When the silver clock on the wall read midnight, Tyler crept out of his bunk and into his brother's room. There were snores coming from the guest bedroom, which could only mean that Mr. Chas had had too much to drink after dinner and Tyler's dad wouldn't let him drive home.

Alex, Tyler was pleased to see, was found clutching his stuffed bear close to his side as he slept.

"Alex," he said, poking his brother in the side. Alex woke with a start, and made a noise like a chipmunk while Tyler continued to poke him.

"Stop it, you freak." Alex yawned, finally awake. "Whaddya want?"

"I think we should go look in that closet again," Tyler whispered. "Mom and Dad can't catch us this time."

"That's a stupid idea," Alex said, but he stretched and sat up. "What if we make too much noise?"

"We'll be stealthy," Tyler said mysteriously. "Come on, it'll be easy."

"Whatever."

Tyler could tell that Alex was trying to hide his enthusiasm just like Tyler had done before. Alex was never excited about any idea that wasn't his own.

"Just remember," Alex whispered as they climbed down the stairs, "I was the one who found out about the closet."

Soon enough, they had cleared the bottom of the closet of boots, and were feeling around the back just like before. What they were looking for exactly wasn't clear to Tyler, but if there was something to find, he was determined to find it. Alex went into the kitchen and returned with a flashlight. He shined some light into the back, sweeping it back and forth slowly.

"Tyler, look!" Alex exclaimed, the flashlight shining in the left corner of the closet. Tyler saw the light reflecting off of what looked like a small circular, metal handle on a hinge. Alex didn't hesitate to tug on it, but nothing budged.

"Check the other corner," Tyler suggested. Sure enough, there was an identical handle there.

"I bet the bottom opens up!" Alex whispered loudly. Each of the brothers took a handle and pulled, but instead of the bottom opening up, the back of the closet pulled forward and revealed a crawlspace about two and a half feet tall.

"There's the box!" Alex said, not bothering to whisper. Tyler elbowed his brother and then looked up to see that, sure enough, a brown cardboard box was sitting within arm's length of them. What really surprised Tyler, though, was that the crawlspace was lit from the inside and looked like it led to a small room. Alex wasted no time in edging his way into the room within. Tyler followed behind him, pulling the box out of the crawlspace to create more room

The light, they found, was coming from an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling. The small room, Tyler thought as he stood up all the way, shouldn't be able to fit in their house. This was where the bathroom was supposed to be. A school project required that Tyler's class make a map of each of their houses, and Tyler made sure that his was perfect. The only way this room would fit would be--.

"Magic!" Alex whispered, reaching his hand out to a painting that hung on the left wall. Except, Tyler noticed, the sleeping lady within the frame was breathing. Alex touched the woman's nose, and she woke up immediately. He withdrew his hand quickly, as if it'd been burned.

"What're you kids doing in here?" the old lady's raspy voice questioned in a thick southern accent.

Neither boy answered.

"Surely you aren't allowed back here? What time is it? Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"This is amazing," Tyler said, disregarding the woman's questions and surveying the small space around them. The entire room had some kind of silent energy. Although it was mostly filled with boxes, there were plenty of objects scattered on the shelves that lined the room. Alex had already found another magical item, a music box, and was winding it eagerly. Tyler looked over Alex's shoulder and watched the ballerina do several spins before leaping through the air and doing the splits.

"Wow—" Alex breathed. "How could mom and dad hide all this stuff from us?"

"I thought they could only do magic with plants," Tyler commented, holding a miniature glass elephant in his hand that actually walked around, swinging its trunk back and forth.

"You kids get back to bed right now," the woman's picture chastised. "I'll tell your mother you were in here."

"Uh oh," Alex said, turning to Tyler. "Mom will find out if the picture tells!"

"My name is Eliza," she huffed importantly, "and yes, I will tell if you don't get out of here instantly."

"You mean," Tyler said, feeling awfully strange talking to a picture, "if we go now, you won't tell our mom?"

"I won't tell," she began, "but if you get out right now, and never come back. And leave everything where you found it!" She was looking straight at Alex who had tried to put a handful of blood-red candies in his pocket.

"Come on," Tyler said, pulling the sleeve of Alex's pajamas. If they could get out of this without being told on, it would be best to do it quickly.

Alex was first to crawl out. Tyler turned to the woman. "Thanks, Eliza," he said. She nodded, and Tyler saw a hint of a smile. He crouched down and made his way out. He and Alex put the wall back in its place.

"Hey, look," Alex said as they began to put the boots back. The brown box that Tyler had moved out of the way was in the middle of the hall.

