gold medal?â she asked.
âYou mean the gold medallion,â said Jack.
He picked up his pencil and wrote:
âArenât you going to put the letter M on the medal?â said Annie.
âMedallion,â said Jack. âNot medal.â
He added an M:
âArenât you going to write about the magic person?â said Annie.
âWe donât know for sure if there is a magic person,â said Jack.
âWell, someone built the tree house in the woods. Someone put the books in it. Someone lost a gold medal in dinosaur time.â
âMedallion!â said Jack for the third time. âAnd Iâm just writing the facts. The stuff we know for sure.â
âLetâs go back to the tree house right now,â said Annie. âAnd find out if the magic person is a fact.â
âAre you nuts?â said Jack. âThe sunâs not even up yet.â
âCome on,â said Annie. âMaybe we can catch them sleeping.â
âI donât think we should,â said Jack. He was worried. What if the âmagic personâ wasmean? What if he or she didnât want kids to know about the tree house?
âWell, Iâm going,â said Annie.
Jack looked out his window at the dark-gray sky. It was almost dawn.
He sighed. âOkay. Letâs get dressed. Iâll meet you at the back door. Be quiet.â
âYay!â whispered Annie. She tiptoed away as quietly as a mouse.
Jack put on jeans, a warm sweatshirt, and sneakers. He tossed his notebook and pencil in his backpack.
He crept downstairs.
Annie was waiting by the back door. She shined a flashlight in Jackâs face. âTa-da! A magic wand!â she said.
âShhh! Donât wake up Mom and Dad,â whispered Jack. âAnd turn that flashlight off. We donât want anyone to see us.â
Annie nodded and turned it off. Then she clipped it onto her belt.
They slipped out the door into the cool early-morning air. Crickets were chirping. The dog next door barked.
âQuiet, Henry!â whispered Annie.
Henry stopped barking. Animals always seemed to do what Annie said.
âLetâs run!â said Jack.
They dashed across the dark, wet lawn and didnât stop until they reached the woods.
âWe need the flashlight now,â said Jack.
Annie took it off her belt and switched it on.
Step by step, she and Jack walked between the trees. Jack held his breath. The dark woods were scary.
âGotcha!â said Annie, shining the flashlight in Jackâs face.
Jack jumped back. Then he frowned.
âCut it out!â he said.
âI scared you,â said Annie.
Jack glared at her.
âStop pretending!â he whispered. âThis is serious.â
âOkay, okay.â
Annie shined her flashlight over the tops of the trees.
âNow what are you doing?â said Jack.
âLooking for the tree house!â
The light stopped moving.
There it was. The mysterious tree house. At the top of the tallest tree in the woods.
Annie shined her light at the tree house, and then down the tall ladder. All the way to the ground.
âIâm going up,â she said. She gripped the flashlight and began to climb.
âWait!â Jack called.
What if someone was in the tree house?
âAnnie! Come back!â
But she was gone. The light disappeared. Jack was alone in the dark.
âNo oneâs here!â Annie shouted down.
Jack thought about going home. Then he thought about all the books in the tree house.
He started up the ladder. When he was nearly to the tree house, he saw light in the distant sky. Dawn was starting to break.
He crawled through a hole in the floor and took off his backpack.
It was dark inside the tree house.
Annie was shining her flashlight on the books scattered about.
âTheyâre still here,â she said.
She stopped the light on a dinosaur book. It was the book that had taken them to the time of the
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