Okay, there were a few flaws.

Maybe more than a few. In fact, the more time passed, the dumber the whole thing seemed.

For starters, my dad. How was I supposed to sneak away from him? We’d been talking about the eclipse for months. It was Our Thing—the sky—and I was supposed to just miss it?

Then there was the part where I was supposed to somehow lug around a telescope on my bike. I’d had the same one since I was seven. It had Thomas the Tank Engine stickers on it, for cripes’ sake. It wasn’t exactly a truck—telescopes are heavy.

And what about timing? The eclipse was supposed to last about two minutes. I had told Leo it would take me thirty. But I was kinda doubtful that I could dig a deep hole and haul out an enormous box in that amount of time, let alone bike the thing back to Eagle’s Nest.

So it wasn’t perfect. But Dad would hopefully be distracted, yapping with other people in town, and he’d forgive me, eventually, for disappearing. As for the bike issue, well, I could always balance big stuff on my handlebars. If they could hold Sophie, they could hold a telescope. Even if it took longer than expected, the library wasn’t on Main Street—it was a mile and a half away, off Uselman. Nobody would be driving around. If anyone, by chance, did see me with a box, I’d say it was some delivery for my parents. And soon enough, Dr. Lacamoire and Simone would be long gone, taking the evidence with them.

There was still another problem, a Big Glaring Issue that was hard to tackle. We knew the time capsule was buried in front of the library where everyone posed for that picture. We just didn’t know where. For that, as mentioned before, we’d need metal detectors. And for that, we’d need a hardware store.

“I am not stealing from Joe,” I said firmly.

I was sitting in the living room of Eagle’s Nest. Simone was wearing a swimsuit with a cover-up, and Leo had on that white stuff old people wear on their nose so they don’t get sunburned.

“Joe? You mean Hank?” asked Simone.

“Joe owns Hank’s Hardware and More. Hank was his grandpa’s cat or something,” I said. “And he’s really nice.”

“The cat or Joe?” asked Simone.

“I’m not stealing from him!”

“Nobody’s asking you to steal. You’re being very dramatic,” said Leo, waving a hand. “We’re paying for the metal detectors, for heaven’s sake. I would never shoplift. We’re just purchasing them after hours.”

“When there isn’t anyone there. And the door is locked,” I said.

“You’re not thinking clearly, Abby!” said Leo, annoyed. “Metal detectors? Then a dug-up time capsule? Hello? We’ll be prime suspects.”

“I don’t get it,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re acting like Moose Junction is going to get its entire police force on this. And if they do, it’s Officer J.J. He does the presentations about smoking at our school. His main job is getting cats out of trees. He’s not exactly Sherlock Holmes.”