The Big Book About

Sophie

By R.W. Tjerkstra

c february 2007

Sophie

It was 9 o’clock, and Sophie had just gone to bed. She was tired because she had had a busy day at school. Her teacher had told the class about the Middle Ages, and after that they had to make a play about what the children learned at school in those days, and what life at school was like. The whole day long, she had been busy making up stories and talking about the play with the other children. Everybody wanted something different, and nobody knew what schools really looked like back then. Sophie had to go to the school’s library to find out. When school was over the play wasn’t finished, and the teacher had said that they would have to continue working on it tomorrow. At home, Sophie had been watching TV for the remainder of the day. Her father didn’t like that, but she really was too tired to go outside and play. Besides, it was much too hot to play anyway.

Pff, it was warm in Sophie’s room too. Sophie laid her hand on her stomach. She was all sticky from the heat. Oh! There was a piece of fluff in her belly button! Sophie took it out and wanted to throw it on the floor. But she could not. It looked like the fluff sticked to her belly button somehow. When she cautiously tried to pull it loose, she found that the fluff was connected to her belly button with a piece of thread.

Sophie pulled on the thread.

The thread became longer.

Sophie switched the light on and looked at the thread.

It was a bit

translucent and came out of a small hole in her belly button. “Well,” she thought, “How did I get this?” It looked like spider’s silk, only it didn’t stick. “You know what,” thought Sophie, “I will break it and go to sleep.” She tried to pull the thread apart with her two hands. “Ouch!” It cut her fingers! And it didn’t break.

Sophie got out of bed and searched for the small pair of scissors she used to cut her nails with. The thread had become quite long already. “I’ll be glad when it’s gone,” Sophie thought while she yawned. After some rummaging through her stuff she found what she was looking for. “Ha ha,” she thought.

“Now it’s just ‘clip!’ and I can go to sleep.” She grasped the thread and pulled it again. It became even longer. It already reached to the ground.

Sophie tried to cut the thread. It didn’t work. The thread was too strong.

Now she started to get worried. She sat on the bed to think. “I can’t go through the rest of my life with this thread coming out of my tummy,” she thought. “What if it keeps on getting longer and I can’t cut it? I won’t pull it again, that’s for sure!” She rolled the thread into a little ball. While she was doing that she heard her father’s voice from the garden. “Young lady, it is already way past bedtime! Why aren’t you asleep? I thought you were so tired!” Sophie hesitated. Would she go downstairs to ask for help, or wait until tomorrow? “Maybe Dad can cut the thread,” she thought, “then I won’t wake up all tied up.” With the little ball held tightly in her fist she climbed down the stairs.

Sophie’s dad was still in the garden. It was almost dark now, and still very hot. “What is it honey, can’t you sleep?” her father asked.

“No,” answered Sophie, “something very weird is going on with me.” Her eyes filled with tears.

“Come and sit here for a minute,” said Dad, while he pulled Sophie on his lap. “Are you in love?” He hadn’t seen the thread yet because it was so dark.

“No,” Sophie said again. “There’s this thread growing out of my belly button, and I can’t get it off.”

Her dad looked at her, very surprised. “What did you say?” he said.

Sophie showed him the thread. Dad looked at it attentively and felt Sophie’s belly button. Then he pulled the thread. It became longer.

“Don’t do that!!” yelled Sophie. “It gets longer and longer and I can’t break it or cut it! It’s very strong!” She started sobbing. Tears streamed down her face.

“Come on Sophie, calm down,” her father said softly. “I won’t hurt you.

I won’t pull it again. But we have to get it off. Let me try, OK?” Sophie wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded. Dad took the thread in his two hands and pulled.

“It’s quite strong,” he said.

“I told you,” said Sophie.

Dad tried again. He pulled the thread really hard. “Auw!!” he said. The thread had cut his fingers. Dad put his fingers in his mouth. “Great, now I’m bleeding,” he sulked. “Come, let’s go inside, so I can get a band-aid and a good look at you.”

When they were inside and Dad had put a band-aid on his fingers, he picked up his very sharp scissors. Sophie was not allowed to cut with them because Dad said it was too dangerous. “Well,” he said, “now we will show your little thread who’s the boss in this house.” He picked up the thread with an evil look in his eyes. “You hold it tight, and I’ll cut it,” he said to Sophie.

Sophie took the thread and held it tight. Dad took the scissors and...

“What’s this?” he asked. He tried to cut the thread again. “My goodness, what is this? Who used my scissors?”

“Not me,” said Sophie.

“Wait,” said Dad. “I will sharpen them.” He went to the garage, where his knife sharpener stood. “I will make them so sharp, this little thread will not even notice that it’s been cut through,” Dad said. Dad was very proud of his sharpening machine.

After a while Dad was ready sharpening the scissors. “OK,” he said, “if this doesn’t work we’ll have to try something else. Are you ready for the attack?”

Sophie pulled the thread again, and Dad attacked it with his scissors.

“Nnngg!!” he growled. He tried with all his might to cut the thread, but to no avail. It was too strong. Dad’s face was all red. He tried so hard! Finally, he gave up. “Well honey, I think we have a real problem here,” he said.

“Look, my beautiful scissors are all messed up! I’ve never seen anything like this.” Sophie looked at the scissors. They were broken allright. Dad had squeezed them so hard that they were bent. Sophie’s dad was really strong.

Sophie felt the thread where Dad had tried to cut it. It felt soft and smooth.

She felt really unhappy and began to cry again. “What do we do now?” she sobbed. “I can’t live my life with this thread sticking out of my belly! And look, it keeps getting longer!” Indeed, the thread had become longer without Sophie or Dad even touching it. Dad picked Sophie up from the ground, hugged her and kissed her on her forehead. “Hey, you’re not going to to worry already, are you? Tomorrow we will go to the doctor. He must have seen this before. Come, I’ll make you a nice cup of hot chocolate, and then you must try to sleep. I have to go to bed too, because I have to work hard tomorrow.” Sophie was sitting on the couch watching TV when Dad came back from the kitchen with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. “Here you are,” he said, “yummy with whipped cream! Try drinking that without getting a moustache!” Sophie laughed and took a mug from him. Hmmm, that smelled good!

“Dad?” she asked.

“Yes dear, what’s up?”

“How can you work hard tomorrow when you have to go to the doctor with me?”

“O dear, you’re right! Good grief. What would I be without you?”

“Then you could just work hard,” said Sophie.

“Not so smug, girlie,” laughed dad. “Don’t worry, I’ll think of something.

I may even let you make dinner, so I can keep working longer, how about that?” Sophie didn’t mind. She liked making dinner.

“Deal,” she said. “I’ll make dinner tomorrow, and you’ll bring me to the doctor.”

The next day, Sophie and her dad sat in the doctor’s waiting room. Sophie hadn’t slept well. The thread had become longer and longer, and she got tangled in it a few times. She hoped the doctor would have a solution for her problem.

Finally it was her turn. The doctor was a big man with big black spectacles on his bald head. “So,” he said to Sophie, “tell me. Is your father ill?”

“No,” answered Sophie. She showed him the thread. “It grows out of my belly button and it is very strong. We can’t cut it.”

“It destroyed my beautiful scissors,” said Dad.

“What type of scissors do you have?” asked the doctor.

“They were a Supercut 2000,” answered Dad with a sad voice. “But now they’re dead.”

“Wow, a Supercut 2000. That must be a very special thread,” said the doctor. He scrutinized the thread. He pulled it. It became longer. “Does it come out of your belly button?” he asked Sophie. She nodded.

“Yes,” she said. “The doctor is not very smart,” she thought.

“Does it hurt when I pull it?” asked the doctor.

“No, it just tickles a little.”

“Hmmm.” The doctor scratched his bald head. He opened a drawer and took out a large magnifying glass. He used it to stare intently at Sophie’s belly button. He pulled the thread until at least two feet extra had come out.

“Auw!” Sophie cried suddenly. “It won’t go further!”

“Sorry,” said the doctor. “I wanted to know what happens when it comes out of your navel. But I can’t see it so well. It’s so thin, it looks like spider’s silk.” He scratched his bald head once again.

“Can you pull it for me?” he asked. Sophie pulled the thread.

“Can you feel where it is attached?”

Sophie pulled again. “I think it’s attached somewhere behind my belly button,” she said. “I feel something there.”

“Hmmm,” the doctor said again. “So it doesn’t go deeper. Maybe it is spider’s silk.” He stared at Sophie with a pensive look on his face. “You know what’s handy?” he asked Sophie’s father. “If you tie the free end to something, you can always find your daughter back easily. Especially when she’s a bit older that can come in handy!” He grinned at his own joke. Dad grinned with him.

“Shall we leave it in there?” he laughed. But Sophie got angry.

“I always thought doctors were very smart people,” she screamed. “But you just make stupid jokes and you didn’t even try to get it out!”

“Hmmm,” said the doctor. “You didn’t think that was funny, did you?

I’ll see what I can do. Did you try to burn it already?”

“No,” said Dad. “It was late yesterday. And I was curious to know if this happens often.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said the doctor. He took a cigarette lighter and held a piece of thread in the flame. Nothing happened. “Hmmm,” said the doctor. “That is a bit of a disappointment. Maybe the flame is not hot enough. Follow me please.”

Sophie and her father followed him to another room, where someone was busy heating reagent tubes in a gas flame. “Can I borrow your flame for a minute?” the doctor asked him.

“Of course,” was the answer.

“Now pay attention!” the doctor exclaimed enthusiastically. “That little thread of yours will never know what hit it.”

“I’ve heard that before,” grinned Sophie.

The doctor held the thread in the gas flame. It didn’t flinch. It became red hot, but it didn’t burn or break. The doctor pulled on both sides of the flame. “Be careful not to cut yourself!” warned Sophie.

“That’s a good one,” said the doctor. “You know what, let’s both take a side and pull with pincers.”

So that’s what they did. The doctor and Dad both pulled as hard as they could on the thread, that was red hot from the gas flame. But nothing happened. Afterwards the thread was just as smooth and strong as it ever was. Sophie was really disappointed.

“I’m afraid we are dealing with an unbreakable thread here,” said the doctor.

Sophie started crying. “Now I have to live forever with this thread coming out of my tummy!” she sobbed.

“Come on kid, don’t give up hope yet,” said the doctor. He offered her a tissue. “You know what? Let’s go to the zoo, to the arthropod attendant.

Maybe he knows a solution.”

“And what if he doesn’t know?”

“Then you’ll have to go to the hospital to have it taken out. But you shouldn’t worry about that yet. First we’ll try some other things,” the doctor said. He looked at her father. “I’ve never seen anything this strange,” he told him. “I will hit the books today to see if I can find anything, and I’ll let you know. This afternoon we will go to the zoo, if that is allright with you.” Dad nodded. “The sooner the better,” he said.

“Good. I’ll see you there at half past three. I’ll make sure you don’t have to buy a ticket.”

After they had been to the doctor’s office, Sophie’s father had taken her to school. Her friends had almost finished the play, and Sophie was glad she could work on it some more. She didn’t tell anyone about the thread that came out of her body. When children asked where she was she told them to mind their own business. Because Sophie usually was a happy and friendly girl they soon stopped questioning her, and she could do her work without problems.

At half past two her father came to pick her up. “How was school?” he asked.

“It was OK. I continued to work on the play.”

“You look a lot happier than this morning. Did you tell anything to your classmates?”

“No. They asked, but I told them to mind their own business.”

“Very good,” said Dad. “Let’s go, or else we’ll be late.” At exactly half past three, the doctor came walking to the entrance of the zoo. His bald head gleamed in the sun. The weather was very hot again, and instead of his neat trousers and his white coat, he had put on shorts and a T-shirt. He didn’t look like a doctor at all, Sophie thought.

The doctor shook hands with Sophie and her dad. “I made an appointment with the arthropod attendant,” he told them. “Follow me please.” At the counter he told the sales clerk who they were and that they had an appointment. The clerk made a short telephone call and told them to wait.

After a while a man in a green coverall came walking towards them.

“Ha, doctor!” he called. He introduced himself to Sophie and her dad.

His name was Hans.

“Follow me,” said Hans. They followed him to a small room where a table and a few chairs were placed. There were also a lot of strange machines. What they were for was a mystery to Sophie. And there were a lot of plastic containers with transparent covers. And a small kitchen with a coffee machine. There was not a spider in sight. Sophie didn’t mind that, because she didn’t like spiders at all.

“So,” said Hans. “I understood from the doctor that you have a very special thread growing out of your belly. A Supercut 2000 resistant thread.” Sophie heard her father moan. “My poor Supercut,” he said with a sad face. Hans and the doctor laughed.

“Yes,” said Sophie. “Can you cut it?”

“I’ll have to take a look at it,” Hans said. Sophie showed him the thread.

I had grown longer during the day, and Sophie had wrapped it around a match, so it wouldn’t tangle. Hans looked at it with interest. He unwound the thread and held it to the light. He looked at it through a magnifying glass. Then he looked hard at Sophie’s belly button. Sophie didn’t like it at all. But Hans was not ready yet. “Come with me to the microscope,” he said. Hans put the thread on a glass slide and stared at it through the microscope. “Yes, yes, yes,” he mumbled. “Just as I thought. Do you eat lots of fruit?” He didn’t wait for Sophie’s answer, but walked away and took a pile of papers from a shelf somewhere. He started leafing through them enthusiastically. “Ha ha, this is it!” he shouted after a while. He showed Sophie a piece of paper. There were a lot of words on it in another language.

And a lot of pictures of what looked like ropes to Sophie.

Hans explained: “There are a lot of spiders in the world. But there is only one belly button spider. It’s very rare. And you have got one.” Sophie yelled: “I have a spider in my belly? Get it out!” She ran to her father. He catched her with his big strong arms, and held her tight.

“Calm down,” he whispered. “Everything will be allright.” Hans waited patiently until Sophie had calmed down a little before he continued his story. “You don’t need to worry. It won’t make you ill. Belly button spiders live in warm countries. They are very special spiders. They are born very small. The male spiders will look for a place where many animals pass by. When a large animal passes, they will drop onto it, and crawl inside its belly button. They make a sort of burrow in which they will stay. You won’t feel it because they use a tranquilizer. Just like mosquitos do.

Sophie held her breath listening. She was a bit less afraid now. Hans had told her she would not get ill because of the spider. But she didn’t like the idea of her having a spider in her belly. “What does it eat, when it’s in your stomach?” she asked.

“They don’t eat. They suck blood. They need only a little bit because they don’t get very big. And they lose their legs, too.” Sophie tried to imagine a spider without legs that drank blood. That was difficult. She found it a bit eerie. Meanwhile, Hans continued:

“They stay in your belly for about a year until they are full-grown. Then they feel it’s time to make new spiders. Of course they need a female spider for that. And they find her in a very special way. Obviously they can not walk, but the people or animals they’re in can. And the females of the belly button spider like the scent of the silk the males make a whole lot! So the males make a thread that they push out of the belly button of the animal they’re in. And then they hope a female will find it.”

“Hmmm,” said Dad. “So Sophie’s male must have a female. But if the thread gets longer it will tangle, not?”

“Yes,” said Hans. It will tangle and sometimes get stuck in branches or whatever. And that is just what our spider wants. Because the thread is very strong it will not break, and the animal will be trapped. That’s handy, because the animal can of course run much faster than a little spider. In this way the female can get to the male.”

“But what if there are no females around? Then it’s all been for nothing, hasn’t it?” asked Sophie.

“There is a solution for that. If a female hasn’t arrived in a couple of days, the male will break the thread, and he can start searching again.”

“So the thread will fall off eventually?” asked Sophie.

“Yes, but you will have to keep pulling it, otherwise the spider thinks that it’s not tangled yet, and will continue to make more thread. And when it’s fallen off, there will be a new thread right away.”

“And what happens when the female finds the male?” asked Dad.

“When the female has found the male she can pull him out of his burrow, and she will take him to a suitable place to lay her eggs. The female is much bigger than the male, so she can carry him with ease.” Sophie was thinking. She really wanted to get rid of the spider because she didn’t like the idea of having a spider live inside her belly at all. “So if we show the thread to a female belly button spider she will take the male out?” she asked Hans.

“Yes,” he said. “There is only one problem. As I said, belly button spiders are very rare. It will be hard to find one, so that may take a while.

But I know a lot of spider fans around the world, and I hope I can find one for you soon.”

“I hope so too,” said Sophie.

“Do you have any idea how long it will take?” Dad asked Hans.

“I have no idea. I’ll do my best and ask as many people as possible if they have a belly button spider for me, but I can’t promise anything. You will have to be patient, I’m afraid. You know what? Come and visit me in a week. Then I’ll know more.” He saw Sophie looking smug. “Don’t be afraid.

No one has ever been ill because of a belly button spider,” he said.

“I think it’s scary to have to walk around with a spider in my belly,” said Sophie.

Sophie and her father walked home. Sophie stared at the pavement with a pensive look on her face. She hadn’t been really surprised that there was a spider in her belly, but she didn’t care much for the idea. She had never heard of a belly button spider before. It must have been living there a long time, and she hadn’t felt a thing. And then suddenly this thread started coming out of her belly button. What a mess.

“Dad?” she asked.

“Yes love, what is it?”

“Do I have to take gymnastics lessons now?”

“O, I hadn’t thought about that,” said Dad. “No, I will talk to your teacher, and if necessary with the doctor. You don’t have to do gymnastics until this is over.” He squeezed Sophie’s hand. “Come,” he said, “we go this way.” He pulled her into a narrow side-street. “Here is the best Chinese restaurant of the city.”

“Hmmm, Chinese!” Sophie loved Chinese food.

Sophie and her father ordered much too much Chinese food in all kinds of varieties. When they couldn’t eat anything anymore they went home. They fell down on the couch and watched a movie. Sophie liked watching movies a lot. Dad had opened a bag of crisps, but because they had eaten so much at the Chinese restaurant, neither Sophie nor Dad touched it. When the movie was half finished, Sophie asked: “Dad, don’t you have to work?”

