“Yes! My dad, mom, Austin and I marched to raise money to help protect the elephants,” April smiled. “There were so many people there and we raised a lot of money. My mom said we can do the march again next year!”

  “That is really awesome that you are an elephant lover and all; but how did we get from you loving elephants to me watching this elephant poop on Mrs. Smith’s deck, then go take a bath in her pool?” Grace asked as she pointed out the window.

  Eve and April jumped up and walked over to the window. They pushed their heads in front of Grace’s to look.

  “Oh my,” Eve said as she put her hand in front of her mouth.

  “Well, in my dream I was flying over them, and thinking about trying to help save them,” April shrugged her shoulders.

  “By ‘save them’ you thought it would be best for them to be in our town and not in their own habitats?” Grace asked, raising both eyebrows.

  “Why do you have to always be a smart-aleck? I was just trying to help them. And I didn’t know that by just dreaming about them I would bring them here!” April pleaded.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Grace said with a smile, looking at April.

  “Girls, we should read that spell April opened in the Book of Magie,” Eve said taking the hands of April and Grace to pull them together.

  “Before we read the spell, do you both see that elephant over there?” Grace pointed across the street.

  “OMG, he just sat on and crushed a dog house,” Grace laughed.

  The dog stood in front of the elephant and barked. The elephant raised his trunk and slowly started to move.

  “He’s getting up,” Eve said. “What is he going to do?”

  The dog kept barking and barking. The elephant turned around in a circle. He squatted and took a big poop right in front of the dog. The dog yelped and backed up.

  “Well, that’s one way to get him to stop barking,” April said, as they all laughed.

  SEVEN

  EVE walked over to the bed. She picked up the book and sat on the pink carpet. As she placed the heavy book on the ground, its weight made a muffled thump. April sat on the floor next to her. The plush carpet was comfortable to sit on with her legs crossed. Grace opened the bedroom window.

  The smell of the elephants came rushing in with the fall breeze.

  “Oh gosh,” April said, crinkling up her nose.

  “Close that, close that!” Eve fanned the air in front of her nose.

  “Not the brightest idea I’ve had,” Grace said. She closed the window and sat on the ground next to the other girls. “So, here we are again. This feels awfully familiar.” Grace winked at Eve.

  Eve started to read the book and mumbled to herself. April looked up at her ceiling. She was admiring the new chandelier light fixture her dad just put in. She looked at the sun streaming into her room, reflecting light and rainbows off of the crystals. It looks so nice when the light dances off of it. It twinkles and dances and makes pretty little dancing rainbows and colors around the room.

  The room became very quiet. You could hear a pin drop. Then the chandelier started to sway on its own. And, the crystals were tapping each other making light music.

  “The chandelier is dancing,” April said, pointing to it. Eve and Grace looked up. Then the chandelier started swaying faster.

  “Why is it dancing faster?” April asked. Then the chandelier started to swing more. The crystals were banging into each other now. The light chiming turned into clanging.

  “That is really violent dancing,” April said cringing, pulling her shoulders up to her ears.

  “Stop saying ‘dancing’. I think you are commanding it,” Eve said with her hand up toward the chandelier as if she was blocking it just in case it fell. The chandelier swayed harder and faster, banging into the ceiling, and the crystals crashed into each other.

  “How do I stop it?” April asked. Her heart raced. “What do I do?”

  Eve quickly flipped through the book.

  “Eve, quick, it’s going to bring down the ceiling,” Grace said. Just at that moment, a crystal flew off the chandelier and into April’s wall. Wham! It left a small mark.

  A thin crack was developing in the ceiling from the chandelier’s violent sway. Wham! Another crystal flew off the chandelier.

  “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” Eve said. “Stand up and point at it then say this three times:

  “Listen. I command, do as I say,

  Go back to your original way.”

  “I don’t want to stand up,” April said as she ducked another crystal flying off of the chandelier.

