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included “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” whatever that meant. The one on the left had an image of the Statue of Liberty under the words “New York 1788,” indicating the year that New York ratified the Constitution and became a state. The inscription read “Gateway to Freedom,” and 2001 was printed at the bottom: the year the coin was issued.
    So if that information also applied to the magic quarter, Puerto Rico had become a state in 1998, which was obviously wrong. Its caption read “The Enchanted Island,” and 2008 was marked as the year of issue—a year before the territory coins were struck. Ephraim tapped the coin with his index finger thoughtfully, then fired up his computer.
    After a few minutes on Wikipedia, he learned that the frog in the picture on the coin was called a coquí , a kind of Puerto Rican mascot, and he'd confirmed what he already knew: Puerto Rico was definitely not a state. The last vote on its status had been in 1998, the same year printed on the coin, but it had resulted in the island remaining a Commonwealth of the United States. And the actual territory quarter for Puerto Rico had a completely different design and was issued in 2009. That certainly made this coin an anomaly. But magic? It was far more likely to be a novelty coin minted for a private collector.
    Ephraim pulled out the note he'd found in his locker. Make a wish…
    All right. He would make another wish, to prove the first hadn't been a coincidence or some delusion.
    “I wish my Mom wasn't so messed up.” No, he should be clearer. “I mean, I wish my mother wasn't a drunk and had a better job and acted a little more…like a mother.”
    And flip the coin to make it come true. How had the note writer even known that he'd found the quarter? Another mystery on top of all the others.
    He flipped the coin. His toss was awkward, and he failed to catch it on its wobbly downward arc. It bounced off the edge of his desk, landing heads up on the carpet. He leaned over and scooped it up.
    Was the coin a little warmer than before? He felt a head rush, a brief moment of dizziness like last time, vision blurring for just a second, but otherwise…nothing.
    He'd probably just stood up too fast; nothing magic about that. He went out into the living room, but his mother was still asleep on the couch, just as he'd left her. If the coin had improved things, she would be at work right now.
    He felt like an idiot. He had actually started to believe—had wanted to believe—that the coin could grant his wishes. He dropped both quarters into his collection jar and tightened the lid.
    He went to throw the note out, but he couldn't find it.
    It had been right there, but it was no longer on his desk. He rummaged through the trash in case it had fallen in, checked all over the floor, but it had completely vanished.
    Now he was really getting worried about his own mental health.

 
    Ephraim woke the next day to the delicious aroma of cooking bacon.
    The lamp beside his bed was still on, its bulb overpowered by morning sunlight that streamed through the window. When he sat up, a thick hardcover copy of The Lord of the Rings slipped from the bed and thumped against the carpet. He picked up the book and tried to smooth out its bent pages by folding them in the opposite direction, but that only made it worse. He closed the book and hoped that its considerable weight would flatten the creases.
    When he'd seen Jena reading it, he figured he would try to impress her by reading it himself, make some connection with her, but she hadn't noticed him lugging it between classes for the last month. Now that school was over, he might as well return it to the library. Thanks to the movies and the Internet, he could probably fake it anyway, if he ever had the chance for a real conversation with her.
    He dropped the book on his desk then pulled off his rumpled T-shirt. He sniffed the armpits and crumpled it into a ball—it was definitely past its prime after two days. He