“Yes,” said Dad, “I do have to work, but I think you are more important now.”

“You are the sweetest dad in the whole world!” said Sophie. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on his cheek.

“Quiet!” said Dad. “I’m watching the movie.” But he winked at her.

A week had passed. It was Wednesday again, so Sophie had the afternoon off from school. After school she slowly walked home. It was still terribly hot. Everything was sticky. On her way home she came past a pet store.

She had walked past there many times, but because she didn’t care much for animals she hadn’t looked in the shopwindow often. They had rabbits, and birds. But no spiders. Sophie decided to have a look inside. You never knew.

In the shop there were a lot of dog- and cat baskets for sale. The shop smelled like rabbit food. In the back was a large wall with aquaria, in which a lot of fish with all the colours of the rainbow were swimming around. When Sophie came closer, she saw that there were a few aquaria that didn’t have water in them, but snakes and lizards. But she didn’t see any spiders. She went to the counter, where a sour looking man stood. “What do you want?” he asked.

“Do you sell spiders?” asked Sophie.

“No,” said the sour looking man. He was very fat. Sweat ran in streams from his forehead.

Sophie looked at him. “What an awful man,” she thought. “Do you know a shop where I can buy spiders?” she asked.

“No,” was the answer. Sophie turned around and walked away without saying another word. “Why doesn’t he stick his head in one of his aquari-ums,” she thought. She walked on home.

When she came home her father was already waiting for her at the laid table. “Did your work go allright today?” Sophie asked him.

“Yes,” said Dad. “I’ve gotten quite far today. And now I’m hungry.” He took a sandwich and tried to stuff it in his mouth whole. Sophie laughed at him. “You forgot to put butter and stuff on it!” she giggled. Dad made a lot of funny gestures. He was chewing hard, until finally he could swallow the sandwich. “This is fresh bread, that tastes much better without anything on it,” he explained, and gulped his glass of milk down his throat. “Aaaaaahhh, that’s good!” he smacked. He put a new sandwich on his plate and smeared butter on it. Sophie was quick to take her own sandwich. If Dad went on like this there wouldn’t be any left if she wasn’t quick!

“I will go and see Hans this afternoon,” she said.

“I hope he found

something for me. This thread is starting to annoy me quite a bit.” The spider had indeed been hard at work in the past week. Sophie had more and more difficulties to hide the thread in her clothes. She hoped that the spider would have enough of it and start making a new thread, but so far this hadn’t happened yet. She hoped Hans had found a female.

“Did you name it yet?” asked Dad.

“Name it?”

“Yes. Like John or something else.”

Sophie hadn’t thought about that. “I don’t want to name it. I just want to get rid of it!” she said. She took another cracker. On Wednesdays they always had crackers with lunch.

“I just was at the pet shop I always pass on my way to school,” she told her dad.

“And, do they have spiders there?” he asked.

“No. There was this very moody man though. He was very red and he stank.”

“What did he say to you then?”

“He only said ‘no’ to me. I asked him if he knew where I could buy a spider, and then he said ‘no’ again. That’s when I walked out.”

“Hmmm,” said Dad. “Apparently he thinks he doesn’t have to be nice to little girls.”

“I will ask Hans if this man sells spiders,” said Sophie. “He had snakes and lizards and stuff.”

After lunch Dad went back to work. Sophie cleared the table, said goodbye to Dad, and walked to the zoo.

“Hmmm,” said Hans. “I know that guy. Fat, grumpy. I used to come there, back before I worked here. He has been running that shop for a long time. He sells protected animals, you know. Animals that are threatened with extinction.”

“Protected animals?

“Yes...” Hans looked pensive. “Maybe he can get us a belly button spider,” he said.

“But...” Sophie was confused. “That’s not allowed, is it?”

“No, you’re right.” Hans looked pensive again. “How do you feel now?” he asked after a while.

“Good,” said Sophie. “But the thread is getting longer and longer. I had thought the spider would get tired of it and make a new one, but he hasn’t done that.”

“Can I see it?” Sophie showed the thread to Hans.

“Oh dear, it’s gotten really long! We must find a way to get it off, because it could take quite some more time before we get a female belly button spider.

Did you try eating it yet?”

Sophie looked at Hans with big round eyes. Had he gone mad? “Eeuh, no?” she said. “That’s gross!”

“Spiders often eat their own silk. So maybe you can bite it through.”

“My father is still in mourning over his scissors. And now you tell me to bite this thread?” Sophie took the thread in her mouth and sucked on it. It felt smooth and above all very strong. She bit it and pulled it. The thread didn’t break. “Nope, doesn’t work,” she said.

“Maybe you have to suck it some more,” Hans said. Maybe it dissolves in your spit.”

“Don’t you think spiders will have very different spit from humans?” Sophie asked.

Hans looked disappointed. “I think so,” he said. Then he sprung up from his chair. “I have an idea,” he said. “You just wait here.” He walked out of the room and came back a few minutes later, carrying one of the small plastic containers of which there were many in the room. There was a big, hairy spider in it! Sophie screamed and started back. “You’re not going to have that walk on me, are you?” she yelled.

“No, no, don’t be afraid. This is a relative of the belly button spider.

This spider also lures its female by making a thread, only the males of this spider walk on branches in the trees instead of hiding themselves in animals.”

“And what do you want to do now?”

“I want to try to get some spit out of it,” said Hans. He took a small beaker that was covered with cloth in his one hand, and the spider in his other hand. Sophie looked at it, trembling with fear. “Don’t let it escape!” she yelled. The spider didn’t like what Hans was doing with it at all. It swirled all its legs round and round, but Hans held it tightly in his hand. He let the spider bite the cloth with its fangs. Big droplets fell in the beaker.

After a while Hans said: “This should be enough.” He put the spider back in the container and quickly put the lid on. Now Sophie dared to come closer. She looked at the spider with big round eyes. It was dark brown and hairy. The ends of its legs were light brown, a bit yellowish. “Is this belly button spider also so big?” she asked. Hans looked at the spider in its little box. “I’ve never seen a belly button spider,” he said, “but I think they are a bit smaller. And not as fat as this one.” He picked the container up and walked away. A few minutes later he came back. “That spider is back in its pen,” he said. He took the cloth that the spider had bitten from the beaker.

Sophie pushed her spider’s thread in the spit that was on the bottom of the beaker. And yes, after a while the thread got slimy, and she could pull it in two! Sophie let out a deep sigh. “Finally,” she said. “That’s a relief.”

“At least you have a nice souvenir from this adventure,” said Hans.

“Yes! I can tie my bike to it, so it doesn’t get stolen.”

“I talked to a few spider friends of mine during the last week to ask if they could arrange a female spider for you. We have to have a bit more patience, but they are looking hard for you,” said Hans. “I’m afraid I can’t do more for you right now.”

Sophie thanked Hans and walked home again. She had put the ball of spider’s silk in her pocket. Hans was marvelous, she thought. What a good idea to use spider’s spit to cut the thread. Unfortunately the spider in her belly was already making new thread. It didn’t know when to quit. But Sophie felt a lot better than last week. She had dreamt already that she had to walk down the street with a wheelbarrow full of spider’s silk, of which she knitted cardigans when she had nothing to do. But fortunately that was not necessary anymore. “What shall I do this afternoon,” she thought. Her father was still at work. She would make dinner for him, he always liked that. She wasn’t very good at cooking yet, and she always had troubles with the really big pans, but her father always told her he liked it a lot, even when the potatoes were burnt or the vegetables where not quite cooked long enough.

Sophie walked happily on. It was still early in the afternoon. So there was lots of time to play with her friend Linda. That was where she went.

When Sophie got home at the end of the afternoon her father was still working. She told him what happened and showed him the ball of thread.

“That’s good,” said Dad. “I’m glad you are happier than last week.”

“Me too,” said Sophie. “I also was at Linda’s this afternoon. We had lots of fun. And now I’m going to make dinner for you.”

“Well well, you spoil me!” Dad laughed. “Then I will do some more work.”

A few days later, when Sophie came back from school, her father told her that Hans had called. “Does he have a spider for me?” Sophie asked happily.

“No, we have to visit him tomorrow afternoon. He may have found a way to get a spider. He wants to talk to us about it. He didn’t want to say how he thought he could get a spider.”

So on Friday afternoon Sophie and her father found themselves in the zoo waiting for Hans. He came walking towards them after a while, together with another man. The man introduced himself: “How do you do, I’m Donald. I work in the department of protected animals of the city police.” Sophie thought that was a bit strange. What did this man have to do with them? She looked her father in the eye, and he squeezed her hand in a reassuring way. She decided to wait and see what would happen.

After Hans had given everybody coffee and tea, he started to tell Sophie’s story to Donald. “Sophie came here a bit over a week ago with a belly button spider inside her. We are now looking for a female spider to get the male out.

I asked some people if they had one, and put some people in South America to work to get one. Unfortunately the banana season is just over, so finding one will be difficult.”

Sophie raised her hand. “What do bananas have to do with belly button spiders?” she asked.

“Belly button spiders often lay their eggs in the bunches of bananas in a banana plant. So that is a good place to find the females. We are out of luck, because the bananas have just been harvested. You got your spider presumably because it was hidden between the bananas in your fruit bowl at home,” Donald told her.

Hans continued: “A few days ago Sophie told me she had been to Peter’s pet shop to ask if he sold spiders. He had told her ‘no’, but Donald and I know he sometimes will sell protected animals from South America. So I thought that maybe we can catch him by ordering a belly button spider from him. Therefore I asked Donald if that is possible, and how we have to act.”

“It is a nice idea,” said Donald. You have your spider and I have a very irritating man who I’ve been waiting to catch for a long time. But we need your help, because he knows Hans as well as me. Hans sometimes helps me with cases like this one. So what I want you to do is go to Peter’s together with your father, and order a belly button spider there.” A few days later Sophie and her father walked to the pet shop. Before entering the shop they made sure there were no other customers. The fat man who was called Peter was again behind the counter. Dad looked at the fish in the aquaria, and the lizards and snakes. After a while Peter approached him. “Can I help you with something, sir?” he asked.

“You don’t sell spiders, do you?” asked Dad.

“No,” said Peter.

Dad put on a sad face. “Hmmm,” he said. “My daughter has her birthday soon, and she really would like to have this very special spider. Can I order a spider here? Or maybe you know a place where I can find spiders?” Peter looked long and hard at Dad. “What kind of spider do you want?” he asked.

Dad looked at Sophie. “What kind did you want, dear?” he asked her.

“I can never remember all those names,” he said to Peter.

Sophie marveled at her fathers performance. “A belly button spider!” she said. She looked Peter in the face, until he went red and told Dad: “I have to order it. They come three at a time.”

“OK,” said Dad.

A few moments later Sophie and her father were on their way home. “You are a very good actor,” she told him.

“Well, I was glad that it is so hot these days,” he said. “The sweat was streaming down my face.”

“He didn’t like me looking at him like that at all, did you see that?” Sophie laughed.

“Yes,” Dad giggled, “he became even more red than he already was! Now all we have to do is wait for a telephone call.” It was two weeks later, and Sophie was becoming a bit nervous. She had been walking around with this thread hanging out of her belly for almost a month now. The thread had become longer and longer. She couldn’t go swimming or do sports with her class. Since the weather was very hot, she didn’t like that at all. Hans had cut the thread a few more times, and now she had three little balls of unbreakable thread. There were a lot of fun things you could do with the thread. She had made a puppet on almost invisible strings, and her father had replaced the ropes of the swing in the garden with the spider’s silk. That didn’t turn out to be such a good idea, because the thread hurt her hands, and it was also quite scary to swing on a swing of which you couldn’t see the ropes. It was just like you weren’t attached to anything, but floated in the air. The thread hadn’t broken though; even when her dad had tried the swing.

After he changed the swing ropes, Sophie’s dad had gotten an even better idea. He had hung her bed to the ceiling with four threads. It looked just like a floating bed. At night when Sophie laid on it, it would rock softly back and forth, just like a boat. Sophie could sleep like a baby in her new bed!

But she still had this spider in her belly. Her belly button also had begun to itch a bit, so Sophie really wanted the spider to be removed. On a Wednesday afternoon, the phone suddenly rang. Sophie picked up.

“Sophie,” she said.

“Yes. Give me your father.”

“Who can I say it is?”

“Just give me your father.”

Sophie threw the phone on the table as hard as she dared, and ran to her father. “Dad, Peter is on the phone!”

Dad sniggered. “Naughty girl, you shouldn’t throw the phone around like that. We wouldn’t want Peter to become deaf, would we?” he said, and picked up the phone. After he talked to Peter a bit, he hung up. Sophie was trembling with anticipation.

“What did he say?” she yelled.

“He has three spiders. Two females and one male, he said. We can get them tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. And they are very expensive.”

“Jippeee!” yelled Sophie. “Finally.” She pulled the thread on her belly button. “Boy, you’re going to leave me,” she said to the spider that was attached to it. The spider didn’t answer. It was not very good at talking. It was first and foremost good at making thread.

The next day, Hans, Donald, Sophie and her father walked to the pet shop. Before they went in they made sure Peter was inside. He was indeed behind the counter, as always. Donald had let his beard grow, so Peter wouldn’t recognize him easily. He would go inside the shop with Dad, and have a look around while Dad bought the spiders. Sophie and Hans would stay outside and wait. Sophie was very nervous. The spider seemed to feel this, because it was making thread very fast. It itched, and that made Sophie even more nervous.

Finally, when they had made sure Peter was alone in the shop, Dad went inside. Donald waited a little while and then also went inside. Sophie and Hans had found a spot behind a car, from where they could see what was happening without being seen by Peter. Hans was filming everything with a small camera. Donald had a tape recorder in his pocket that would record everything that was said. Donald hoped to get enough proof that way to put Peter in jail.

Sophie’s father walked through the shop to the counter. He talked a bit with Peter. Donald came a little closer. Suddenly Peter walked to the back of the shop. He came back a little while later, with three small plastic boxes in his hands. The boxes looked like the ones Hans had to keep the spider in that he used to break Sophie’s thread. Dad looked inside the boxes.

He pointed at one of the boxes and said something to Peter. Peter looked agitated and talked a great deal. He waved his arms around. Sophie saw Dad say something back and put his finger against Peter’s chest. He looked angry. Peter said something else, but then Dad started putting money on the counter. It was a lot of money. Sophie looked at Hans, but he shrugged his shoulders. “Peter probably wanted more money than they agreed on,” he said.

After Dad had payed, he walked outside. Hans stopped filming, and walked towards Dad, together with Sophie. Dad showed them the boxes.

“Are these the right spiders?” he asked. Hans looked at the spiders. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and compared the spiders to the photograph that was on the paper. While he was doing that, Donald came and stood beside them. He had a sack of dogfood in his hand. “I’m good,” he said. “Peter didn’t even recognize me!”

While Hans and Dad looked at the spiders, Sophie took another look at the shop. Peter was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he had gone to the back of the shop. Sophie pulled Donald’s coat. “Don’t you have to catch Peter now?” she asked. But Donald was busy with his tape recorder and didn’t hear her.

Sophie decided she would go and investigate. She found it a bit strange that Peter had suddenly disappeared. Normally he was always behind the counter. She looked into the shop again. Peter still wasn’t there. If he had gone to the toilet he should have been back by now. Sophie walked to the alley next to the shop. The shop had a side-entrance in the alley. She went to the door. There was no window in the door so she couldn’t see inside the shop from here. But suddenly Sophie got an idea. On one side of the alley was a wooden door. She tied it securely with the spider’s thread. If Peter wanted to escape, he couldn’t use that door anymore. The other side of the alley was open. For that side she had to think of something else. Hey, the door to the shop in the alley opened to the inside! Sophie tied the thread to the doorknob and went looking for something else to tie the other end to.

While Sophie was still looking, she suddenly felt the ball of thread in her hand move. At once she realized what happened: Peter opened the door to the alley! Startled, she turned around. Peter was in the doorframe and yelled at her: “What are you doing here? Get out of there at once!” She ran away, while letting the thread in her hand roll off. Peter hadn’t noticed the thread she tied to the doorknob yet. Sophie walked out of the alley and turned around to see what Peter was doing. He was lugging a heavy suitcase to the door on the other side of the alley. Suddenly Donald appeared from the door of the shop. Peter saw him and ran away to the door in the alley, leaving the suitcase behind. Sophie ran back into the alley to warn him about the spider’s thread. “Go away Sophie,” Donald said, “This is no place for children.” He ran after Peter. Luckily he didn’t trip over the spider’s thread.

Meanwhile, Peter tried to open the door in the alley with all his might.

When he saw Donald coming, he ran to the other side of the alley. Donald tried to catch him, but Peter pushed him aside so hard he fell on the cobbles.

“O no,” Sophie thought, “Peter will escape!” Suddenly, she had an idea. She ran to the suitcase that was still on the street where Peter left it. She tied the end of the spider’s thread to its handle. There was a combination lock on the suitcase, and Sophie made it look like she was trying to break the code.

Peter looked at her angry and ran even faster. Sophie ran back to Donald, who was still on the street, looking at his hurting arm.

“Now Peter will escape again!” he said.

“I don’t think so,” Sophie told him. “Look!” They watched Peter run through the alley. “Hopefully they can catch him at the end,” Donald said.

While he was running, Peter picked up the suitcase. Now he was a lot slower, because the suitcase was quite heavy. Suddenly Sophie and Donald heard a very strange noise: Twoiiiinggggg!! Sophie saw the spider’s thread gleam in the sun for an instance. Peter’s suitcase flew through the air, and Peter himself lay sprawling on the ground. A policeman walked towards him, picked him up and put him in a police car. Peter’s suitcase had landed on the floor with a solid ‘thud’, quite near where Sophie and Donald were sitting. A big crack had appeared in the side of the suitcase. Sophie was very curious as to what was inside, and she peeked through the crack. “There must be a lot of money in there,” she thought. It was a bit dark in the place where she sat, and she couldn’t really see what was in there. She took the suitcase and turned it a bit towards the light. Something rustled inside. Sophie also saw something move. She pushed her nose against the crack to try to see better, but there still was not enough light. She turned the suitcase a bit more. Suddenly two fat hairy legs came peeking through the crack. One of them touched Sophie’s fingers! Sophie yelled from fright and pushed the suitcase away. A big black hairy spider came creeping slowly through the crack. Donald,who was still sitting on the ground, was up on his feet in no time. He wanted to squash the spider with his foot.

