Feb 26, 2019 6 min read

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¦ CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A shout of surprise

The story so far: Sally seems to have just traveled once again into the past, where she and Elizabeth attended a tea party in the garden. Or was it a dream?

To Sally’s immense surprise, Elizabeth, as she hugged her, gave a little squeal. But of course, it was not Elizabeth at all, but Shadow, who had curled up in Sally’s lap and gone to sleep.

“Oh, Shadow,” said Sally, scratching his ear where he most loved to have it scratched. “I’m sorry. I was dreaming again. But how funny! Both my dreams have been about things that the other Sally wrote about in her diary.” She looked back into the mirror, but saw only Shadow and herself reflected there now.

“But do you know something, Shadow? They don’t seem exactly like dreams. It almost seems as if they’re really happening. And look,” she said, remembering something and reaching into her pocket, “this must be a piece of one of the shells from the garden. The shells in the cupboard used to be out there.” She stared in awe at the bit of shell in her hand.

“But I still haven’t found Elizabeth,” she said unhappily. “I wonder if I ever will!”

As she was walking down the hall stairs, followed by Shadow, Sally noticed that the rain had stopped and the sun had come out.

“Well,” said her aunt when she walked into the kitchen, “have you found Elizabeth yet?”

“Not yet,” said Sally.

“How would you like to ask your new friend to help us make gingerbread cookies?” asked Aunt Sarah.

“My friend? Do you mean Emily?”

“The little girl who was with you in the sleigh.”

“Oh,” said Sally. “I don’t know if her mother will let her.”

“There’s only one way to find out,” said Aunt Sarah briskly. “Ask her. That is, if you’d like her to come. You might have lunch together, too, if you like.”

“Oh, I would like it!” cried Sally. “But-“

“Run along then, and ask her.”

Sally hesitated for just a moment, then hurried out into the garden. She looked up at Emily’s window. The shade was drawn again. Maybe they’re not home, she told herself.

“Emily!” she called. “EMILY!”

With a brisk snap, the shade flew up and Emily’s face appeared. “Hi, Sally!” she said. “I was just hoping you’d come out today.”

“You were? But I thought-I mean, yesterday, you were gone when I came back.”

“I had to go. My mother called me.”

“Oh,” breathed Sally. She smiled her happy relief up at her friend.

“Sally,” Emily asked in an anxious voice, “are you going home? Is your mother coming for you?”

Sally shook her head. “No,” she said, “I told her I wanted to stay.”

“That’s great!” said Emily. “Did you find Elizabeth yet?”

Sally shook her head. “Not yet,” she said. “But Emily, Aunt Sarah told me to ask you if you could come over for lunch. We’ll make gingerbread cookies, too. Could you?”

“I’ll ask my mother,” said Emily eagerly. “Wait a minute.”

Sally chewed on the end of a blade of grass while she waited. “Oh, I hope,” she whispered, “I hope she can.” She crossed her fingers.

Emily’s face showed again at the window. She was smiling. “My mother says I can come,” she announced.

When the cookies were baked, they ate them for dessert after their lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, carrot sticks, and potato chips. Aunt Sarah left them alone for the most part, and when she was with them she did not seem frightening in the least. For Sally, leading Emily around the house after lunch was like living again through the wonder of seeing it the first time herself, only without the fear.

“There’s the melodeon!” exclaimed Emily as they went into the parlor. They amused themselves for a time by walking back and forth, just to hear it tinkle.

Of course, Emily had to look at the shells, and hear about how they had once lined the garden paths, and finger with wonder the bit of shell from Sally’s pocket. She seemed quite enchanted with the frail little cups and saucers, and her eyes were like saucers themselves as she listened to Sally’s story of how the handle on one of the cups had come to be broken.

“I wonder if it really did happen that way,” said Emily.

“That’s what it says in the diary,” said Sally.

“Could I see the diary?” asked Emily.

Sally nodded and led the way through the bead curtains.

In the upstairs hall, Emily stared in awe at the grandfather clock, and hopped from flower to flower on the rug.

Then Sally proudly led her to see the picture in her room.

“Is that the other Sally and Elizabeth?” Emily asked.

Sally nodded.

“You know, she does look just like you. And Elizabeth is-she’s wonderful! Oh, Sally, you just have to find her! Wouldn’t it be fun to play with her?”

Sally took Emily up to the attic and showed her the other Sally’s trunk and all the things inside. She let her read the diary, and she put on the other Sally’s clothes for her. She told Emily all about her dreams, and how it had seemed that she could see the other Sally in the mirror. The two of them stood side by side looking into the mirror. “Yes, that really does look like the other Sally in there,” Emily said. “I wish I could have a dream like that.”

But this time, nothing happened.

They looked and looked for some clue to Elizabeth’s whereabouts.

“What’s Shadow doing?” Emily finally asked.

Sally looked up from the paper lace valentine she had found in a box. “Oh, he’s pushing something into that space between the wall and the roof. See where it comes down there? He’s always doing that.”

“Cats are funny,” said Emily. Then she disappeared behind a chest of drawers.

Sally looked up when she heard a gasp of surprise.

“Sally!” Emily yelled. “Come here!” Her face appeared briefly from behind the chest, and then vanished again.

NEXT WEEK: Emily’s discovery