The Trimoni Twins and the Shrunken Treasure (7 page)

It was no different that night. The show went well and Beezel felt on top of the world. Mr. Hendricks, the petting zoo man, finally found the hotel and brought two very docile sheep for the twins to use in their finale. Beezel was extremely thankful they did not have to use Gumdrop. And as she gazed out into the audience, she realized Hector wouldn't have been available either. He was sitting in the front row with Gaidic.

“He must have called her sometime today,” she said to Mimi while they were taking their bows.

Once they were back in their rooms, Hector told them that he and Gaidic wanted to take the twins and Wiliken sightseeing the next day.

“Uncle Hoogaboom wants to come along as well. But if you want to go, you have to finish the first draft of the essay I assigned to you,” Hector said, hands on his hips.

“Not ‘How the Euro Is Different from the U.S. Dollar'!” Mimi moaned.

“I'll be back to check them in thirty minutes.” He went back to his room.

Beezel and Mimi quickly wrote down everything they could think of about currency. Then they brushed their teeth and got into bed.

Hector came back in and reviewed the girls' work. Then he said, “By the way, Uncle Hoogaboom said he wants Wiliken and me to talk privately with him soon.” He raised his eyebrows as he looked at the girls. “I have no idea what this is about, but the next time we're over for a visit, if you girls could help Gaidic in the shop, I'll find out.”

Hector pulled the covers up over the twins and frowned. “But why in the world would my uncle
want to talk to me and Wiliken
together?
I just met Wiliken.” He sighed. “You don't suppose the two of them want to get me involved in their crazy treasure hunt, do you?”

Beezel didn't say anything, but she had a feeling that was exactly what they wanted.

When the twins woke up on Sunday, it was a glorious, sunny spring day.

“We don't have a show tonight!” Mimi said as she bounced on the bed.

“Mimi!” Beezel said. “Stop it! I'm getting seasick!”

After breakfast, Hector, Beezel and Mimi took Gumdrop the dog for a quick walk before depositing her back with Enid. Uncle Hoogaboom, Wiliken and Gaidic appeared in the lobby of the Merlin Hotel at ten o'clock sharp, and they set out for the day.

At Mimi's request, they went to see modern works of art at the Stedelijk Museum in the morning. They ate a quick lunch, and per Beezel's request, went on a canal boat tour in the afternoon.

Afterward they went for a walk down the Prinsengracht, the Prince's Canal.

“I wanted you to see my neighborhood,” Uncle Hoogaboom told the girls. “It is a very special place.”

“I love it here,” Beezel told him.

“It sure feels different from back home, doesn't it, Beezel?” Wiliken asked, and she agreed.

Uncle Hoogaboom explained that the canal dated back to the seventeenth century and that the beautiful homes that lined it were part of what was once the Golden Age of Amsterdam.

They strolled lazily along, and spent the afternoon popping in and out of the shops. When they passed a street named the Tuinstraat, Uncle Hoogaboom herded them into a little café for dinner followed by
appelgebak
, a delicious apple pastry. A few more houses down the street was Uncle Hoogaboom's shop on the ground floor of Wiliken's grandfather's house.

“There's one more place I want to show you.” They walked past Uncle Hoogaboom and Wiliken's house to a wide street called the Westerstraat and then across to an old market square, called the Noordermarkt.

“There's a flea market here tomorrow,” he told them. “You girls would love it. Hector, maybe you
can bring them back here to do some more shopping?”

“Yes!”
Beezel
and Mimi said together.

Hector laughed. “All right.”

Then Uncle Hoogaboom showed them the Noorderkerk, the North Church. Outside in the square, Beezel and Mimi fed bread crumbs to some birds and watched the sun beginning to set.

Beezel nudged Mimi and pointed to Hector. He and Gaidic were holding hands. The twins looked at each other and tried hard not to giggle.

“Should we head back?” Uncle Hoogaboom asked them after awhile. They all agreed that they were getting tired. Gaidic said good-bye and left for her bus stop.

“Uh-oh,” Wiliken said as a black car drove in front of the square and slowed down.

Beezel saw a familiar round-bodied man with frizzy orange hair inside the car. “Isn't that Slear?”

