“What’s uh-oh?” Sabrina cried, looking around. Every time she heard “uh-oh” something bad happened. It usually involved running from monsters or giants.
“The barrier,” Puck shouted as he spun around and ran in the opposite direction of the train’s rolling. “I forgot about the barrier!”
“Uh-oh,” the girls said in unison. No Everafters could pass through the barrier, and so when the train passed through it Puck was sent sailing down the aisle. He flailed helplessly.
“How do you stop this thing?” Puck cried as he was pushed by the invisible force.
Sabrina remembered the emergency brake cord hanging on the wall. She ran to it and yanked the handle as hard as she could. Brakes screamed, and the train whiplashed as it decelerated rapidly. Unfortunately, it wasn’t slowing down quickly enough, and Puck was fast approaching the steel door at the end of the train car. There was no way the train would stop before he slammed into it.
Puck flopped about like a fish in the bottom of a boat. Sabrina knew what he was trying to do. If he could spin around he could trigger a metamorphosis. Besides flying, he had the ability to change his body into animals and a number of inanimate objects. Usually he changed into things that would annoy Sabrina, like a three-legged chair or a skunk, but from time to time he could transform into something useful. Sabrina could do nothing but watch his awkward effort and cheer when he finally succeeded. His arms and legs shrank to thick, treelike stumps. His body plumped up hundreds of pounds and his skin hardened into a gray armor. A hairy horn erupted from the top of his head. In a matter of moments, Puck was no longer an annoying boy in desperate need of a soapy bath, but a full-size rhinoceros. He lowered his head and his diamond-hard horn plowed into the train door, blasting it off its hinges and causing a great commotion in Sabrina’s eardrums.
“He turned into a rhinoceros,” Ms. Smirt said.
“He does that,” Sabrina said.
While she and Smirt stood gaping at Puck, Daphne grabbed Sabrina’s arm and dragged her in the direction of the blasted door. Never once had the little girl led an escape, but Sabrina was too bewildered to argue.
They saw Puck plow through the next car’s door, and he was about to do the same to the one after that. Unfortunately, the train was packed tight with commuters. They cowered in their seats and hid behind their copies of the New York Times. No one was injured, but Sabrina suspected that many had wet their pants. She couldn’t blame them. No one expects to see a charging rhino on their way to work. She and Daphne did their best to assure them that everything was under control as they ran past.
The girls reached the last car just in time to see Puck plow through its door and tumble out onto the tracks. The girls held hands and leaped to the ground below just as the train came to a stop. Once she had regained her bearings, Sabrina found that she and her sister were not alone. Uncle Jake, Granny Relda, and Elvis were waiting for them. Goldilocks hovered in the background, as did Red Riding Hood. The three bears stood at the back of the crowd with hairy arms crossed in disgust, and Puck was busy morphing back into his true form. But there were two people in the crowd that made Sabrina wonder if her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. Her parents, Henry and Veronica Grimm, stood right in front of her with arms outstretched.
“Mom? Dad?” she cried.
Henry and Veronica smiled and scooped her and Daphne into their arms. Tears fell from every eye, streamed down cheeks, and fell to the ground below. Veronica peppered them with kisses while Henry wrapped them up and squeezed.
“But Goldilocks’s kiss. It didn’t work,” Daphne said.
“It worked,” Veronica said. “But you know your father. He was always a late sleeper.”
Henry stepped back and studied his daughters. “Girls, you look so different.” He held Daphne’s face in his hand. “You’re so … big.”
“You’ve been asleep a long time,” Daphne said.
Henry turned to Granny Relda with questioning eyes.
“It’s true. Nearly two years,” the old woman said.
“Two years!” Veronica cried.
Henry looked as if someone had punched him in the belly. He stumbled back a little before righting himself. “That can’t be true.”
Daphne nodded. “It’s true.”
“But we’re together now,” Sabrina said, trying to shift the mood back to the happy reunion. All her worries over the last two years seemed to evaporate like dew in the summer sun. The incredible weight of being responsible for herself and Daphne lifted from her shoulders and for the first time in a long time she felt like what she was—a twelve-year-old kid.
Ms. Smirt scurried through the open train door. She pressed her bony hands across her gray suit to flatten wrinkles and struggled with a broken heel on one of her shoes. She straightened, as if mustering all of her courage. “These children are wards of the state, and they’re coming with me, flying boy or no flying boy.”