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Allie sood deeds?"

Mikey frowned "Okay, then Sixty years of halfway-decent deeds"

"Fair enough," said Allie She looked at the coin in her hand It was lukewarh it would get her where she was going, but just because she was ready to go, it didn’t mean she had to just yet It was a matter of choice

What was it her fortune had said? "Linger or light The choice is yours"

Allie chose to put the coin in her hip pocket for now She always had been good at saving her money

Mikey held out his hand to her, ready to lift her up on the horse

"Home?" he asked

But suddenly it didn’t seeent There were still plenty of unknowns to explore here in Everlost She could squeeze a lot of them in between here and home "There’s no hurry," she told hi you ho to be my first halfway-decent deed"

"I’hed in frustration "This is not going to be easy I’ood I don’t know the first thing about good deeds"

"Well," Allie said, with a grin, "I do knoelve-step prograrabbed Mikey’s hand, cliether toward all things unknown

Nick had to win this race, even if the odds were against hihost train dropped him off at old Penn Station, he wasted no time It was dusk now The train had been fast, but an airship didn’t have to worry about tracks

His only hope was that Mary’s learning curve when it ca had slowed her down When she had first taken to the air, the airship was erratic, turning this way and that, unable to set a course With any luck, she was still zigzagging across New Jersey, trying to get the hang of it

He ran at full speed from the station all the way down to the plaza at the base of the towers The sa tag

"Is Mary here?" he called out He expected them to rush him and capture hi? Nick had a suspicion that he was about to find out

But they didn’t rush hi the outfield turned to him and said, "Meadow says she went away for a while, but shell be back real soon"

Good, thought Nick, he had beaten her here--and nohen he looked west, he could see that he hadn’t beaten her by s to the west, Nick could see the zeppelin in the sky across the Hudson River, still high, but dropping toward them It couldn’t be any more than five miles away Nick knew he didn’t have et Meadow," he told the kickball kid "Tell her to gather everyone at the fountain" Then the kickball kid ran off, confounding the daily pattern of his game

Nick went over to the fountain hi out to all the kids in the plaza

"Everyone! Everyone listen to ot their attention Ju

Kids began to converge on the fountain

Nick looked to the west again: The airship was there, halfway across the river

It was still too high, but that didn’t ame would be over He would lose their attention He had to keep everyone focused on hiher floors "Mary wants er have to fear the McGill She’s cut him down to size! "

A cheer fro very exciting to tell you!" Okay, thought Nick Here it goes… "How many of you threw your wishes into the fountain?"

Every hand went up

"And how many of your wishes came true?"

One by one the hands went down, until not a single one of them was left

"Well," said Nick, "it’s time for all your wishes to come true" And with that he jumped into the fountain, reached into the water, and started pulling up coins "C’ets their coin back!"