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unimpressed. “Quartz crystal. But someone dyed it to turn it blue, so it’s not really blue.”
    The man laughed, dropped the stones into a paper bag, and handed it over to Zoe, whose grin returned.
    “You win again,” he said dramatically. Then he turned to Penny. “You’re a Sinclair, aren’t you?”
    “Uh, yeah,” Penny said, a little surprised.
    “I knew it,” the man said, snapping his fingers. “I have an eye for faces. Never was good with names, but I knew I recognized you.”
    “I’ve never been here before.”
    The man waved her comment away. “Don’t matter. Family resemblance. I near jumped out of my skin when you walked in. You look a lot like your mamma.”
    “You knew my mom?”
    Zoe quit sifting through the bins of crystals and polished stones, watching Penny and the old shopkeeper with interest.
    “Oh, yeah,” he said enthusiastically. “She used to come in here all the time when she was younger. Must have had quite a collection of pretty rocks, all the time she spent here.”
    He must have quite a memory , Penny thought. The excited flutter in her stomach intensified. Would he remember her father too?
    “Your mamma, your aunt, and their friends were in here all the time.”
    Penny’s hopes sank at once. She didn’t have an aunt. The old guy might have a good memory for faces, but seemed confused about other details.
    Still, it was worth asking.
    “Do you remember …” but Susan’s voice cut her off as she stepped up behind the old shopkeeper.
    “Penny, why don’t you two head back to the shop? I’m sending Jenny out for a late breakfast.”
    Penny didn’t know if she’d done anything wrong, but Susan looked irritated. Had Susan guessed what Penny was about to ask the old man?
    “Thanks,” Zoe said, grinning as she stepped past Susan into Golden Arts’ showroom. She waved at the shopkeeper and said, “I’ll be back later.”
    He nodded, keeping a wary eye on Susan as Penny followed Zoe out.
    They waited outside Golden Arts for a few moments, but Susan did not join them.
    “Come on,” Zoe said, striding toward Sullivan’s open door.
    Penny took a step, and gave a little gasp, freezing on the spot.
    The talking fox stood at the other end of the block facing her, unconcerned, as a small group of old women passed it on their way to the senior center, which had a banner over its door advertising All Day Bingo Friday.
    A boy on a bicycle passed it a moment later, stopping to scan the street before he continued toward the park.
    Could no one else see it?
    The fox’s furry snout parted in a sharp-toothed grin, and it winked.
    Penny ran to catch up with Zoe, pulling the shop’s door closed behind her.
    Penny sat next to Zoe on one of Sullivan’s comfortable reading couches while her new friend cheerily recounted the story of their meeting. Zoe burst out laughing during the retelling of her favorite part, sitting on Rooster’s back and making him apologize.
    Susan, for her part, tried not to look too amused as she admonished them both, but wasn’t able to hold the stern look she strived for. The corners of her lips kept quivering with a barely suppressed grin.
    Penny, her attention split between the sidewalk past the glass front and Susan, nodded when it seemed appropriate, and promised at the end of Susan’s halfhearted lecture not to beat up any more town boys. She was afraid that weird fox might just trot up the sidewalk and push through Sullivan’s front door.
    Slowly, Penny calmed down, silently telling herself that her overactive imagination had shown her the fox where a dog had been. That made sense—the people passing it wouldn’t have made a fuss about a friendly neighborhood mutt—but she remained only half-convinced.
    When Jenny returned, her arms loaded with a tray of Styrofoam cups and a box of doughnuts, Penny rushed to open the door.
    Jenny caught sight of Zoe. “Welcome back.”
    Zoe waved, giving the doughnuts a hungry look as Jenny set them on the