Any Which Wall Read Online Free Page A

wall leaning over them. “It’s not so bad once you’re out of the sun, but now that I’m not so hot, I’m thirsty.”
    “Join the club,” said Susan.
    “Yeah,” said Roy. “We should really have brought some water with us.” Roy was usually prepared.
    “Ooh,” said Susan. “Water! I wish I had a big cold glass of water right now, with a lot of crushed ice and a lemon.”
    “Or better yet—some pop!” said Roy.
    “Or a slushy?” said Emma. “A cherry-lime one.”
    “Or a root beer float!” said Henry.
    Which caused everyone to make the same sound at once—the sound you make when someone else is enjoying something yummy and they don’t offer to share.
    “Mmm,” said Susan wistfully. “A root beer float would be perfect. I
sooo
wish we were at Annabelle’s Diner right now.”
    Then—in the space of a breath, a moment—they
were
at Annabelle’s!
    They were lined up in exactly the same formation, sitting in a row against a wall, only now the wall was made of slick, smooth tile instead of rough dark stone. Instead of the summer heat, they breathed in chilly air scented with frying hamburgers. Instead of the cornfields, they looked up and saw a bustling room full of lunchtime diners and harried waitresses darting to and fro. Their bikes were there too, leaning against the wall beside them.
    They all blinked. They all gasped. They all stared openmouthed at each other, but then a big voice boomed at them from above, from behind a cash register. “You kids know you can’t bring them bikes in here. You better get ’em out fast. Before Annabelle sees ya. Now SCRAM!”

    What else could they do? They scrammed! They hopped up and wheeled their bikes through the swinging doors that led to the street. They propped them up and sat down on a bench, stunned.
    Finally Susan spoke. “What—just—happened?” she asked.
    “No clue,” said Henry.
    Roy and Emma shrugged.
    “Do you think anybody saw us?” asked Susan. “I mean, inside the diner. I mean, did they see us
appear
?”
    “I don’t
think
so,” said Henry.
    “It was loud and busy, and it’s not the kind of place where people pay attention,” explained Roy. “I guess.”
    At last Emma asked
the
question. “Was it … magic?”
    Nobody answered her, so Emma tried again, a little louder. “I
said
, was it MAGIC?”
    “It couldn’t be, could it?!” said Susan. “Maybe it was an unexplained phenomenon, an optical illusion?” She spoke these words, but her face said something else. Her face, bright and flushed, said
Magic!
    “A what?” asked Emma.
    Roy explained. “Susan means it’s a kind of trick, Em. ‘Illusion’ is a word people use to explain things they can’t figure out.”
    “But she doesn’t mean it. Do you, Susan?” asked Henry.
    “You really think this is magic, Roy?” asked Susan, turning to face him. “Actual magic?”
    Roy pushed his bangs from his eyes and thought about this. “Like I said earlier, anything’s possible. I don’t know what we found, but I know we found something, and this feels like one time when thinking won’t help. I have no idea what happened, but I’m not about to let this chance slip away. It wouldn’t make any sense to waste it just because we don’t
understand
it. Right?”
    “Yeah!” said Henry excitedly. “Why not? What do we have to lose by trying?”
    Emma bounced up and down on the bench beside him.
    “Oh—my—gosh!” Susan was smiling broadly now, but then she bit her lip and added, “If any of you ever tell anyone else that I went along with this, that I
believed
—”
    “What do you mean,” asked Emma. “What’s wrong with
believing
?”
    Henry had another thought. “Of
course
I won’t tell anyone. Jeez! In fact,
nobody
can, or it’ll be ruined. That’s, like, the first rule of magic, isn’t it? In all thebooks when you find a magic talisman, you don’t tell
anyone
. Magic
has
to stay a secret.” He was very serious about this.
    Emma, who was just