“Noooooo!” they suddenly heard Hans cry. The spider crawled to Donald’s other foot. Because he was standing on one leg already, he turned and walked away.

Sophie ran to Hans. Hans squeezed her shoulder and said: “That was a good idea, tying the thread to the suitcase! Donald is proud of you!” Donald didn’t look so proud. He was holding his arm with one hand and turned a painful face towards Hans. “Why can’t I kill the spider?” he moaned.

“It’s not good practice, killing evidence,” Hans said. “That spider there is almost as slow as Sophie’s belly button spider. Besides, it can easily kill you with one bite.”

Donald mumbled something and walked to the police car that was parked opposite the alley. Hans picked up the spider and looked at it. “Well well, a black digging spider,” he said. “And a very beautiful one at that. I’m curious to see what else is in that suitcase.” Sophie wasn’t that curious anymore.

One scary spider was enough for her. She walked to the end of the alley in search of her father, who was talking to a policeman, next to a policecar in which Donald and Peter where sitting. Donald looked a bit better, and was talking to Peter. He showed him his arm. It looked like Donald and Peter were friends.

“Ha, here we have our brave heroin,” said Dad. “We were getting worried.

Will you never do such dangerous things again? I’m very proud of you!” He hugged her tight.

“Can we have Chinese food again tonight?” said Sophie.

Dad smiled. “Whatever you want girl,” he said.

A few days later Sophie, Hans and Dad were sitting in Hans’ little room in the zoo. Sophie was very nervous because today was the big day. Finally they would try to remove the belly button spider from her stomach. Hans had given each of the three spiders he had gotten from Peter their own cage.

The little cages were sitting next to each other on a corner of the table. Hans was very proud of his new spiders, and showed them to Sophie. “This is a male,” he said. Sophie looked at the little spider.

“I thought the males didn’t have legs?” she said.

“No,” said Hans, “they lose their legs when they are inside your belly button. They have to be able to walk, otherwise they would never reach your belly button in the first place.” He showed Sophie the next cage. “Look,” he said, “This is Maria, a female.”

Maria was sitting on the bottom of her cage, doing nothing. She had made a web of which she held one thread tight with one of her legs. “In that way she can feel whether there’s an animal in her web,” said Hans. “Isn’t she a beauty?” he added enthusiastically. Sophie thought Maria was first and foremost big, and very yellow. She didn’t like the idea that Maria would take another spider out of her belly in a few moments. Hans had said that it wouldn’t hurt, but he had it easy. He didn’t have a spider in his belly.

Suddenly Hans opened the cage. “What are you doing?” yelled Sophie.

“Calm down,” said her father. “Maria has to come out of her cage to get the spider out of your belly button.” Sophie regarded the big spider with a look of profound disgust. Eek, Maria was as big as her hand.

“You know what?” said Hans, “We’ll let Maria walk on your father’s hand. Then you can get used to her a bit.” He looked at Dad with a mean smile on his face.

Dad’s brow furrowed. “I’ll get you for this, you nasty little man,” he said.

But Sophie saw that he didn’t really mean it. Dad stood up and walked to Maria’s cage. He opened it, and carefully touched one of her hairy legs.

Maria took a step back but stayed calm.

“Why don’t you two sit down at the table,” Hans said. Sophie and Dad obediently did as he suggested. Hans took Maria out of her cage and said to Dad: “Put your hand on the table please.” Dad pulled up his sleeve and put his hand on the table. Carefully, Hans placed Maria on his hand. Sophie held her breath. She didn’t like it at all. Dad looked intensely at the big spider.

“What do you feel?” asked Sophie.

“It tickles a bit, but for the rest it’s OK,” said Dad. “I’m a bit worried that she will bite if I move my hand.”

Maria stretched her legs. She twirled her two front legs in the air. Suddenly she turned round and looked at Sophie. Sophie looked back with big round eyes.

“It seems Maria has smelled your spider’s thread,” Hans said to Sophie.

“What should I do now?” Sophie asked.

“Go and sit on the table, and I will put Maria on your leg, OK?” Sophie took a deep breath. Hans acted like it was nothing at all. She stood up slowly. “Well, here we go,” she said.

Hans picked up Maria, and Sophie climbed on to the table. She took her father’s hand. He squeezed her tight. “You can do it honey!” he encouraged her.

Hans looked at Sophie. Sophie pulled on the thread that came out of her belly button and laid it next to her on the table. Hans put Maria on her leg. Sophie stiffened with fear, but she managed to stay calm. “If Dad isn’t scared, then neither am I”, she thought. Luckily she wore long jeans, so she didn’t have to feel Maria’s hairy legs on her.

Maria stood still for a while, and then suddenly she started to wave her legs again, like she had done before. Hans looked at her with a strained face.

Dad looked at Sophie with a strained face. And Sophie really really wanted to be somewhere else.

After having waved her legs for a bit Maria seemed to have reached a decision. She turned to Sophie and started to walk slowly to the thread that was laying on Sophie’s leg. After she reached it she started to pull on it with her two front legs. Hans climbed on the table to be able to better see what was going on. “She’s eating it!” he whispered. And indeed: Maria had bitten the thread through and was eating the piece that was on Sophie’s belly button!

After a while the thread was tight.

Maria stopped eating.

“O no,”

thought Sophie, “now she’s coming for my belly button!” But Maria had other plans. She was still holding the thread in her two front legs, and started pulling it. She pulled it a few short times and then waited for a while. After a few seconds she pulled again. Dad, Hans and Sophie looked at her with open mouths. “Hee!” yelled Sophie suddenly. She felt her belly button move. The spider in her stomach answered! Maria had also noticed that, because now she climbed the thread towards Sophie’s belly button.

Sophie squeezed her dad’s hand. He squeezed back encouragingly.

“Are you still OK?” asked Hans. Sophie nodded yes. She wanted this to be over. Besides, apart from the strange feeling of Maria’s feet on her belly, it wasn’t as scary as she had imagined until now.

Maria had reached Sophie’s belly button. She stood still for a while, and then she began walking circles around it. The she put her head in Sophie’s belly button.

Sophie got scared and wanted to squat her away, but Hans and Dad held her back. “Come on girl, be brave,” said Hans. “It’s almost over, try to relax.”

“O, yes,” thought Sophie. “I’m very relaxed here.” Tears of fright and fear streamed down her face. She felt Maria doing things inside her belly button. Suddenly something seemed to to be thrust inside. Maria pushed her feet against Sophie’s belly and pulled her head back. Sophie felt something move inside her. She took a deep breath again.

Suddenly everything went very fast. Maria had come back from Sophie’s belly button. She was carrying a small red ball in her mouth, that had some blood on it. She ran with it towards Sophie’s leg and started to wrap it in spider’s silk really fast. Everybody watched while holding their breath. Sophie had forgotten her belly button, which was bleeding a little, for a while.

When Maria was finished, the little red ball was totally covered in silver-coloured silk. She put it on her back and ran away with it to the edge of the table. Hans quickly picked up her cage and held it in front of her, so she could easily walk in. Sophie crept on her father’s lap and started crying.

A few days later everything seemed normal again. Sophie’s belly button had stopped bleeding quite soon, and she hadn’t felt anything anymore. One day she got a phonecall from Hans. “Come and see this, Maria has young spiders!” Hans seemed very proud. One day after school Sophie had walked to the zoo together with Dad. Beaming, Hans had shown them Maria, who was sitting on the floor of her cage with a lot of young spiders on her back.

She had changed colour; instead of yellow, she was now a light shade of orange. Hans was babbling a lot, but Sophie didn’t pay attention to him.

She was peering inside the cage where Hans kept the male spider he got from Peter. After a while she turned around and looked Hans up and down. Hans didn’t see that because he was talking to Dad.

“Hans?” Sophie said suddenly.

“Yes Sophie, what is it?”

“Why is that piece of thread hanging from your belly button?”

Sophie and the sectret box

When Sophie came home from school, she found a little dog sitting in front of the door. It had been sitting there for a while, because it was covered in a thin layer of snow. “Hello,” Sophie said to the dog. It got up and wagged its tail. It shook the snow out of its long coat. It was an adorable little dog with a thick red-yellow coat and a curly tail. It looked like a ball of wool.

“What are you doing here?” asked Sophie. “You are not allowed inside.

Go back to your master.”

At that moment the neighbour came by. “Hi Sophie,” she said. “That little dog has been sitting here for a long time. I tried to chase it away, but it keeps coming back.”

“He’s a sweet little dog,” said Sophie, while the dog licked her hand.

“Maybe he ran away from home?”

“I don’t know,” the neighbour said. “I tried to warn your dad, but he isn’t home.”

“No,” said Sophie. “He had to go somewhere for work. He will be home very late. I have to cook for myself.”

“Poor girl, has your father left you alone again? You can have dinner with us if you want,” the neighbour said. But Sophie liked cooking for herself, so she politely declined the offer. In the meantime the little dog had run away a bit, and stood looking intensely at Sophie and the neighbour. When Sophie started opening the front door he barked and came running back. He stood still at a little distance from Sophie, and barked again. Then he walked a small distance away, looking over his shoulder.

“No”, said Sophie, “I will not follow you. You will have to go home by yourself. If I take you inside my father will be very angry, so you will have to go back to your master.” She walked inside and carefully closed the door behind her. She heard the little dog barking outside, but she didn’t open the door anymore.

When Sophie got back from school the next day the little dog was there again. He looked at her with his little eyes and held his head askew, as if it wanted to say: “Come with me, I want to show you something!” Sophie tried to go inside, but the dog barked and started running in circles around her.

“What is it?” asked Sophie.

“Whoof!” said the dog. It couldn’t talk very well.

“I’m not going with you! I will go inside now,” said Sophie. She stroked the dog and opened the door. The dog wanted to run inside but Sophie could just stop him.

“No way,” she said. “You go back to your master, you hear?” The dog sat on the pavement and stayed there until Sophie had closed the door.

“Hello-ooo! I’m Ho-oome!” yelled Sophie.

“So am I-ii!!” her father yelled back. Sophie ran to him and kissed him.

“Did you have fun at school?” her father asked her.

“O, yes,” said Sophie. “We had history and geology. About America.”

“Good.

It’s always nice to hear children learn something at school,” grinned Dad.

“Have you seen that little dog at the door?” Sophie asked.

“Little dog?”

“Yes. He was also here when I came home yesterday. It looks like he wants me to follow him. He keeps on walking away a bit and then look at me and bark. It’s a bit strange isn’t it?”

“No I haven’t seen a little dog. But I’ve been working the whole day,” said Dad. “You’re not to let him inside, do you hear? He will start thinking this is his home.”

Sophie promised not to let the little dog inside. Dad went back to his work. He had an important assignment to finish, and Sophie was not allowed to disturb him, he told her. Sophie didn’t mind because she was to go to her friend Linda anyway. But first she had to shop for groceries. While she was writing the shopping list, someone ringed the doorbell. Sophie got up and opened the door, but there was nobody there. When she wanted to close the door again, suddenly the little dog appeared as if from nowhere, and jumped up against her. Sophie was a little startled and moved back. Then she saw the dog holding a little note in its mouth. She sat on her haunches and took the note from the dog. Something was written on it! The note was a little dirty, so she wiped it with some snow before she started reading it. Her eyes became large with amazement when she saw what was written on the outside of the letter:

For Sofie

Please read this note as soon as possible!

Sophie was very curious now. She fumbled with the note and opened it.

Inside was written in a steady, old-fashioned hand: Dear Sofie,

You don’t know me, but I have known you for a while now. I sent Kees, my little dog, to try to bring you to me. But either you don’t want to follow him, or you don’t understand him. I would like to ask you urgently to follow him to my home. I need you to do something that is very important to me. I can’t tell you what that is in this little note, but I hope you come to me. Everything will become clear then.

Highest regards,

A Desperate Man

Sophie looked at the little dog that was waiting patiently for her. “Why do I always get these things?” she thought. “He spelled my name wrong too!” But she had become very curious now. Who was this Desperate Man?

And what was it she was supposed to do for him? Why couldn’t he do it himself? “You know,” she thought, “I can just go and have a look to see where this Desperate Man lives. If I stay at a distance from the dog I can run away when it gets scary.” She got up, hoisted the shopping back over her shoulder, and said to the dog: “OK. Bring me to your master.” Kees had already understood what Sophie intended to do, because he started wagging his tail and running back and forth. “He’s a smart dog,” Sophie thought. “He knows exactly what I want to do.” Slowly she followed him. He turned around at every lamp post to see if she was still following her. They walked through the street Sophie passed every day on her way to school, and along the canal, until Kees stood waiting for her at a side street.

When Sophie came closer Kees ran into this street. Sophie followed him.

She was in a poor neighbourhood now, with small houses. Many houses had the paint peeling from the windowsills and the doors. People who lived here didn’t have much money, Sophie could see that. There were some people on the street. “Hey Kees!” they said to the dog. “Wandering around again?” They patted him on his head and stroked him. Kees liked that because he stood wagging his tail. Sophie understood they must be close to the house of the elusive Desperate Man now. She was a fair bit away from home, and she hoped the Desperate Man wouldn’t come storming out of the house and grab her suddenly. She looked at Kees, who had walked on a bit and was now sitting in front of a house wagging his tail. When he saw Sophie look at him he suddenly barked long and loud! Sophie panicked a bit and didn’t know whether she should run away or to stay to see what happened next. While she was nervously hopping from one leg to the other, a friendly looking man came out of the house. He strokes Kees over the head and said something to him. Sophie was too far away to understand what he said. Kees stopped barking and looked at Sophie. The man looked around him and saw her standing there. He waved at her. Sophie didn’t know the man at all, and she shyly raised her hand to him. She stayed where she was. If the man wanted something from her he would have to come over to her.

“Sophie!” the man yelled at her. “I have something for you. Don’t walk away!” He disappeared in his house and came back a few moments later, holding a note. He also wore a coat now. He walked towards Sophie. Sophie put her hands in her coat pockets and leaned against the house that she was standing next to. She tried to look tough, but she didn’t’ succeed very well.

Deep inside she was a bit scared.

“Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you,” the man said. He looked her friendly in the eye.

“Yeah right,” Sophie thought. “I bet they all say that.”

“Are you the Desperate Man?” she asked.

“Yes,” the man said. “But my real name is Joe. And I desperately need you to do something for me.”

“How do you know my name? And why do I have to do something for you? Why don’t you do it yourself, or ask someone you know?”

“That is a long story,” the man said. “Why don’t you come inside. I will make you a nice cup of hot chocolate, and I will tell you everything.”

“I’d rather stay outside, thank you,” Sophie said.

“As you wish,” the man said. He picked up some snow, rolled it into a ball and threw it far away. Kees ran after it, yelping and jumping. Sophie had to laugh. The high jumps the dog made were so funny!

The Desperate Man stared in front of him for a long time. It looked like he was lost deep in thoughts. Suddenly he said:

“I understand you don’t want to listen to a weird old guy like me. But I really want to ask you something. When I was a little boy I had a very good friend. We played together every day, and one day we hid a small box at school. Coincidentally, the same school you go to now. I would really like you to find this box and give it to your father.” Sophie looked at the man with a puzzled look on her face. What a strange story. “Why do I have to give it to my father? What’s in it?” she asked.

“You can see that yourself when you found it” the man said. He looked at pleadingly. “Will you do it, please?” he asked. “It would mean a lot to me.” He looked very Desperate now.

Sophie thought for a while. “OK, I’ll do it,” she said. “I hope it’s still there.” She took the note from the man. “Now I have to go home, or else my father will be mad at me. Bye!” She waved to the man and ran to the supermarket.

The next day was wednesday. Sophie had the afternoon off. Dad had been very mad at her the night before. She had to be home before dark in the winter, and she was far too late. And Linda had called Dad to ask where Sophie was. Now Sophie was grounded for the day. She also had to clean the bathroom. After she finished that she sat in her room and looked at the note Joe had given her. She still didn’t understand what Joe wanted. And how did he know her name? She opened the note. There was a drawing on it. It looked like a treasure map:

Joe had drawn the map himself, and Sophie had a hard time deciphering his handwriting. A staircase that led down was drawn. If you went down

there, you came into a large room. In this room, opposite the stairs, was a door. Behind that was a corridor with three doors leading to rooms. The last door in the corridor led to a small room with a cupboard in one of the corners. Behind the cupboard, Joe had drawn a cross on the other side of the wall. That was strange. The box couldn’t possibly be in the wall, could it? Or had Joe drawn the cross there because he couldn’t draw it in the cupboard? He had written the word ‘cupboard’ in the cupboard, which left no more space for other things.

Sophie had never been in the basement of her school. She knew stuff like notebooks were kept there, and the Christmas tree, but there weren’t often people in the basement. Most teachers had notebooks in their classrooms because the basement was cold and clammy. Sophie was excited about exploring the basement! The only problem was: how should she go there without being seen? She wasn’t keen on telling the whole story about the Desperate Man to her teacher. Therefore she had to come up with a cunning plan. “Hmm,” she thought. “What if I ask my teacher if I can go to the bathroom?” But that was not such a good idea; she probably needed quite a lot of time. More than she needed to go to the bathroom. She thought some more. “How about during the break in the morning?” No, there would be too many teachers walking around then. She kept thinking, and finally she came up with the perfect plan. She would go to the basement during Sinterklaas’ visit!

Sophie lived in the Netherlands. Every year in late November Sinterklaas comes from Spain to the Netherlands on his steamship, bringing gifts for all the Dutch children. Most children loved the big man with his white beard and his big red cloak. He would travel through the country on his grey horse, together with his helpers, who were all called Pete. He would visit a lot of schools, and Sophies school was one of his favourite schools.

