Sabrina nodded. “You’re right. We keep forgetting.”

“You two are teasing me,” Puck complained.

“Fine! Don’t believe us,” Sabrina said. “You’ll see soon enough.”

She led them through the front door. Inside, the library was a disastrous mess. Books, magazines, and newspapers lay scattered about the floor as if a cyclone had blown them off their shelves. Everywhere she looked, Sabrina saw piles of papers and overturned chairs but not a single soul.

Puck’s face turned green as if he was about to be sick. “Look at all the learning,” he moaned. “I’m going to lose my lunch.”

Sabrina grabbed his hand and pulled him down an aisle lined with packed bookshelves. “Let’s just find what we’re looking for and get out of here. If we’re lucky we won’t have to see the librarian at all.”

Daphne took one side and Sabrina took the other, scanning the titles as they walked and hoping they might stumble upon a book of international flags. They found nothing, so they headed up another aisle. As they searched, Puck gagged.

“Can you give it a rest?” Sabrina asked.

“The smell is horrible! Books reek!” Puck cried. “It’s so bad I can almost taste them.”

“Stop being a baby,” Daphne said. Her tone startled Sabrina. She had never heard the little girl scold anyone, especially Puck. Daphne usually thought everything he said or did was hilarious. Worse still was the expression on her sister’s face. Daphne was impatiently rolling her eyes again. It was the rudest thing Sabrina had ever seen her do and it made her furious. She was just about to give her sister a lecture on manners when she heard someone whistling happily from across the room. Sabrina groaned. The librarian had found them.

“Is that the lunatic you were talking about?” Puck said, searching for the owner of the whistle.

Sabrina nodded. “Remember what we told you. Stay on your toes.”

“Hello!” the librarian cried as he appeared from around a shelf. He was holding a towering stack of books that reached several feet over his head. “It’s the Grimm sisters. You know, since the last time you were here, I was thinking how clever and funny your name is—the Sisters Grimm—oh, that’s fun. Like the Brothers Grimm—only girls.”

“Yes, it’s hilarious,” Sabrina said, forcing a smile on her face. “Do you need any help?”

“Everything is under control,” the librarian said, but his words did not reflect reality. With each step, the tower of books swayed back and forth. Convinced that the stack would topple over and crush them at any moment, Sabrina shuffled the group to the left, then to the right. It seemed as if no matter what direction they moved, the swaying books followed.

“I suppose you are hot on the trail of another mystery,” the librarian continued, unaware of the impending disaster.

“Are you sure you don’t need a hand?” Daphne asked.

“I’m hunky-dory!” the librarian claimed, but he was wrong. The top book in his stack slipped off. The librarian’s right leg darted out and the book landed on his foot before it hit the ground. He stood balanced on one leg, yet perfectly content. With one foot holding the book, the odd gentleman was forced to hop up and down on his free leg toward the information desk. Unfortunately, his hopping made the tower drift even farther, keeping Sabrina, Daphne, and Puck on the move to avoid the avalanche.

Just as the librarian reached the desk, a banana peel slipped out of his pocket.

“OH! I’m losing my lunch!” he cried.

Sabrina sighed, knowing full well what was about to happen. She’d seen the same thing the last time they had visited the librarian, except then it had been an orange peel. She watched helplessly as he stepped on the banana peel and went flailing forward, showering the children with heavy books and knocking them to the ground. Sabrina caught one right between the eyes and saw little stars explode in front of her face.

Puck managed to snatch his sword and bat the books away, then he brushed himself off frantically as if the books had been poisonous spiders. “Get them off me!” he shouted.

“Oh, my! Clumsy me,” the librarian cried as he struggled to his feet. He tried to help the children up but stepped on the banana peel again and lost his footing once more. This time he did a complete somersault in midair and landed flat on his back. When he got to his feet, Sabrina could see his true Everafter form. Hay sprang from the collar and sleeves of his red plaid shirt. A dusty old hat sat on his head, and his kindly face was nothing more than an old burlap sack with eyes, nose, and mouth crudely painted on it. He was the Scarecrow, made famous in L. Frank Baum’s Oz books. Watching the face, with its moving mouth and blinking eyes, was too much for Sabrina’s sensitive stomach, and like Puck, she suddenly felt nauseated. She had to avert her eyes when Scarecrow talked, just to keep her lunch in her belly. She knew it was rude, but not as rude as barfing all over the card catalog. She wondered if she’d ever get used to seeing such strange things.

Puck leaped into the air. His wings kept him high above the piles of books. He darted around the librarian like an annoyinggnat.

“You’re a scarecrow,” he said.

“Actually, I’m the Scarecrow, accomplished thinker, former Emperor of Oz, and head librarian of the Mid-Hudson Public Library.”

Puck eyed the man closely. “But you’re made out of hay, right?”

“Yes, and a brain. The great and terrible Oz gave it to me before he flew away in his balloon.”

“Someone gave you a brain?” Puck asked. “I’m actually jealous. Whose was it before you got it?”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Scarecrow stammered.

“The brain! Oz had to have gotten it somewhere. I bet it was a deranged killer’s. Those are the easiest to get.”

The Scarecrow stifled a scream. “My brain was brand new!”

“As if!” Puck said. “I know Oz and he never bought anything that wasn’t on sale. I’m sure your brain is secondhand.”

The Scarecrow looked as if he might have a nervous breakdown, so Sabrina stepped in to change the subject. “We’re looking for a friend who is overseas. We have a street address and a flag but not a city or a country.”

“Well, you came to the right place,” the librarian exclaimed as he got himself under control. “Tell me about this flag of yours.”

“It’s red with a big golden lion in the center,” Daphne said. “The lion has wings and is guarding a castle on a hill. There’re all these vines on the border and little saints in the corners, too.”

Scarecrow rubbed his burlap chin, thought for a moment, and then his eyes lit up. “I’ve seen that flag!” He raced off, leaving the children behind. They chased the Scarecrow through the stacks and caught up with him in the back of the library. He was already climbing up a big bookcase, reaching for a book on the very top. The bookcase was not mounted to the wall and was teetering back and forth under the Scarecrow’s weight.

“Does anyone else see where this is going?” Sabrina sighed. She remembered seeing the movie The Wizard of Oz when she was a child. The Scarecrow was such a klutz, Sabrina would giggle whenever he was on-screen. The real flesh-and-hay Scarecrow wasn’t much different, but the pratfalls weren’t as endearing. Perhaps she was getting older and had less patience for such silliness, or maybe, she suspected, the Scarecrow was just annoying. “I think I know why Dorothy wanted to go back to Kansas,” Sabrina muttered to herself.

Despite the Scarecrow’s weight, the shelf did not topple over, but that didn’t mean Sabrina and Daphne were safe. The Scarecrow kept tossing down the books he didn’t need. The tumbling volumes were encyclopedias, and the children darted around like they were trapped in a whack-a-mole game.

“Here it is,” the Scarecrow cried, just before he fell off the shelf and landed in a heap on the floor. Without missing a beat, the librarian sprang to his feet and opened the book. Inside were pictures of flags from all over the world. He flipped through the pages until he found a flag that looked just like the one the girls had seen hanging from the Hotel Cipriani’s banister. “Is that it?”