  Grace hid from the flying crystals by taking cover under the bed. The thin crack in the ceiling grew longer with each sway of the chandelier.

  I caused this. I have to fix this. April took a deep breath and stood straight up. She extended her arm. She pointed at the chandelier and said:

  “Listen. I command, do as I say,

  Go back to your original way.

  Listen. I command, do as I say,

  Go back to your original way.

  Listen. I command, do as I say,

  Go back to your original way.”

  Poof! It stopped. No clanging. No banging. The chandelier hung perfectly still. It was pretty much the same, except for a few loose wires missing their crystals. April stared at her finger. She slowly brought it down by her side. She swallowed hard. She looked at Eve whose mouth was wide open and eyes were bulging. OMG! Being a witch can be super scary, but also kind of fun. A smile spread across her face.

  Grace peeked out from under April’s bed. Breathing heavily, April said, “Thanks, Eve.”

  “No problem. I…uh…didn’t know I could even read French that fast.”

  Grace crawled out from under the bed, sat next to Eve and exhaled deeply. She looked in the book and asked, “Now where were we?”

  EIGHT

  “APRIL, please, no more crazy thoughts,” Grace pleaded.

  “It wasn’t a crazy thought. I just thought—”

  “No!” Eve and Grace said at the same time.

  Oh no! Did Mom and Dad hear all of that craziness? April did a running tiptoe to the door and slowly opened it. She crept into the hall. All she heard was the television turned up really loud.

  April heard her brother yell, “OK, Mom. I’m checking now!” He ran up the stairs and came close to her face. “What is going on up here?”

  “Well, I sorta made the chandelier do this thing,” April whispered.

  “What!” Austin demanded.

  “Don’t worry. Don’t worry. We will figure it out. Just keep them busy and keep the television up loud just in case anything else happens,” April instructed.

  “I will. But try to keep it down because next time I won’t be able to convince them to stay downstairs,” Austin said, wagging his finger in her face.

  “OK. OK.” April said. She walked back in her room. Austin went back downstairs. She closed her bedroom door, leaned against it and wiped the sweat off her forehead. “We have to fix this fast,” April said in between breaths.

  “Just come sit right here next to me.” Eve patted the rug. April sat down cross-legged on the rug. Eve flipped back to the slightly torn page in the Book of Magie.

  She pointed to the words written in bold cursive writing:

  Rêver Magie

  “Do you know what this means?”

  April looked at the letters. The pretty, fancy letters were written with many loops. They looked like the letters that spell ‘The End’ in fairy tale books. April shrugged her shoulders, “Something magic?”

  “It means ‘Dream Magic’.” Eve looked into April’s eyes. Eve did not blink. Her serious dark brown eyes were locked onto April’s. Eve ran her hand down the page. “What this says is that as a witch’s powers become stronger, she—”

  “Or he?” Grace asked with a smile.

  “Yes, or he.” Eve smiled back. “He, or she, can make things happen from their dreams.”

  April swallowed hard. Eve’s eyes stayed locked on April’s.

  “April?” Eve asked. “What did you dream? What were you doing when you were flying over the elephants?”

  April looked around the room again. Gosh, what was I thinking in the dream? “Oh! That’s right!” April quickly looked at Eve, then at Grace. “I was dreaming that I wanted to help bring the elephants to a safe place where they would be safe from the people trying to hurt them. I thought it would be good for them to be in a safe place where they could roam around and a safe place for them to have their babies.”

  “We get it. You wanted them in a safe place,” Grace nodded her head as she got up off of the floor and walked over to the window. She looked outside.

  “Exactly, Grace!” Eve said as her eyes lit up.

  Grace looked at April then at Eve. “Exactly, what?”

  “When April thinks or wants or feels something really strongly, and keeps thinking or wanting or feeling that thing, then it happens. Like with the chandelier. Remember, she kept saying ‘dancing’,” Eve explained.