Every year on December 5, Sinterklaas would magically shower the country with gifts for all the children. Many grownups got presents as well. Sophie and all her friends at school knew that Sinterklaas didn’t really exist, and that their mothers and fathers bought all the presents. But they liked the presents and the cosy winter evenings so much that they all acted like Sinterklaas was a real person and he really wrote all the little poems that came with their presents.

Sinterklaas would not be for another three days in Sophies school, and she started to become a little nervous. What if she met one of the teachers in the basement during the Sinterklaas’ visit? Wouldn’t it be better to tell everything to her father, instead of keeping her secret? “No,” she thought,

“he will be really angry when he finds out I lied to him and I talked to a strange man.” She hoped everything would turn out all right. Joe had to know Dad. Why else would he want to give the little box to him?

Finally the big day came. All the children were allowed to dress up in their princess- or knights dresses, or anything else they liked to wear. Sophie always liked to be Pete. Her father had painted her face. He had also given her a nice suit, with purple balloon sleeves and red tights. She had also gotten a black wig, but it itched so much she wouldn’t wear it. Therefore Dad tried to put all her hair underneath the cap she had to wear. After that she went to school, with Joe’ map tucked neatly in her bag.

At half past nine all children had to come together in the sports hall. All the teachers were there too. Sophie walked to the hall together with her friend Linda. In the school corridors there were already a few Petes running around with big sacks on their backs. The sacks contained presents and candy. One of the Peteen suddenly said: “Hello Sophie.” Sophie looked up, surprised, but the Pete had already run away. “Those Petes know everything,” said Linda.

The gymnasium was crowded. All the small children were in the front of the hall, so they could see Sinterklaas really well. Sophie and Linda were in the highest class, and therefore they had to sit at the back. This was perfect for Sophie, because now she could walk away without being seen. “I will slip out for a while in a moment,” she told Linda.

“What are you going to do?” Linda asked surprised.

“I’ll explain later,” said Sophie. “I am in the bathroom if they are looking for me, OK?”

Linda shrugged. “OK. O, look, there is Sinterklaas!” And indeed, Sinterklaas was striding through the big door through which Sophie and Linda had just come in. Some Peteen walked around him and threw candy through the entire hall. Everyone cheered and tried to grab as much candy as they could from the floor. Everyone except Sophie, because she was looking around to see if all the teachers were there. She wanted to go down as soon as possible, to be back before the party was over. She counted: “Miss Vermeer, miss Yellowfish, mister Von Neften, miss Green, mister Bennink, mister Farmer...” Yes, they were all here.

“I’m off,” Sophie whispered to Linda. She opened the door and slipped through the narrow opening.

Sophie walked through the corridors as fast as she dared. She didn’t dare to run because that would be too noisy. Ah, there was the door to the basement. Sophie pulled the door. It was a bit stuck, but she managed to get it open. She slipped through it and closed the door behind her. She was now at the top of a stairway leading down. It was very dark, and Sophie felt the wall until she found the light switch. She flipped it, and at the other end of the stairs a dim light began to shine. Slowly Sophie walked down the stairs to the basement. She came to a big room with a lot of wooden bookcases in it.

Most of them were empty, but some of them contained books and notebooks.

Near the ceiling was a small window that was so dirty Sophie could hardly see through it. And opposite the stairway was a door, just as Joe had drawn on his map. It was ajar, and Sophie could see a dark corridor behind it.

She walked to the corridor, and felt the wall for another light switch. She found it and flipped it, but nothing happened. “Bummer!” Sophie thought.

She hadn’t brought a torch with her. Well, hopefully there would be enough light in the room where she had to find the box. She opened the door to the room with the dim light as far as possible to be able to see something. Now she could see the corridor. It was longer than she expected. On the map it looked like the doors were really close to each other, but there really was a lot of space between them. Sophie had to walk all the way to the end of the corridor. It was quite dark over there, and the corridor was really dirty.

There was a thick layer of dust on the floor, and the paint peeled from the walls. Sophie walked through the corridor and felt the doors. One..., two..., three. Yes, this was the door she had to go through. It was so dark here that Sophie could hardly see anything. She waited until her eyes were adjusted to the darkness, but that didn’t help much. She listened if someone was coming down the stairs, but everything was quiet in the basement.

The door to the room in which the cupboard was with the box in it was closed. Sophie pulled it, and, squeaking, it opened slowly. It looked like it hadn’t been opened in years. Curiously, Sophie peered inside. She looked into a large classroom, filled with old moldy benches and stairs. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, and here and there she saw mushrooms growing on the wood. This room was much more moist than the rest of the basement. Sophie looked around a bit more. “O!” she thought, “now I see.

The window is broken. That’s why it is so light here.” A large piece of glass had fallen to the floor of the classroom, revealing a hole in the window that let the rain and the light through from outside.

Sophie was in a bit of a hurry now, and looked for the cupboard in the corner. It was exactly in the same place as Joe had drawn it. It was an old heavy black wooden cupboard, with large doors in it. Sophie opened one of the doors. Old musty air streamed towards her. Sophie had to step away because it didn’t smell very nice. She flapped her hands to get rid of the old air, and went to investigate the insides of the cupboard. There were a few books and a lot of old notebooks from children that had long ago left the school there, but Sophie didn’t see a little box anywhere. “Maybe Joe really meant the box to be behind the cupboard,” Sophie thought. She decided to look under the cupboard first. She sat down on the floor and looked under the cupboard. It was so dark she couldn’t see anything.

“I’m not going to feel with my hands under there,” thought Sophie. She stood up and looked around. There was a long pole standing next to the board against the wall on the other side of the classroom. She took it and felt underneath the cupboard with it. She found nothing but dust there.

Sophie began to be really nervous now. She had been away for quite a long time now. She had to get back. But she was determined to find the box now.

So far, Joe hadn’t let her down. She tried to feel behind the cupboard with the stick. That was not so easy. She had to push the stick flat against the wall to be able to feel behind the cupboard. She felt there was something there, but she couldn’t make out if it was the little box she was looking for.

She decided she had to look inside the cupboard to see if there was a way to get behind it.

Sophie opened both of the cupboard’s doors wide, and looked at the back wall. It consisted of vertical wooden planks. She felt them with her fingers.

“Hey,” thought Sophie, “one of them seems loose or something!” She pushed the plank.

It moved a bit.

She felt again on the edge of the plank, and found she could pull it with her fingernails. She pulled it, and suddenly it fell to the ground with a loud

‘wham’ ! Clouds of dust flew through the classroom. Sophie was so shocked she sat down on the classroom floor and looked wide-eyed at the dustclouds around her, and the classroom door. She expected someone to come storming in any time now. She waited a bit for her heart to calm down, and sprung back to her feet. She really had to hurry now. She had been away for so long!

She looked in the cupboard. There was a little niche in the wall behind the plank she had just pulled out! She could just make out the little box in the dark of the niche. “Yes!” Sophie thought, and did a little dance in her head.

She found it! Carefully she picked up the box and put it on the floor. She put the plank back where it belonged, picked up the box again, and crept up the stairs as fast as she dared. At the top of the stairs she waited a bit to listen. Everything was quiet. She dimmed the light and slowly opened the door. She slipped through it and ran to the coathooks. Here was her schoolbag, in which she pushed the little box. After that she walked back to the party. At the door she heard the children singing. “Phew, I’m not too late,” Sophie thought. She opened the door and slipped inside.

“Where were you?” asked Linda. “I’ve been waiting forever for you!” She looked Sophie up and down. She wrinkled her nose. “What have you done? You’re filthy!” Sophie looked down at her clothes. Indeed, she was covered in a layer of dust. “Come,” Linda said, and she pushed Sophie out the door again and to the bathrooms. “Let’s get you fixed up a bit.” Whilst Linda and Sophie were trying to clean up Sophies clothes a bit, Sophie told Linda everything about the Kees, Joe and the little box. “Please don’t tell anyone,” she begged Linda. “If my father hears this he will be so mad!”

“He will find out one way or another,” Linda said. “He will never believe you if you say you happened to find that box. Nobody ever is in that basement. Your father knows that very well.” Of course Linda was right. Sophies father came to her school a lot. He helped with things like repairing doors and windows. The tools he needed for that were kept in a big cupboard in one of the classrooms. Sophie thought for a bit. “What can I say about my dirty clothes? Shall I pretend I fell down?”

Linda looked at Sophie. “You’re still pretty dirty. You must have fallen in a really filthy place. I think it’s best if you just tell your father the truth.” Sophie looked anxiously at Linda. But she couldn’t come up with a better idea. Hopefully Dad would be hard at work when Sophie came home. Then she could throw her clothes in the laundry without him noticing. She decided to try that. Linda had, in a last attempt to clean her friend, used water, and now Sophies clothes were more or less clean, if only a bit wet.

Sophie and Linda returned to the corridor. The Sinterklaas party was over, and everyone was free from school now. There were a lot of children walking around in the corridor, with schoolbags on their bags. There were also a few Petes. One of them waved to Sophie. “He likes you,” grinned Linda. Reluctantly, Sophie waved back. The Pete came towards the girls.

“Hello Sophie and Linda,” he said. Sophie looked startled. His voice was very familiar. The Pete was Dad! She hadn’t recognized him at all. O boy, what should she say to him?

“Have you been splashing water around girls?” Dad asked.

The girls nodded their heads: yes.

“Did you lose you voice? I wanted to ask you if you’d like to come and eat pancakes with me,” Dad asked. Linda smiled and looked happily at Sophie.

Both girls loved to eat pancakes! Linda called her mother to ask if it was OK that she ate at Sophies. Meanwhile Sophie hoisted her schoolbag, which was heavy from the box, on her back.

When Sophie got home she walked upstairs to change her clothes immediately. Linda helped her to get rid of all the paint on her face, and afterwards Sophie helped Dad to get all the paint off his face. The paint on Dads face was still a bit wet and sticky. There was also a lot of paint in his hair.

“O well,” he said, “I will take a shower before I go to bed this evening.” When Sophie and Dad had clean faces again they went downstairs to bake the pancakes.

During eating Dad told Sophie and Linda that he was called to school by miss Yellowfish. Someone had fallen sick, and Dad had to play Pete. He had gone to the school when Sophie was already there. He was painted by miss Yellowfish, and because the paint was wet and sticky his eyelids kept sticking together when he blinked. The girls loved the story and shrieked with laughter. “What did Sinterklaas look like?” Dad asked Sophie and Linda.

“Well,” said Sophie, “he wore a red cape and a mitre.”

“O. Good,” Dad said. “He must have looked really real.” The girls grinned.

After dinner Linda had to go home. Finally Sophie had time to take a close look at the secret box. She sat on her bed, that hung from the ceiling on four nearly invisible spider’s threads. The box was made of metal. It was painted white, and was locked with a small padlock. The paint had peeled off the box here and there, and there was quite a bit of rust. But the box was still strong. Sophie couldn’t open it. She fumbled with the padlock. It was really strong. Sophie decided she needed an iron file or something, but she had to ask permission to Dad before she could use that. Dad would of course want to know what she needed it for, so Sophie was reluctant to ask him. She stared at the box with a pensive look on her face. She was so lost in thoughts that she didn’t see her father opening the door slowly. He stared to the box, surprised. Slowly he went to Sophie and sat on the floor next to her.

“Where did you get that?” he asked. Sophie was scared stiff!

“Hey! Couldn’t you knock the door? You frightened me to death!” she yelled.

“Sorry Sophie,” said Dad. “But where did you find that box? I nearly forgot we hid it at school a long time ago!” He looked at her inquisitively.

“How long do you have this already?”

Sophie had a lump in her throat. She would have to tell Dad the whole story. She swallowed. “I got it out of the basement today,” she said. “Do you remember that little dog that sat in front of our door a few days ago?” Sophie told her father everything. How she followed Kees to the poor neighbourhood, and how she met Joe there. She specifically told him she had not followed Joe into his home. “He was a bit scary,” she told Dad. Dad was too surprised and curious to be very angry.

“When I was your age Joe and I were very good friends. We did everything together. We saw each other more often than Linda and you! We often slept at each other’s, and on saturdays we often went fishing in the ditch around the field where that big factory is now,” he told Sophie. “The basement of the school wasn’t used much even then. We often played hide-and-seek there during the afternoon break. We weren’t allowed to by the teachers, but because it was so dark there they usually couldn’t find us when they came looking for us there. That made the game extra exciting!

One day Joe had the idea to hide a treasure in the niche behind the cupboard. He had discovered the niche when one day he wanted to hide behind the cupboard. We pried one of the planks from behind the cupboard and sawed a bit off it to be able to get behind the cupboard more easily.

That took a lot of time because the teachers weren’t to find out about it of course! We were busy for days; every day we sawed a tiny bit. We couldn’t use much force because of the noise. Therefore the whole sawing thing took so long. And when we finally finished preparing the niche we filled the box with our stuff and put it in there.”

“Do you still know what’s in it?” asked Sophie curiously.

“Joe had put in a picture of his dog. He also had a Keeshond then, and he was very fond of it. Whenever we went biking or angling the dog would go with us. And I put in a toy car or something... I don’t know exactly.

Anyway, we also put a little note in it that tells you who we are and what you must do when you found the box.”

“And now I found it,” said Sophie.

“Yes, so you get to open it!” laughed Dad.

“I need an iron file or something,” said Sophie. She ran downstairs to get Dad’s toolbox.

A while later Dad and Sophie had managed to open the box. The inside was neatly lined with green corduroy. It smelled a bit musty, but that was to be expected after having spent twenty years behind the cupboard in that must basement. There was a lot of stuff in there:

• A goose feather that had been cut into a pen

• A toy car

• A note containing the address of Grandpa and Grandma

• A picture of a little dog that looked just like Kees

• A folded poster of the Cylinderheads

• A rolled-up note, neatly tied with a ribbon

“You remembered everything!” Sophie said. “You’re cool Dad! The little dog looks a lot like Kees!” Sophies father had unfolded the poster and was staring at it dreamily.

“The Cylinderheads...” he mumbled. “I used to be crazy about them. I still have all their records upstairs. I delivered thousands of newspapers just to buy one of their records.” He looked at the poster again. There were a few badly dressed men on it, with lots of hair. They all held guitars and tried hard to look very cool.

“What a bunch of dorks,” said Sophie.

“You wait until you’ve heard them, girl,” Dad said, and he jumped to his feet. “I’m going to get their records from the attic.”

“Dad, we don’t even have a record player! Hoe do you want to play these records?” Sophie said. “I’d rather see what’s on the note! Aren’t you curious?”

Dad sighed. “You’re right dear,” he said. “Let’s have a look.” He took the ribbon off and opened the note. He cleared his throat and read: To whomever reads this. We are Joe von Dyk and Marten Vermeer. We are both in the fifth year of this school. We hid this box here so people can find it when the school is demolished.

We hope you will warn us then. We put a few things in the box we really like. The dog in the picture is Joe’ dog. His name is Max and he is always happy. And we wrote this note with the feather that’s also in the box. Marten really likes this car. It is a Ferrari. Marten wants a real Ferrari when he is grown up.

And we are both huge fans of the Cylinderheads. That is a really cool band. Well, we will stop now. Could you bring this box to Marten’s parents? Because Joe will move soon. The address is Beethoven avenue 11. Kind regards from Joe and Marten.

“They still live there,” Sophie said.

“Yes,” said Dad. “But tell me, what did Joe look like? I haven’t seen him in twelve years. I am very curious what has become of him. He hasn’t even been to our wedding.”

Sophie looked at Dad. She was surprised. “Have you been friends for so long?” she asked.

Dad stared dreamily on front of him. “Yes,” he said softly. He looked at his watch. “It is too late to visit him tonight. Did he tell you what to do after I had opened the box?”

Sophie shook her head. “No, he only told me to give it to you,” she said.

“Shall we visit him tomorrow then?” Dad asked. Sophie thought that was a good idea.

The next day Sophie and Dad walked through the streets of the city. The snow was melting, and there was a lot of dirty brown slush on the streets, with puddles around it. The street where Joe lived hadn’t been gritted, and it now was very slippery and dirty. Sophie and her father slithered forth carefully until they arrived at Joe’ house. Sophie hoped he was home. To her relief, she heard Kees barking loudly when she rang the bell. A little while later Joe opened the door. He looked from Dad to Sophie, and from Sophie back to Dad. And then a big grin appeared on his face.

“Marten!” he yelled. He grabbed Dad’s hand and started pumping it violently.

“Hey Joe, long time no see,” Dad joked, nut Sophie could hear in his voice that Dad was really glad to see Joe again.

“Come in guys,” Joe said, and pulled Sophie and Dad inside.

A while later Joe had made tea and coffee, and they all were gathered in Joe’ small living room. Kees had laid his head on Sophies lap, and he let her stroke him. Meanwhile, Joe told his story:

“Your father and I were the best of friends already in the first year of pri-mary school. We did everything together: we made our homework together, went fishing during the weekend, and we ate at each others’. After we went to highschool we stayed good friends. We were on the Hoogland College, do you remember Marten?”

Dad nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I still remember how disappointed we were when after the first year we were assigned different classes. I was considered smarter, so I had to follow the lessons together with the nitwits, and I had to learn all these difficult languages.”

“Luckily we could still see each other during the breaks,” Joe said. “And your father helped me with my homework when I didn’t understand it. I was terrible at maths, and your Dad is very good at that.”

“In our third year in highschool suddenly this new girl appeared. She was a bit shy, and it took us weeks to find out her name. Marten and me soon were very good friends with her. We two still hung out a lot, but Maria (that was her name) came along often. We would take long rides on the bike to go picknicking, or we went to bake pancakes at one of our parent’s houses.

“The years went by. Because Marten had to learn more I finished school a year earlier than him and Maria. I wanted to start a restaurant, and I went to school for that. Of course I saw less of your father and Maria, but they had to come and visit me often to taste my new creations. We stayed good friends.”

“Joe always liked to cook,” said Dad. “He can conjure up fantastic things with the simplest ingredients.”

