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long black hair …”
        “Hold on. I see them,” the officer responded to the broadcast. He chased
after the two kids, but the wall of people hindered his progress.
        “I can’t believe this is happening,” Simon yelled as the cop blew his
whistle. “We have to hide!”
        “I don’t understand,” Tonya said, gawking at the tall buildings. “Professor
Gwyn said this civilization lived mostly underground. This is Marsupia, isn’t it?”
        “What?” Simon asked, looking for cover.
        “Marsupia? Paraworld 1423?”
        “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
        He dragged her to the entrance of a narrow alley between two small buildings.
Abandoned shopping carts, large beat-up dumpsters, and homeless people filled the sidewalks. At
the end of the street, a never-ending parade of cars zoomed by, traveling perpendicular to the
alley.
        “ Freeze! ” shouted the policeman.
        Tonya continued her babbling. “So if this isn’t Paraworld 1423, then that
means I’m gonna miss my test! I can’t believe I got lost on my very first field trip—Professor
Gwyn will be so upset with me. I won’t even be able to see the twin moons of Marsupia. Oh, and I
heard they’re so lovely this time of year.”
        “You’re going to see the inside of a prison cell in a moment unless you do
something quick.”
        “Oh, my goodness,” she gasped, finally realizing the situation they were in.
The girl waved her wand in a quick circle, and everything went black.
        “Well, this isn’t what I meant,” she scolded her wand. From the smell of old
fish and rotten eggs, Simon knew exactly where they had been transported to: the inside of a
dumpster.
        “Quiet,” he whispered.
        For about a good minute, Tonya held her tongue, but then, as if receiving an
epiphany, she blurted, “Wait a second! You’re not an old man. You’re just a little runt!”
        “I’m twelve years old,” Simon said. “You can’t be much older than me.”
        “I’m almost fourteen years old—thank you very much. What’s your name,
anyway?”
        “Simon Kent.”
        “Wow, you have two names?”
        “Actually, I have three: Simon Theo—”
        “Huh, you must be important. In my paraworld we only have one name. Well,
unless you’re a duke, or a lord, or a cleric—nobility sometimes have three names, unless, of
course, you’re a—”
        “What do you mean by paraworld? ”
        “Parallel worlds,” she said bluntly, as if that was all the explanation
needed.
        “What do you mean by parallel worlds? ” he asked.
        “You know! Paa-raaa-llel wor-lds ,” she said, breaking the words up slowly. “Maybe my translation
spell is wearing off. It’s supposed to be permanent.”
        Simon sighed. The reality of what had just happened was starting to sink
in.
        “Let me get some light in here,” she said. Just then, radiant beams of light
shot out of her fingertips and flooded the inside of the smelly dumpster.
        “Turn it off! Turn it off!”
        “Sorry,” Tonya said, clenching her fist. She opened her hand, and a faint
luminescent glow emitted from the tip of her forefinger. “I’m not very good at magic yet.”
        “That was some pretty amazing stuff you did back there.”
        “Well, I don’t know how that happened. All I meant to do was flash that boy
in the eyes with some light, and the next thing I knew, I was casting spells like I was a super—”
She paused. “No—an ultramage . You know, after three weeks of school, about the most I’ve ever been able to do
was turn on my nightlight… Strange… I’ve never felt such power before.”
        “How did you get here?” Simon asked.
        “With a paratransmitter, silly!” She laughed. “You’re a funny little boy. You
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