"We better put it back," Tyler said.

"No way, now that old fart in there can't tell us to stop?"

Tyler shushed his brother. "You don't want mom and dad to hear us."

Alex picked up the cardboard box, which was just small enough for him to wrap his arms around. He carried it into the playroom and set it down in the middle of the room. It was hard to see, because the only light came from the flashlight, which was still in the hall. Tyler went to go get the flashlight and when he came back, Alex was sitting cross-legged, holding a wrapper and a small, round candy in his palm.

"Look what I took without the picture seeing," he said impressively. "Put it in my pocket as I was leaving."

"What is it?" Tyler asked skeptically, sitting across from his brother.

"It's candy! Read this." Alex gave Tyler the wrapper. Tyler maneuvered the flashlight so he could see the glittering words on the square of paper.

"Mini Fizzing Wizzbee Candy," Tyler read.

"Bet it's magic candy!" Alex said, hardly able to contain his excitement.

"Bet it's poison," Tyler mocked.

"Is not! It says 'candy' right on the wrapper."

"Then why don't you eat it and prove it?"

Alex's superiority diminished quickly. It looked as though he was seriously considering what Tyler had said about it being poisoned.

"I dare you to," Tyler urged, knowing Alex was too full of himself to turn down a dare. "Eat it."

"I'll lick it," Alex whispered. "But then you have to lick it, too. No matter what happens. Promise?"

"Promise. Now do it."

Alex could no longer stall for time, so he shut his eyes and brought the bright blue candy to his mouth. He wiped it across his tongue quickly, as if that would lessen the chance of any toxins jumping down his throat.

He waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened, so he gave it to Tyler. The wet side of the sphere left a blue mark on Tyler's hand.

"That's dumb," Alex concluded. "I mean, it tastes good, but it's probably not even – Holy Moly! Tyler! Look!"

Tyler looked up from his blue stained palm and saw that Alex was now hovering two inches off the ground, still sitting Indian style. It lasted for a few moments, and then he settled back on the ground.

"Give that back to me!" Alex said, grabbing for the candy, but Tyler stood up and backed out of reach before licking the candy himself. The sweet taste of blueberry exploded in his mouth. When he swallowed, it felt like helium was coursing through his bloodstream. A tingly feeling settled into his stomach and Tyler felt the ground slip away. It didn't feel like he was flying; it felt like the rest of the room was falling very slowly and he was staying in the same place. Alex grabbed the candy from Tyler's limp grasp and popped the whole thing in his mouth.

They spent an hour trading turns, not regarding the fact that they were also trading saliva along with the hovering candy, which grew smaller and smaller with every lick. Even though they couldn't fly more than a foot off the ground, and couldn't go anywhere once they were up there, it was still amazing, and they had trouble keeping their excited voices low enough to keep from attracting any unwanted attention from upstairs.

When Alex had dissolved the last of the blueberry magical candy and his feet touched back to the ground, they both had such a lingering fit of giggles that Tyler's stomach began aching. The candy had to be magic if he was having this much fun with Alex.

In all the elation that surrounded the marble-sized candy, both of them had completely forgotten about the cardboard box. They each seemed to remember the mystery box at the same time, though, and hurried to open the tightly closed flaps.

"What if there's more candy in here?" Alex whispered excitedly. Tyler half-hoped there weren't because he had been starting to feel dizzy every time the floor dropped from beneath his feet.

He then realized that while a piece of candy might not be noticed missing, his father would surely notice that the box was missing, or that it had been opened and bothered with.

"Maybe we shouldn't," Tyler said anxiously as Alex pulled on one of the flaps, folding the corner conspicuously.

"Are you joking?" Alex said, tugging on the stubborn cardboard. "This is big! It could be anything!"

"There's a reason it's hidden," Tyler whispered, feeling guilt for having eaten the candy and now for invading the box.

"Oh shut up," Alex snapped. "You know this has got to be important! Without this, we'll never figure out about all this magic stuff. Remember what Mom did to you when you asked about it? She's never going to tell us anything, so we have to figure it out ourselves."

The memory of Tyler's mother scolding him for asking questions about Werdwall resurfaced in his mind. Alex is right, he thought, Mom and Dad will never tell us anything.

He grabbed the flap with Alex, and they both pulled with all their seven and nine year-old might.

The inside of the box was glowing with a faint pink light. Soft pieces of cloth surrounded a glass ball that was filled with pink cloudy mess.

"Wow," Alex said, wrapping his hands around the glass ball and lifting it out. "This is neat. Feel it, it's so light."

