11 Birthdays Read online

  “I have an idea,” Leo says. I step away. Leo pulls on the drawer above mine and it slides out easily. Now we can easily reach behind the bottom one!

  “You can do the honors,” Leo says.

  I take a deep breath and stick my hand down there. At first all I feel is a thick layer of dust. Then my fingers land on something smooth. I feel around until I find edges that I can grab.

  “What is it? What is it?” Leo is bouncing around like a little kid.

  I brush off the dust and find myself holding a small black notepad.

  “Is it the founder’s journal?” he shouts, then covers his mouth with his hands.

  Able to read the words on the cover now, I slowly shake my head. “Even better, it’s your great-great-grandfather’s journal!”

  Chapter Twenty

  He gasps and reaches for it. I place it in his hands. “It must have been stuck back there all this time. I bet you jarred it loose when you opened the drawers.”

  I sit next to him as he rubs his fingers over the embossed letters. They’re very faded, but the words PROPERTY OF LEONARD FITZPATRICK are still legible.

  Suddenly there’s a banging on the front door. We jump up so fast I instantly get dizzy. The Girl Scouts have arrived for their tour. Guess they didn’t know the place was closed on Fridays, either! “Duck,” Leo says, pulling me down behind the desk. “I don’t think they saw us.”

  We stay crouched while the knocking continues. Then the phone rings. The answering machine clicks on and we hear, “Thank you for calling the Willow Falls Historical Society. We are closed every Friday until further notice. Please try us again at another date.” The Girl Scout troop leader leaves a not very nice message about how hard it is to coordinate such visits.

  The scouts finally leave. We get up and move over to the couch, which is well hidden from the front door. “Here goes,” Leo says, opening the small book. The ink is faded to a dull blue. I lean over and he moves the notebook between us. The first few pages are filled with rows of numbers. Then there’s a long list of items to get at the shop — tools, wood, milk. Leo flips through the rest until he finds a few pages filled with tiny block letters. He finds the beginning and reads out loud: “I do not scare easily. I did not act when the strange woman darkened my door with her threats of consequences if Rex Ellerby and I did not end our feud. He and I have never seen eye to eye and I did not imagine we ever would. This is not the place to list my grievances against the man. Suffice to say they are long and varied. It was Harvest Day and I had bigger things on my mind. I have started to record these words many times, only to have them disappear the next day. I have learned to keep them on my person. It is only that way they survive.”

  I gasp when Leo reads that part. “That’s like us! How we have to keep things on us when we sleep or else we lose them!”

  “Do you really think that’s what he means?”

  “I don’t know, keep reading!”

  He turns back to the book. “For endless days now, I have been harvesting my apples. Each time Harvest Day ends, it starts again.”

  “I knew it!” I shout, not caring who hears me. “I knew it!”

  Leo keeps reading, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. “It’s always the same. Josephine fixes my eggs, the buggies arrive with the baskets, the men line up in the fields. Why does no one else realize this is happening? It is enough to drive a man mad. And of all people, it seems Ellerby is involved in this thing, too! It took five days until we understood what happened to us. It was that strange old woman. She did this to us. Some kind of enchantment. We searched high and low. She has disappeared. Our mutual situation has forced us to mend our fences. We spent the day helping the townsfolk undo what our ridiculous feud did to the town. We undammed the river so others’ land will no longer suffer, told the local businesses we would no longer boycott their goods if they took apples from the other. One hour ago we shook hands like gentlemen and raised our glasses to a successful harvest. Josephine and Amanda were witnesses to it. Almost knocked ’em over, it did.”

  A new section starts on the next page. “It happened! It is now the day AFTER Harvest Day. Ellerby and I ran from our houses and embraced by the river. We jumped around like children while our wives and the townsfolk stared in amazement. We have agreed never to speak of this to anyone.”

  Leo flips the rest of the pages, but they’re blank. He lets the book fall closed on the floor. When he looks up, his eyes are bright. “Now we know why this happened to us!”

  “We do?”

  “Don’t you see? They ignored the old woman’s warning and kept fighting, then after the one-year-mark passed, they got stuck in the loop. You and me got into a fight last year on our birthday, so this year on our birthday the enchantment or whatever it was, kicked in. I guess ’cause we’re related to them?”

  I jump up, almost hitting my head on a low shelf. “You’re right!” Relief floods through me. The pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together.

  “Okay, so somehow we’re reliving the same thing our great-great-grandfathers did,” Leo says, starting to pace. “We know they eventually broke out of the loop. What we don’t know is how.”

  “Yes, we do.” I pick up the small book and wave it in the air. “Leonard told us.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He wrote about how he and Rex made up, and then how they helped the townspeople and made everyone happy, right? So that’s what we have to do!”

  “But we made up a week ago,” he points out, “and it’s still happening. And I tried to fix things with Vinnie, but nothing changed. You tried to help your mother and she still got fired.”

  “That’s true,” I admit, my hope deflating.

  “Then again … you did help that kid with his science project, and your sister with hers, and those worked out, right?”

  I nod. “Yeah. Maybe some things you can change, and some you can’t.”

  “So tomorrow we help everyone we come across, whether we think we can make a difference or not.”

  “Deal.” We shake on it. “I have a really good feeling about this.”

  “Me too,” he says.

  Then the two of us look at each other, let out a whoop, and bounce around just like old Rex and Leonard did. We’re so busy high-fiving and whooping and jumping on the couches, we don’t hear the knock on the door until it turns into more of a pounding. We were supposed to meet Leo’s mom at the dress shop, but we must have lost track of time. We hurry over to the door and unlock it. She points to the sign.

  “How come it says closed on Fridays if you’re inside? And why was the door locked?”

  I have to catch my breath from all the jumping before coming up with an answer. “The lady who worked here? She had to um, step out, so she locked the door behind us so no one could come in.”

  Leo nods in agreement.

  “Oh,” his mom says. “Well, did you find what you were looking for?”

  “And more!” replies Leo. “I just need to put a book back.” While he re-hides the journal, I keep Mrs. Fitzpatrick occupied by showing her the stuffed raccoon, which grosses her out as much as it does me.

  As we walk to the car Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s eyes fill with tears. She looks from Leo to me and back again. Leo’s eyes narrow. “Mom,” he warns, “you’re not going to cry because Amanda and I are friends again, are you?”

  “I might,” she says, laying her hand on her chest. “It’s just so wonderful. Does your mother know yet, Amanda?”

  It honestly takes me a few seconds to remember if, in this version of our birthday, my mother knows or not. I shake my head. “Not yet.”

  “She will when I bring you home!” she says, linking her arm in mine.

  “She won’t be there. Big day at work.”

  “Oh.” She frowns. “Well, we’ll all get together tomorrow and talk about old times.”

  “Tomorrow, definitely!” I say as sincerely as I can muster. I have to kick Leo to keep him from laughing