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“Since we’ve got our homework out of the way,” said Leila, “let’s start the actual meeting.”
“Hey! That’s my line!” Ridley quipped. “Let us bring this meeting of the Magic Misfits to order,” she said, elevating her voice to sound like the mayor during a celebratory speech out on the town green.
“Hear, hear!” said Theo.
“You forgot to do roll call,” said Carter.
“Fine!” Ridley groaned. “We’ll continue with roll call.” She read out everyone’s names, and they all raised their hands. She spent the next few seconds writing down everything she’d just said in her notebook.
“Let me do that,” said Carter.
Ridley reluctantly handed over the notebook and pen. “Who has a club announcement?” she asked.
“Well, we already told you guys about the monkey break-in,” said Leila. “That’s all my big news.”
Ridley barreled onward. “Anything else we should note?” When the group said nothing, she said, “The Magic Misfits keep no secrets. Remember?”
“I’m totally secret-free,” said Carter.
Leila thought of her tin filled with keys upstairs, the one no one knew about except for her. “Nope,” she said. “No secrets here.”
“I think some secrets are worth keeping,” said Theo, his voice cool and collected. “I certainly do not intend to give my tricks away within the near future.”
Before Ridley could scold her friend, the door to the shop opened, and the little bell rang.
Leila leaned around the end of the aisle and saw a couple standing there. The man and woman looked like a pair of tourists down from the Grand Oak Resort. Since Mr Vernon was still upstairs, searching for his vanishing ink, Leila raced over and said, “Welcome to Vernon’s Magic Shop, where we purvey the impossible. Can I help you find anything?” With a wink, she added, “Or perhaps help you make something disappear?”
Presto rustled her feathers from her perch. “Shall Houdini confess next, I can find a dozen flying, fake deer! ” she screeched. “Shall Houdini confess next, I can find a dozen flying, fake deer!”
“Don’t mind our bird.” Leila smiled at the customers, who looked indifferent. The parrot’s mishmash of words reminded Leila of poetry – well, really weird poetry. This wasn’t the first time Presto had spouted out such strange things.
Carter appeared next to the customers. “Feel free to look around.”
Leila couldn’t help but feel happy that Carter was fitting in so quickly. The couple walked with caution toward a table displaying glass eyeballs stuffed in huge jars, vials of green slime, and quartz crystals.
“Why on earth does Presto continue to speak like this?” Theo asked, joining the others at the counter. He craned his long neck back, trying to make eye contact with the parrot, then held up his hand. This usually worked with the doves he kept in his backyard, but Presto had been trained differently.
“Maybe she’s practising for Shakespeare in the Park,” Ridley said.
“That’d be neat,” said Leila. She patted her shoulder. “Presto! Come!”
Presto only shouted out again: “Shall Houdini confess next, I can find a dozen flying, fake deer! ”
The shopping couple whispered something to each other, then glared at Presto. They headed to the door with a quiet “Thank you.” The bell clanged, and then they were gone. Leila’s face burned; she felt disappointed that she hadn’t been able to charm them into staying longer.
“That bird is crazy,” said Ridley. “Not like my rabbit. Where is my Top Hat?”
Carter chuckled. “One day, one of us will pull out an actual top hat and say, Here it is! ”
“Har-har,” Ridley scowled. “Not funny, newbie. Don’t make me kick you out of the club so soon.”
“It was only a joke,” Theo whispered, slipping the rabbit onto Ridley’s lap.
Ridley wasn’t having it. “If we’re going to make jokes during Magic Misfits meetings, they’ve got to be much funnier. And Presto has to learn to keep her beak shut.” Theo raised a chiding eyebrow. “Oh, come on,” Ridley added. “You know I love all of—”
PING! As if from nowhere, a large coin fell out of the air. It bounced twice on the table, rolled on its side in a circle, and fell over.
“Dad, did you do that?” Leila called upstairs, but Mr Vernon was nowhere to be seen.
Ridley picked up the coin and surveyed it. Theo and the others peered over her shoulders.
“It’s letters A through to Z,” Olly noted.
“And then back again,” Izzy added, “z through to a.”
“It’s a cipher,” Ridley whispered.
“A what?” Carter asked.
“A code, a secret way of writing,” Ridley answered. “See, if I wrote CAT using this cipher, it would become XZG. And DOG would become WLT.”
