The Way to Rio Luna

1 The Boy Who Believed

DANNY MONTEVERDE BELIEVED. He believed in making wishes, and in lucky four leaf clovers, and in underground tunnels that lead to wondrous places. He knew if he could reach the second star to the right and go straight on till morning, he’d be well on his way to Neverland, just like the kids in Peter Pan. And if he stood in the right place, at the right time, he could travel through a moon portal. Danny knew that just because some things couldn’t be seen or explained, it didn’t mean they couldn’t be real. Magic was everywhere, if you just paid attention.

He’d learned to believe from his sister, Pili, and she’d learned from her favorite book of fairy tales, The Way to Rio Luna by Ella St. Clay. For as long as Danny could remember, it’d been just the two of them. While their foster homes and orphanages and schools always changed, Danny could count on two things: his sister and their book. Pili had bought the copy with her own money at a yard sale. It was the only thing she’d ever owned, paid for with the few dollars she’d been given for doing other kids’ chores. The paper was frayed and nearly falling apart because every night, without fail, Pili would read to her little brother.

They hid under alcoves, in tiny rooms under the stairs, inside closets-anywhere two small kids could fit and not be noticed. Even when it was cold, or they could hear their foster parents fighting, or when their new guardian forgot to feed them, Danny and Pili could always escape into a world of magical forests, enchanted gardens, and shooting stars. Each story took them to a new part of their favorite fairyland. Danny particularly loved the ones set at the heart of the world, the place called Rio Luna. There a great river was home to fairies, silver trees, and extraordinary magic.

“I promise, Danny,” Pili told him. It was his ninth birthday, and she’d found enough change to buy him a chocolate-peanut butter cupcake with sprinkles.

“One day, we’re going to find a place that’s better than here.”

“Like how Heidi from Mrs. Murphy’s class and her family go to Hawaii?” he asked, licking frosting off his fingertips.

Pili laugh-snorted. “Even better.” She took his pinky finger with hers. “When we get to Rio Luna, we can have our own rooms. We can eat whatever we want. No one will hurt us or try to separate us. We’ll be able to fly with shooting stars and have tea with witches. We’ll be free. I promise.”

But a few days after making that promise, Danny was placed in the care of a family called the Finnegans while Pili stayed at the group home. Before Danny left, Pili let him take The Way to Rio Luna.

“This is only temporary. We’ll be together again soon,” she told him, and Danny took her pinky in his and didn’t let go until his social worker, Mrs. Contreras, beeped the car horn.

A few days later, Danny received the news that Pili was gone. There was no trace of her. Not her backpack or clothes or toothbrush or her favorite hair ribbon. It was as if she vanished into thin air. The police and social workers told Danny that Pili was a runaway, but he knew his sister wouldn’t leave him behind. They had pinky sworn, and that kind of promise was unbreakable. There had to be some sort of explanation. Pili was out there somewhere, searching for the place they’d talked about together. He would find her.

That’s how Danny Monteverde became one of the world’s strongest believers in magic.

2 The Boy Who Tried to Fly

ONE MONTH AFTER PILl’S unexpected disappearance, Danny still believed. He believed in magic and in the stories that kept him awake in the middle of the night. That was how he was going to find Pili in Rio Luna.

He was going to fly.

His new foster family, the Finnegans, seemed nice enough if you only looked at the photos on the fireplace mantel–a mother, a father, and two kids of their own. But after a month of living with them, Danny got to know a different side of the perfect home. The Boy Finnegan didn’t like the way Danny ate everything on his dinner plate, even the smelly cauliflower, because then Mother Finnegan said, “Why can’t you be more like Danny?” The Girl Finnegan thought Danny’s nose was too big for his small, square face and often made fun of him for it. Mother Finnegan didn’t quite know what to do with a child who grew so quickly. Danny’s hair was thick and wavy like ropes of black licorice. It needed a trim nearly every week, and soon enough, she stopped cutting it. Danny couldn’t fit into the boy’s hand-me-downs, either, so his pants and sleeves always showed an inch of his thin ankles and wrists. Father Finnegan didn’t like that Danny would rather stay cooped up in the corner of the living room with a book. He wanted Danny to like things like throwing and kicking balls around.

