To my sons, Jordan and Dylan, who have shown me the meaning of true magic.
Contents
CHAPTER TWO: The Unexpected Guest
CHAPTER THREE: Florida Comes to Stay
CHAPTER FOUR: Call the Doctor!
CHAPTER FIVE: The Magic Fanny Pack
CHAPTER SIX: Treasures in the Trunk
CHAPTER EIGHT: Riptide to the Rescue
CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Flying Deathtrap
CHAPTER TWELVE: Into the Amazon
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Hot on the Trail
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Baby Troubles
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Into the MegaPix
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Truth or Consequences, 1994
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Grandma Daisy
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Mom’s Florida Problems
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Outfoxing Walter Brinker
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Let’s Make a Deal
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Hatching a Plan
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Scavenger Hunt
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Grandpa Jack’s Key
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: The Mysterious Ring
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: Grandma Daisy’s Fanny Pack
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: The Rules of Magic
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: The Not-So-Great Stake Out
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: Searching for Mom
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Finding Mom
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Walter Brinker
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: The Fiesta Parade
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: Chasing Down Leroy
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: Back to Costa Rica
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: Miracle Movers
CHAPTER FORTY: The Miracles of Magic
I paddled my surfboard hard past the churning whitecaps as Leroy yowled on the beach. My dog went bonkers when I surfed. Maybe he was worried something bad would happen, but I’d been riding the waves every day since early June when I arrived here in Costa Rica. All I’d ever gotten was one nasty cut on my foot from a piece of spiky orange coral.
“Ride that one! It’s perfect!” my best friend Violet shouted from the shore.
“Not perfect enough!” I yelled back as I let the wave roll by.
My friend Noah crouched on the hot-cinnamon sand. His messy brown hair flopped over his freckled forehead as he held Leroy back by his collar. Whenever I surfed, my dog had a habit of plunging into the ocean in his noble attempts to “save” me.
Leroy and I were spending the summer in Jacó, Costa Rica, with Rosalie Claire and her husband, Thomas. Most afternoons, Thomas took a break from his work at the inn and taught me to surf.
Violet and Noah had arrived late yesterday in San José. Rosalie Claire and I drove an hour and a half through the electric-green countryside along a narrow, twisty highway