“Awesome,” Leila said.
A shadow appeared outside the window of the shop. “More customers,” Carter said. Wanting to keep their discovery secret, Ridley dropped the coin into the secret compartment of her wheelchair arm.
The bell chimed as the front door opened again. Leila’s heart soared as she imagined that the couple had changed their minds and returned. But a new voice called out instead. “Hello? Is anyone here?”
Who was at the shop door? Well, I’d rather not say. You can skip to the next chapter to find out, or you could stay and learn some magic of your own!
Oh, you decided to stay? It really is wonderful to see you again. I adore working with committed students. Have you been practising the tricks I showed you in the first book? If so, by the end of The Second Story, you might have enough tricks to put on an entire show.
WHAT YOU NEED:
A regular deck of playing cards
HELPFUL HINT (WHERE TO STAND):
For this illusion, you’ll want to position yourself close to your audience so that they are looking down at the cards in your hands.
STEPS:
1. Holding the deck in one hand, use your other hand to show your audience a random card. Ask them to tell you what card it is.
2. While they are telling you about the card, slide your pinky finger between the top card and the rest of the deck so there is a small gap.
3. Place the first card faceup onto the deck, aligning it with the raised card. You should now be holding two cards slightly above the rest of the deck.
4. Using the middle finger and thumb of your free hand, grab the corners of the top two cards and move them away from the deck, holding them so that they bend a bit.
(Hint: Both cards should align so that it looks like you’re holding only that first top card.)
5. Move your hand back and forth, so the image on the card begins to blur for the audience. Show the audience your card. Have one of them call out what it is. Now, move your hand back and forth.
6. While shaking the cards, use your pointer finger to reach for the far corner of the cards and then pull that corner toward you so the two cards flip.
(Hint: Your middle finger and thumb will be the points where the cards rotate.)
7. Slowly stop shaking the cards and reveal that the card has changed.
8. Take a bow!
A woman stood by the counter.
“Sorry!” Leila said breathlessly to the stranger. She spouted her usual spiel: “Welcome to Vernon’s Magic Shop, where we purvey the impossible ! Can I help you find anything?”
“Hello,” said the woman. “I sure hope you can.” She was medium height with dusky golden skin and wavy dark hair that cascaded like waterfall mist past her shoulders. Deep brown eyes stared into Leila’s own.
Leila was captivated. Her fingers trembled. Her mouth went dry. She blinked as if her brain could take a picture. The woman’s lashes were long and thick, blackened heavily with mascara. Lips as red as gems were pursed in a tiny blossom below her long nose. She wore a long purple shawl covered in yellow fringe draped over her shoulders, with a gauzy lilac scarf tied around her waist. The image of a crystal ball was embroidered on her large purse. Most spectacular of all were the enormous white stars hanging from her ears. She looked like she belonged there, like a prop in the magic shop’s window.
“We have everything a magician might need,” Leila said, her voice cracking.
“I’m looking for someone,” said the woman, her eyes flicking around the store. “A very old friend of mine. His name is Dante. Dante Vernon. His last name’s on the door.”
“That’s because he owns this place,” said Carter, stepping forward. “He’s my cousin, and he’s Leila’s—”
“Hold on,” Ridley said abruptly, wheeling past Carter and Leila to block the woman’s path. “Before we share anything else, maybe you can tell us who you are first? We’ve had some trouble around here lately.”
“Trouble?” the woman remarked with wide eyes, clutching her shawl to her chest. “How horrible!”
“My friends here can sometimes be too trusting,” said Ridley. “But I’m not. What do you want with Mr Vernon?”
“Sandra?” Mr Vernon called out from the balcony. He clutched the railing and peered down at them. “Sandra Santos? Is that you?”
“Dante!” exclaimed the woman named Sandra.
Sandra Santos. Leila was expecting that the woman’s name would be one she’d heard before, but it wasn’t.
Sandra held up her arms to Vernon as if for a hug. Since Ridley was still in Sandra’s way, she simply stood inside the door, looking like someone witnessing a miracle, as Vernon rushed down the spiral staircase.
“For a moment, I thought I was looking at a ghost,” he said. “It’s been how long? Decades! What are you doing here?” He squeezed past the speechless assembly of Misfits and, looking baffled, stood before the woman. Finally – almost reluctantly – he hugged her.
