“No time to waste!” said Onias, reaching into his cloak.

“Kids, grab your bikes and come over here,” said Jupiter as Onias was fiddling with a small silver square. Henrik and Ferdinand rolled their bikes over close to the wizards.

“What’s that thing?” Henrik asked.

“This will get us back to Donutville,” said Onias, holding it up.

Onias and Jupiter locked hands and held out their hands to the boys.

“Ready!” Jupiter shouted, when the circle was complete. Onias dropped the silver square in the middle of them.

Poof! A cloud came up from the place it landed, and when the smoke cleared, Henrik and Ferdinand blinked in disbelief. They were standing in Donutville, right outside the mayor’s house.

Ferdinand stammered, “How did-”

“Wizard tricks!” Onias shouted over his shoulder as he and Jupiter dashed up the stairs toward the mayor’s front door.

Olav was standing on the street and saw the cloud and sudden appearance of two wizards and the boys.

“Henrik! What are you doing?” he yelled.

“We’re trying to rescue the mayor!”

Olav waved down Mrs. Busbee, who was closing up her shop, and they followed the boys up the stairs and into the mayor’s dining room.

When they walked in, Onias and Jupiter were huddled up around the mayor’s table, where the coffeepot and three coffee cups were still sitting. Olav overheard their quiet discussion:

“...but it will be hard to locate him without any current signs of where he is...”

“I have this!” Olav interjected, holding up the mysterious album.

Jupiter took it and read the note.

“When did you get this?” he asked.

“In the last few hours,” Olav replied, adding, “Mrs. Busbee got one too, earlier today.”

She held up the note she had received and said, “It was there when I opened shop this morning at about 8.”

The wizards turned back toward each other and started having a quiet discussion. The two shopkeepers and two boys strained their ears to listen.

“...so, 2008 some time before 8:00…” said one,

“2006 at maybe 5:00…” said the other.

Jupiter reached into his cloak and pulled out another small square and started pressing on it.

“Is that another wizard trick?” asked Ferdinand.

“This?” said Jupiter, holding it up. “No, it’s a calculator. Although,” he smiled, “I do think we invented them first, so technically, yes.”

He returned his focus to the calculator and continued pushing buttons. When he was done, he turned it around and showed it to Onias.

Onias smiled. “Very good! We’re off to 2001 then! You do have the scroll, don’t you?”

Henrik interrupted: “Can anyone tell us what the heck is going on?”

Both wizards looked up, almost surprised that there were still other people in the room.

“Sure,” said Jupiter with a shrug, as he unrolled a giant scroll on the table. “We gave the mayor a time machine, and now he’s lost in the past.”

Everyone stared.

“Not ‘lost’ lost,” Onias clarified. “But it looks like he’s falling down through the years and, for some reason, he can’t get back. We now know approximately where he is, thanks to the messages he left you. We’re going to get him and bring him back with us.”

“But..." Olav was scratching his head. "If he has the time machine, how are you going to get him?”

“Wizard tricks,” said Jupiter pointing to the scroll on the table, and holding another small silver square up to show them. “And actually,” he cast an inquisitive glance at his brother, then back to the group: “We could use your help too.”

“Hmmm,” Onias started, then paused and looked at the ceiling. “Yes. That’s a good thought, brother. It’ll save us some time.”

“What do you need us to do?” asked Mrs. Busbee.

Jupiter pointed at the scroll on the table. “This is the infinite scroll. It has no beginning and no end. It scrolls forever. That’s why we call it that. We’re going to roll it back to 2001, poof down there, and look for him. You see the date right here?”

He pointed at the scroll. Everyone crowded around to look where he was pointing. They all nodded.

Onias continued, “Once we’re gone, you guys could help by rolling it back to show the present date. Then we can just all poof back up and we’ll save the time it would take to cast an autoscroll spell. Can you handle that?”

Everyone nodded again. Mrs. Busbee moved closer to the left side of the scroll, and Henrik moved closer to the right side in preparation.

“Great!” said Jupiter. He held out his hand and Onias grabbed it. “Ready?”

“Ready,” said Onias. Jupiter threw down the silver square on the scroll.

Poof! A cloud of smoke filled the entire room, and when it cleared away the wizards were gone.