Mask

Two

YOU CAN TALK ABOUT THINGS all you like. But what really matters is taking that first step toward actually doing something.

Or in our case, I guess it’s more like taking that first leap—into the air and flying.

After battling the serpentlike Hisser and stopping the Duke and his band of Nazi spies, we had been feeling pretty good. Not only had Akiko, Mae, and I kept my cousin Kay and the other Secret Six computer programmers safe, we’d also kept the ENIAC—that blinking heap of metal Kay and Jean had called a giant electronic brain—from falling into the wrong hands.

But the next morning, after Mrs. B had stood up from our booth at Gerda’s Diner and left us, things got a little more complicated. That was when our puzzling skills had really kicked in. We’d figured out that Mrs. B and Astra weren’t just members of the league of secret heroes. They were superheroes themselves—the Palomino and her wolfy sidekick, Star!

There have been others taken by villains, she’d told us. Many others.

And this is where you come in.

It was clear to me that Mrs. B wasn’t expecting the Infinity Trinity just to fly around Philadelphia rescuing cats from trees or slowing down the occasional runaway train. She had big plans. As in saving her sister, Zenobia, who happened to be the most important superhero of all time.

We’re going to need to practice our superpowers for a few hours every day, Akiko was saying as she poked her straw around her milkshake. And keep our superhero costumes clean, added Mae, who was the tidiest person I’d ever met.

And what should we call Mrs. B and Astra now? Mrs. Palomino? Mr. Star?

That was Mae again. Tidy and polite, even to a dog.

Their ideas kept piling up, one after another. But for me, my mind was stuck like one of those kiddie rides at the amusement park—the kind that go around and around but never get anywhere. I kept thinking the same thing: Zenobia was in danger. And she didn’t just need help. She needed our help. As in the three of us. Akiko Nakano, Mae Crumpler, and me, Josie Mary Maeve O’Malley.

One asthmatic know-it-all.

One animal-obsessed know-it-all. And—

Are you listening, Josie? Akiko’s gravelly voice interrupted my thoughts. I dropped my fork. You might think you know everything about superheroes and, well, life. But it’s time you listen to Mae and me.

And you should consider wearing a broad-brimmed hat, added Mae, sipping her chocolate malted and gesturing toward my face. You’re pretty pink today.

My hands automatically shot up to my freckled cheeks. I guess it was clear what they thought of me: I was a sunburned know-it-all.

Why don’t you take charge for a while, Akiko? I asked, hoping my voice sounded light and not as worried as I was feeling. I’m fine listening to you and Mae.

All I’m saying is that if Mrs. B calls on the Infinity Trinity this summer, Akiko said, plowing ahead in that sandpaper voice of hers, you can’t be stuck babysitting your little brothers.

She’s right, agreed Mae. Granny Crumpler is going to want me helping her open the new library branch. But I cannot possibly stack mysteries on shelves when I could be out solving them! And then she leaned in and whispered, In a superhero costume, too!

Before I could reply, Mae and Akiko steamrolled ahead like they were flattening tar onto a new road. We can have Mrs. B send a letter to our families so they don’t worry about where we are, said Mae. We’ll tell them we’re going to sleepaway camp or somewhere, said Akiko.

I opened my mouth to speak. But they kept on rolling. We need to make a list of what superheroes have been spotted and where. That was Akiko. She pulled a pencil and notebook out of her Hauntima bag and began taking notes. And what was happening when any superheroes went missing, added Mae, tapping the page and urging Akiko to write faster. Were they vaporized like the Stretcher? Were they stunned? frozen? turned invisible?

I took another bite of my blueberry pie as Akiko and Mae added to their list. Their banter became background noise to the voice in my head. I kept coming back to the same thought as before:

Zenobia was legendary. Zenobia was the most beloved superhero of all time. Zenobia was the type of hero memorialized in statues and street names and songs! She was powerful, smart, clever, inventive. In a word, she was everything.

So how exactly were three kids like us supposed to save her?

It went on like this for nearly a week—until Wednesday. That’s the day we took off for San Francisco.

But it wasn’t like we just packed our suitcases and climbed aboard a train from Philadelphia, the way most people travel. Things with the three of us, I was quickly learning, weren’t exactly typical anymore.

Could we please find somewhere to cool off? I had been asking this question for nearly an hour. It wasn’t even ten in the morning, and already I’d felt my shirt sticking to my back. I can’t stand this heat.

Let’s go to my aunt and uncle’s store, Akiko had suggested. A fire hydrant burst, and it’s been gushing water like a fountain for the past two days. We won’t even need to change into bathing suits.

This had sounded good to Mae and me, so we started walking. But as soon as we’d turned onto Akiko’s block, one of her cousins had come running toward us. He’d waved an envelope in his hand and practically knocked her over trying to give it to her.