“Great,” Wiliken said. “Listen, I'm going to lose this guy and then I'll catch up with you, okay?”

“That's fine,” Uncle Hoogaboom said as he pointed right, in the direction of their house. “We'll head home the long way, across the Violettenstraat.
You should go left, Wiliken. Head up the Boomstraat and cut over. We'll meet back at the house.”

Wiliken rejoined their group after several blocks of outmaneuvering Slear. “That guy just doesn't give up,” he said, panting.

“We're almost home,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “Just a few more blocks. If that Mr. Slear sets foot inside our home, I'm calling
de politie!”

“That's the police,” Hector whispered to the girls.

They walked quietly along the Violettenstraat together. The street was almost empty. Beezel looked at the houses and imagined each one had a family enjoying a cozy dinner inside. The thought made her homesick, and she wondered how her parents were doing in Katmandu.

The sound of a car screeching around the corner broke into her thoughts and got all of their attention.

“He should slow down,” Wiliken said. “What a jerk.”

“Oh no! Look!” Mimi pointed to a scruffy dog that had decided at that moment to pad across the street to greet them.

“Go back, doggie!” Mimi said softly.

The black car raced down the street toward them,
and toward the dog that seemed oblivious to the approaching danger. The dog ambled halfway across the street and sat down to scratch himself, smack dab in the path of the oncoming car.

Mimi raised her hand and pointed at the dog.

Oddly, at the same time, Uncle Hoogaboom raised his hand and pointed at the car.

Ka-poof! The dog was a clam.

Zuuft! The black car shrank to the size of a sandwich.

The pint-size car bumped into the clam and sent it spinning in circles, inches away from its bumper.

Mimi turned and stared wide-eyed at her sister. “Beezel! How in the heck did you do
that?”

Beezel looked at Mimi. “Me?
I
didn't do anything!”

The girls turned and stared at Uncle Hoogaboom.

He smiled sheepishly at them and said, “I'm afraid that was me.”

“You have the Shrinking Coin,” Beezel proclaimed immediately. “I just know it.”

“Yes,” Uncle Hoogaboom confessed. “I do.” He broke into a grin. “I call the magic zuufting. It makes that sound, don't you think?”

“We call ours ka-poofing for the same reason!” Mimi said. “Does the magic work like ours?” Without waiting for an answer she said, “Isn't this great, Beezel?”

Beezel nodded happily. It
was
great. She wasn't sure why it made her happy, but it did. It was good to know that the magic had stayed alive in two of the three coins. And somehow, knowing Uncle Hoogaboom had been given the same responsibility as the two of them made Beezel feel less alone. As if they had found a comrade of sorts.

“Uh, Hoogaboom,” Wiliken said as he pointed to Mimi, “what did Mimi just do to that dog?”

“I do believe you've just witnessed the magic of the Changing Coin!” Uncle Hoogaboom said happily.

“You
know
about the Changing Coin?” Mimi said.

Uncle Hoogaboom nodded.

Beezel thought he seemed very pleased about things. She was just about to ask him how he knew about the Changing Coin when she thought of something. Wiliken hadn't reacted at all to Uncle Hoogaboom shrinking the black car. She turned to him. “You already knew about the Shrinking Coin, Wiliken?”

“Yep.” Hector, Beezel and Mimi gawked at him. Wiliken laughed. “You should see your faces!”

“Well, well, we do have a lot to talk about, don't we?” Uncle Hoogaboom said as he gestured toward the center of the road. “But first… Hector, perhaps you could get them out of the middle of the street. It's getting dark, and we don't want them to get run over.”

Hector looked back and forth, and then ran to retrieve the clam and the car.

“Well, I'll be …,” Hector said as he handed Mimi the clam and examined the outside of the tiny car. “My own uncle has had the Shrinking Coin all these years and …”

“Let me take care of this first, nephew, and then we'll chat,” Uncle Hoogaboom said quietly. “In my experience I've found that if I un-zuuft someone fairly quickly, they are easily led to believe they've had a small accident of some kind, and as a result experienced a momentary loss of consciousness.”

Uncle Hoogaboom set the car down by the curb near a streetlight. “But I don't see the driver, do you?”

They knelt next to the little car and peered inside.