Sophie said nothing. She was thinking. Dad almost never talked about Maria. And he had never told her about Joe. Why was that? Sophie didn’t even know Joe existed before she met him.

Joe went on: “Your father and Maria both went to the University in this city. I was really proud to have two smart friends! Maria often came to me for dinner when Marten didn’t have time, because he had to study or to work. I loved that. I took me a very long time to find out that there was more going on between your father and Maria. I was extremely jealous of Marten, but what could I do? I didn’t want to lose Maria and him. We still went out for dinner or other things quite often, but I more and more felt the odd man out. That was not a nice time.” He stared at the wall. Sophie poured him a new cup of tea, which he drank gratefully.

Dad went on: “One day Maria and I decided to get married. I had asked her at the market, after we had eaten a herring. Of course we were very happy together, and we decided we had to tell Joe straight away. After all, he was our best friend. He lived very close, so we hauled our grocery bags over there and rang the bell.”

“I can tell you now, Marten, that I felt very disappointed when I heard the news. Of course I had seen it coming, but I had the feeling I had lost two good friends in one blow. My world collapsed at that moment. I didn’t know how to behave.”

“You acted a bit strange indeed,” said Dad. “You were a bit silent. We hadn’t expected you to be overjoyed, but a bit more compassion would have been nice. We didn’t understand what was wrong with you until you had suddenly disappeared. And then it was too late to try to make you change your mind.”

Joe bit his lip. “I have said some things then I still regret to this day,” he said. “I didn’t want to stay in this city. Luckily I had just finished my study, so I could go and find a job. I started work as a cook on a cargo ship. I cooked for ten people. We were on the sea for weeks on end. It could be fun, but it was also boring sometimes. Sometimes I also had people for whom my food was never good. I let them cook for themselves in the end...”

“Now and then I heard where you were from your parents. Maria wrote postcards to you, in which she begged you to come back. She missed you so much!” Marten said softly. “And after Maria died I worked for days to find out where you were. I was so sad that you couldn’t be at the funeral.”

“I have never seen one letter or postcard in all those years,” Joe said. “I lived in a dream. But approximately a year ago I was standing on a ship, looking at the harbour that was coming closer and closer. The weather was good, and the city looked beautiful. After the ship docked I went to my parents immediately. They were very glad to see me of course. I’ve lived with them for a while, before I started renting this house. My parents told me that Maria had died shortly after giving birth to Sophie. That was terrible news of course.” He looked at Dad with tears in his eyes. “I’m so sorry for you,” he said. “I’ve been to her grave. I didn’t dare look you up because I was so afraid you would be mad at me for leaving you alone like this.” The three people in the room sat staring in front of them in Joe’ small, dark living room. Kees sat next to Joe and licked his hand. Sophie had tears in her eyes. Her father put his arm around her shoulders. “I wasn’t angry, just very sad,” he said. “Of course I also had a lot of time to think, and Maria and I talked a lot about you. Maria understood a bit how you must have felt. She often told me things about you even I didn’t know. You two were very good friends, I was was happy about that, because I was scared I would lose you when Maria and I got married. And when Maria suddenly died I had no-one to cheer me up. That was a very hard time for me. A newborn daughter, a new job, and no friends around to help me. Luckily Maria’s parents helped me raise Sophie those first years.” Again the three people in Joe’ small living room were silent for a long time. Then Sophie asked softly: “How did you know I was Dad’s daughter?

And why did you let me get the box? Why didn’t you just ring the bell?”

“I was too afraid they your father would still be mad at me. But I really wanted to see him again. So I had to come up with a cunning plan,” Joe told her. “Kees was an eight week old pup when I got him from my parents.

That was a month after I moved in with them. I suspect they were afraid I would leave them again, so they bought the dog to keep me here. I started learning him tricks, just like the dog I had before. Meanwhile I was busy searching for a good place to start a restaurant. Because you live near the city center, I came past your house almost every week. I have seen you play in the garden there. Sometimes there was another girl with you.”

“Linda,” said Sophie. “She is my best friend.”

“One day I thought:” If I was Marten I would send my daughter to the same school that I was on. That’s a typical ‘Marten’ thing to do. So I went to the school, and indeed, I saw you there in the schoolyard. I heard the other children call you Sophie. That’s how I found out your name.”

“You spelled it wrong in your note though,” said Sophie. “It’s with PH, not a F.”

“I could not have known that of course,” said Joe. “In any case, I stayed there until the lessons started and you disappeared inside. At first I wanted to ask the teacher to give you the note, but I was afraid she wouldn’t want to help me. So I had to think of something else. And then I suddenly remembered the little box Marten and I hid behind the cupboard! Of course it was a gamble, because I didn’t know if it was still there, but I had to try.”

“Why didn’t you just throw a note in the letterbox?” asked Marten.

“I didn’t know what to write. “Hello, I’m Joe, shall we meet?” just seemed wrong somehow,” said Joe. “I teached Kees how to give a note to Sophie, and luckily Sophie is the inquisitive girl I took her to be, so she went after him. I wanted to tell Sophie everything, but she is not allowed to talk to strange men. Therefore I gave her the map of the basement.” Dad pulled Sophie closer to him. “That’s my girl,” he grinned.

“It was a difficult map,” said Sophie. “It wasn’t at all clear that the box was behind the cupboard, and that there was a loose plank in there. And the basement was very dirty and dark.”

“And on top of that, I was Pete!” grinned Marten.

“I’m sorry it was so much trouble for you,” said Joe. “Frankly I didn’t remember very well how we hid the box. I hope your father didn’t punish you too much.”

Sophie put on her angry face. “He grounded me,” she said. “I was home far too late the day you gave me that map. I couldn’t go to the movies with Linda. Instead she went with Monique, and she is stupid!” She mumbled a bit more.

“Well, I guess I have to treat you two to some cinema tickets then,” said Joe.

“Yes!” Sophie yelled happily. “We will go to this new Dutch movie. That one is very good, and there are a lot of handsome boys in it!” Marten grinned at Joe. “She’s growing into a big girl already,” he said.

There was a twinkling in his eye.

Joe looked Marten in the eye. “I acted like an idiot. How could I have been so stupid to think only about myself and not about you and Maria and Sophie? I was so afraid that you didn’t want to see me again it never occurred to me that things could be different. I hope you can forgive me...”

“What do you think?” Marten yelled. “I am very happy to see you again!

Sophie, over there you see the best cook of the whole city. Finally we can have a good dinner without going to the Chinese restaurant!” Joe laughed through his tears. “I guess I’ll start cooking for you two then,” he said.

Sophie and the magician

“Where is she going?” thought Sophie. She was out shopping with Linda, and she had told Linda a few times already that her father had forbidden her to go to this part of the city. But Linda knew a few nice clothing shops, she had told Sophie. And indeed, if you liked black T-shirts with weird texts on them, and wristbands with iron points on them, the shops where Linda had taken her were utterly cool, but Sophie hadn’t seen much that had interested her so far. Linda dressed so strangely these days! She always wore black lipstick, and painted her eyes black when she went to a party with Sophie.

Sophie sometimes had a hard time understanding her friend. But they still had much fun together, and Linda’s funny ideas and pranks always made Sophie laugh. And thus Sophie found herself running after Linda through the forbidden parts of the city. “I want to have a look in the shop at the corner over there,” said Linda. She pointed to a shop at the end of the street.

It looked a bit more normal than the shops Sophie and Linda had visited earlier that day.

“OK, but I want to look over there across the street first. I will find you when I’m done, alright?” Sophie had seen a shop that sold stationery. Because it was almost Sinterklaas1 she wanted to see if she could find something for her father there.

“Thats fine, I’ll see you in a bit.” Sophie crossed the street, and Linda walked on to the clothes shop. A few moments later Sophie stood looking in the window of the stationery shop. There were a lot of beautiful fountain pens and notepads on display, but they were all quite expensive, she found.

She could never afford them with her small allowance. She looked a bit more, but was soon distracted because she heard Linda shout her name.

“Sophie! Look over here!”

Sophie turned around.

Opposite the street Linda was waving to her enthousiastically. Sophie crossed the street. She was curious to see what Linda had found. Halfway across the street she started walking more slowly.

The shop that Linda was pointing to looked interesting. It stood out in the old street because it looked modern, and was tastefully decorated inside. It didn’t look evasive, but modest. Above the shop window there was a sign that said “Fred Jansson, magician” in big, white letters. The shop window was a bit bland. There were only a few items on display, and a few signs stood here and there. Sophie had crossed the street and Linda grasped her arm enthousiastically. “Look at this!” she said, “Everlasting candles!”

“Oh come on Linda. They will go out one day,” said Sophie.

“Yes but look here then. A way finding compass. What’s that supposed to be then?” said Linda. She pointed to a small device with a needle on it that was nervously moving to and fro.

“Hmm.

It seems like it’s lost its way,” said Sophie.

“But hey, look

at this! An infinite teabag! Look, there’s a sign that says: “You know the problem. You have unexpected visitors, and just as you want to make tea you remember what you wanted to get at the supermarket today. This fantastic product brings an end to these worries. You can make tea with this bag as many times as you like. You will always get a lovely pot of delightfully smelling tea. Available in many flavours.” ”

“Nice. You will drink Earl Grey for the rest of your life,” Linda said, and 1See Sophie and the secret box

wrinkled her nose.

“It seems handy to me. My father always forgets to buy coffee and tea.”

“Don’t you think this shop looks odd for a party shop?”

“Maybe we ought to look inside.” Sophie was curious. She pushed the door of the shop open and stepped inside. Linda followed her reluctantly.

On the inside, the shop looked just as its shop window: bland but tasteful, with lots of shades of grey. Sophie found it a bit dull. She peered inside the only display case in the shop.

“Look at this!” Linda said. “have you ever seen something like this? A self-reading book! That is something for my father. He abhors reading!” Sophie looked at the sign next to the book. It said: Are you having trouble reading? And you still want to be regarded as an intellectual? Then this is the perfect book for you!

You only have to open it. It will read itself to you in a pleasant voice, of which timbre and tempo are adjustable to your specific need. All you have to do is sit on your comfortable sofa, sipping your beer and listening to this book.

“Well, if you’ve read this note you can just as well read a normal book,” said Sophie.

“That’s why I also made the note self-reading,” a dark voice behind her said. Startled, Sophie jumped up.

“Oh! I hadn’t noticed you.” She turned around and saw a tall skinny man in a nice suit standing behind her.

“I’m sorry I startled you madame. What can I do for you?” the man said.

“Eeuh, we’re just looking, if that’s alright with you,” Linda said.

“Of course, that’s fine. If you want to know something, just ask me.” Sophie and Linda looked around in the shop some more. However, they felt so observed by the owner, that Sophie asked him after a while: “Are you really a magician?”

The man put his hand out and said: “Certainly! I’m Fred Jansson. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. With whom do I have the pleasure to shake hands?”

Gingerly, Sophie shook the man’s hand. “Sophie Vermeer,” she said. She looked the man over. He didn’t look like a magician at all. He wore a nice suit, with a tie, and beautiful polished shoes.

“I see you thinking,” Fred said. “Where are his pointy hat and his magic wand?”

“Magicians don’t exist!” Linda said. Fred turned towards her.

“Are you sure? Then how do you explain this?” He pointed to Linda and murmured something. Sophie saw sparks jumping between his fingertips when he moved them. She looked at Linda, who was staring in awe at a cloud of small yellow butterflies that danced around her head.

“That is so cool! How do you do that?” Linda stammered.

“Magic, girl,” said Fred. He looked at the butterflies. They were spread-ing around the whole store. After a while Fred said: “That’s enough for now.” He pointed his finger in the air and turned it around above his head, whilst murmuring something unintelligible. Sophie heard a faint “Pop!” and all the butterflies suddenly disappeared.

“I can also help you if you have troubles,” said Fred. “Here, read this.” He gave the girls a small folder. Curious, Sophie opened it. Just when she started to read it she heard a loud bang, followed by the sound of glass breaking. It seemed to come from the street in front of the store. Startled, she looked through the window, and indeed, just in front of the shop two cars had bumped into each other.

“O, no, not again!” mumbled Fred. He walked outside. Linda and Sophie followed him, curious to see what had happened. On the street two people were looking at their cars with sad looks on their faces. “I have put a spell on the street so people walk or drive more slowly when they are near my shop.

But it may work a bit too good. This is the fifth accident I’ve had in one week,” whispered Fred to the girls. He walked towards the cars. Meanwhile he searched his pockets. “Where is it?” he said. “Ah, there I have it.” He took something from his pocket that looked like a matchstick.

“Good day madame, sir,” he said to the owners of the cars. “I am Fred, the owner of the shop over there. I will repair your carriages in a sec.” He walked around the cars to get a good view of the damage. The two surprised owners stared at him.

“Ah, I see the problem. A simple spell will be sufficient.” Fred waved his little stick. “It can’t be a magic wand, can it?” thought Sophie. The stick began to light up. More and more light shone from the little stick, until suddenly a wave of small sparks jumped from the stick to one of the cars.

The cracked rear light began to vibrate, and slowly but surely it seemed to heal. It looked a bit like a wound that recovered, but faster, found Sophie.

After a while the rear light was fixed, and Fred could continue with the rear bumper of the car. “What a strange thing is that. It obviously doesn’t help against collisions,” Fred said. “Wait, I’ll fix that.” He touched the bumper with his wand. A big bubble appeared. It looked like it grew out of the bumper. After a while Fred thought that the bubble was big enough, and touched the bumper in a different place. He went on until the whole bumper was covered in big black bubbles. “I will colour them for you,” Fred said. He touched every bubble with his index finger, and they changed colour. When Fred was ready every bubble had a different colour: red, yellow, gold, blue.

Fred stood looking at the bubbles with a satisfied smile on his face, but the owner of the car was not so happy. “What do you think you are doing?!” she shouted at him.

“I’ve made your carriage better! Don’t you think it’s beautiful?” Fred looked at her, beaming.

The woman stamped her foot in anger. “No, I don’t like it! I don’t know how you did it, and I don’t care, but you will make sure my car gets all right again!”

Fred looked at disappointedly at the ground. His shoulders drooped a bit.

“Oh. OK,” he said after a while. He waved his little wand and murmured something again. “Pof! Pof! Pof!” All bubbles burst and disappeared.

“Tinkle!” The rear light broke again. Fred put his wand back in his pocket.

The woman got in her car, slammed the door, and drove away.

Fred wasn’t to be put off by this, and proceeded with the bonnet of the other car. “You have a very boring carriage,” he said to its owner. “I will make it more beautiful for you.” He waved his wand again, and this time it looked like water came out of the tip, and engulfed the whole bonnet of the car. The bonnet waved and changed colour. “That’s better,” said Fred, and removed his wand. When the water had disappeared the bonnet had changed into a sort of couch with soft cushions on it. “You see?” said Fred. “Now you can sit on your carriage and relax in the sun when you’ve arrived at your destination.” Fred looked proudly at the car. Its owner, a distinguished gentleman, looked at him with wild eyes. “I... you... hnnnng...” he said.

“You don’t have to thank me, it was nothing,” said Fred. The man cast him a dark look, jumped into his car, and drove away. Fred sighed and walked slowly back to his shop. He had totally forgotten about Sophie and Linda. Linda pulled Sophie on her sleeve. “Come on, we’re going home,” she said. She walked away fast, and Sophie stumbled after her.

“What a loser!” Linda mocked when they were out of the street.

“Why?”

“Didn’t you pay attention? He calls cars carriages, and as if that collision wasn’t bad enough, he had to make it worse!” Linda looked angrily at Sophie.

“I feel bad for him. He did his best, and everyone was angry at him.”

“I wonder how he did it. He is a very good illusionist.” Sophie thought a bit. “I’m going to find out how I can help him with his shop,” she said after a while.

“O, Sophie, don’t do that! You can not help everyone you pity! You shouldn’t try to like everyone you meet! How often do I have to tell you that!”

Sophie looked at Linda and shrugged her shoulders. “I like him.” The girls looked at each other, not knowing what to say. “I have to go that way,” said Sophie. She pointed in the direction of her house.

“OK, I will see you again at school tomorrow.” The girls said goodbye and Sophie walked back to her house alone.

That night, Sophie laid in bed thinking about Fred. How could she help him? She had not told her father what she had done that afternoon, because she didn’t want him to know that she had been in a ‘forbidden’ part of town.

Although Sophie didn’t really understand why, her father had explicitly forbidden her to ever go there. So she had to make up what she had to do for Fred all by herself. He wasn’t a very good shopkeeper, that was clear to Sophie. He didn’t have much to sell, and he wasn’t good at selling it either.

He would be better of doing something else. She switched the light on and took the folder Fred had given her. She folded it open and started to read.

This is what it said:

You may think magic and magicians only exist in stories and fairytales. Nothing is further from the truth! Magicians have always existed, and they have made an irrevocable impression on the history of the world.

The text went on some more, but Sophie didn’t find it very interesting.

A bit further down, underneath a picture of a magician with a pointy hat on his head, Fred had written: What can magic do for you? Curious, Sophie read on:

The number of situations in which magic is applicable is near infinite. Here is a number of examples:

Have you lost something or someone? I am specialized in the retrieval of persons or objects. I can find everything, wherever it is, provided it still exists. In the event the object in question is destroyed, or the person deceased, then I can reveal the time and place in which that happened.

Are you expecting a baby? I can tell you whether it’s a boy or a girl!

Magic is also very suitable for the reparation of broken objects or limbs! Guaranteed almost painless!

Sophie closed the folder and grinned. “Almost painless, my foot!” she thought. “I think I’d rather go to a real doctor, thank you.” She switched the light off again and thought a bit more. There had to be something that Fred was good at? What if he became a cleaner? Sophie hated cleaning.

She failed to understand why her father always wanted to clean the kitchen directly after dinner, and do the dishes. She also had to clean her room every week. Bah, how she loathed that! Maybe Fred could magically clean and tidy everything very fast! But even with magic cleaning was a nasty job, Sophie thought. So maybe the cleaning wasn’t such a good idea. “He was very creative with those cars,” she thought. “Maybe he should do something in that direction.” And suddenly she had it: “Fred should be a dog groomer!

