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blow up the school, Zeek and I had to fly all over the galaxy in a rocket to stop him.
    â€œThe Sneezemeister!” Zeek whispered. “I’ll never forget his face.”
    Yeah. Wispy hair. Evil grin. Drippy nose. Mr. Vazny’s sneezes were like nuclear explosions!
    â€œHe sure did have a sinus problem,” I said. “Now whenever anybody sneezes, I break into a sweat.”
    â€œMe too,” said Zeek. “I even scare myself when I get a runny nose!”
    I shivered again. “Good thing the army locked him up.”
    â€œI hope they threw away the key.”
    Beep-beep! Zeek’s dad pulled their minivan out of the garage. We ran over and helped to pack up.
    Two hours later, we tumbled out of the van in front of a giant log cabin. Zeek’s mom, dad, and sister, Emily, went inside to set up for the party.
    I stayed outside with Zeek. There was a plaque on the front of the building. “‘Mine Mountain Lodge,’” I read. “Cool! It says this mountain used to be the site of an old mineral mine. And this lodge was the owner’s house.”
    I looked up. Smoke was rising from the chimney. It looked warm inside. It made me hungry.
    â€œLet’s go in,” I said. “Maybe they have food.”
    â€œNo way!” said Zeek, pulling me over to the bottom of the slope. A blast of cold air rushed down the mountain and hit me in the face. I could see my breath. It was going to be one freezing-cold day.
    Zeek snapped on his skis. “Noodle, the good news is that if we jump on the ski lift now, we’ll have time for one quick run before the party!”
    Mine Mountain rose straight up like a giant snowy head. The ski-lift cable dangled like a skinny wire all the way to the top.
    â€œAnd what’s the bad news?” I mumbled.
    Just then a man came running down from the ski lift. He was a little funny-looking. Well, a lot funny-looking. He wore thick pink glasses and had a fluffy black mustache and strange hair. It was bright red and growing straight up.
    Bad hair day, I thought.
    Besides that, he was squeezing his nose tight as if he had a cold. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that his nose was big and pink and round.
    Zeek nudged me. “Probably a surprise clown my parents hired for my party,” he whispered. “Don’t let on I figured it out.”
    â€œUm, excuse me,” I said. “How’s the skiing today?”
    â€œDangerous!” the clown muttered under his mustache. He turned away quickly and disappeared behind the lodge.
    I turned to Zeek. “If he’s a clown, how come I’m not laughing?” I started back to the lodge. “I’m going to eat some cake.”
    I didn’t move fast enough. Before I knew it, I was sitting next to Zeek in a little chair sailing high above the snow.
    Zeek took a deep breath and gazed around. “Ah, what a great day!”
    My stomach didn’t think so. We were climbing higher and higher in that dinky little lift chair. I tried not to think about how high we were. Or how far away from the lodge we were going. After all, this was Zeek’s day, and he was—
    GRRR! A motor growled and sputtered down below. We watched as the clown zoomed up the mountain on a sleek blue snowmobile.
    â€œHey, where’s he going?” said Zeek. “Shouldn’t he be tying balloons or something?”
    POP! A chunk of something fell off our ski lift. I think it was a chunk of ski lift.
    â€œZeek? This doesn’t look good—”
    ERRRCH! The lift jerked to a stop.
    It swung there for a second or two.
    I looked at Zeek. He looked at me.
    â€œOh.” My voice went sort of weak. “Now I know what the bad news is.…”
    KA-CHANK! —The lift cable suddenly swung loose, and we dropped like stones to the icy ground below.



TWO
    My whole life flashed before my eyes.
    WHOOSH!
    It didn’t take very long.
    By the time I started to scream— Floo!