Karen's Magic Garden Read online

  Then it started to get dark. Everyone began hugging and kissing good-bye. They loaded their cars. I was sad when my relatives drove away. I had met so many new people. And they were my family!

  During the day, people had filled in spaces on the family tree. They had brought family records and photographs. Now there was only one photograph missing: Polly’s mother.

  “We will probably never fine one,” Great-aunt Carol said. “She lived such a long time ago. And she died very young.”

  More people left. Uncle Richard and Aunt Denise left. Theresa and Edward left.

  “Good-bye! Good-bye!” I called, waving at their car. “Thank you for helping with the magic garden!”

  Aunt Mimi and Uncle Henry left with Little Henry and Jennifer.

  “Be sure to write!” I yelled.

  Uncle Philip and Aunt Alison left with Jonathan.

  “See you at the next family reunion!” I shouted.

  Soon everyone was gone except Mommy, Seth, Andrew, me, Great-aunt Carol, Great-uncle John, Aunt Ellen, Uncle Mark, and Kelsey and Diana.

  Diana and I sat on the back porch. The grown-ups were gathering trash and putting away leftover food. Diana and I shared one more piece of pie. I felt kind of blue.

  The family reunion had been so much fun. Almost too fun. Now it was over. The sun had gone down. It was getting chilly. I wondered what was happening back in Stoneybrook. I wondered about Emily Junior and Bob. I rubbed my arms.

  “Gee, it is very quiet now,” Diana said.

  “That is just what I was thinking,” I said. I tried to smile. “I think you are connected to my brain.”

  Diana giggled. “It was fun seeing all the cousins.”

  “Playing all the games,” I added.

  “Eating all the food.” Diana frowned and put down the pie plate. “Maybe too much food.”

  “Soon we will be going home.”

  “You know what?” Diana asked. She did not wait for me to answer. “We still have the magic garden.”

  “You are right!” I said. I felt a tiny bit less blue. “We can play in it tomorrow.”

  “You know what else?” Diana asked again. “We could explore the attic again now, just the two of us. Maybe we will find something else.”

  So that is what we did.

  More Secret Diaries

  We looked through the telescope. We tried on old clothes. I looked very funny wearing old clothes.

  “Look back there,” I said. I pointed under the eaves. “I see another old box.”

  Diana and I pulled it out. It was tied shut with string.

  “Look, look!” Diana cried. “There is AED written on the side.”

  “Annemarie Eugenia Dillon!” I was very excited again. I did not feel the tiniest bit blue. Quickly we untied the string.

  Guess what we found? More diaries, written by Annemarie.

  Diana looked at me. I looked at her.

  “To the windowseat,” we said at the exact same time.

  * * *

  “These were written in nineteen-oh-two,” Diana said, opening a diary. “That is ten years after the first ones.”

  I counted on my fingers. “Annemarie must have been nineteen years old. Read some out loud.”

  Diana squinted and turned the diary this way and that. Finally she read out loud:

  “June fifth, nineteen-oh-two

  “Dear Diary,

  “Toby and I have come to Lobster Cove to see my family. I cannot believe that in only five days I will be Toby’s bride.”

  “Bride!” I shrieked.

  Diana’s eyes were big. “She was only nineteen.”

  She read some more:

  “It is good to be back here — home to so many happy memories. Toby seems to love it as much as I do. I have only one wish: that my whole family were here to share in our joy. But as you know, Polly is still in Europe. Even though I haven’t seen her in ten years, my heart misses her.”

  “Didn’t they see each other the next summer?” I asked. “They were supposed to meet here the very next summer.”

  “Everything is just as I remember it. The roses are in bloom, the ocean air is fresh. I think back to my girlhood days, and miss Polly sorely. If only her father hadn’t remarried! If only they still lived in America! Still, at least I have my darling Toby. I plan to show him the ‘magic garden’ after dinner this evening.”

  “Oh my gosh,” Diana breathed. “Maybe they never saw each other again. Maybe Polly never came back.”