He must like that. He can think of completely new hairstyles for all those poodles, the dogs probably won’t mind.” Sophie thought a bit more. Maybe Fred didn’t like dogs. “O well, I will tell him about my idea. Maybe he likes it.” A few moments later, Sophie was asleep.

The rest of the week Sophie was very busy at school, and she didn’t have time to go to Fred’s shop. But in the weekend she went there again. She tried to get Linda to go with her, but she didn’t want to go. “I think he’s creepy,” she said, and Sophie went to Fred on her own. After a long cold walk she reached Fred, who was somberly waiting for clients in a corner. When he saw Sophie his face brightened.

“O, hi Sophie,” he said. “How nice to see you again.”

“Hi. I came to have a quick look.”

“I guess you won’t be buying anything?” Fred asked in a sad voice.

“No,” said Sophie. Right at that moment a woman came walking into the shop. She walked stiffly up to Fred and dangled a wet teabag under his nose.

“I bought this infinite teabag last week, but it makes really awful tea now!” she said angrily.

Fred sighed. “Yes madame? What taste did you buy?”

“Well, tea taste of course. What did you think?”

“There are quite a few different kinds of tea madame. But I will give you your money back, so you can buy another teabag.”

“Do you really think I will buy any of your stuff again? Here, I have here one of your childrenvisions. That seemed handy to me: I would be able to see my grandchildren sometimes. My children don’t ever want to come visit me with them.” She held a small glass sphere, in which strange little clouds swirled round and round, underneath Fred’s nose. “You see? This thing also doesn’t work anymore!”

Fred peered into the sphere. “Do you warm it up before using it?”

“Do I have to? How am I supposed to know that?”

“It’s in the manual madame.”

“What do I have to do, put it on the stove or something?”

“No, just putting your hand on it for a while should suffice.” The woman put her hand on the sphere. Sophie came a bit closer so she could see better what was going on. And sure enough, the cloudlets slowly disappeared. The sphere now showed a small boy who was running around in a playground.

“What!” the woman shouted. “They went to the playground without me! Again!” She peered into the sphere while muttering, and scolding her

“terrible son-in-law.” Meanwhile, the little boy was climbing the stairs to the high slide.

“Hey,” said Sophie, “That is the playground I used to play in when I was little. It’s on the other side of town.”

The old woman looked her in the eye. “Are you sure child?” Sophie nodded. She was sure of it. The woman shrieked with delight and ran from the store. “I will give them a piece of my mind!” she yelled over her shoulder. Fred and Sophie followed her with their eyes. “Madame, your childrenvision!” Fred yelled after her, but she was too far away already.

“Hmm,” said Fred, “at least this one still works.”

“Why, what’s up?” asked Sophie.

Fred sighed again. “I don’t know what it is. People keep coming back with things they bought here that have suddenly stopped working. I already got a few everlasting candles back, and the teabag just now. And there were some people with childrenvisions here that showed things that couldn’t happen at all.”

“O, yes?” asked Sophie. She was curious. “Like what?” Fred hesitated for a moment. “I can’t tell you that, that is a secret between me and my customers.

“Pity.”

Fred sighed again. “Things are not going well with my shop.”

“Not really, no. I’ve been thinking. As a magician, you can do anything you want, is it not?”

Fred smiled. “Not everything. But quite a lot, yes.”

“Why don’t you start helping people with stuff? I read your folder, and some of the things you wrote in there seemed much more fun to me than running a shop. But repairing broken arms? I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Yes, but... It’s guaranteed almost painless!” Sophie laughed. “Exactly. If you say that, people get scared.”

“I like a shop. It’s quiet, and you don’t have to get out of bed in the wee hours of the morning for emergencies.”

“But why don’t you start a dog grooming business for instance?”

“A what?”

“A dog grooming business. That is when the pelt of your dog has become so long and fluffy that you have to comb it, or remove lots of hair. There are people who can do that for you. It’s nice work, because you can make nice hairstyles for some kinds of dogs.”

“I don’t like dogs. But... a hairdresser is a good idea.” Fred’s face lit up.

“Yes! I did that in the old days, if people asked me. Actually, I was always quite good at it, if I say so myself. I could make a real diva out of you, with beautiful curls...” He fumbled for his magic wand. “May I?” Sophie hesitated. Frankly, she was a bit scared. But she had always been wanting curls, and Fred wanted to give her them so badly. And she found her straight brown hair a bit dull. “OK,” she said after a while. “But don’t overdo it, else my father gets mad at me.”

Fred waved his wand. “Let’s see...” he said. “What shall we do. Don’t overdo it, she says...” Sophie saw sparks jumping between his fingers again.

“O, I know what to do!” said Fred. He danced around Sophie a bit, and she felt a strange prickling feeling on her head.

“Do you want some colour with that?”

Sophie thought for a moment. “No thank you. I don’t know if my father will approve,” she said.

Fred ran his fingers through her hair.

Again Sophie felt the strange

prickling feeling. “Ready!” said Fred. “Wait, I’ll get a mirror for you.” He ran away and came back a few moments later with a mirror. Sophie looked at her reflection curiously.

“Ooo, that looks beautiful! Exactly what I wanted!” Sophie’s face was framed with thick curls. “Very beautiful!”

“I haven’t forgotten how it works,” Fred said proudly.

He looked at

Sophie’s reflection in the mirror. “I have to thank you a lot. You made me find my calling! I’ll start working on it right away!” He ran to and fro through the shop. “Here I will put a chair, and there a few mirrors. And I need a few posters, to brighten up the place...” Sophie saw that Fred suddenly was very busy, and decided to go back home. “Goodbye Fred! And thanks again for the hairstyle!”

“You’re welcome! See you later!” said Fred, and he courteously held the door open for Sophie. Sophie walked outside.

“O yes,” she said. “I almost forgot. You have to advertise, so people know where to get these beautiful hairstyles!”

“I’ll think about it,” said Fred. “Have a nice weekend!” Sophie walked home. She was happy. She liked the curls Fred had given her very much! What would her father say? She hoped he wouldn’t ask her where she had them done, and how much they cost. “But he’s far too busy to worry about that right now,” she thought. And indeed, when she came home her father was hard at work. They had dinner from the freezer because Sophie and her father both didn’t feel like cooking. “Hey,” said Dad after they finished dinner. “What nice curls you have suddenly! I didn’t know you went to the hairdresser.”

“You’re always so busy. I hardly ever see you anymore,” Sophie complained. Dad pulled her on his lap and kissed her.

“You’re right, I’m a bad father for you,” he said. “You know what? Tomorrow we will get Chinese food. And next week my assignment is finished.

Then we will do something nice together, OK?”

“Yes, Chinese! I like that!” Sophie laughed. “And can we go to the zoo then?”

“Whatever you want girl,” her father answered.

The next day was Sunday. Sophie and her father had been watching a movie until deep in the night, and Sophie woke up quite late. Drowsily, she climbed out of bed, and looked in the mirror. The curls were still there, but her hair was tangled up quite a bit. She took her brush and started brushing her hair. “Hey,” she thought. The curls sprang back into shape almost by themselves. “That’s handy. It saves me a lot of work. Fred really is fantastic!” thought Sophie.

After breakfast Dad went back to work. “You always work,” said Sophie.

“I don’t like that.”

“Come on girl, bear with me for a while. If my client likes this, I won’t have to work so hard for a long time, I promise you.”

“I hope so, because it’s boring here! I’m off to Linda.” Sophie kissed her father goodbye and walked out of the house. A while later Linda opened the door for her.

“Oooo, you have curls!”

“Yes, aren’t they beautiful? Fred made them for me!” Sophie told Linda about her adventures at Fred’s.

Linda cast a gloomy look at Sophie’s curls. “So you are behind it,” she said.

“Huh? Behind what?”

“Didn’t you see those advertisements on your way here?”

“Eeuh, no, I was thinking.”

“Here, look at this.” Linda pulled Sophie to the window and showed her the bus shelter opposite her house. A colourful poster was hanging there.

Across the poster the text: Fred Jansson: a new haircut by magic! was written in large bold letters. Underneath Sophie saw, to her big surprise, a picture of herself, with the beautiful curls she got from Fred! She looked at Linda with big eyes. “O, no, he used my picture for his poster! I’m all over the city now! What do I do?”

“Your picture?” Linda asked, surprised. “My picture you mean! She peered at the photo on the bus shelter.

“Hey, you’re right,” said Sophie. “It changed into you for a bit, and when I looked at it again I saw myself again.” The girls looked at Fred’s poster again. The picture changed a bit between Linda’s and Sophie’s image, and finally stuck at Linda’s.

“Apparently it knows you’ve been to Fred already,” said Linda.

“How smart of Fred to use changing pictures!”

“Hey look, there comes a man. Let’s see which one of us he shall see.” A man came indeed walking towards the bus shelter. He cast a quick look at the poster. The picture became blurry for a while and changed back to Sophie’s image. Surprised, the man looked at the poster again. Linda and Sophie saw his eyes become big with surprise. The poster now showed his image, life-sized, with a big black tuft of hair on his head, instead of the fluffy patch he really had! Linda squeezed Sophie’s hand hard. “It shows you with a nice hairstyle!” she whispered. “How did it do that?” Sophie uttered a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I was afraid we’d be hanging everywhere in the city. I really don’t know how I would explain that to my father.”

Linda shrugged. “My father wouldn’t care at all. He sometimes doesn’t even recognize me, because he’s too drunk.” Sophie didn’t know what to say. She wrapped her arm around Linda. Linda stood looking at the poster, biting her lip. After a while she said: “I’m curious to see how long these posters last.”

“How come?”

“Well, have you ever seen anything made by Fred that keeps working for longer than a day?”

“O come on. We only know Fred for three days. Who knows, perhaps he’s very good at this.” Sophie looked at Linda. “And my hair is still in good shape, isn’t it? I have had it like this for almost a day now.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right. I shouldn’t be so negative,” Linda said. “Shall we do homework now, or play a game?”

The girls spent the rest of the day playing games and doing their homework for the next day. Just before dinnertime they walked together to Sophie’s house, to have Chinese food. On their way there they stopped at the bus shelter, have a better look at themselves in the poster.

“Do you really want such a hairstyle, Linda?” Instead of the half-long dark blond spiky hair she really had, on the poster Linda had very long, black, straight hair.

“Yes, I think that looks really good on me. But my mother doesn’t want me dying my hair.”

“Maybe you should go to Fred too.” Sophie took Linda’s arm and pulled her with her. She was hungry and didn’t want her father to have to wait for them to come home.

“I really don’t understand your father just let you go to Fred,” Linda said. “I don’t really trust him yet.”

“He doesn’t know,” whispered Sophie. “You keep your mouth shut, you hear?”

“Ooo, the sweet little girl was naughty!” Linda looked Sophie in the eye, laughing. Sophie looked at the ground and said nothing. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything,” Linda reassured her.

After dinner Sophie and Linda helped Sophie’s father with the dishes and cleaning the kitchen. Linda had to go home afterwards because it was getting late, and they had to be at school early the next day. Sophie’s father went back to working on his assignment. Sophie had switched on the television, muttering at her father because he left her alone again, and now she was laying on the couch switching channels. Suddenly, she sat up and looked hard at the screen, which showed a man standing shivering next to one of Fred’s posters. Sophie heard him say:

“...poster that can show you with your favourite hairstyle. We’re not yet sure whether Fred Jansson is really a hairdresser, or if this is a campaign of a big electronics company. The fact that the posters that we have seen don’t contain an address seems to point to the latter possibility. It sure is an ingenious piece of work, because we haven’t been able to find any camera in the vicinity of the posters we have looked at. If you know more about these posters, or if you know who Fred Jansson is, we would like to hear from you.” The picture changed to the City News’ newsreader. Sophie turned the sound of the TV down and called Linda.

“Hey Linda, did you see the City News?”

“City News? It’s Sunday! My father has to watch football, you know that! But, what did they say?”

“They showed Fred’s posters!

They don’t know how they work, and

they also don’t know who Fred is. They thought it might be an advertising campaign from a big electronics company or something.” Linda was silent for a while. “You’re not going to call them, are you?”

“Why not?”

“O Sophie, use your brain! What if your father finds out? That’ll be the day!”

Linda was right about that. Sophie was allowed a lot, but her father was strict. If he forbid something, she’d better not do it. And she had already crossed the line very far by following Linda into the forbidden part of the city, and by having her hair enchanted by Fred.

“OK, I’ll do nothing. But I will watch the City News every night from now on!”

“You are lucky to have your own TV,” Linda said in a jealous voice. “Hey, I have to go because my mom wants to use the phone. I’ll see you tomorrow at school, OK?”

“Bye Linda.” Sophie hung up the phone and stared in front of her. “How stupid of Fred to have forgotten to put his address on the posters! And we are stupid too, because we didn’t even notice it,” she thought. She was disturbed in her musings by her father, who sat down next to her.

“Did you finish it?” she asked.

“Almost. I don’t feel like working any more today. I’m going to bed in a few minutes.”

“I don’t like you working so hard at all. I often feel lonely at home.”

“I know Sophie. You’ll have to bear with me until Thursday, OK? After Thursday I’ll do very little for a long time, I promise you.”

“I hope so. I’m going to bed too,” said Sophie. She kissed her father goodnight and went upstairs.

The next day at school Sophie and Linda promised each other to try and watch the City News every day. This was difficult for Linda because her father usually wanted to watch football or a movie, but she would try anyway. Sophie was plastered to the screen every night since then. The first days they didn’t show anything about Fred, but on Wednesday there was an item about him again. The newsreader said:

“Last Sunday we reported about the strange posters that have been hanging everywhere in the city since last week.” Sophie sat up straight and turned the volume up a bit. One of Fred’s posters appeared behind the newsreader.

“The mystery surrounding these posters has partly been solved,” said the newsreader. “A report by Rachid Kopinsky and Martina Wheel.” The picture changed, and Sophie could see Rachid standing in front of one of Fred’s posters somewhere in the city. He said: “You have undoubtedly seen them in bus shelters all over the city: the posters, one of which is hanging behind me.

They were hung up in the night from Saturday to Sunday.

Nobody seems to have seen it happen, and also the bus company doesn’t know who hung them there. But the most remarkable aspect of the posters is their ability to show whoever looks at them with the hairstyle they would like to have. They way they do that is still a mystery. No cameras and electronics have been found in the posters we have looked at. They seem to be made just of plain paper. The question who hung up these posters has been a mystery for a while too, until we got a tip from a lady who lives in the Northern Singel.

The camera zoomed out, and now Sophie saw an older lady stand next to Rachid. “Can you tell us who or what Fred Jansson is?” Rachid asked her.

“Yes,” the lady said. She started walking, and Rachid and the camera followed her. “A few weeks ago I was woken up by a loud bang,” she told.

“I looked out the window, and saw flashes of blue and green light come from that direction.” She pointed, and Sophie saw that they were walking in the street where she and Linda had walked before they found Fred’s little shop.

“I thought someone was welding, because that’s what it looked like, you know, these flashes of light you get then?” the lady asked. Rachid nodded.

“The next day suddenly this strange shop had appeared in a house that had been standing empty for years. You could buy everlasting candles there, and infinite teabags.”

“Infinite teabags?” asked Rachid.

“Yes, teabags that go on forever. You can make tea with one of them every day.”

“While they were talking, the lady and Rachid walked on, until they had reached Fred’s shop. Sophie didn’t recognize it at first. Fred had really done his best at the hairdresser’s shop; the interior looked lively, and a few mannequins with beautiful hair were standing in the shop window. “Here it is,” the lady said. “Apparently business was bad, and he made a hairdresser’s shop out of it. Rachid stood looking at the shop for a while, with a surprised look on his face. Then he asked the lady: “Shall we go inside?”

“No thanks, my hair is fine as it is,” the lady said. So Rachid went in on his own.

The picture changed again, and now Sophie saw the interior of the shop.

The camera moved slowly from left to right so you could get a good look at everything. There were a few chairs people could sit on while they were waiting for their turn. There were also a few posters with moving pictures of beautiful men, women and children on them. In the middle of the shop a big hairdresser’s chair was standing in front of a big mirror. And for the rest the shop was completely empty. There weren’t any pots or bottles to be seen, not even a pair of scissors.

After the camera had shown almost the whole store, Fred appeared in the picture. He was wringing his hands nervously, and asked Rachid if he maybe was interested in a nice hairstyle? Sophie had to laugh: Rachid was bald!

How could Fred give him a new hairstyle? In the meantime, the camera had panned back to the mirror that was standing in front of the hairdresser’s chair. In the mirror, Sophie could see the soundwoman: a big woman with pointy blond hair. “I would like a new hairstyle,” the woman said.

“O, wonderful!” Fred said. “Tell me what you’d like. Everything is possible.”

“Martina sacrifices herself, ladies and gentlemen,” said Rachid. “A brave lady.”

Martina ignored Rachid, and said to Fred: “I’d like my heir a bit longer, and a bit wavier.Not as pointy as it is now.” Fred looked at her a bit. “Hmm, difficult... But I’ll manage! Take a seat in my beautiful chair, please.” Martina gave her microphone and other equipment to Rachid, and took place in the big chair. Fred walked towards her and started dancing around her, moving his hands around her head.

Again sparks were jumping between his fingers. Sophie looked hard, but she almost couldn’t believe what she saw. The hair seemed to grow, and it became less pointy all by itself. After a minute Fred was ready, and Martina had a nice hairstyle, blond with a little wave in it. Fred combed it a bit, and said: “Ready! That’ll be ten euros, madame.” Martina looked at herself in the mirror. “O, this is just how I wanted it!

How do you do that so fast?”

“Right,” said Fred. He looked in the camera. “That is magic at work, people.”

“So you say you have magicked my hairstyle?”

