Veronica opened her eyes to the sight of her sweet sister sliding into bed next to her. “You look like a lion,” she said, as Elyse’s golden hair swept up like a wispy mane. 

Elyse blinked her blue eyes at Veronica. “TV, please?” she squeaked in her five-year-old voice.

Veronica reached for the remote control and turned on Elyse’s favorite show, the one starring a curious monkey. While normally she would have liked nothing more than to cuddle and watch TV in bed with her sister, today she had more important things to do. 

Veronica poked Maddy, who was still snoring away on a sleeping bag next to the bed. Grumbling, Maddy pulled the fluffy bag up over her head. Veronica kept prodding her, until she finally got up. They dressed in the clothes they had laid out the night before, and ran downstairs to the kitchen, where they encountered Veronica’s mother. Veronica carried her backpack.

“Mom? What are you doing up?” Veronica asked.

She looked at her daughter as if she wanted to cry. “Veronica, are you sure you’re ready? There’s plenty of mystery right here on this volcano, I promise you. You don’t always have to go looking for it.”

“Mom, I’ll be okay,” Veronica said. “But I have to go. It’d be boring to stay home. Now, can you think of anything I’m forgetting?” And she began to rummage through her pack.

Her father entered the room. “You need your backpack, rope, sunscreen, water bottle, flashlight, bug spray, and volcano booties,” he said, without a missing a beat. “The car’s mostly packed—save for yours and Maddy’s backpacks and, of course, anything the Captain brings.”

“Check, check, and check,” Veronica said. She had all of those things and more. She also had some tape, because she always needed tape, and her notebook, because she loved to draw. “And how about gas masks?” she asked. 

“We won’t be needing those,” he said. “We’d have bigger problems if we did. But we do need matches, waterproof ones. We’ll make a quick stop on the way.”

“How long is the ride?” she asked.

“Five hours, but we’ll do it in four,” he said. “We’ll park at the trailhead, then hike through the Cloud Forest. We should make the campsite by sundown. The camping hammocks are already in the car. Then, bright and early, we’ll wake up, climb Mount Mystery, find some pearls, make camp again, and be back in time for the next day’s supper.”

“Camping hammocks?” Veronica said. “You mean we’re going to sleep in the … trees?”

“Oh!” her father chuckled. “Did you think getting to the far side of Mount Mystery was going to be easy?”