But Danny preferred books. He carried Pili’s copy of The Way to Rio Luna by Ella St. Clay everywhere he went. When he wasn’t picked for the school play, he’d read it in the auditorium. While his foster siblings had soccer practice, Danny always managed to find a quiet corner high up on the bleachers. He’d read at the mall food court while the Finnegans spent hours and hours shopping for clothes and toys. That always meant Danny would get new hand-me-downs soon, which he didn’t mind. The only thing Mother Finnegan had offered to buy for Danny was a new copy to replace his tattered book.

Unfortunately, The Way to Rio Luna was out of print everywhere. Even if he could find a shiny new one, Danny wouldn’t want it. It wouldn’t feel right. This one was Pili’s. On the cover was a secret garden with floating fairies between spindly trees. Arrows and a compass rose surrounded the title and the author’s name. There were rips and creases on the jacket, but it was nothing a bit of tape couldn’t fix. The words on the yellowing paper reminded him of the impossible- of the people in his life who were long gone. Sometimes, the book felt alive.

One time, he thought that he could see the letters on the page glowing. When he told Mother Finnegan about it, she said his imagination was too active. Danny didn’t feel very active. In fact, one of his favorite things was sitting, which was the opposite of being active. He could sit and read for hours and hours. He loved that the words on the page came to life in his mind, like blobs of watercolor taking shape.

But reading alone wasn’t the same as reading with Pili. He missed the way she did all the voices, like the one of the Moon Witch who lived inside a tree. He missed the way she could always distract him when the house was full of screaming and slamming doors. He missed the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches she’d sneak him before bed. She’d put Cap’n Crunch into the peanut butter so it would taste extra sweet and be extra crunchy. He clung to those memories of her the way he clung to his book. There was only one thing Danny believed in more than magic, and it was that Pili loved him and would never have left him alone on purpose.

He knew he’d find her waiting for him in Rio Luna. He simply needed to figure out how to get there. So he looked for portals in the backs of wardrobes. He even dug a hole in the Finnegans’ backyard. But instead of a rabbit hole, he discovered only a septic tank. Danny tried to apologize, but when he went to find his foster parents, he overhead them speaking about him.

“We had to pick the looniest of the bunch, didn’t we?” Father Finnegan said.

“Other kids read the same drivel and they don’t act this way.”

Mother Finnegan made a clucking noise, like the neighbor’s chicken. “Hush now. He just needs time. After his sister-”

“He’s got a new sister and a new brother,” Father Finnegan said, cutting her off. “The kid doesn’t even try. In the morning, I’m going to throw that book of his in the trash before he breaks a mirror trying to get to La La Land.”

Danny didn’t listen to the rest. He went right to his narrow twin bed, fished out The Way to Rio Luna from under the covers, and hid it on a dusty shelf in the garage.

He hoped Father Finnegan would forget about it, and for a few days he did.

But then Father Finnegan surprised Danny and his foster siblings with a fishing trip. Danny had always wanted to go on a boat and imagine what a pirate might have felt like. But then Danny remembered that all the fishing supplies were in the garage, gathering dust from the winter. Before he had time to act, Father Finnegan found The Way to Rio Luna next to the box of fishing wire and hooks.

“What’s this?” Father Finnegan snatched up the book in his calloused fist.

Danny’s heart thundered against his rib cage. He lunged for The Way to Rio Luna, but the man was too tall and held the copy up in the air. “It’s just a book. It’s my book, please.”

“You have to be part of the real world, Danny,” his foster father said, deep lines crinkling his freckled brow. “This is what puts crazy ideas in your head.”

“Don’t call me that,” Danny said, but it was just a whisper. It was as if his voice was being turned off completely. His body shook as he waited to see what

Father Finnegan would do next.

“Get in the car,” Father Finnegan said.

Danny filed in and ignored his foster siblings snickering. The girl said, “You’re in trouble.”

Then Danny watched as Father Finnegan strode past the car and to the row of garbage cans. Before he could think, Danny bolted out of the car and ran down the driveway.

