Little Tosia discovers she can make things invisible just as a mystery grows in the school cloakroom.
On Friday morning, Tosia hurried into school with her beloved yellow backpack shaped like a teddy bear bouncing on her shoulders. Fridays were the best, because after lessons the class always played their favourite games.
In the cloakroom, she stopped at once. Christopher was standing by the benches with a face as long as a rainy day.
"What's wrong?" Tosia asked.
"I lost my new baseball cap," he sighed. "I liked it so much."
Tosia was about to reach into her backpack for a teddy bear sticker to cheer him up when she blinked.
Her backpack was gone.
She stared at the empty space on her back. No one was laughing. No one was pulling a trick. The hooks, the coats, the shoes by the wall all stayed still.
Tosia pressed her hands together and whispered, "Come back."
At once, her yellow teddy-bear backpack popped back into view.
Christopher's eyes grew wide. "Tosia! You made it disappear!"
Tosia looked at her own hands as if they belonged to somebody else.
"Maybe," she breathed.
Christopher leaned closer. "Then maybe you can help find my cap."
Tosia nodded, though her heart was thumping fast. She reached for her backpack again, ready to try. Just then a dark shadow slid across the cloakroom door, and from inside the lockers came a tiny, scratchy rustle.
Both children froze.