  “Diana, if Polly and Annemarie did not meet the next summer, maybe they never looked for their memory boxes,” I said. I could feel a tingle starting down at my toes. “Maybe the memory boxes are still hidden in the magic garden!”

  “We have to look for them!” Diana cried. “We have to look for them before we both go back home!”

  “Girls?” Mommy said. She was standing in the doorway. “It is bedtime. Please come take your baths.”

  I groaned. We would have to wait until the next day to see if the memory boxes were where Annemarie and Polly had left them — way back in 1892.

  Long-Ago Memory Boxes

  I did not think I would ever want to eat again. But when I woke up on Monday morning, I was starving.

  Diana and I ate breakfast very quickly. Then we ran outside with all the early journals — the ones Annemarie had written when she was nine years old.

  We sat on a warm stone bench in the magic garden. Diana looked through one book. I looked through another.

  “Here it is,” I cried. “Here is the section about the memory boxes.” Diana leaned over my shoulder to see.

  “Hmm,” Diana said. “It says they are hidden in the wall. What wall?”

  “She must mean the wall of the magic garden,” I said firmly. “But how could that be? The walls are made of bricks.”

  “We cannot open the walls,” Diana agreed. “Unless we had a really big hammer.”

  I stood up, closed my eyes, and wished a secret wish.

  Then we began to look at the garden walls. Were the memory boxes buried next to them? Was there a secret compartment? We tapped the bricks. We looked for clues that would tell us where they were.

  But we could not find them. I flopped down on the little patch of grass (neatly mowed and raked) in front of the empty fountain. There were two fountain statues — one on each side. They were women wearing long, flowing robes. They looked very old. Then … did I see something? I went closer to them. Yes! By one statue a very small A was scratched into the closest brick. There was a little P on a brick close to the other statue.

  “Diana!” I cried. “Quick, come here!”

  Together we scrabbled at the brick with the A on it. Holding my breath, I pulled at it as hard as I could.

  Finally it came loose in my hands. I was pulling so hard I fell backward.

  After that it was easy. The brick next to that one came out right away. Then I carefully stuck my hand in the hole … and pulled out an old metal biscuit box.

  “Annemarie’s memory box,” Diana whispered. “After all this time.”

  My wish had come true. I had wished that we would find the memory boxes. See? It really was a magic garden. I looked up at Diana. “We should not open it yet,” I said. “We should find Polly’s also. Then open them together.”

  “Good idea,” said Diana.

  Well, Polly’s box was behind two loose bricks by the P on the other side. Diana held Polly’s box, and I held Annemarie’s. We sat on the grass facing each other.

  “One, two, three … now!” I cried. We flung open the boxes.

  Inside, the boxes were almost exactly alike. These are the things we found:

  1. A locket shaped like a heart. (They had pictures inside.)

  2. A faded hair ribbon with a real lock of hair. (Annemarie’s was blonde, Polly’s was dark brown.)

  3. A half of a ticket to a county fair.

  4. A fancy pencil.

  5. A fancy postcard.

  Annemarie’s bo
x also had a tiny china doll in it. Her clothes were moldy.

  “Ew,” I said.

  Polly’s box had a tiny pillow in it. “Polly” was embroidered on it in pink thread.

  “Her welcoming pillow!” Diana said. We both sniffed it. It still smelled a little like rose petals.

  Also in Polly’s box was a photo of a young woman. On the back it said “Mamma Dear.”

  “The missing family-tree picture!” I said happily. “We have to show this to Great-aunt Carol.”

  Diana closed Polly’s box, and I closed Annemarie’s. Then we ran to the big house.

  * * *

  “Everyone, come quick!” I called. “Please,” I added. “Diana and I have something very important to tell you.”

  “And show you,” Diana said.

  It took us a long time to tell everyone the whole story of Annemarie and Polly and the diaries and the memory boxes. Then we opened them and showed what was inside.

  “Well, I declare,” said Great-aunt Carol, picking up the old photograph. “This is the very thing we needed.”

  Carefully she pasted in the picture of Polly’s mother at the bottom of the family tree.

