The Trimoni Twins and the Shrunken Treasure (8 page)

Uncle Hoogaboom nodded. “When we were young men, about Wiliken's age, he came to work in the same circus I was working in. The Circus Oosterbeck, here in the Netherlands. He was the strong man, and I was the dog trainer and roustabout. We became fast friends. My father had given me the Shrinking Coin. I found out that his mother,
the lead acrobat of the Romanian Circus Lumanararu, had given him the Changing Coin.” He laughed. “As you can well imagine, we had quite a lot of fun.”

“Shrinking and changing things together,” Mimi said wistfully. “I wish I could have been there.”

There was something bothering Beezel. Something was whirling about in the back of her head. Then she had it. She faced Uncle Hoogaboom. “David Copperfield's eyelashes!” Beezel said.
“That's
why you and Wiliken's grandpa couldn't find the treasure for all those years. It's a
shrunken
treasure!”

Uncle Hoogaboom grinned shyly and tugged on his beard. “Yes, since I was a boy, I've dreamed I would be the one who got to unshrink the treasure from that old galleon.”

“That's the part I didn't mention to you guys the other night,” Wiliken said. “Hoogaboom wanted to get together with Hector and me privately and tell him about the Shrinking Coin.”

“But now,” Uncle Hoogaboom said with enthusiasm, “there's no need for that! I can let these girls hear all about it. After all, they have a magic coin, too!”

Uncle Hoogaboom looked like he was about to launch into an explanation, but Hector stopped him. “Excuse me, Uncle,” Hector said, motioning to the clam in Mimi's hands. “Maybe Mimi should un-ka-poof that dog and let it go back home now. And then I think we should take this conversation back to Wiliken's house and talk privately.” He glanced around him. “Now's a good time, duck,” he said to Mimi.

“Okay, little doggie,” Mimi said. She put the clam down and pointed to it. Ka-poof. A confused but friendly dog wagged his tail at them.

Beezel watched as Mimi and Hector escorted the dog back across the darkening street. So there really was a Shrinking Coin. And Uncle Hoogaboom had known Simon! And somewhere, inside Pieter Riebeeck's house, was the entire treasure of a Spanish galleon. Knowing what she did now, she wanted to go on their treasure hunt, too.

As they walked the last couple of blocks to Wiliken's house, Uncle Hoogaboom hummed happily.

“We're heard there is a Mind-Reading Coin, too,” Mimi said to him. “But we don't have any idea who has that one.”

Wiliken let out a long whistle. “You could get into trouble with that one, I bet.”

“I was always told,” Uncle Hoogaboom said, “that the three coins had traveled the world several times together, and finally came to a Gypsy family in Romania several hundred years ago. They were a group of touring performers, much like your traveling circus, girls, but I'm sure not nearly as grand. One of those long-ago Gypsies married a long-ago Hoogaboom and gave my family the Shrinking
Coin.” He stopped and tilted his head to one side in thought. “Someone from that Gypsy troupe might have given one of Simon's ancestors the Changing Coin. His mother was Romanian. I've never heard anything about where the Mind-Reading Coin is now.”

Uncle Hoogaboom looked at Hector. “And nephew, you've known the girls had the Changing Coin?”

“Yes.” Hector grinned. “But I was sworn to secrecy, Uncle.”

They soon came to Wiliken's house and entered through Uncle Hoogaboom's shop.

Wiliken opened the door to the hallway. “Let's go up to my grandpa's apartment,” he said. “I think he'd love for us to be there when we sort this all out.” He grinned at Beezel and she felt her knees go a bit wobbly.

“Come on, Uncle Hoogaboom,” Mimi said, grabbing his arm. “I want to know all about the Shrinking Coin.”

They trudged up the steep stairway to the next floor.

“Here we are.” Wiliken opened the door at the top of the landing, reached inside and flipped on a light.

“It's beautiful,” Beezel managed to say as they walked in. Wiliken smiled at her. She sure hoped her cheeks weren't going to turn that awful bright red color they sometimes did.

“It
is
nice, isn't it?” He waved them into a small but elegant sitting room. “Grandpa had good taste, didn't he, Hoogaboom?”

The old man nodded and closed the door behind him. “We'll need some privacy,” Uncle Hoogaboom said.

