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himself. Well, with Katherine’s help. And sometimes other people’s help as well. . . .
    Jonah felt lonely all over again. If he had real, normal, adult Mom in front of him, maybe he would just break down and tell her everything and wail, Mommy! Figure out how to get Katherine back! I can’t!
    But real, normal, adult Mom had vanished. The thirteen-year-old girl standing in front of him looked like someone else he needed to protect.
    â€œKatherine left in time to make the bus,” Jonah said. Surprisingly enough, this actually wasn’t a lie. Katherine had vanished in plenty of time to get to the bus stop. Jonah was just leaving out the fact that that wasn’t where she’d gone.
    Jonah could tell that kid Mom was trying to do the same narrowed-eyed searching gaze that adult Mom could always use to get Jonah to break down and admit, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll tell you the truth—the whole truth!”
    But kid Mom’s searching gaze had absolutely no effect on Jonah. After a moment she gave up.
    Emboldened, Jonah added, “And I really do feel too sick to get to school today, after all. You’ll have to call and tell them I’m going to be absent.”
    â€œI can’t call the school sounding like this!” Mom protested. “They’ll think I’m you pretending to be me!”
    I don’t sound like a thirteen-year-old girl! Jonah wanted to protest. But he didn’t think it would help his cause.
    â€œPretend you have laryngitis,” he suggested instead.
    To his surprise Mom nodded approvingly. He followed her into the kitchen again as she dialed and then spoke quickly into the phone in a fake-hoarse voice. As soon as she hung up, he went for the next stage of getting both parents safely out of the way so he could figure out how to fix everything that had gone wrong that morning.
    â€œYou look tired,” he told Mom. “Why don’t you go upstairs and get some rest? I’m sure when you wake up, everything will be normal again . . .”
    He’d underestimated kid Mom. Her cheeks flushed, and she shook her head stubbornly.
    Who would have guessed that, as a kid, Mom was just as exasperating as Katherine?
    â€œNo, Jonah,” Mom said. “I’m going to figure out what’s going on here.”
    â€œHow?” Jonah challenged.
    â€œFirst I’m going to find out how widespread this is,” she said. “I’m going to go out and knock on our neighbors’ doors and see if anybody else is suddenly the wrong age.”
    It wasn’t the worst idea Jonah had ever heard. He probably would have done the same thing, if the only problem he’d known about was his parents’ messed-up ages. (How many other problems were out there right now besides the ones Jonah knew about?) Maybe if Jonah let Mom focus on thewhole age thing, he could focus on getting Katherine back?
    But kid Mom looked so young . . . and vulnerable . . . and unprotected.
    â€œHow about if you stay here and I go out knocking on doors?” Jonah suggested. “You can take it easy, and—”
    â€œI am not going to ‘take it easy’!” Mom said through gritted teeth. “I am not going to deal with something bizarre and incredible like this by sitting around playing Angry Birds on my cell phone!”
    â€œIs that what Dad is doing?” Jonah asked weakly.
    Kid Mom nodded.
    â€œIt’s like Home Alone up there,” she said.
    At least he’s staying safe inside the house , Jonah thought. He sighed.
    â€œMaybe we should both go out knocking on the neighbors’ doors,” he suggested.
    It would give him a chance to grill Mom about exactly who Charles Lindbergh was. And maybe after just a few houses Jonah could convince her that her plan was pointless, and maybe she would come back to the house and relax by trying on Katherine’s other clothes—er,