The Unseen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

some of them were the same kinds of pictures Xandra had been collecting all her life. Pictures of beautiful forests where trees had living faces, of strangely beautiful creatures half animal and half human and of people who were obviously characters from fantastic fairy-tale worlds. Walking around the room staring at the pictures and reading the titles of the books, most of which she had read too, Xandra was beginning to feel almost at home.
    “Hey,” she said. “I like it. And it's all just yours? Nobody else's?”
    Belinda nodded.
    “Great,” Xandra said. She looked around. “Does it have other rooms?”
    Belinda nodded again. There was one other room in the cabin but it seemed to be nothing more than a storage area. A whole room crammed full of huge cardboard boxes, all of which were full to overflowing with articles of clothing. Very old clothing.
    “Wow,” Xandra said. “Where did you get all …”
    “It's from the commune,” Belinda said. “When people went off and left some of their clothing, Ezra always saved it in case they came back for it. But most of them never came back, so now it's mine. Ezra gave all of it to me.”
    As Xandra watched Belinda shake out a long, flowery skirt and then a badly faded tie-dyed T-shirt, she was intrigued for more reasons than one. Intrigued at first because she was remembering the games she and Tory used to play, which involved dressing up in old stuff they found in boxes and trunks in the Hobsons' attic. She became even more interested when she suddenly realized she was looking at the source of Belinda's weird school outfits. But all she said was, “There sure is a lot of it.”
    “I know.” Belinda looked pleased. She was carefully folding away the ragged skirt when a sudden sound made her hurry to the cabin's door. Motioning for Xandra to join her, she whispered, “Here he is now. Here's my grandfather.”

A T FIRST GLANCE the man who was standing in the doorway of the largest cabin was almost a disappointment. Xandra wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but it did seem that a wizard or even a person who knew about such things as dangerous enchanted gifts ought to look at least a little bit weird. But the man who was standing on the steps of the large cabin was, at first glance, fairly ordinary-looking.
    Checking him out carefully as she and Belinda walked toward him, Xandra noticed that he was tall and rather thin, and dressed in a dark sweatshirt and trousers. His hair was gray and his long narrow face didn't look especially old or young. His eyes were not especially scary or threatening, Xandra decided—except that when they looked at you, it was hard to look away and even harder toremember what you meant to say and exactly how you were planning to say it.
    “Hello, Alexandra. I've been expecting you.” The voice went with the eyes, deep and steady. He nodded to Belinda and gestured toward a row of chairs at one end of the front porch. “Belinda, child. Bring our guest up here.”
    While they were climbing the steps and finding places to sit, Belinda beside Xandra, and the grandfather facing them, his eyes were turned elsewhere, and Xandra found that she was able to feel more herself. More the frankly outspoken or even, as some people put it, smart-mouthed Xandra Hobson. Trying for her usual supercool smile, she began, “So okay. I'm Xandra, and I guess you're Belinda's grandfather. So should I call you …” She had meant to ask if she should call him Grandpa, but when his eyes met hers again, she was suddenly tongue-tied.
    Hushed and silent, she found herself concentrating on what he was saying, feeling in some mysterious way that every word had many important, maybe even secret, meanings. “Tell me about yourself, Alexandra.” He spoke very softly but in a way that made it impossible not to listen closely and think carefully about what he was asking. “What can you tell me about Alexandra Hobson?”
    It was the “Alexandra” that did it. That