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doors of the museum. “We’re going to meet here and she’s going to bring the supplies I need.”
    Jack didn’t seem to be paying attention. “Do you have money to check your backpack?” he asked.
    “Yep.” She retrieved a dollar out of her pocket. They set their backpacks down on a bench just inside the entrance. “And I brought this.” She pulled a canvas messenger-typebag out of her backpack. “I can bring this into the museum. We can carry the bento box in it.”
    “Good thinking.” He slipped the bento box out of his backpack and lifted the lid to show Ruthie the letter safe inside. “Here, take this too.” He handed her the tiny rolled-up string ladder.
    “Where’s the key?” Ruthie asked.
    Jack patted the pocket of his sweatshirt jacket. The line for the coat check was long but moved fast.
    “It’s so crowded today,” Ruthie commented as they bounded down the marble staircase. Unfortunately, not every school had a half day, and the museum seemed to be bursting with school groups on field trips.
    They hovered around the alcove, not looking at any of the rooms. The more Ruthie tried to act normal, the more she felt certain she seemed guilty of something. A guard came by and gave them a long glance.
    “This is torture,” Ruthie whispered.
    “Just look at the rooms,” Jack said. They walked across the space, back to the wall of European rooms, and stood in front of room E6, an English library from the early 1700s. The library was directly next to the alcove.
    “That’s odd,” Ruthie said. “Something’s missing.”
    “What do you mean?” Jack asked.
    “See the smallish globe on the desk there?”
    “Yeah. What about it?”
    “There should be two of them. One on each side of the desk,” Ruthie said.
    “Are you sure?”
    “Positive. I know one’s missing because I thought it was weird to have two globes in the first place,” she explained.
    “Is it somewhere else in the room?”
    Ruthie and Jack spent a minute looking.
    “No. It’s definitely gone,” said Ruthie. “I’ll show you later in the cata—”
    “Quick!” Jack grabbed Ruthie and pulled her to the alcove. They had three or four seconds with no one nearby. He slammed the key into Ruthie’s hand and she closed her fist around it. In the blink of an eye, Ruthie’s ponytail was swinging in the breeze that surrounded them, the alcove enlarging into a cavernous space.
    They fell to their hands and knees on the giant carpet loops and rolled under the door. In the corridor, Jack jumped up and down like a tiny prizefighter.
    “It worked! I almost forgot how cool this is!”
    “Yeah, but we’ve got to get big again to set up the ladder,” Ruthie reminded him.
    “You can do it without me. Let me stay small and you can lift me up.”
    “Oh, all right,” Ruthie said, feeling like his chauffeur.
    She dropped the key and returned to full size. Jack lifted the key, which was now almost as large as him, staggering under its weight.
    “If I carry you while you’ve got the key, you’re gonna have to make sure it doesn’t touch me!” Ruthie cautioned. “I don’t want to shrink while I’m holding you!”
    Jack held the key in front of him with his hands outstretched. He looked like an old-fashioned doll whose arms didn’t bend. Ruthie carefully picked him up between her thumb and index finger, holding him at the waist, his legs dangling.
    “Go fast,” Jack’s tiny voice ordered. “I don’t think I can hold the key very long.”
    Ruthie jogged down the dark corridor, Jack bouncing along. At E31 Ruthie placed him on the ledge.
    “Man, that was heavy!” Jack let the key fall from his hands.
    Ruthie secured the ladder to the ledge, then picked up the key and shrank along with the canvas bag, the bento box, and the letter. Wishing she could be in Jack’s place on the ledge, she started the long climb.
    “There are so many people out there right now,” Jack said as Ruthie arrived on the ledge. “I just