for example—but no matter how good the idea was, Joel lacked the follow-through to make any of them a reality.

“Like what?”

“I’m writing a screenplay.”

“Oh. Cooool.”

Zadie made eye contact with Finn and shook her head as if to say, Don’t ask him what it’s about.

But Finn pressed on. “What’s it about?”

“Get this,” he said, animated. “It’s like Freaky Friday, but with dogs.”

“So, like, a dog and its owner switch bodies?”

“No. Two dogs switch bodies.”

Zadie and Finn shared a baffled look. “Do the dogs talk?” Finn asked.

Joel laughed as if the question were inherently absurd. “No. They’re dogs.”

Unable to contain herself anymore, Zadie cut in. “How are you supposed to know they’ve switched bodies if they don’t talk?”

“What do you mean?”

“If they both look like dogs and act like dogs, how do you know which one’s which?”

Finn watched Joel grapple with the hole Zadie had poked in his plot. “They act different.” he said defensively. “When you see the movie, you’ll get it.”

“Okay. Sorry,” Zadie said, amusement curling the edges of her voice like ribbon.

Now it was Finn’s turn to give Zadie a withering stare. What? Zadie mouthed in response.

“What’s this for?” Joel had spread the Volcanic Parks Map of North America open on his lap.

“Here, I’ll show you.” Finn unbuckled her seat belt and clumsily climbed into the back seat, accidentally kicking Zadie in the arm as she went. When she had settled, she pulled the painted rock Luna had given her out of her pants pocket and handed it to Joel. “This is where we’re going.”

Joel looked down at the trinket with a baffled expression. “I don’t follow.”

“I have it on good authority that the volcano in this painting is where our mom went when she disappeared.”

“Which one do you think it is?”

“Well, we think it’s an active volcano, so that eliminates all of these.” Finn gestured to the gray dots on the map. “And see how the volcano in the painting is steaming? I looked it up and that can be a sign that an eruption is imminent. If it was steaming when our mom saw it, that means we’re most likely looking for a volcano that erupted recently.”

Joel’s eyes widened. “There was that eruption on the news a few years ago. Where was it again?”