Tyler apprehensively reached out and let Alex drop the ball into his hands. It felt very heavy, and Tyler wasn't expecting the weight and almost dropped it.

"Fooled you!" Alex laughed. Tyler scowled. Alex leaned over and checked the rest of the box.

"Oh, a little stand or something," he said, producing what did look like the ball's stand from the depths of the box.

"It's a crystal ball," Tyler gasped suddenly, looking into the moving clouds within the ball. "Like, gypsies and fortune tellers, you know?"

"No way," Alex said, reaching for it. "Here, let me tell your future."

He placed the crystal ball on the metal stand, and closed his eyes halfway as if in a trance. Tyler didn't like the way the light hit Alex's face, from the bottom; it sent strange shadows across his cheeks and forehead. Tyler tried to hide his sudden discomfort by staring at the ball.

"You shouldn't mess around with this, Alex," Tyler murmured, feeling the same strange energy he had felt in the magic room behind the closet. "What if you make something happen?"

"Nothing's going to happen, you dork," Alex whispered harshly. "I'm not a real fortune-teller."

Tyler swallowed and hoped that Alex was right when he began telling Tyler's future.

"Tomorrow you will be yelled at by Dad for breaking into his magic box."

"You did it too!" Tyler said defensively. Alex ignored him.

"You will fall and break your face after falling down the stairs. You will see that your brother is smarter and stronger than you and will be his personal slave forever."

"Stop it," Tyler sighed, not believing that he was actually having fun with his irritating brother just a half hour before.

"Come on, you try," Alex said. "It's fun!"

"I just want to go back to bed."

Alex suddenly became angry. "Tell my future, Ty, and make it a good one!"

"I don't want to get in trouble." Tyler shifted his weight to stand up, but Alex picked up the ball and set it in Tyler's lap before he could stand.

The strange shadows danced across Alex's angry face. "Do it, Ty, or you will be in trouble, with me."

Tyler could see there was no way out of this one, so he settled back down and picked up the crystal ball.

"You're going to get good grades this year, and won't get grounded at all until you're sixteen years old," he said in one breath.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "What else?"

"You're going to be captain of the football team."

Alex smiled; football was a favorite pastime. "And?"

"And –"Tyler couldn't think of anything else off the top of his head, so he looked inside the crystal ball as if it would show him an answer. He almost dropped it when he realized the color had changed to orange, and was swirling much faster now.

Alex's eyes grew wide, focusing on something behind Tyler. Tyler turned, and saw Mr. Chas's frame in the doorway. The awful, sinking feeling of foreboding dropped into Tyler's stomach once more—so completely different than that of the magical candy. He wished he could have another lick to balance out his insides.

Mr. Chas was walking into the room with long, irritated strides, and his lips were moving, but Tyler couldn't hear what he was saying. In fact, he realized, he couldn't hear anything at all besides the blood pumping through his own head. Before he became completely irrational, he gazed down at the crystal ball and saw a series of events he couldn't describe or even remember within moments of them flashing into his consciousness. The sudden feeling of intense drowsiness overtook him, and he slumped over onto the floor.

"Tyler? Ty, are you okay?" Mr. Chas's voice woke him suddenly.

"I'm fine," Tyler said, squinting. Who had turned on the lights? The guilt of breaking into his father's box and playing with the crystal ball jumped into his throat. Mr. Chas was grasping his shoulders and the crystal ball was rolling away from them.

Alex was just staring at Tyler, horrified. Tyler wished he would stop it and start thinking up a good excuse. Alex was much better at excuses than Tyler since he was much better at getting into trouble.

But Alex wasn't speaking at all.

"Go upstairs and wake up your parents," Mr. Chas said to Alex, still holding Tyler's shoulders tightly as if they were bicycle handles. Alex rushed out of the room.

"Tyler?"

"Sorry," Tyler said quickly. "I know we shouldn't have—"

"Don't worry about that," Mr. Chas interrupted hastily. "Are you feeling okay? Do you remember what happened?"

Tyler thought that was a strange question to ask and wondered if Mr. Chas was trying to pull his leg.

"I remember you coming in the room—and then falling asleep?" Tyler hadn't meant for it to sound like a question, but his memory seemed oddly hazy. His mother and father entered the room in their robes. His dad was still fumbling with the knot. Alex peeked in through the doorway as if Tyler was something dangerous.

"Oh, Tyler!" His mother swept down and embraced him.

What was going on? Why weren't they angry? They seemed almost frightened.

Mr. Chas, for the first time in Tyler's life, looked at him like the mature person Tyler felt inside.

"You're up for quite a future," Mr. Chas breathed respectfully, "I hope you can handle it."