  “And, I kept thinking it too,” April jumped in.

  “Right,” Eve said, pointing at April.

  “Well, you have to start thinking and wanting these elephants back in Asia and Africa; because they are not exactly fitting in here,” Grace said as she looked out the window.

  “I know elephants don’t exactly belong in the suburbs,” April rolled her eyes.

  “Belong is different than causing problems.” Grace pointed out the window to the right. “That one over there,” she pointed to an elephant that pulled down a tree, and was eating it in the middle of the road. “She looks pretty hungry. She’s eating all the leaves and apples off my mom’s tree.”

  Grace’s face was pressed against the window. She was breathing so heavily that she was starting to fog up the window. She wiped it away with her hand. Then she pointed down to the left. “That one over there is spraying Mr. and Mrs. Jones’ house with their own pool water.”

  “Oh no!” April put her head in her hands. “What have I done?”

  NINE

  “APRIL, how about we try what we did to stop the chandelier?” Grace asked.

  Eve closed the Book of Magie. “That sounds like a good idea.” She dropped it on the rug next to her. Thud! She rubbed her legs. The book left an imprint on them. “Golly, that is one heavy book,” she mumbled to herself.

  “What should I say?” April asked as she bit her lower lip. She started picking at her nails again.

  Grace paced back and forth. “How about, ‘Please send the elephants back to their natural habitat and please make them safe there.’” Grace said, scratching her head.

  “OK.” April stood up. She took a deep breath. She walked to the window. She saw an elephant sitting on the hood of her neighbor’s car, causing a massive dent. Oh goodness. What have I done? Fix this! I can fix this!

  She walked over to the window. Her palms became sweaty. She rubbed them on her jeans. She took another deep breath.

  Eve stood up. Grace walked over to her.

  “I hope this works,” Grace said quietly to Eve.

  “Oh, I hope so too,” Eve replied. Eve was shaking nervously. Grace clenched her teeth. Both girls held hands and they crossed their fingers.

  April pointed toward the elephants on the street. Beads of sweat formed on her nose again. Her glasses slid down. She pushed them back up. Her hand shook. She took a deep breath and steadied her hand. I can fix this, I CAN fix this, I CAN FIX THIS! She squeezed her eyes shut. She thought about how calm and nice her street was before the elephants came and pooped everywhere, before they ripped up trees, before they were taking baths in her neighbors’ pools.

  Her eyes relaxed as she exhaled. With her eyes still closed, she imagined her street clean and neat. She said:

  “Send the elephants back to their natural habitat and make them safe there.

  Send the elephants back to their natural habitat and make them safe there!

  Send the elephants back to their natural habitat and make them safe there!!

  Send the elephants back to their natural habitat and make them safe there!!!”

  Her voice became more forceful each time she repeated the phrase. At a snail’s pace, she opened her eyes. She took one, then two steps to get closer to the window. The knot in her stomach grew bigger and bigger each inch she moved forward to look out the window. She swallowed hard then peered out the window as Eve and Grace stayed back.

  “Did it work?” Eve asked.

  “Are they gone?” Grace asked, sounding unsure.

  TEN

  AS APRIL peered out the window, she looked down. The beads of sweat caused her glasses to slide down her nose again. She pushed them back up.

  “NO!” April cried. The elephants were still there! There was still poop in the streets; and they were still playing in the pools; and there was still one sitting on a car.

  Eve and Grace ran over to the window. “Oh, that is going to leave a dent,” Grace said, pointing to the elephant sitting on the car.

  April walked around the bed and sat on the rug. She leaned against her bed and hung her head. The book lay next to her. She looked at its hard cover.

  Why can’t I fix this? What did I do wrong? I’m going to destroy everything! The lump in her throat grew as a tear fell from her eye. Using the back of her hand, she tried to wipe away the tear but instead brushed her glasses off of her face. They fell to the floor.