“Please, don’t!” Danny shouted. “Please, it’s the only thing I have left Father Finnegan held the book out of reach. He opened the lid to the metal garbage can. Danny jumped and reached and grabbed for it. He felt like a mad, wild whirlwind. Tears ran down his face.

“It’s for your own good,” Father Finnegan said, and he dropped the book into the trash.

Danny cried the entire way to the lake, and while he held his fishing pole. Girl Finnegan blamed his tears for scaring away the fish. They didn’t catch a single one. By the time they were ready to go back to the house, Danny’s eyes felt puffy and burned when he blinked. Perhaps it was seeing Danny’s hurt, but Father Finnegan relented.

“Fine, if you’re going to be hysterical,” he said, and marched to the row of garbage cans. He wrenched the lid open, and Danny’s insides felt like a sputtering candle. The light blew out when they both realized that the cans were empty. It was trash day.

The Way to Rio Luna by Ella St. Clay, the only thing he had left of his sister, was long gone.

Mother Finnegan clucked around like an apologetic hen. She went to three bookstores, but Danny reminded her that it was out of print. He visited to the library, but none of the local branches carried it. It was as if the book had never existed.

But Danny remembered the stories. He tried to write them down from memory, but they never felt quite the same. Nothing would ever be the same.

When Danny decided to climb out the window and stand on the Finnegans’ roof, everyone blamed the stories about children flying on shadows and grabbing the tails of shooting stars.

Earlier that same day, Danny had been following the Finnegan kids back home from school (they didn’t much like walking next to him when they passed a yard sale. He’d rummaged through the books, but the owner of the house only seemed to read books about serial killers. Then Danny noticed some- thing better. In a bin of old unwanted doll parts and gravy boats was a jar labeled FAIRY DUST. It was only fifty cents, and as he frantically dug into his pocket, Danny discovered he had exactly fifty cents!

Danny had read all kinds of fairy tales and knew how rare and special fairy dust was. It didn’t matter if no one else believed him. Magic was real and it would lead him to Pili. He would prove it with his little bottle of yard sale fairy dust.

When night fell and everyone in the Finnegan home had gone to sleep, Danny found his way out onto the roof. He held the small bottle against his heart. Just a sprinkle of the glittering powder would do, and he could be well on his way. It didn’t matter that he was an orphan who never quite fit into the puzzles of families he was shoved into. The place where he was going was full of orphans just like him. Pili would be there, too.

Danny stood on the rooftop. He could hear crickets and the hoot of an owl, and from the room inside, the soft snores of a family who would be relieved in the morning when he wasn’t there.

The moon was full, and so big it looked like it had been pulled closer to the earth by a lasso. Everyone said that if you looked at the moon, you could see a face. Danny did not see a face, no matter how long he stared. Maybe when he got closer, he’d be able to figure it out. He searched for the second star, but there were so many out there. How was he going to find the right one? It was like staring into a field of fireflies, twinkling and blinking and vanishing and reappearing. Before he could panic, he picked the biggest one, closest to the moon. He uncorked the glass vial. He turned the tube over his head and let the fairy dust fall over his hair.

Then he waited.

He waited for a feeling. Something that said, You can fly!

He waited for a long time.
So long that the stars even started to shift and move positions, and he had to search for the second star all over again. But the feeling never came. Danny was sure that when someone was sprinkled with fairy dust, they glowed with magic. They glowed like a star themselves. He just needed to believe harder.

So he closed his eyes and took several steps back. He focused on the stars in the sky, and the bulbous moon, and the dust that tickled his scalp and skin. He thought of Pili.

Danny broke into a run and he jumped.

3 The Very Lost Boy

EVEN WHEN HIS ARM was bandaged and broken in three places, Danny believed.

The Finnegans took him to the hospital, but he knew he was really in trouble when Mrs. Contreras came to see him. Everywhere he turned, adults surrounded him like giants, asking, “Danilo Monteverde! What were you thinking?”

