A blast of heat, a spark of light, and a surge of power hit simultaneously. With a reflex born of panic, he rammed the wand into the soft sandy soil just as Brianna opened the flap. With an audible POP, a pair of moles sprang from the ground, flew a foot in the air, and landed in an unconscious heap of fur.

Even if he hadn’t been stunned with awe, he wouldn’t have been able to move quick enough to hide the moles.

Brianna yanked back the flap, flooding the cave with sunlight. It was like opening an oven door. Heat vapor formed a gust of wind that blew out of the opening. Brianna and their mother recoiled, shielding their faces with their arms for protection, and the cave was again plunged into darkness.

“Henry!” His mother’s scream was a lethal combination of fear for her son’s safety and anger that he was apparently playing with fire.

Startled back into action, Henry quickly reached for the moles, still unsure of what had happened. But just as he was about to touch them, they twitched back to life.

Again the flap opened, blinding Henry and the light-averse rodents, who staggered backward until they accidentally fell into their own hole.

If Henry thought the sunlight was bright, it paled in comparison to the anger that flashed from his mother’s eyes. “Henry Leach the Eighth, what are you doing in here?”

He rubbed his head, searching for something intelligent to say. He looked at Brianna, who was staring slack-jawed at the hole. “I … um … was … ”

But Brianna recovered faster.

“Tell Henry he has to share his bird book with me,” she whined.

What? Wait … she wasn’t ratting him out about the feather. Whether she meant to or not, she had given him an escape route. He reluctantly handed her the book.

“All you had to do was ask,” he said sweetly. He turned to his mother for approval. Her face was scrunched into the strangest expression. She sniffed the air as if trying to identify an odor. She stopped abruptly. Her eyes glazed over and her face froze with an icy glare. She studied Henry as if seeing him for the first time.

“Everything is moving too fast. Please be careful, Henry,” she said softly. “And always keep your sister by your side.” And she walked away.

He continued to watch as she walked toward the house, as confused as he’d ever been in his life. Her shoulders were slumped forward and she slowly wrapped her arms across her chest as if warding off a sudden chill despite the summer heat. The screen door squeaked, and she was gone.

“Henry.” He jumped. The happy Brianna from seconds ago was now possessed by her evil twin. “I’m flushing it down the toilet.” She stomped out of the cave, composed herself, switched back to the happy twin, and skipped merrily away.