Sandra smiled, squeezing him back. “Oh, I was in town and thought I’d say hello.”
“Shall Houdini confess next, I can find a dozen flying, fake deer! ” said Presto again from her perch. All of the Misfits stiffened and groaned.
Vernon smiled at the animal. “Yes. Yes, we know. Aren’t you a fantastical bird?” Presto ruffled her feathers and then closed her eyes. Finally. Vernon placed his palm on Leila’s head. “This is my daughter. Leila.”
“Hello,” Leila said, shaking Sandra’s warm hand.
Sandra squeezed gently. “Nice to meet you.”
Then Vernon touched Carter’s shoulder and brought him forward. “And this handsome lad is my cousin, Carter Locke.”
“Locke?” Sandra asked. “As in…?”
“Lyle’s boy,” said Vernon. “He’s living with us now. Our family has grown by leaps and bounds.” Carter stared at Sandra in wonder. He must’ve been fascinated that she knew his father, Leila thought. “Here is Theo Stein-Meyer and Ridley Larsen. And the sharply-dressed duo in the rear are the Golden twins, Olly and Izzy. Good friends, one and all.”
“You knew Carter’s dad?” Leila asked.
“Yes, I did,” said Sandra. “He was like a brother to me.”
“A brother ?” Vernon asked with a wry grin. “I’d use a different word for how you two were.”
Sandra chortled. “Oh, Dante! You haven’t changed. Always looking for meaning where there is none!”
“But meaning is everywhere!” Vernon insisted, taking her hands. “I’ve simply trained myself to look for it harder than most.”
Leila bolted around the end of the counter and grabbed a picture frame off the wall. Her friends stared at her as if she’d gone crazy. But she didn’t care. She held out the frame to Sandra. “This is you,” she said, pointing at the girl in the lower right of the sepia photograph. “Isn’t it?” The girl was sitting with Dante, Lyle, Bobby, and the other members of the Emerald Ring – her father’s childhood magical club – the group that had inspired Leila and her friends to form the Magic Misfits. The girl in the photo was holding a crystal ball. It looked just like the crystal ball embroidered on Sandra’s burgundy velvet purse.
Sandra’s mouth popped open when she saw the picture. “Oh my goodness! You’ve kept it all this time, Dante?”
“Of course. I had nothing else to remember you all by. My best friends.” Was there a tinge of emotion in his voice? Wistfuness? Somberness? “There’s nothing like being part of a club.”
“So then, you were also a member of the Emerald Ring?” Theo asked, craning his head forward, seemingly trying to recognize the young girl in the photo inside the older woman standing before them.
“I was indeed.” Sandra nodded, handing the photo back to Leila. “I have fond memories of playing in this old building. The fondest of my childhood.”
“What was Mr Vernon like back then?” Ridley asked. “Was he as weird as he is now?”
“Weird? ” Vernon echoed, shooting Ridley a funny look.
“You are pretty weird, Mr Vernon,” she insisted. “But that’s what I like about you.”
“Back then, Dante was as weird as weird can be,” said Sandra. “And secretive. So were we all. And we were proud of it.”
Vernon nodded. “That is true, I suppose.”
“What can you tell us about Bobby Bosso?” Theo questioned. “He arrived in Mineral Wells recently, and he was not exactly the nicest—”
Vernon cleared his throat and reached out to shut the shop’s door. “How about we continue this conversation over some iced tea. We have plenty of shortbread cookies to dispose of.”
“That sounds lovely,” said Sandra.
“Carter? Theo? Would you mind bringing up the folding table from the basement? Use the service elevator. We’ll picnic here in the shop,” Mr Vernon said as he traversed the spiral stairs back up to the balcony and the apartment. “Leila and Ridley, please keep Sandra company.” He pointed at the woman and winked. “And Sandra, you stay right there!”
“Oh, Dante,” she said, giggling, “unlike some members of our old club, I never learned the art of vanishing.”
While Mr Vernon prepared refreshments in the apartment, Sandra sat with the Magic Misfits at the small folding table in the back of the shop.
“… and then,” Leila continued, telling the story of the diamond heist at the Grand Oak Resort, “one of Bosso’s goons clobbered my dad over the head! My friends and I knew we had to save him.”