“Oh, I see him,” Mimi said as she put her face against the back windshield. “There he is. He's hiding on the floor in the backseat.”

The sight of a giant Mimi staring at him caused the tiny man to scramble back into the front seat.

“Hey, he looks kind of familiar,” Mimi said.

“Merlin's magic meatballs!” Beezel said as she looked in the car and saw the man's orange hair and wide belly. “It's Slear!”

“Oh no,” Wiliken said. “Not him. Please say it's not him.”

“It's him,” Hector said as he peered through the front windshield.

“He's mad,” Beezel said.

The tiny man shook his fist and cursed at them from the driver's seat.

“Such language! Little man, there are young ladies present!” Uncle Hoogaboom scolded Slear. He turned to them. “Let's get this over with. You'll need to stand back.”

They moved away from the little black car. Hector quickly surveyed the street. “The coast is clear.”

Uncle Hoogaboom pointed. Zuuft. A full-sized car was parked in front of them.

“You've had a slight car accident,” Uncle Hoogaboom said to Slear as he leaned inside the driver's window. “Are you all right?”

“That was no accident, pal,” Slear yelled in his face, causing Uncle Hoogaboom to stand up and take a step back. “You … you
shrank
me!
And
this car!” Slear shot a look at Mimi. “And that kid changed a dog into a rock!”

“It was a clam,” corrected Mimi.

Beezel elbowed her. “Shh!”

“Whatever it was,” Slear said, “it was
real
honest
to-goodness-presto-chango
magic!”
He spotted Wiliken standing behind Hector. “And you're in on it, aren't you, star boy?”

“Please stop calling me that,” Wiliken said through clenched teeth.

Slear ignored him. “Finally! I've hit the jackpot! Ka-ching!” He let out a war whoop. “I'm going to have plenty to say about this, you can bet your life!” Slear grinned at them.

“He
looks
as happy as a clam,” Hector muttered.

“Mimi, you'd better get your watch,” Beezel said. She whispered to Uncle Hoogaboom, “Mimi's a great hypnotist.”

“That must come in very handy,” Uncle Hoogaboom said thoughtfully.

Mimi reached inside her sleeve to get Grandpa Trimoni's watch. She waved it at Slear. “You are getting sleepy,” she said.

“Oh no I'm
not
,” Slear said. “You're not taking this story from me, sister!” He grabbed a camera from a bag on the seat next to him.

“Mimi, it's not working,” Beezel said nervously.

“Some people are more difficult to convince than others,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “I'll zuuft him again. We'll take him home until we can think of
something.” He sighed as he lifted his arm to point at Slear.

“Oh no you don't!” Slear thrust a camera out the car window and pointed the camera's flash at Uncle Hoogaboom's face. “Take that, old man!” The light strobed on and off several times.

Uncle Hoogaboom dropped his hand and staggered backward into Hector and Wiliken.

“And now you two!” Slear quickly turned his flashing camera on the startled twins.

“Ka-poof him, Beezel! I can't see a thing! He's blinded me!” wailed Mimi.

“I can't see either!” All Beezel could see was a bright white light pulsing on and off. The light had driven the five magic words temporarily out of her head. The only thought in her head now was to turn off that darn light. Beezel heard a car engine start and the squeal of tires as the black car pulled away from them.

Beezel heard Slear yell, “This is way bigger than you, Riebeeck! When I break this story, it's gonna be huge!”

After a few minutes, they could all see properly again.

“This is terrible,” Beezel said. “Slear knows about
the magic of the Shrinking Coin
and
the Changing Coin!”

“I'm so sorry,” said Wiliken. “If it weren't for me, Slear wouldn't even be here.”

“Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “It's just his word against ours. He really can't prove anything without our cooperation now, can he?”

“Well, no.” Beezel knew he was right, but still, she had a tennis ball of worry in the pit of her stomach. But Uncle Hoogaboom didn't seem to share her concern at all. He seemed downright jolly.

“The Changing Coin,” Uncle Hoogaboom said as he gathered the girls on each side of him and gave them a squeeze. “I never thought I'd live to see its magic again. I've not seen that since Simon and I worked together.”

Beezel's jaw dropped. “You
knew
Simon Serafin?”