  Grace and Eve sat on the rug on either side of her. Grace picked up her glasses. She used the bottom of her shirt to wipe them off. Eve picked up the Book of Magie. She put it on her lap. As she opened it, the smell of the antique pages filled the air.

  April wiped off her face with her hand. I have to find a way to fix this. She took another deep breath and lifted her head. She looked over at Eve.

  Eve’s eyes were focused on the page that April was on before. April stared at the picture of the woman that lay on the bed. April focused her eyes more. She noticed something was in the woman’s hand. She took her glasses back from Grace and put them on. What is that? Her eyes shifted to another picture of what looked like the woman floating above the ground. The picture looked like she was flying. Her hair was flying back with the wind.

  April’s eyes scanned the French words on the page. She looked up at Eve, who was focused on the words. Her lips moved silently as she read the page.

  “Oh, I did not see that before,” she said as if she was speaking to the book.

  “You did not see what before?” April asked, her eyes still fixed on Eve.

  Eve kept reading as though she did not hear April. Her eyes scanned the page faster and faster as her lips moved more and more.

  “Earth to Eve?” Grace waved her arms to get Eve’s attention.

  Eve kept reading.

  “EVE?!” April and Grace called at the same time.

  “I’ve got it!” Eve lifted her head. “Geez, since I started hanging out with you gals my French has gotten so much better. I can read it way faster now.”

  “You’ve got what? Can we fix this?” April said and held her breath.

  Eve smiled.

  ELEVEN

  “OK,” Eve began. “I think we messed up because I did not read this. This line is very important,” Eve pointed to the first line of the second paragraph and read:

  “Rêve magique ne peut être modifié par la magie de rêve.”

  “I love when you speak French. It’s so pretty,” April smiled.

  “Yeah, but what the heck does that mean?” Grace asked with pursed lips.

  “I think it means that dream magic can only be changed by dream magic,” Eve said. She gave them a huge bright smile.

  “OK…what does that mean?” April squished up her face.

  “Listen up now,” Eve began.

  “We have been listening.” Grace raised an eyebrow.

  “It’s just a Southern saying.”

  “Oh!” Grace and April said at the same time.

  “This is our answer!” Eve said, excitedly throwing her arms up in the air.

  “Please do explain,” Grace said with a fake Southern accent.

  Eve glared at her. “It means that you have to be in a dream to change the magic you did in a dream…get it now?”

  “Ohhhhh…” Grace and April exclaimed, slowly nodding their heads in unison.

  “The light bulb went on?” Eve asked.

  “Oh,” Grace said with a smile. “It seems, I do declare, that Miss Southern Belle is becoming sarcastic like us.” The girls giggled.

  “But, seriously now, what do I need to do in my dream? How can I make them go away? I mean, like, go away to a safe place?” April asked.

  “Well…um…” Eve looked back down at the book. “I…uh…I think we…uh…might have to get some things first.”

  “What kind of things?” Grace looked at Eve out of the side of her eye.

  April could see Eve swallow hard. “Well, we have to collect three things that were changed or that is a result of the magic that was done.” Eve’s forehead creased in concern.

  “Huh?” April asked.

  “Um, for example…maybe like a tree branch, some pool water, and uh…maybe some elephant poop?”

  “EWWW! Why does being a witch have to be SO gross!” April said moving her nose around like she could smell the elephant poop.

  April felt her stomach turn. She looked down at the book that was still on Eve’s lap. She pointed to the picture of the woman’s hand that looked to be holding something from the picture. “So, this is an example of the three things you mentioned, huh?” April asked.

  “Yeah sorry, honey,” Eve said in her singsong accent.

  April took a deep breath. She closed her eyes. I really hope this works. Being a witch can be hard work. I don’t want anything else to be destroyed. I just want everything to go back to the way it was. But then again, being a witch is kinda cool. “OK, I’m ready,” she opened her eyes. “But, how are we going to get out of the house to get the three things?” April asked.