5 MAGIC DOORBELL

CHAPTER 5 MAGIC DOORBELL Mom and I looked at each other and froze. "Is that some kind of reminder alarm on your phone?" Dad asked my mom. "Um, sort of," Mom replied. The doorbell meant that a magical creature needed our help. But my dad couldn't see the creatures. To him, it looked like nothing was there. This was going to be a bit tricky.

I looked at my mom and raised my eyebrows. "Zoey, I think I left something out in the barn?" My mom raised an eyebrow back at me. "Oh, right, that thing," I said. "Sassafras and I can get it for you." Sassafras and I dashed outside and through the barn to the back door. I opened it and looked around. My shoulders dropped. No one was there. Then I looked way down. I jumped in surprise. There on the grass, standing on two legs like a person, was a shimmering purple frog covered head to toe in neon spots. Could it be? Was this the talking frog my mom had told me stories about? Sassafras pushed in front of me. He closed his eyes and gently bumped his head against the frog. The frog reached out a tiny webbed hand and petted Sassafras on the nose. "Hello, old friend!" Sassafras immediately began purring. "Pip? Is that really you?" I squeaked. The frog looked up at me. "You can see me... and you know my name? Who are you?" Ever since I'd seen a picture of Pip in my mom's

office, I'd been dying to meet him. I burst out with everything all at once. "Hi, Pip! I'm Zoey. I think you were expecting my mom? But I can see you too. I've been helping my mom with the magical animals. Are you hurt? Is something wrong?" "Oh my. Let's see here. First, hi, Zoey. Nice to meet you. I was expecting your mom. But you will do." Pip took a deep breath and got a serious look on his face. "The merhorses from our stream are in trouble. We don't know what's wrong." Pip began talking faster and faster. "Their skin and eyes hurt, and they can't find any of their food. They usually eat mooflies, but they can't find any." "Mayflies?"

"Right! They said they can't find the marchflies under the water anymore." He paused in thought for a moment and scratched his head. "Although I'm not sure what that means. I don't know of any flies that live underwater." "Well, mayflies start their lives underwater as babies," I said. "They have gills and stuff until they get way bigger. Then they actually fly." "Huh. Well, anyway, there's something going on, because all the merflies are missing!" "I noticed that the mayflies were missing when I was at the stream earlier," I said. "Mom and I just finished running some tests on the stream water. I've got some bad news. It's polluted." "Oh no," said Pip, placing two tiny webbed hands on his cheeks. "I need to see your mother right away!"

Then Pip jumped onto my head! "Ah, that's much better. Humans are so useful. I can always see better from up here. What are you waiting for? Take me to her!" I walked back to my house as quickly as I could manage with a frog on my head and a nervous cat winding through my legs. When I opened the front

door, I wondered what would happen with my dad there. He couldn't see anything magical. How would we talk to Pip? Maybe I should wait until later? "Zoey?" called Mom from her office. "Did you, um, find the thing?" Uh oh, too late to turn back now. They'd heard me come in. I cleared my throat. "Yeah. I definitely found something." I turned the corner and my mom's jaw dropped. "Pip? Is that you?" she said. "Did you teach Zoey your pretend frog game?" Dad asked. "In that case, I'll take my own pretend frog to make a snack for us and leave you two to play with yours." He held out his hand and looked at