Danny hated when they used his full name. Only Pili was allowed to call him that, and she wasn’t here. To everyone else he was simply Danny. The problem with being small and nine years old and alone was that no one listened to him. But he couldn’t lie. Pili taught him to always tell the truth.

He said, “I was trying to find her.”

Mrs. Contreras had been Danny’s social worker for years. She had thick, curly hair that was brown as tree bark, and skin like fresh coffee with steamed milk. She’d never had any kids but said all those she cared for were like her own. Danny always wanted to ask, “Then why don’t you adopt us?” But there were so many of them. Danny had once tried to count how many kids had been in his group home, but it was like counting grains of sand or blades of grass. He’d trip up on the numbers and have to start over.

The grown-ups called it the System. He hated the way that sounded. It was like he was being sent to a dark, terrible part of a hospital with no windows or doors. The System.

“Oh, Danny,” Mrs. Contreras said. That’s all she said. He recognized how tired her voice sounded, and suddenly he felt terrible. He didn’t like the sadness in her big brown eyes, but he hated that no one believed him about Pili even more. “How could you possibly find her this way?”

“That’s the way fairy dust works,” Danny explained. He tried not to move or his arm felt like there were needles inside. “In the book, the kids really believe. Something must have gone wrong.”

“And where would this fairy dust have taken you?” Mrs. Contreras asked

“Rio Luna. That’s where Pili promised we would go together.”

“Sweetie, I know you miss your sister,” Mrs. Contreras said. When she sighed, she deflated like a party balloon. “But you can’t keep doing things like this or you’re going to get seriously hurt. You promised me you’d be good.”

He’d also made a promise to his sister that he wouldn’t forget. How could he do both?

“I know, but- you don’t understand,” Danny said.

Why couldn’t they see that Danny was trying to find Pili? She was out there. People didn’t just vanish into thin air. Not unless they had the help of the magic from the stories.

“I’m sorry, Danny, but this is just glitter. It is great that you love these books so much, but they only live on the page. There are no gateways inside closets, and you can’t break another mirror trying to find a portal. I want to find you a good family, but I need your help.”

Danny didn’t want to listen. He tried to turn over on his hospital bed, but he couldn’t because his arm hurt too much. He was forced to keep looking into Mrs. Contreras’s face. He was used to this routine. He and Pili had been in more foster homes than he could count. Each time, they had tried to hope to become part of a family, but somehow it never worked out. How could he be part of a family without his sister? Why did everyone want him to forget? Mrs. Contreras kept talking. She had tears in her eyes. He wasn’t used to seeing grown-ups cry, but Mrs. Contreras sometimes did when she talked about Pili. “We’ve done everything we can, Danny. But she’s gone. It’s been months now. The police say she must’ve run away with the older foster kids.”

“She wouldn’t leave without me,” Danny said. There was a heavy sensation on his chest, like he couldn’t breathe easily. “We were supposed to go there together!”

“Is there anywhere else she might have gone?” Mrs. Contreras asked him. “If you tell us a real place, maybe we can search again.”

Rio Luna is a real place, Danny thought. But he didn’t say it out loud again because he’d already told them. He told the social workers and he told the detective and he told everyone who asked. That was the only place Pili could have gone. Each time, they wrote things down about him. They asked him question after question. They called it an assessment. But Danny knew they were treating him like a broken toy they didn’t know how to fix.

Danny shook his head. “There’s nowhere else I can think of.”

“Try and get some sleep,” Mrs. Contreras told him, resigned to his silence.

“I’ll take this with me.” She took his copy of Peter Pan, which they’d been assigned at school that week, and Danny knew he wouldn’t be getting it back.

He also knew he wasn’t going back to the Finnegans’. He’d go with Mrs. Contreras to the group home. But this time, there’d be no Pili to stop the big kids from stealing his socks or to talk to after he woke up from a nightmare.

Sometimes Danny wondered if he’d ever find a family to belong to. What if the parents who had died and the sister who vanished, what if that was the only chance he was going to get? He was a boy who came from nowhere and belonged to no one.

No, Danny thought. I belong somewhere. I belong with Pili. So he let that thought fill his heart, like a tiny, secret star only he could see.