Olivia’s castle bedroom had a high ceiling and a single large oval window to the outside. A brilliant crystal chandelier glowed in the center of the room. It shimmered with hundreds of cut prisms, most likely orphans rescued from the dump.

  A flash of lightning flared the rain-splashed window. The densely packed chandelier crystals twirled and chimed gently with the thunder.

  Marco realized this was definitely still a child’s room, not the room of a sixteen-year-old. The curved stone wall was covered with painted rainbows and glittery posters of unicorns. Porcelain and glass unicorn figurines cluttered the top of her dresser and both bedside tables. Even her large brass bed was decorated with a quilt depicting a puffy unicorn and an equally puffy rainbow.

  What is it with girls and unicorns?

  Olivia removed her apron and sat at the foot of the squeaky bed. Without speaking, she took his hand and pulled him down beside her.

  She whispered, “What is your name?”

  Surprised to hear her speak, Marco answered quickly. “Marco. My name is Marco Polo.”

  Olivia fluttered her eyelashes for a second, then quietly asked, “Marco Polo, do you lie?”

  Marco froze, caught off guard by the question.

  He struggled with his answer. “No. I mean, why would I lie? About what?”

  More lightning flashed, and he unconsciously leaned away from her a tiny bit.

  Suddenly, she loudly declared, “I want to be a liar! It all has to be a lie!”

  She grabbed a small heart?shaped pillow, clutched it, then threw it like a frisbee across the bed, hitting the headboard with a soft thud.

  An electronic plush unicorn sitting below chirped, “Howdy!”

  Olivia put both hands over her eyes and cried into them. She stayed like that for a moment, trembling. Then she burst out, “I have nobody to talk to!”

  She collapsed against him, her head landing on his shoulder.

  Marco had no idea what to do. He tried to think of something comforting to say, but it was tough to compete against the oppressive flurry of rain and threatening lightning flashes outside.

  “So… I see you like unicorns,” he said, biting his bottom lip and smiling awkwardly.

  “Buwahh!” Olivia really began to bawl. The unicorn chirped “Howdy” again but slower, like the battery was almost out of power.

  Crap, this is hard.

  He’d never met anyone so incredibly touchy and emotional. He glanced at the door, longing to be back at the golf course searching for broken sprinklers with Rowf.

  “I don’t care. I have to tell somebody!” Olivia wept as she spoke. “He left because of me!”

  A single large raindrop ran down the center of the window.

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  “Huh?” Marco’s toes squelched inside his wet socks as he tried to understand.

  “His name is Ernie.” She brushed aside a tear. “We met in the Dunes.”

  “Oh, the Dune Boy?” said Marco.

  “They called him that! I never called him that!” she sobbed. “Ernie didn’t live in the dunes. He’s from… some place else. Some place… secret.”

  “Uh huh,” said Marco, trying to listen. There were just so many posters with rainbows and positive affirmations, and he didn’t connect with a single one of them.

  “Ernie is special. He… Oh! I don’t know if I can tell it again!” cried Olivia, literally shaking.

  “Just breathe, like this…” Marco inhaled deeply, trying to calm her the way he’d learned to calm himself. He’d actually been doing it the whole time.

  She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and managed to continue. “He is just like you or me.”

  “Oh, I see.” Marco forced an affirmative nod, eyes drifting to the locked door as he breathed in and out.

  Stay objective.

  Olivia recalled her past. “We first met in the sand dunes when I was nine years old. I was alone, playing hide-and-seek with myself like I always did, when I accidentally found him hiding in the tumbleweeds. He was my age. We became fast friends and played together every single day. He trusted me and started to tell me things… fascinating family secrets.”

  Placing the back of her hand on her forehead, she said woefully, “We were both… so young.”

  Then Olivia explained, “Ernie always made me promise not to tell anyone his stories. But the tales were so incredible that the first thing I did when I came home was tell my grandmother. We share everything. Then I told everyone I knew! I couldn’t help myself.”

  She looked Marco in the eyes and quietly confessed, “Nobody else ever saw him or believed he was real, so I reasoned — what harm could it do?”

  Olivia put her hand over her mouth and turned away again, trying to hold back her ever-flowing tears.

  She slapped her hand on the bedspread and cried out, “Oh! Why did I do it? Why?”

  Then she continued her tale. “Last April, Ernie told me he found out I had been sharing it all. He said someone evil had heard me talking, and now the Gentlemen were coming. That I jeopardized everything!”

  She cried out, “Bawahh!”

  The Gentlemen?

  Marco pictured a polite 1890s man in a top hat assisting a lady with a parasol out of a carriage… then felt a cold twist in his stomach. Whoever she meant, it wasn’t that.

  Sniffing, she wiped her nose and said, “He blames himself—that he was the one at fault for not following all their old rules. And now that the secret was out, things could never be the same. There were forces beyond his control that were tearing us apart, and we could never meet again! Bawah! Wah!” She burst into tears once again. Her face was red and swollen from crying.

  “I love him so much! And he loved me! And now he’s gone! Gone forever!” Olivia was now sobbing big time. “Hold me!” she cried, collapsing into Marco’s arms.

  Crap!

  Marco had zero capacity for this. He had no idea what to do. He’d never even been on a date with a girl, let alone whatever this was. Trying his best, he awkwardly patted her back and said, “There, there. It’s okay.”

  Then he gently inquired, “I don’t understand. What was the big secret?”

  “What’s the secret?”

  Olivia sat up on the bed and said very loudly,

  “The Secret!

  The secret is the UNICORNS!

  That’s the secret!

  Because of me, the Gentlemen are coming to KILL them!

  I don’t know where the UNICORNS are!

  I don’t know how to HELP!

  And it’s all MY fault!”

  She collapsed in anguish, sprawling facedown across the top of the bed, smearing her wet tears and runny nose all over the puffy unicorn and rainbow quilt.

  Oh no!

  Marco realized now that Olivia was totally delusional. This made him feel bad—because otherwise, she seemed really nice.

  “Are you going to be okay?” he asked, standing up from the edge of the bed. “I should probably get Carly.”

  “It’s the truth.” Olivia sat up and wiped her tears.

  “Do you believe me?”

  “I want to believe you. I really do,” replied Marco.

  “But I don’t think unicorns are real. I think that boy lied to you.”

  He tried his best to sound pragmatic, hoping that by blaming the Dune boy, she wouldn’t realize he didn’t believe in him either. All he wanted now was to get out of this sparkly unicorn nightmare.

  “I’ve seen them myself!” Olivia exclaimed. She drew out a heart-shaped faceted crystal pendant from under her collar. “Ernie gave this to me. It’s made from a real unicorn horn,” she explained.

  Unicorn horn? How could it be real unicorn horn?