For me? Akiko’d said, steadying her little cousin. He looked to be about the same age as Baby Lou, though he had both his front teeth. Why’s it already opened if it’s for me?

I didn’t mean to read it, he’d confessed. I thought it might have baseball cards inside. I’m looking for Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra cards, see, so I can trade ’em with—

So you tore into my mail? interrupted Akiko. I’m pretty sure opening somebody’s mail is against the law, Squirt.

I’d tried not to smile. Hearing Akiko, who weighed about as much as a baseball card, refer to her little cousin as Squirt made me want to laugh. Mae had shifted her feet, and I could tell she was hiding a smile too. All three of us were just as scrawny as this little guy.

But it’s really important, Squirt had insisted, his voice growing louder. It’s about your mom, Akiko. I read it three times. The letter says she’s gone missing!

Three

AND THAT’S HOW WE WOUND up on the West Coast, flying around California.

Manzanar? Mae whispered.

I’m sorry if I sound like a lunkhead, Akiko, I began, hoping she wouldn’t say that she already knew I was a lunkhead. But I just don’t understand how a whole neighborhood of people could get moved out into the desert like that.

It wasn’t just my block in Japantown that got moved, Josie. It was the whole community. And not only here in San Francisco, but in all of the cities in California—from Los Angeles and San Diego in the south, straight up the coast.

She reached up to adjust the barrette in her hair, like she needed something to do with her nervous energy.

Japanese Americans were ordered out of Oregon and Washington too, she added. Out of the whole West Coast.

Everybody to the same camp? whispered Mae.

No. The government has set up lots of them—ten altogether. There’s a couple east of here in California. And the rest are in Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and even over in Arkansas.

Mae and I went quiet. Akiko already told us that grandparents and little kids were forced to relocate to the camps, right along with the grown men and women. I tried to imagine Baby Lou and Vinnie leaving our apartment for the desert.

Hauntima’s ghost! There’s a copper, Akiko said, and I knew she was trying to whisper. I watched a black-and-white police car slow down at the corner behind us. I can’t get caught here in Japantown.

We shuffled closer toward a shrub blooming with flowers of the brightest pink I’d ever seen. Out of sight from the street, the three of us leaned in tightly together and grabbed each other’s right hands.

I know how the two of you are—you have to see something to believe it, said Akiko. And I don’t blame you, since I’m the same way.

As we straightened up, shoulder to shoulder in the triangle formed by our three bodies, I felt the familiar hum of electricity begin to pulse in my ears. What a week ago had seemed unbelievable was now just part of who we were. Golden light shot skyward and enveloped us in a churning funnel—like we were in the center of a hurricane. Swirls of purple, orange, and green danced before my eyes as our hair whipped in all directions.

Then we were off the ground, hanging suspended just a few feet above the sidewalk as the force of our transformation lifted us. Seconds after, we dropped back to the ground, and I heard Akiko’s voice. I knew she was calling out our destination.

With that familiar Pop! my stomach dropped and we were teleporting again.

Just as the first time—when I appeared in Toby Hunter’s apartment with an armload of his stolen bikes—the same dizzying feeling rushed over me. It was like we were plunging down an elevator shaft, and my stomach lurched up into my throat. If I weren’t so nervous about what we’d see at the other end, it might have been fun.

I heard the Pop! again as we appeared on a hot and dusty patch of land, though I wasn’t sure exactly where. I knew it must have been the internment camp Akiko had described, but I didn’t really know what that meant.

Ah-choo!

Allergies here too, Akiko complained, rubbing at her nose with an orange-gloved hand. Never mind. Follow me.

In the blink of a dry and scratchy eye, we transformed back into our regular clothes. But my stomach kept right on dropping. I was worrying about how we’d explain ourselves to anyone who asked what we were doing here. Akiko had mentioned barbed wire and towers with guns. It took me only a few quick glances around to spot them.

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my dungarees to keep Akiko and Mae from noticing how much they were shaking. Mam’s voice echoed in my head: Be safe. No trouble. I listened for footsteps, certain that at any minute an armed guard was going to grab us by the shoulders. How would I explain any of this to my mother?

Josie, close your mouth, whispered Mae. You’re breathing as loud as Akiko.

Okay, but I’m just a little nervous! I tried speaking as softly as I could, but this was serious. What are we going to say when someone catches us?

She’s right, agreed Mae, tugging on Akiko’s arm. Neither one of us looks like you. What happens if somebody asks us what we’re doing here?

We began walking under the blazing sun, following a dusty path that seemed to divide rows of long wooden buildings. The sky was a cloudless blue, and waves of hot air rose off the rocks and dirt beneath us like the heat beams Zenobia could shoot from her eyes. Laundry hung on clotheslines, and little kids were playing catch and jumping rope.