We'd just stepped off the school bus and were starting up the long hill toward home. We passed a couple of old storefronts and had reached the vacant lot when all four of us saw a flash of gold in the gutter right below our feet.
"Hey!" Lissa exclaimed on one side of me.
"What's that?" Nikki yelled on the other.
I crouched down on the edge of the curb, poking at the trash that the rain had piled up in the gutter. In the midst of the withered leaves and soggy papers and mud gleamed a roundish thing kind of like an extra-large gold coin. As the other three watched, I picked it up and shook it off.
"What is it, Margo, a badge or something?" Pat asked.
"I don't know, but I like it," I said. Sunlight glanced down between a couple of clouds and made the thing glitter and shine so it looked like liquid flame in my hand. It would be great in my collection of Weird Things, I decided--if no one else wanted it.
"It's pretty," Lissa said, touching it daintily. "I wonder who lost it?"
"Is that carving on it?" Nikki pushed her curly black hair out of her eyes as she peered down at my hand. "It looks like something is written on it."
"No, it's curly leaves," Lissa said, setting her backpack on the sidewalk and bending over my hand.
I tipped my palm so everyone could see the thing. The glitter was so bright it almost hurt my eyes.
Lissa gasped. "There are words on it! Look ... it's kind of old-fashioned, but I can read it. Here's an 'I', and there's 'molder'--"
"Holder," Nikki said. She grabbed my fingers in her strong brown hand, staring down at the talisman, then up at us, a funny look on her round face. "It says, 'I grant the holder one wish.'"
)
