Del went onto the street. She asked Uncle Andy, who was often sitting on a lawn chair in front of his building next door, watching the comings and goings of the neighborhood. He shrugged his shoulders. She asked the Goldberg twins, who were walking to the playground. They hadn’t seen any earrings. She looked under the beautiful sobbing tree and in the bakery and in every nook and cranny of the Curious Cousins Secondhand Shoppe.
No earrings anywhere.
15A Big, Big Mistake
-Alma-
Alma was ready to enjoy the earringless, magicless day. But when she found Del on the playground, she could tell it wasn’t going to be a normal day. She was starting to think there were no normal days on Twenty-Third Avenue.
Del looked all a mess. She explained to Alma that a bus had driven into a puddle and splashed mud all over her outfit. A bee had stung her cheek, and it was a little swollen. And Del was limping because she’d tripped over a bump in the sidewalk and hurt both of her knees.
Alma’s stomach turned a little. She didn’t believe in magic, but Del was sure having a string of bad luck this morning.
“Please help me look,” Del said.
Del looked so sad and so messy and so lost that Alma had to say yes.
The cousins looked all over the playground for the earrings. Alma almost convinced herself they could be there. At every turn, Del’s luck got worse. When she looked by the slide, a toddler coming down fast flew into her. When Del looked in the sandbox she came across a discarded baloney sandwich that smelled simply awful.
When Del looked over by the gate, she accidentally pinched her fingers in the lock.
Alma hated seeing so many bad things happen to Del. Even when they fought, she still loved Del more than anyone in the world.
“This is the worst day of my whole life!” Del cried. “Nothing’s going right!”
Del and Alma walked home, and another bus drove through water, splashing Del again. A dog barked at her so loudly that she got scared and had to run away from it. Then she accidentally ran into Mrs. Jones, who lived down the street. Mrs. Jones was carrying a big bag of groceries that went all over the sidewalk. An egg cracked on top of Del’s new sparkly red sneakers. And Mrs. Jones scolded Del for being so careless.
Alma had never seen Del look so sad. Del being sad made Alma feel sad.
Alma felt something else too. A little guilty.
Then a lot guilty.
“Now do you believe in the earrings?” Del asked Alma.
Alma wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t know what to believe. The one thing she was sure of, though, was that she’d made a big, big mistake.
16No More Words
-Del-
Back home, Del went up to her bedroom and closed the door. She felt terrible. After such a perfect, magical day with the dangly gold-and-pink beaded clip-on earrings, she felt absolutely hopeless. She wanted a hug from Oso, but he was still waterlogged and lying out to dry in Abuelita’s garden with all the laundry.
There was a knock at her door.
“I don’t feel like talking to anyone,” Del said. She was trying not to cry, but it wasn’t going very well.
“I have to tell you something,” Alma said. Del noticed that she was blushing. She knew her cousin very well. If Alma was blushing, it meant that she’d done something bad.
“What did you do?” Del asked.
Alma did her imitation of an Abuelita shrug.
“What did you do, Alma?” Del asked again.
“I stole and I lied,” Alma said.
Del’s heart fluttered. Her feet itched. Her nose stung. Her eyes clouded. Her back got wet. Her stomach flipped.
“I stole the earrings. And I told you I didn’t know where they were. But I do know.” Alma did the Abuelita shrug again. A sad, guilty version of it.
“I put them outside,” Alma said. “But then I changed my mind! Really quickly! I went out to get them back, but they were already gone!” Alma’s voice was high and fast, the exact opposite of Del’s.
“You put. My magical earrings. On the stoop?” Del asked.
“No!” Alma said. “I put them on the lion’s ears, actually. He looked really good in them. Distinguished.”
Del couldn’t find any words. This was bad luck too. She needed to speak. She needed to yell at her cousin. But the words were all gone.
“I don’t know why I did it,” Alma said.
Del said nothing.
“I was tired of talking about magic,” Alma said.
Still, Del said nothing.
“Every day since I’ve been here, all you do is tell me about magic. And tell me all the things you know and all the things I don’t know. I feel left out of my own family.” Alma spoke quietly, but Del heard the words as if they were very loud.
Del still didn’t know what to say. All she wanted was for Alma to like magic, the way she liked magic and the way Abuelita liked magic. All Del wanted was for Alma to have fun at her new home, and to be excited to be together, just like Del was.
“No one talked about magic at my old home,” Alma said.
For the first time, Del realized Alma might miss her old home. Maybe Alma was happy to be here and sad sometimes too.
“I don’t know anything about it. Or anything about the shop. Or anything about our family, I guess.”
Alma looked a little sad and a little lost. Del didn’t want her to be either of those things, but she was still mad about the earrings. And she was pretty sure she was getting a cold. And her foot was falling asleep. And clouds were coming in, ruining the day even more. And it was all Alma’s fault.
Del finally had
