things to Dora. By the time Ruthie returned to the ledge, he had embellished the powers of the magic so much that the magic as it existed seemed dull in comparison. He described how some European rooms enabled them to speak in a foreign language, and that in one room he had actually levitated! “So the curse says that if anyone uses the magic for personal gain or that if the objects are separated from the rooms for too long, something horrible will happen to that person,” he finished. “Where does it say that?” she demanded. “In E1,” he said. “We’ll go there and show you—once we get everything put back. Let’s go.” Getting Dora to leave the American corridor and enter the European side was like tempting a sugar addict with cookies. “Hey,” Ruthie said from the ledge, “I could ride in your pocket to the other corridor!” Jack agreed and gently scooped her up and placed her in one of his roomy pockets at thigh level. Ruthie felt big fuzzy globs of lint beneath her feet and had to pull down on the top edge of the pocket to peer out.