The sitting room was paneled in dark wood. Paintings of ships hung on the walls in gold frames.

Across the room on the far wall was a brick fireplace. On each side was a brown leather sofa. Between them was a walnut coffee table. Nestled around the room were tables loaded to the edges with antiques.

“Let's sit over there,” Wil said, pointing to the sofas. “We can get caught up on all this magic coin business. I want to hear about the Changing Coin.”

Beezel sat next to Hector and Mimi on one sofa, and Uncle Hoogaboom and Wiliken sat on the other. Beezel explained how the Changing Coin worked to Wiliken and Uncle Hoogaboom. How you thought the five magic words, pointed at the
person or animal you wanted to change and imagined a different animal.

“Ka-poof!” she said. “They will become that animal until I think the words in reverse order and point at them again. Then they'll change back into their original form. It works exactly the same way for Mimi. The Changing Coin is used to pass the magic down to someone else, but we don't have to have it with us to use its power. And because we're twins, we get to share the magic of the coin.”

“We have to stay near each other, though,” Mimi said, “or the magic doesn't work properly. And you can never, ever say the words out loud or write them down, or the magic will die forever.”

“So it's true that twins can share the magic of the coins.
Asjemenou!”
Uncle Hoogaboom exclaimed.

Hector interrupted him to translate for the twins. “He's not cursing—that just means ‘Well, I'll be!'”

“That's the way mine works,” Uncle Hoogaboom said, “with a few minor differences. As you saw with Mr. Slear and his car, the Shrinking Coin can shrink objects
and
people—although I can't shrink myself, or for that matter, the coin itself. But it works in
much the same way as the Changing Coin does for you girls. I think the five magic words, think of what I want to shrink and point to it. Then, zuuft! The object or person shrinks to one twelfth of its original size. If someone is six feet tall, they become six inches tall. If it is an object with things inside it, like a box of tools, everything inside the box shrinks proportionally.”

“But why the number twelve?” Beezel asked.

“I'm not sure,” Hoogaboom said. “It has always been a magical number. I imagine the real reason has been lost forever.”

“Wow!” Mimi said. “That would be so much fun. Does that mean you can keep shrinking someone down to the size of a flea?”

“That's right,” Hoogaboom said. “But you can't shrink something so small you can no longer see it. No smaller than about the size of a pinhead.”

Beezel hit her forehead with her hand. “Of course! That's how you've been making all the details for your models!”

“Guilty,” Hoogaboom said, smiling. “But I didn't shrink the houses themselves. I made the models to fit the scale of my ‘details.'”

“Why didn't you just shrink some real houses?”
Hector asked. “It would be easier than building them.” He rubbed his chin. “Although I guess you'd get into some pretty big trouble if you shrank something like Notre Dame cathedral.”

“Yes,” Hoogaboom agreed. “I don't think the French would be too happy with me.”

“But
could
you if you wanted to?” Beezel asked.

“No,” Hoogaboom said. “When you want to shrink something, or someone, imagine you are standing in the middle of a ‘shrinking circle.' You can shrink anything that falls within a hundred arms' lengths from the center of your circle. The circle radiates out from where you stand. That's about three hundred feet.”

“So you can't stand somewhere and point to a faraway house on a mountain and shrink it,” Beezel said.

“That's right,” Hoogaboom said. “And you can't shrink anything that is wider than one hundred arms' lengths as well. So you
can
stand a few feet away from a country cottage and shrink it, but you can't shrink a large building like a museum.” He glanced at the twins. “The other rules are the same. When I want to unshrink someone or something, I think the words in reverse order,
point and zuuft so the person or thing will return to its original size.”

Uncle Hoogaboom stood up, walked over to where Hector was sitting and put his hand on his shoulder. “Nephew, you know I have no children of my own. You are my next of kin. So just as soon as Wiliken and I find the shrunken treasure, the Shrinking Coin is going to be yours. It is your legacy.”

“Mine?” Hector stared up at his uncle, a shocked look on his face. “Are you sure?”

“Wow! That's great!” Mimi said as she patted a stunned Hector on the back. “You can be in our magic act!”