  Mommy hugged me. “You girls have been real detectives.”

  I nodded proudly.

  Great-aunt Carol smiled at Diana and me. “You both deserve a special prize, for finding the last, most difficult photograph. Would you like to keep Annemarie’s and Polly’s memory boxes?”

  “Yes!” I cried. “Please.”

  “Double yes!” Diana said.

  We jumped up and down.

  Then Mommy looked at me, and I stopped.

  I opened my box, took out the locket, and put it on. (Mommy helped me.) Then I opened it. Inside were two faded brown photographs of girls. One had blonde hair, one had dark brown. They were Annemarie and Polly.

  Diana put on her locket. The same two pictures were inside.

  She looked at me, and I looked at her. Using our special cousin-mind-reading, we each decided to keep them forever.

  New Memory Boxes

  Later that afternoon, Mommy and Seth took Diana, Kelsey, Andrew, and me to the beach. Most of the beach was just big rocks, little rocks, and rocks in between. But there was also a small strip of sand. That’s where the fire had been. And the big cooking pit on Sunday. Now we walked on the sand, looking for shells.

  “We are leaving early tomorrow morning,” I said. “Right after breakfast.” I was not looking forward to leaving. And I was not looking forward to the long, long car ride home. But I was looking forward to seeing Emily Junior and Hannie and Nancy again.

  “We are, too. It takes us almost two hours to get home by plane,” Diana said. (She lives in Pennsylvania.)

  “You know what? We should write letters to each other,” I said.

  Diana smiled at me. “That is a great idea. And I have another idea.” She leaned over and whispered it in my ear.

  “Diana, you are so smart,” I said. “Mommy?” I called. “May we go back to the house?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Be careful climbing the rocks.”

  * * *

  “Here is my picture,” I said to Diana. I handed her one of my small school pictures. In it I am wearing my pink glasses, and my blue glasses are around my neck. “I wrote ‘Love, Karen’ on the back.”

  “Thank you,” Diana said. “Here is one of me. I wrote ‘Your friend 4-ever’ on it.”

  “Thank you.” I took her picture and put it in my memory box. That is what Diana’s smart idea had been. We were going to make our own memory boxes. We would put them back in the magic garden wall, and hide them again.

  Our mommies had cut off tiny locks of our hair, and tied them with new ribbons. We each put in our favorite seashells, and also our woven friendship bracelets. There was one menu from the restaurant we had gone to (where I had tried a clam). We cut it in half, and put the halves in our boxes.

  Last, we put in letters we had written to each other.

  Mine said:

  “Dear Diana,

  “This was the best family reunion. I had so much fun with you. Please write to me. And come see me in Stoneybrook. Let’s be friends forever. Love, your cousin, Karen.”

  Then I folded it and wrote SWAK on it (Sealed With A Kiss). I kissed it and handed it to her.

  Hers said:

  “Dear Karen,

  “I am so glad we are cousins. We are twin cousins! One day when I get married, you will be my bridesmaid. See you next year, I hope! Love, Diana.”

  Then she folded it and wrote:

  on it.

  “Thank you,” I said. “That is so sweet.”

  We closed our memory boxes. I hid mine under the A bricks. Diana hid hers under the P bricks. Then we hugged.

  “Now, remember,” I said. “You cannot come get the memory boxes without me. You have to wait, no matter how long.”

  Diana nodded. “You have to wait, too. We have to do it together. I hope it is next year, at the next family reunion.”

  “Me, too,” I said. “That is so far away. I will be eight then.”

  “Me, too. Let’s make one more wish.”

  We closed our eyes and made wishes. I think we both wished for the same thing. Can you guess what it was?

  With one last look at the magic garden, we walked back to the big house, holding hands.

  Saying Good-bye

  “Karen, honey, time to wake up,” Mommy said softly.

  “Ughhhh,” I mumbled. I did not want to get up. I did not want to get in the car for a humongously long car ride back to Stoneybrook. I did not want to say good-bye to Diana.