“Not ‘magicked’ it. I used magic to grow your hair fast, and to make it a bit more wavy. I didn’t conjure up anything. It is all your own hair.” The picture changed again. Sophie now saw a shot of the whole shop. “As you see, this hairdresser claims to use magic in making the most beautiful hairstyle’s,” an invisible voice said. “We have had Martina’s hair checked out by another hairdresser, and he couldn’t find any extensions or other unnatural products in it. It looks like Fred Jansson is telling the truth, and we really have a magician living in our city. In the next days we will keep a close look on the hairdresser’s at 121 Northern Singel.

The documentary was over, and Sophie pensively switched the television off. “Is magic on your head not a bit scary?” she asked herself. Linda was right in a way. That lady in the shop had brought her everlasting candle back, and Fred himself had said that more people had come back with things that suddenly didn’t work anymore. “When will my hairstyle stop working?” Sophie asked herself. Until now the curls had sprung back in their original shape by themselves every time she combed her hair in the morning. “Oh well,” she thought, “If my hair stops curling I will cut a bit off.” A few moments later Dad walked in. “Hey, aren’t you watching TV?”

“No, I want to go to bed in a moment.”

“I’ve finished my assignment. Tomorrow is my big day!” Sophie looked at Dad. He looked tired. “Are you doing alright?” she asked in a concerned voice.

“I worked very hard the past few weeks. I’m exhausted.”

“Then maybe you should go to bed too. Tomorrow will be a tough day for you.”

Dad kissed her on her head. “You’re right.” He looked at her inquisitively.

“Are you very mad at me?” he asked.

“Mad? No. I’m disappointed though. You work harder and harder, and you give me less and less attention. I don’t like that at all.” Dad sighed. “If I present this right tomorrow my chances on a break-through increase a lot. Then I don’t have to hope I will get a new assignment, but people will come to me!”

“And then you’ll work even harder ”

“I promise you I won’t do that. I also think it’s enough like this.” He pulled Sophie towards him. “Come on girl. We’re both tired. You know what? I make two nice mugs of hot chocolate, and after we drank those we’ll go to sleep, OK?”

Sophie nodded sleepily. She waited until her father came back with two large mugs of chocolate milk and two thick slices of buttered cake. “Thank you,” she said. She slowly drank her chocolate milk. She felt guilty because she didn’t dare tell her father where she got her curls. “He probably knows nothing about Fred,” she thought. “He just works.” She decided to tell him after he had shown his work to his client. “He has enough on his mind right now,” she thought. She cuddled up against her father, and fell asleep minutes later.

The next day she woke up in her own bed. She couldn’t remember how she got there, but she still had her clothes on so she assumed Dad had carried her upstairs. That was strange, waking up in your own bed with all your clothes still on! She got up sleepily, and took a shower. When she came downstairs her father was walking to and fro through the kitchen.

“Hi sweetheart.” He gave her a kiss.

“Hi Dad. Did you carry me up the stairs?”

“Yes. You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t dare to wake you up.”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Not really. Here, I made you some sandwiches.” Sophie took the plate her father offered her gratefully. “How do my clothes look?” Dad asked.

Sophie looked her father over. “You shouldn’t wear those brown shoes.

And that tie is out of the question. It doesn’t suit you, how often do I have to tell you that?”

“It’s the first one I saw in the cupboard.” Sophie sighed. She couldn’t argue with that. “Why don’t you throw it away?”

“Yes Sophie.” Dad took the tie off and threw it in the garbage bin. After that he ran out of the kitchen. Sophie started eating her breakfast. She had just finished when her dad came back with a neat tie and black shoes.

“Much better,” said Sophie. “I have to go to school now!” She kissed her father goodbye and walked to the hallway.

“Come back as soon as you can after school! We will do something nice together tonight!” her father yelled after her.

“OK! Success!” Sophie yelled back. She brushed her teeth and went to school.

When Sophie walked up the schoolyard, Linda came running towards her.

“Did you see the news yesterday?” she yelled.

“Yes! He can make your hair grow! That’s so weird!”

“He did that with you too,” Linda said, surprised. She pulled one of Sophie’s curls. “You see, your hair is much longer than it used to be.”

“Yes you’re right. I didn’t realize that. It jumps back to shape every time I come near it with a comb.”

“Shall we go and see how Fred is doing next Saturday?” Linda asked.

“Eeuh, yes, OK. Only I don’t know if I can come, because my father has to show his assignment to his client today, so he won’t be so busy for the rest of the week. Maybe we will go do nice things together.”

“That’s great! My father never does anything. Yesterday he had fallen asleep; that’s why I could watch the TV.” Linda put on a sad face. “I wish I could live with you.”

Sophie laid her hand on Linda’s shoulder. “Come on, girl! When we are going to do something nice, you may come with us, I promise you. It’s not half as much fun without you.” The school bell rang and the girls walked to school arm in arm.

After school Sophie walked home as fast as she could. She wanted to know if her father’s client was satisfied! Her father had been waiting for her.

He picked her up and held her as high as he could. Then he locked her in his arms and hugged her tightly. “He was very happy, and he has even given me another assignment!” he said.

“That’s great! You are a super dad! But... are you going to work so hard again now?”

“I’ll do my best to spend more time with you. I can afford a housekeeper now! That will save me a lot of time.”

“But I also do a lot around the house!”

“Yes, but now we can do nice things together. I’ll be working from nine to five from now on.”

“And now we’re going to have Chinese food, hey Dad?”

“O, yes. But first you have to do your homework.”

“O no!” Sophie laughed. “Dad is free and now he has time to nag me about my homework!”

That evening Sophie and her father decided they would go to the zoo together on Saturday. But the weather turned out to be very bad on Saturday.

It rained, and there was sleet now and then. Sophie called Linda to tell her that they would go to the zoo some other time, when the weather was better.

“But will you come to me then?” Linda asked. “I’m bored without you.” Sophie had rather stayed at home, but Linda begged her to come, so she asked her father if she could go to Linda in the afternoon. Her father said yes, and later that day Sophie rang Linda’s bell. Linda came thundering down the stairs, and opened the door.

“Hey Sophie, how good of you to come! Shall we go and see Fred?” Sophie was a bit taken aback. She had totally forgotten about Fred.

“Eeuh, OK...”

“I really have to be out of here. My father drives me mad! He’s been nagging me all day. “Did you do homework? Why don’t you wear some normal clothes for a change? Did you get that exam back from the teacher?” I’m going crazy!”

Linda put on her coat, and together the two girls walked to Fred’s hairdresser’s shop. The shop was crowded. There were at least 15 people waiting for their turn. Fred worked hard to help everyone. He danced around the big chair, just like Sophie and Linda had seen on the television, and most people were very pleased with his work. Sometimes something went wrong, and people suddenly had green hair, or their hair wouldn’t stop growing.

The people who were watching liked that a lot and laughed about it. They thought Fred was a funny man. “They still think he’s doing magic tricks,” Linda whispered in Sophie’s ear. In the meantime Fred was very busy undo-ing his mistakes. He succeeded every time, and the people who were victim of his mistakes didn’t have to pay. Sophie and Linda stood there for a few moments to watch the spectacle, but after a while Sophie had had enough.

“Are you coming?” she asked Linda. “I want to go home.” At that moment Fred happened to look in their direction.

“Sophie!” he yelled. He ran towards her and gave her two big sloppy kisses on both cheeks! Yuch! Sophie hated that. She wiped her cheeks with the sleeves of her coat.

“Thanks to you I’m famous now,” said Fred.

“Huh, I think the City News has also had a hand in that,” Linda sneered.

“Yes,” Sophie grinned, “next time you have to make sure there’s an address on your posters Fred.”

Fred looked at both girls and rubbed his hands. “Would you girls like a free hairstyle from me?” he asked.

Linda looked Sophie in the eye. “No thanks, not me,” she said.

“Me neither. I still like the hairstyle you gave me very much,” Sophie said.

Fred looked disappointed. “But you have a completely different hairstyle in the poster,” he said to Linda.

“Yes, but if I come home with that I will be in deep trouble with my mother,” Linda told him. “I don’t want that to happen.”

“But I can do something about that too!” Fred tried.

“No, thank you, really it’s OK,” said Linda. “We have to go now. Are you coming Sophie?” She pulled Sophie to the door.

“Bye, Fred,” Sophie said before she was pulled out of the shop. A few moments later they were already almost at Linda’s house.

“I still think he’s creepy,” Linda said. “I don’t trust him at all.”

“I do trust him. My hair is still in order, and all those people walk away happy. Fred does his best I think.”

“Hmmm.” Linda felt Sophie’s hair. “I don’t see anything strange about it. But I still am not going to Fred for my haircut.” The next day Joe cooked dinner for Sophie and Dad. Joe was Dad’s friend from long ago2. He was very curious to know how Sophie and her father were doing because they hadn’t seen each other for a while. He had cooked a delicious meal, and Sophie and her father had eaten until they were 2See Sophie and the secret box

full to the brim. After dinner they sat on the couch and talked. Joe’s dog Kees climbed on the couch next to Sophie and let her scratch his ears. He liked that a lot. When Sophie’s bedtime approached she walked slowly home with her father. It was a cold and very clear night. Very different from the day before. “Look,” said Dad, while he pointed at the sky. “The moon is almost full, have you seen that?”

After she came home, Sophie went straight to bed. She slept through the night and woke up feeling very healthy. She happily jumped out of bed.

When she comber her hair after her shower, it wouldn’t come back into shape as well as it used to. She took a good look at herself in the mirror. “My hair is getting too long. Maybe I have to cut a bit off again,” she thought.

When she came downstairs her father was already there. He had made breakfast for her. “Hi Sophie!” he said happily.

“Hi Dad.” Sophie kissed him and took a few gulps of milk. “That tastes good!”

“Do you know what I’m going to do today? I’m going to clean the whole house!”

Surprised, Sophie looked up from her jam sandwich. “But you wanted to get a housekeeper! Then why do you clean the house?”

“But I can’t let her clean up this mess!”

“O, Dad!” Sophie rolled her eyes. “That’s what you hire her for, isn’t it?”

“Well, I think the house has to look a bit clean when she comes here.

Besides, I haven’t hired anyone yet because I haven’t started looking yet. So I will make the house neat and clean today.”

“Suit yourself. I’m going to school.”

“First eat your egg!”

“Wow, you made eggs? Yummie!” Together Sophie and her father ate their breakfast, and after that Sophie went to school.

The days went by, and on Thursday Linda suddenly appeared at school with a very beautiful new hairstyle! Instead of her normal dark blond hair she now had straight dark brown hair over her shoulders. Sophie couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Linda! Did you go to Fred?”

Linda swirled around to show Sophie all her sides. “Yes! Do you like it?”

“I can hardly believe it. I thought you hated Fred?”

“Yes, but my mother went to him, and your hair still looks good, so I thought: “Let me go too then.” ”

“It’s magnificent!” Sophie felt Linda’s hair. “We look like sisters now.” Linda had to giggle a bit but she said nothing.

The rest of the week was boring. The girls were very busy at school, because their teacher had made up all sorts of difficult assignments. Linda had a hard time getting used to her long hair. It got tangled in a lot of things, and she was combing it with her fingers all day long. Every free moment she went to the toilet to see if it still looked OK. She was very proud of her hair, Sophie could see that. She was happy for Linda, who looked much more happy than before, and also complained less about her father.

The days came and went. The girls didn’t have time to play over the weekend. They had to do their homework. They had a test on Monday.

Linda was very nervous about the test, but she thought she had done a good job anyway. Sophie went home happily. She went to bed on time, because she was tired of the tension of the test. The next day she woke up early.

She rubbed her eyes. “Hey,” she thought, “my hair feels strange.” She went sleepily to the mirror. Suddenly her eyes got big “What happened tonight?” she thought. Her beautiful hairstyle had transformed into a thick head of very tiny curls! “O no! Linda may have been right after all!” she thought.

She took a comb and tried to get her hair untangled. That proved to be very hard, but after a long time of hard work, her hair was straight and very long; it hung over her shoulders! Sophie was glad to be rid of her little curls and jumped in the shower. But when the first drops hit her hair, the curls came back quickly! She dried herself and looked in the mirror. She dressed in a pensive mood. “I’ll have to go back to Fred after school,” she thought.

“What will Dad say? O, he will be very mad!” She walked slowly down the stairs. Her father was in the kitchen.

“What took you so long? I... What happened to you?” he yelled. His eyes were round with surprise.

“I... my hair...” Sobbing, Sophie told her father the whole story. Her father listened to her silently. After she finished he stood looking at her for a long time.

“I’m not sure whether to punish you or to comfort you,” he said angrily.

“A magician! Are you out of your mind?! You could have asked me!” Sophie said nothing. She didn’t know what to say.

“And Linda? Has she been to Fred too?”

“Yes, but not until Thursday. She didn’t trust him at first.”

“Hm... And what made her change her mind?”

“Her mother had gone to Fred. And my hair stayed OK for a long time, so...”

Dad looked at Sophie. He was silent for a long time. “You always have the strangest things,” he then said. “You know what? I will pick you two up from school with the car this afternoon, and then we will go to Fred together.

I want to talk to him and Linda about this matter! I’m really angry with you, do you understand?”

“I won’t do it again,” Sophie stammered.

“Huh, of course you won’t! Fred can kiss his business goodbye if all his clients get hair like this. Now, off to school with you, you’re already late!” Sophie walked slowly to school. She was sad. “It’s my own fault,” she thought. “I should have listened to Linda. Then Linda wouldn’t have gone to Fred herself. I wonder what she looks like now? Maybe it hasn’t started with her yet. She hasn’t got a hairstyle from Fred for very long.” She walked on, thinking sad thoughts. When she was almost at the schoolyard, she met Frank. Frank looked at her with big eyes, and started laughing very hard.

“Hahaha, Sophie has a curly head!” Sophie knew better than to shout back. The last time she cut Frank down to size he went to the teacher, and Sophie was punished instead of him! Therefore she walked on fast. Frank followed her. “Curlyhead! Curlyhead!” he yelled at the top of his voice.

At the schoolyard Sophie saw that she hadn’t been the only one who went to Fred. Maret, a boy who was in a class below Sophie’s, suddenly had flaming red hair instead of his usual beautiful black curls, and Mister Farmer suddenly was as bald as a billiard ball! He looked funny, but Sophie didn’t dare to laugh, because she was afraid mister Farmer would get angry. But she got an idea. She turned around, and grabbed Frank by both his arms.

“If you say curlyhead one more time, I’ll take you to mister Farmer,” she hissed. She pushed him from her, and went inside.

Linda was not in class, and during the break Sophie asked the teacher if she could call her. She got permission, and a few moments later she was dialing Linda’s number nervously. The phone rang for a long time, and Sophie was about to give up when Linda answered.

“Hey Linda, how are you?”

Linda sobbed a bit. “I have green hair! And it suddenly got very long too! Fred is a charlatan! I feel so dirty!”

“Me too. I suddenly have very tiny curls. Little Frank yelled ‘curlyhead!’

at me the whole time. But mister Farmer, he went totally bald! And there is a small boy who suddenly has red hair instead of black curls.”

“Drat! What do you suppose has happened?”

“I don’t know, but my father will pick us up from school with the car, and then he wants to go to Fred with us.”

“My mother went there, but the shop is closed and there are a lot of angry people out front, she said.”

“He doesn’t dare to come outside.”

“He’s a coward!” Linda said angrily. “I still can’t believe I fell for him.”

“Yes. I hope everything will be OK. I don’t want to walk around with this hairstyle all my life.”

“How do you think I feel?” Linda sobbed.

“Poor Linda. I have to go! Miss Yellowfish says hello! I’ll see you this afternoon, OK?”

“OK, see you then.”

Sophie hung up. Poor Linda. She couldn’t stand it when something happened to her. And now something serious had happened. Having green hair didn’t appeal very much to Sophie either.

At the end of the afternoon, when school was almost over, Sophie saw her father arriving at the school with the car. “He’s really angry,” she thought, afraid. “I hope he can control himself when he talks to Fred and Linda.”

“Sophie, are you paying attention? You still have to write down your homework,” the teacher said. She quickly penned down the homework she had to do. While she was busy with that, the bell rang.

“Could you give this to Linda today?” the teacher asked. “You’ll visit her this afternoon I presume?” She gave Sophie a neatly folded piece of paper.

“Yes, OK,” Sophie said, confused. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” She took the paper and walked to the car, where her father was waiting impatiently.

“So, are you ready? Where’s Linda?”

“She was not at school today. I called her. She said she has green hair!”

“Hm, that’s no fun for her. We shall pay her a visit then. I want to talk to her mother.”

Silently, Sophie and her father rode through the city. Luckily, there was an empty parking place close to Linda’s house. Dad parked the car, and a few moments later, Sophie and him stood waiting for Linda’s door. Linda opened the door and let them in. She looked like a mermaid with her long light green hair! Sophie and Linda looked at each other with open mouths.

“I don’t know which one of you had the worst look,” said Sophie’s father.

“But Linda, this is almost what you wanted! Only it’s green instead of black!”

“Yes, and you wanted curls. Look at you now! I have never seen so many curls!” Giggling, the girls climbed the stairs. Sophie’s father followed them, shaking his head. At the top of the stairs Sophie’s mother stood waiting for them. She had a beautiful head full of black and white tufts of hair. “Good day mister Vermeer. What a surprise. I almost never see you here.”

“That is true. But this is a special occasion. Can I talk to you and your husband alone for a moment?”

“Sure. My husband is at the Employment Office at the moment, so you’ll have to do with me. Girls, you can take some lemonade upstairs to Linda’s room.”

Sophie and Linda walked upstairs. “What is it your father wants to talk to my mother about?” asked Linda. Sophie didn’t know. She looked outside, thinking. Fred’s poster in the bus shelter didn’t work anymore. It only showed some hazy spots that slowly changed colour and shape.

“Your mother’s hairstyle doesn’t look so bad,” Sophie said. “O, and the teacher asked me to give you this.”

Linda took the folded piece of paper and unfolded it curiously. “O, that’s nice, she wishes me well!”

