Chapter 2

Chapter Two IN WHICH Many People Are Mad It's very sweet of you kids to want to visit your great-aunt," Mom said, smiling into the rearview mirror at Jared and Simon. "I know she's going to love the cookies you made." Outside the car window the trees streamed by, patches of yellow and red leaves between bare branches. "They didn't make them," Mallory said. "All they did was arrange frozen dough on a pan." Jared kicked the back of her seat, hard.

"Hey," Mallory said, turning around and trying to grab her brothers. Jared and Simon snickered. She couldn't quite get them with her seat belt on. "Well, that's more than you did," their mother said. "You are still grounded, young lady. All three of you have a week left." "I was at fencing practice," Mallory said, slumping in her seat and rolling her eyes. Jared wasn't sure, but it seemed like there was something odd about the way her ears got pink when she said it. Jared absently touched his backpack, feeling the outline of the field guide within, safe and sound, wrapped in a towel. So long as he kept it with him, there was no way that Mallory could get rid of it and no way the faeries could take it. Besides, maybe Aunt Lucinda knew about the Guide. Maybe she was the one who'd locked it up in the false bottom of the chest for him to find. If so, maybe she could convince his brother and sister that it was important enough to keep.

The hospital where their great-aunt lived was huge. It looked more like a manor than an asylum, with massive, redbrick walls, dozens of windows, and a neatly mown lawn. A wide, white stone path edged in rust-and-gold mums led to an entranceway cut from stone. At least ten chimneys rose from the black roof. "Wow, this place looks older than our house," Simon said.

"Older," said Mallory, "but not nearly as crappy." "Mallory!" their mother cautioned. Gravel crunched under their tires as they pulled into the parking lot. Their mother chose a spot next to a battered, green car and turned off the engine. "Does Aunt Lucy know we're coming?" Simon asked. "I called ahead," said Mrs. Grace, opening the car door and reaching for her purse. "I don't know how much they tell her, though, so don't be disappointed if she's not expecting us."

"I bet we're the first visitors she's had in a long time," Jared said. His mother gave him a look. "First of all, that is not a nice thing to say, and second, why are you wearing your shirt inside out?" Jared looked down and shrugged. "Grandma visits, doesn't she?" Mallory asked. Their mother nodded. "She comes, but it's hard for her. Lucy was more like a sister than a cousin.

And then when she started to... deteriorate... Grandma was the one who had to take care of things." Jared wanted to ask what that meant, but something made him hesitate. They walked through the wide, walnut doors of the institution. There was a desk in the vestibule, where a uniformed man was sitting, reading a newspaper. He looked up at them and reached for a tan phone. "Sign in, please." He nodded toward an open binder. "Who're you here to see?" "Lucinda Spiderwick." Their mother bent over the table and wrote their names. At the sound of the name the man scowled. Jared decided right then that he didn't like this guy at all. In a few minutes a nurse in a pink shirt with polka dots appeared. She led them through a maze of off-white hallways filled with stale air and the faint odor of iodine. They passed an empty room where a television flickered, and from somewhere