  Mommy shook my shoulder. “Last one out of her sleeping bag is a rotten egg,” she whispered.

  I could not help smiling. I opened my eyes. Diana was in her sleeping bag next to me. We were on the porch. Now that everyone was gone, there were plenty of empty beds upstairs. But we had wanted to spend our last night in Lobster Cove on our porch.

  Diana’s eyes opened. Mommy smiled at her.

  Suddenly Diana leaped out of her sleeping bag and ran for the porch door. “Shake a leg, rotten egg!” she yelled.

  I started laughing, and scrambled out of my bag.

  * * *

  Mommy, Seth, Andrew, me, Diana, Kelsey, Aunt Ellen, and Uncle Mark ate one last breakfast at the long dining-room table. I tried to eat slowly, but Seth kept looking at his watch.

  “We better hurry, Karen,” he said. “The sooner we leave, the sooner we will be back home.”

  I sighed. Diana sighed, too.

  “And we have a plane to catch, Di,” said Aunt Ellen.

  “I know,” Diana said.

  The grown-ups got up to finish packing. Andrew went with Kelsey to say good-bye to her frog, Prince Caliber. Andrew loved that frog.

  While Mommy and Seth loaded the car, Diana and I sat on the front porch steps. I felt very blue again.

  “What if there is no family reunion next year?” I asked sadly.

  “What if there is, but I cannot come?” Diana said. “Or you cannot come?”

  “Then we cannot open the boxes,” I said.

  “Maybe we will not open them until we are grown-ups,” said Diana.

  I wrinkled my nose. “That will be weird. Maybe we will come back here with children of our own.”

  “And our husbands,” Diana said.

  “I already have a pretend husband,” I told her. “His name is Ricky Torres.”

  “Wow,” said Diana. “I did not know that.”

  There were so many things we did not know about each other. We would have to write each other with all the details.

  Finally Mommy came to get me. She hugged and kissed Great-aunt Carol, Great-uncle John, and Aunt Ellen and Uncle Mark.

  “Please come visit us in Stoneybrook,” she said to Aunt Ellen.

  “We will try,” said Aunt Ellen.

  Mommy hugged Kelsey and Diana. Then Andrew hugged everyone. Then I hugged everyone. I saved Diana for last.
br />   “Good-bye,” I whispered. I had a lump in my throat. It made it hard to talk.

  “Good-bye,” Diana whispered back.

  Then Mommy took my hand. We walked across the lawn to the stone steps that led down to the driveway. I waved back at Diana. She waved at me.

  I swallowed hard.

  In the back seat, Andrew and I fastened our seat belts. I did not feel like talking. Mommy and Seth got in the front seats. Mommy was going to drive first. She drove down the driveway and turned onto the road. I looked, but could not see Diana. All I saw was the top of the big house. I saw the attic window.

  “Mommy, can I get a frog?” Andrew asked.

  “Um, I need to think about it,” Mommy said. “Look at all the boats, Karen.”

  I looked out the window and saw tiny white boats on the ocean. Would I ever see them again?

  “I want to eat clams,” Andrew said.

  Mommy laughed. “Maybe we can eat clams for lunch.” She turned the car onto the highway.

  Already I missed Diana and the big house and the magic garden and our memory boxes. I thought about the dusty attic. We had found so many neat things in it. There were probably even more things up there that we had not had time to find.

  I sat up in my seat. What if … what if more of Annemarie’s things were up there? I did not know what happened to her after the last diary. Did she ever see Polly again? The next time I went to Lobster Cove, I would look in the attic. Maybe I would find the answers.

  But right now, I was going home to Stoneybrook. To my own room and my own bed. And to my two best friends, Hannie and Nancy. I could not wait to tell them about the mystery of the magic garden. And my twin cousin!

  “Maybe we can have lunch at a restaurant that has clams for Andrew and other things for me,” I said. “Things besides clams.”

  “That is a very good idea,” Mommy said.

  “Andrew, do you want to play I Spy?” I asked. We had a long car trip ahead of us. I needed to pass the time.

  ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.