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do.” Molly grinned. “I just lost ’em last week, and Aunt Flo says she ain’t going to get me any more cause I lost the last pair, too.” She made her voice sharp and shrill, “Just plain irresponsible, that’s what it is, do you think we’re made of money, there’s a Depression going on, miss, in case you hadn’t noticed it.” She gave a snort and then fell back into her own voice, “But anyway, I don’t know how I lost them. I was trying to take real good care of them ’cause Flo like to have a fit last time. I can’t see more’n a couple feet away without glasses.” She sighed, and then looked at the lens. “Too bad you just got the one. Where’d you find it again?”
    “It was taped to the wall of my room. Your room. Just down there,” said Miri, pointing at the wooden baseboard.
    Molly stuck her index finger in her mouth and began to chew on it thoughtfully. “Wonder how it got there? Who put it there? And when?”
    Miri felt her scalp wrinkle again, but this time her shivers didn’t come from panic. This time they came from the spooky feeling that someone had taped the lens onto the wall of her room for a reason, someone who knew that the glass would take her back in time. The idea of magic had become somewhat less thrilling now that she couldn’t get home, but Miri felt comforted by the thought that someone was guiding this adventure, that she was part of a plan instead of a freak accident.
    Molly, pulling her finger out of her mouth, said, “Maybe it’s spirits.”
    Spirits. Miri wrapped her arms around her knees. “You believe in ghosts, too?”
    “Sure,” said Molly with confidence. “Don’t you?” Miri rocked back and forth, thinking. “Yeah, I do. But not ghosts like most people think of them— spooks in sheets wandering around scaring people. I think they’re more like echoes of people who aren’t there anymore. You know?”
    Molly turned her great gray eyes to Miri’s. “Grandma May said something like that once. Back when she could talk, she said that some places can hold on to the past. In some places, everything that ever happened there is still happening, but just an echo of it.” Molly smiled. “I didn’t really understand what she was talking about, but maybe she was right. Maybe this is one of those places.”
    Miri stopped rocking. “Weird. Everything that ever happened is still going on?” She looked around the room. “Like if fifty years ago someone woke up in this room, that’s still happening now?”
    “Only ghost-like,” said Molly solemnly. “Not solid-like.”
    There was a silence while they both thought about that.
    “Kind of creepy,” said Miri. “Now I feel like someone’s breathing on me.”
    Molly giggled. “Give him a swat.”
    Miri batted the air. “Move aside,” she said in a dignified way. “You’re invading my personal space.”
    “Your what?” said Molly.
    Before Miri could answer, the sharp clang of a bell sounded from below.
    “Supper!” exclaimed Molly, jumping up from the bed. “Don’t you fuss. I’m good at sneaking food. I’ll bring you plenty.”
    “But aren’t you going to get in trouble down there?” asked Miri uneasily. “Isn’t Horst after you?” “He never does anything real bad in front of his mama. She thinks he’s a model boy, and he makes sure she keeps on thinking so.” Molly gave a little smile. “ ’Sides, he’s too busy stuffing his face to whop me. He don’t put his fork down for anything. I’ll be back soon.” She slipped through the door, and Miri heard her steps patter away.
    Miri looked around once more at the faded wallpaper. Trying to ignore her growling stomach, she inspected a small wicker bookshelf and found several tattered old friends. Little Women, Eight Cousins, and Five Children and It. She considered the fact that several of her favorite books would not be published for seventy more years. “Great,” she muttered. “When I’m in my eighties, I’ll find out what