“Hmm, I hope we will see Fred when we go there.” Linda looked at Sophie with a sad face. “My mother doesn’t allow me to go with you. “I don’t want you to set one foot in that shop anymore,” she said to me.”

“Pity. Then we will have to go alone. My father is really mad. I hope he can control himself.”

“He didn’t look very angry.”

“Just you wait, I know him better that you.” At that moment Linda’s mother entered the room.

“Sophie, your father is waiting for you. And Linda, can I have a word with you? Come, we’re going downstairs.” Together they walked the stairs, and Sophie and Dad went down the second stairway to the front door.

“Goodbye!” Sophie said.

“Goodbye,” Linda and her mother said, and Sophie closed the door.

“That way,” Sophie pointed. Silently they walked to Fred’s hairdresser’s shop. There were still a lot of people there trying to get in.

“You two were lucky, I see now,” Dad said. Indeed, there were many people with very strange hairstyle’s. There was a man with very long hair that was white on one side of his head, and purple on the other side. And a very fashionable lady with a Mohawk haircut. Sophie also saw Maret, the boy she saw at school with the red hair, standing somewhere on the side with his father. Dad forced himself a way through the crowd to the door of the shop, pulling Sophie behind him. They peered inside, but it was dark and silent there.

“What a coward, not showing himself now!” Dad said angrily. Sophie stood peering in the window to see if she maybe could see something move in the shop. But no, nothing at all. Suddenly she heard a window open above her.

“Sophie!” a voice rang. She looked up, and saw Fred leaning out the upstairs window. He held a small spherical thing in his hand, which he dropped. Sophie catched it dexterously. She heard the window close above her.

“What have you got there?” Dad asked. He looked curiously at the thing Sophie held in her hand. It was a spherical thing with a small arrow inside, that steadfastly pointed to the corned of the street, no matter how Sophie moved the sphere.

“I know what it is! It is a way finding compass! Fred had one of those lying in his shop before the hairdresser’s shop was here. I think he wants us to follow the arrow.”

Dad’s brow furrowed. “But who says this thing works correctly?”

“Well, if it seems to want us to jump into the canal we can just go home, can’t we?” Sophie asked.

“OK, we’re going to follow the arrow. I really want to see this Fred of yours.”

Silently, Sophie and Dad walked to the corner of the street. Every now and then, Dad muttered something under his breath. “Magician, hah! A charlatan, that’s what he is!” he said. At the end of the street, the arrow suddenly pointed right.

“It works!” Sophie said.

“OK, we will turn right here.”

After they had walked a while the arrow pointed right again, into an alley.

Sophie walked behind her dad between two rows of fences, until suddenly a door opened. “Come quick,” said Fred, and they followed him to the back of his house. It looked very neat, just like the front. The window frames had a clear new white coat of paint, and the garden was tidily raked. Sophie didn’t have much time to look around, however, because Fred pushed her and her father into his kitchen. There were a few nice little cupboards there, and the kitchen had a beautiful floor, but Sophie soon noticed there weren’t any kitchen appliances like a refrigerator or a stove. There was nothing there to cook with. However, there was one little table on which a carton of milk, some cheese, and some butter lay. The table was surrounded by a strange blue glow. Sophie walked to the table and felt the carton of milk. It was cold!

In the meantime Fred and Dad stood looking at each other sheepishly. “I guess I owe you both an explanation,” began Fred.

“I surely would think so, yes! How do you get it into your head to start experimenting on underaged girls!” Dad shouted angrily.

Fred sighed and sat down on a kitchen chair. “I really thought that I had found something that I was good at and made everyone happy. First the magician’s shop, and then the hairdresser’s shop. But every time there is a full moon, something weird happens.”

Sophie looked at Fred with a surprised face. She sat on the chair opposite him. “How come?” she asked.

“I will start at the beginning.” Fred waited until Dad also had sat down, and then said: “I come from a time long ago. Like my father, and my father’s father, I had been to the magician’s school, and I was a good student. The only thing was, I abhorred the atmosphere of secrecy and rituals that always surrounded magicians. Magicians walked around in long dresses with sequins and stars embroidered on them, and they had those pointy hats on. That was completely unnecessary, and I wanted to show that you could do magic without all that. So I started a little shop, just like the one I had when we met.” He looked at Sophie, and continued:

“In the beginning the shop worked fine. People liked my new approach, and they asked my help for a lot of things. I even helped building the church in this town. But after about two years, another magician opened a shop close to mine. I knew him from my studies and I really didn’t like this guy.

He had the pointy hat and the long dress and everything, and soon many of my customers went to him instead of me.”

“That wasn’t very nice of them,” Sophie said indignantly.

“No,” said Fred. “But people were a lot more superstitious back then.

This guy told them that the spells would work better if you performed the right rituals. He knew just as well as I did that that wasn’t true. What is important is that you focus and aim the magical powers in the right way.

Then you can do whatever you want with them. It’s not totally unlike this thing that you call electricity. And you also don’t perform a strange ritual before switching on the vacuum cleaner, do you? In any case, I lost a lot of customers to this guy, and at a certain moment I decided I’d better try my luck elsewhere. Would you two like something to drink?”

“That would be nice,” Sophie said. Her father started protesting, but Fred held his hand up before he could say anything.

“No magic, I know. Sophie, there’s coke and other soda in that cupboard over there. Could you grab a few glasses and pour your dad and us a drink?” Sophie did what Fred asked her. Her father inspected his glass from all sides, but he could find nothing strange about it. So he took a small sip.

“I earned enough money with building the church to close my shop and do a study at the University. Soon I was engrossed in time travelling. That always was a hobby of mine, and finally I could learn more about it. After a lot of practising and trying I could send objects to the future, and when I was sure I was good at it, I tried the time travelling spell on myself. I wanted to find a time in which people would not be so superstitious anymore, and start a new business there.

“And that’s how you came here,” said Sophie.

Fred emptied his glass in one gulp. “Yes. I found this empty house and started my shop here. I was surprised there weren’t any other magicians around. At first I thought that magicians made all these appliances you use for everything. But I soon found out that they don’t use magic at all. I still don’t understand how they can work. Can you tell me?” He looked at Sophie and her father curiously.

“Electricity,” Sophie’s father said. He look Fred into the eye inquisitively.

“What is magic in your opinion?”

“You still don’t believe magic exists do you? You will have to accept it.

How do you think the pyramids were built? I helped building the big church in this city myself. Without magic we would never have gotten the roof up, believe me.”

Dad kept silent and let Fred continue his story.

“So I started my shop. But soon people came back with things that always worked fine in my old time. Everlasting candles shouldn’t go out, and people used to be very satisfied with the childrenvisions I sold in the old time. But now they often show the strangest things after they’ve been in service for a while. My shop was visited less and less. I put a spell on it so people walked more slowly when they came near. That helped a bit, but not much.

“And then Sophie and Linda visited you.”

“O, your friend’s name is Linda?” Fred asked. Sophie nodded yes. Fred stood up and took a packet of cookies from the cupboard. “I bought this in the supermarket yesterday. No magic,” he said, looking at Dad. He passed the cookies around and continued:

“Sophie came back later and suggested I started a hairdresser’s shop.” Dad cast Sophie a dark look, but he said nothing. He was still angry, Sophie could see that. She also saw that he was not convinced by Fred’s story.

Fred continued: “I made the posters, and more and more people came to see me. Everything went well, and I felt a hero. Finally I was famous and appreciated! I could be a real magician again without having to run around in a monkey suit.”

Sophie’s father took a bite of his cookie and asked: “But what exactly went wrong? There are people at your door who are a lot worse off than Sophie.”

Fred sighed again. “It took me quite some effort, but I think I know now. The amount of magic in your time is so low, that all the magic I put in the everlasting candles and your hairstyles leaks away fast. In my time the leaking was much less. Now when something that has a strong magic of itself comes by, like the full moon, everything goes awry. That’s what has happened now. I could have predicted it, if I had thought a bit more before I started the shop.”

“Great,” Sophie said angrily. “You disappointed a lot of people this way!”

“Yes,” her father added. “Sophie’s friend hasn’t been to school today because she was ashamed of her hair. What do you think you are going to do about that?”

“I don’t dare to do anything. Every time I use magic it can go awry the next month. Almost all hairstyles I made are held together by magic.” Fred looked Sophie in the eye. “For you I made curls that don’t stay intact without magic. The full moon has overdone that a bit, I see. But I promise you: all the people I’ve treated will have their old hairstyles back in two weeks, when the moon is old.”

“But wait!” Dad suddenly said. “You said the magic you use always leaks away. But you also told us you helped building the church. Then why hasn’t it collapsed?” He looked at Fred, grinning, as if he wanted to say:

“Wriggle yourself out of this one, friend!”

“Very simple. We didn’t want a building that needed constant mainte-nance by putting magic into it. Keeping such a large building upright can cost a lot of magic. So we only used magic to get the roof on the church.

The church keeps itself upright.” Fred stared dreamily in front of him. “Yes, that was a difficult job. But we did it eventually.”

“What will you do now?” asked Sophie.

“I want to find another time, in which people use more magic. I know I am a good magician, but even good magicians can’t change the world on their own. So I will have to find some colleagues.”

“Will you go back in time?” Sophie said.

“No girl, that’s impossible I’m afraid. You can only travel forward in time. I’m going to look around here and there until I’ve found a suitable time.” Fred leaned back in his chair.

“Are you going to say something to those people outside?” Dad asked.

“What can I tell them? They won’t believe me anyway. I’ve heard them shout, believe me! They think I’m a cheater and a charlatan.”

“Well, that’s what you are, aren’t you? You could at least explain them what happened.”

“No way. I’m not going out there.”

“You’re scared, aren’t you?” asked Sophie.

“Yes. And now it’s time for you to go. I have to prepare my trip.” Fred stood up.

“Hohoho, you won’t get away with it that easily,” Dad said. He also stood up and look Fred in the eye, very angrily.

Fred took a deed breath. “O yes I can,” he said, whilst looking Sophie’s father straight in the eye. “Oh oh, I hope this will end well,” Sophie thought.

“You will now go home,” Fred said calmly. He walked around the table and to the kitchen door. When he grabbed the doorhandle Sophie saw sparks dancing between his fingers. To her great surprise her father followed Fred, and walked through the door into the garden. Sophie followed him in a hurry.

“Bye Sophie,” said Fred.

“Well I never,” Dad grumbled when Fred had closed the door behind them. “He leaves all those people in fear!” He stalked through the garden and the alley to the street. Sophie ran after him. Before they had reached the street they heard a big bang. It sounded like a big tree snapping in two! Dad suddenly stood stock-still, and Sophie ran into him. A few flashing lights and sizzling sounds followed the big bang.

“That came from Fred’s house!” Sophie yelled, when everything was over and they had calmed down a bit. They ran quickly back to the house. They opened the door to the garden carefully and looked in the garden. The house was there, but it seemed much darker inside. Sophie slowly walked into the garden, to the kitchen door they had walked through only a few moments ago.

Her father stood looking at a distance. “Sophie, come back! It’s dangerous,” he said concernedly, but Sophie didn’t listen to him. A few moments later he came after her. She grabbed his hand.

“Look! The paint is peeling off all the window frames, you see?” Sophie said. The house looked as if it hadn’t seen a fresh coat of paint in years. The windows, which had before been clean and clear, now were covered with a thick layer of dust and dirt. The window frames were rotting. Sophie pressed her nose against a window and looked inside. There was nothing there but a dirty empty space, and here and there an empty cardboard box. Dusty cobwebs hung in the corners and from the ceiling.

“It looks like it’s been empty for years,” Dad said.

Sophie said nothing. “It’s just like a dream,” she thought. She looked through the garden. There were weeds everywhere. “Soon I’ll wake up and everything turns out to have been a dream.” She felt her hair. Yes, she still had the strange curls. So it wasn’t a dream. She took Dad’s hand and pulled him with her, to the car.

On their way home Sophie and her dad were silent. They both thought about the strange things they had seen today. “I think Fred is a coward for leaving without reassuring those people,” Sophie said.

“He’s a very bad loser,” Dad said. He parked the car and Sophie and he walked to the house together. “Do you feel like cooking?”

“No, I’m much too tired,” Sophie said. Dad turned around and walked back to the car. “Come, let’s get Chinese food.” That evening Sophie and Dad watched TV together. Sophie wanted to see the City News. “Who knows, maybe they’ll have a story about Fred,” she said. Much to her surprise, the City News was not presented by the regular newsreader, but by Rachid!

“New developments surrounding the elusive hairdresser who calls himself Fred Jansson have driven many people to the edge of despair today,” Rachid started. “Almost everybody who had obtained a new hairstyle through him, awoke today with a completely different hairstyle. Our regular newsreader is also the victim of this strange prank, which is why I read the news to you today. We made a small documentary.”

The picture changed. Sophie and her father saw Fred’s shop, with a lot of people in front. “Look, there were a lot more people there than when we were there,” Sophie said. Rachid appeared in the picture, and said:

“Fred Jansson, the now famous hairdresser who can give you a new hairstyle in less than ten minutes, seems to have played a prank with his customers today. As you can see here, many hairstyles have changed in the strangest creations. They are far remote from what the wearer had in mind when he or she took place in Fred’s chair.” The picture changed again. A woman with very short bright blue hair said to the cameraman:

“This is a shocking disgrace! I have never been so deceived. I am here to recoup, but Fred chooses not to open the door.” Another lady, with a gigantic bright yellow Afro hairstyle on one side of her head, and long straight black hair on the other side, said crying: “I was so happy with the hairstyle Fred made for me. I used to have very thin dark blond hair, and he made me a beautiful long fair hairstyle, that went perfectly well with my earrings. And look at me now! I look like a monster!” Sobbing, she turned her back to the camera.

Sophie had to laugh. “Linda and me were lucky with the hairstyles we got.”

Rachid looked into the camera again and said: “We will go see if we can talk to Fred.” He wrung himself through the crowd to the door, and tried to open it. “That’s strange, it looks like it’s fastened on the inside. It won’t budge.” He banged his fist on the window, but that too didn’t help. “Bof, bof,” his fist sounded on the glass. “I seems like there’s bulletproof glass in there,” Rachid said. “He’s a dirty crook!” a bald man yelled angrily. The camera turned toward him. “I’m a lawyer, and this man will face justice, you can count on that,” he yelled. “My wife is at home, sick in bed, and this morning I had to shave all my hair off to look presentable for work. I will demand a big compensation for everybody who is let down by this man!” The picture changed, and Sophie and her father saw Rachid in the studio again. “We tried the to get Mr. Jansson in the studio the whole day, but we didn’t succeed. The judge you saw in the clip has subpoenaed Mr. Jansson.

We’ll keep you informed of further developments.”

“What is subpoenaed?” Sophie asked.

“That means Fred has to stand trial,” Dad answered.

“Well, that’ll be hard with him not being around anymore.” Sophie stood up. “I’m going to bed. I’m exhausted,” she said. She kissed her father goodbye and disappeared upstairs.

“Hey, Sophie! Wake up! You have to go to school!” Slowly Sophie woke up. She rubbed her eyes and looked into her father’s smiling face. “You are a real sleepy-head,” he said. “Get your clothes on, I’ll make your breakfast.” Slowly Sophie woke up. She stayed in bed for a little longer. “Where would Fred be now?” she thought. It still seemed like a dream to her. She stood up sleepily, put on her dressing gown, and walked downstairs. “He, curlyhead!” Dad said. “That’s not funny!” Sophie sulked. She felt her hair, and indeed, she still had the small curls.

“It looks like it was worse yesterday,” Dad said. But Sophie didn’t believe him. Not until she was at school did she realize that her father may have been right. Linda was there, and her hair was a little bit shorter and a little bit less green than Sophie remembered it. Linda seemed proud of her hair now, because she wore a black sweater that made the green hair stand out clearly. And mister Farmer suddenly had a spiky head. But Frank still yelled

“Curlyhead!” at Sophie. She tried to get him, but he was a fast runner and she didn’t succeed.

“Come on, don’t let him get to you,” Linda said.

“You’re right. But he is such an irritating little boy!”

“I think he likes you and that’s why he acts like that.” Surprised, Sophie looked Linda in the eye. “You don’t mean that do you?

I really don’t want to have anything to do with him!” Linda giggled a bit, and together Sophie and Linda walked to the school.

“Your hair is less curly than yesterday, do you know that?” said Linda, while pulling one of Sophie’s curls until Sophie said “Auch!” Sophie and Linda had been busy at school. Because they were in an advanced class they had to do a lot of homework. The days flew by. Sophie looked in the mirror every day, and she saw her curls get less and less dense.

Linda’s hair also looked more and more normal. On a Friday afternoon Linda and Sophie walked home. When they got there, Sophie’s father was busy talking to a woman. “Ah, Sophie. This is Miss Von Reede. She might become our new housekeeper. This is my daughter, Sophie.” Sophie and Linda introduced themselves.

“You two go play upstairs, I will be there shortly,” Dad said. So Sophie and Linda went upstairs. They did their homework like good girls, until they were tired of it. Sophie went downstairs to get some lemonade.

“I didn’t know you were getting a housekeeper,” Linda said when she came back.

“O, yes. My father has been busy interviewing people this whole week. I hope he will pick a nice one.”

“Maybe your father wants to marry her,” Linda giggled.

“I heard that!” Sophie’s father laughed, who just at that moment stepped through the door. Linda became red and made herself small.

“Say, ladies, how long has it been since you were last called a mermaid and a curlyhead?”

The girls looked at each other. “Hey, Linda, you almost look normal again!”

“And you! The curls you have now look good on you!”

“I thought we had to celebrate that. Linda, I called your mother and asked her if you can stay for dinner. And if it’s OK with you two we will go to the zoo together tomorrow! We still had that coming, didn’t we Sophie?” Sophie nodded violently. She always liked going to the zoo! “And, did you hire that lady?”

Dad grinned. “She comes to clean the house on Monday. And no, I will not work my fingers to the bone to clear up the mess before that!” He looked at Sophie and Linda with a big smile on his face. “Come, let’s get Chinese food.”