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“Erin, I’m not so sure about this,” I said softly, thinking hard.
“Huh? Not so sure about what?”
“Not so sure I want to be famous,” I replied. “I mean, I really don’t know if I want the whole
world to know about the mirror.”
“Why not?” she demanded impatiently. “Everyone wants to be famous. And rich.”
“But they’ll take away the mirror,” I explained. “It’s an amazing thing, Erin. I mean, is it magic?
Is it electronic? Is it someone’s invention? Whatever it is, it’s unbelievable! And they’re not going to
let a kid keep it.”
“But it’s yours!” she insisted.
“They’ll take it away to study it. Scientists will want it. Government guys will want it. Army
guys. They’ll probably want to use it to make the army invisible or something.”
“Scary,” Erin mumbled thoughtfully.
“Yeah. Scary,” I said. “So I don’t know. I’ve got to think about this. A lot. In the meantime, it’s
got to be a secret.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she said doubtfully. “But think about the science fair, Max. We could win the
prize. We really could.”
“I’ll think about it,” I told her.
I haven’t thought about anything else! I realized.
“April wants to try it,” she said.
“Huh?”
“I convinced her. I told her it didn’t hurt or anything. So she wants to try it on Wednesday. We
are going to do it on Wednesday, aren’t we, Max?”
“I guess,” I replied reluctantly. “Since everyone wants to.”
“Great!” she exclaimed. “I think I’ll beat your record.”
“The new record is ten minutes,” I informed her. I explained about Lefty and his dinnertime
adventure.
“Your brother is really a nut,” Erin remarked.
I agreed with her, then said good night.
I couldn’t get to sleep that night. I tried sleeping on one side, then the other. I tried counting
sheep. Everything.
I knew I was sleepy. But my heart was racing. I just couldn’t get comfortable. I stared up at the
ceiling, thinking about the mirror in the little room above me.
It was nearly three in the morning when I crept barefoot out of my room, wide awake, and
headed up to the attic. As before, I leaned heavily on the banister as I climbed, trying to keep the
wooden stairs from their usual symphony of creaks and groans.
In my hurry to get to the little room, I stubbed my toe on the corner of a wooden crate.
“Ow!” I screamed as quietly as possible. I wanted to hop up and down, but I forced myself to
stand still, and waited for the pain to fade.
As soon as I could walk again, I made my way into the little room. I pulled a carton in front of
the mirror and sat down on it.
My toe still throbbed, but I tried to ignore it. I stared at my dark reflection in the mirror, studying
my hair first, of course. It was totally messed up, but I really didn’t care.