“This is why I wanted you to come to Amsterdam, Hector,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “The Shrinking Coin and its magic is the gift I told you I had for you. I knew I had to tell you what it was in person, to
show
you its magic for you to believe me. I had been waiting for a private moment with you and Wiliken.” Uncle Hoogaboom smiled at the girls. “But now I know these two have their own magic coin, and from my old friend Simon as well! So we can talk about this out in the open among us!”

He looked at Beezel, raised one eyebrow and smiled at her. “And I bet right now, you are wondering why Wiliken already knew about my coin, and why I wanted him to be with me when I told Hector, aren't you?”

Beezel smiled back. “Well, yes.”

“Then I will tell you.” Uncle Hoogaboom sat back down on the sofa across from them and leaned forward. “You see, the Hoogabooms and the Riebeecks have known each other for a very long time. We Hoogabooms have always been an argumentative lot, and it caused problems when the time came to pass down the magic. Who was most worthy? The eldest child? The smartest? The most honorable?

“Even after an heir was chosen, the remaining Hoogabooms managed to bicker over the coin itself. Once a distant relative of mine even stole the coin from his own sister and tried to hold it hostage for the magic. Luckily, it was returned to her, and she kept the magic, but after that incident, my ancestors decided something had to be done.

“So, the Hoogabooms charged the Riebeecks with the safekeeping of the Shrinking Coin. At the appropriate time, as each generation of Hoogabooms agreed on the next heir, and before they
had time to argue over it, the Riebeecks would bring the coin out of its hiding place for the transfer of the magic.”

Uncle Hoogaboom stroked his chin. “Having the coin safely hidden away allowed us to use the magic without coming to blows every other day. After all, we didn't have to have the coin in our possession to use its powers!” He smiled at the twins.

“And we Riebeecks,” Wiliken said, “would get certain things in return. After all, knowing someone who could zuuft things came in very handy, especially for a shipping company. There has been a lot of shrunken cargo aboard my family's ships over the years.”

“After the magic was passed down,” Uncle Hoogaboom said, “one Riebeeck would be shrunk by the newly empowered Hoogaboom. This tiny Riebeeck would be taken by the other Riebeecks to help hide the Shrinking Coin until the next transfer of the coin's power.” He chuckled. “Of course, he was always unshrunk afterward.”

They were quiet a minute. Beezel imagined everyone was lost in their own thoughts of the magic coins and their powers. Hector broke the silence.

“So, Uncle,” Hector said, “what you're telling me is that not only has our family had the Shrinking Coin for a very long time, but that somehow, one of our relatives helped hide a shrunken treasure in the Riebeecks' house?”

Uncle Hoogaboom and Wiliken exchanged looks, and Wiliken smiled. “Something like that,” Uncle Hoogaboom said.

“Uncle Hoogaboom, I've been thinking,” Beezel said. “How did you get the treasure in the first place?”

Uncle Hoogaboom started to answer her when there was a loud knock at the sitting room door. Wiliken got up to answer it.

An older dark-haired man entered the room.

“Ah, Edwin,” Uncle Hoogaboom said with a hint of distaste in his voice.

Beezel recognized the man from the shop on the day they had arrived. She studied his face.
What an odd-looking person
, she thought to herself. He seemed to be the combination of two animals. He had the eyes of a deer: big, wide and brown.
But his mouth
… He gnawed on the edge of his bottom lip. She supposed it was a nervous habit, like Mimi's twirling of her hair.
Still, it makes him seem like a mouse
…
or a rat
, she thought.

“My apologies,” Edwin said stiffly. “I did not know you had company, Wiliken.” He shot Hector and the twins a quick look.

Wiliken introduced them to Edwin. He politely nodded at each of them in turn.

“Since I am leaving in a few days, I came to get my clock,” Edwin said, gesturing toward the mantel. “I was pleased that my cousin left it to me in his will. I must say, it came as a surprise that he didn't leave it to you, Wiliken, along with everything else.”

The bitter edge to his voice caused Beezel and Mimi to exchange glances.

“Take the clock, Edwin,” Wiliken said. “Grandpa wanted you to have it.”

Edwin hurried over to the mantel and grabbed the clock. He nodded briskly at Uncle Hoogaboom and left the sitting room. Before he left, he turned and muttered something to Wiliken in Dutch.