Sandra listened in awe to the rest of the tale, as if she couldn’t believe that two of her childhood friends would become embroiled in such a bitter clash. Finally, she admitted, “Bobby was always a little… difficult.”
“Difficult is an interesting way to describe him,” said Ridley.
“Totally bonkers is another way,” Carter answered.
Theo shook his head in disgust. “Criminal is the best way.”
“He was more crooked than corkscrew pasta!” said Olly.
“You mean fusilli,” Izzy said.
“Gesundheit! ” Olly replied. “Speaking of, how does a diamond thief celebrate the Fourth of July?”
“With sparklers!” Izzy answered, with a silly hyuk-hyuk laugh.
Mr Vernon descended the stairs. He was holding a tray with a pitcher of iced tea, several glasses, and a plate of those shortbread cookies Carter loved to hoard. “Gossiping about me again, kids?”
Carter laughed. “Not you. We were talking about Bosso!”
“In that case, I’d better step up my game! It’s always a trick to be on the tips of everyone’s tongues.” Mr Vernon set the tray on the table, adding, “Everyone, help yourselves.”
Sandra poured the tea. “Thank you, Dante. You always were the epitome of politeness.”
“So, Sandra,” Mr Vernon went on, sitting on the arm of the chair where Leila was perched, “what brings you back to Mineral Wells after all these years?”
“Some sad news, actually,” said Sandra, glancing at the kids as if maybe they couldn’t handle it. She decided quickly that they could. “My mother passed away.”
“I remember hearing that some time ago.”
“Yes, it’s been several years,” Sandra went on. “I had a hard time thinking about returning. Too many… ghosts from the past. But Mother left me the old house. You should see the state of it. A total wreck. Boxes everywhere. Layers of dust, inches thick. And quite a few unwanted residents: spiders and flies and mice and snakes. So much work to do. Still, the old house holds a few dear memories – especially those of an old friend who happens to live in the same town. I do apologize for taking so long to visit, but my career has kept me traveling constantly, and I’ve only recently managed to take the time to settle things here.”
“Why do you travel so much?” asked Carter between slurps of iced tea. “Your job, I mean. What do you do?”
“Aha. Well, it just so happens that I’m a stage psychic. I perform in front of huge audiences all around the country.” The Misfits went silent, holding their breath. They stared at Sandra as if she’d just told them that she was the first woman to walk on the moon. “Maybe you’ve heard of me? I go by the name Madame Esmeralda.”
“The Madame Esmeralda?” Theo asked. “I thought you looked familiar. Your posters are in some of the theatres where my father conducts his symphony.”
“I’ve never met a famous person before,” said Carter.
“Famous?” Sandra laughed. “I suppose I am – though only a little bit. It’s a fun job. I get to meet lots of people and see the best sights.”
“I always thought psychic people were a myth,” said Ridley, her brows furrowed. “Are you really psychic, or do you just pretend to be?”
“Ridley!” Leila whispered through her teeth. “That’s not nice!”
“It’s okay, Leila,” said Sandra. “It’s a question that everyone wonders. At least your friend is honest enough to ask. But yes, I read vibrational energies of people, places, and things, and I perceive information about past, present, or even future events.”
“But how ?” Ridley pressed. “Do you use tarot cards? Numerology? Astrology? Palmistry?” The other Misfits looked at Ridley as if she was spouting nonsense. She scowled, “What? When I was researching John Nevil Maskelyne, I spent time looking at some of Mr Vernon’s books about mindreading here at the shop. There are so many types of psychics: precognitors, who claim to predict the future; telepaths will read your mind; telekinesists move matter with their brains. All quite different. Though most of them are fraudulent.”
Sandra didn’t bat an eye. Instead, she sipped her tea politely.
“How do you identify yourself ?” Ridley asked.
“I’m what some would call a clairvoyant,” said Sandra.
“What’s that?” asked Carter.
“It means that I receive little messages about people, and then I let those people know what they need to know.”
Leila flinched. “Little messages? From who?”
“Most clairvoyants would say the messages come directly from a spirit guide,” said Sandra. “The spirit guide whispers secrets in our ears, and we share that information with people who need help.”
“So you talk to ghosts?” Ridley insisted. “Are the ghostly messages real?”
Sandra pursed her lips mysteriously.
Mr Vernon grabbed the handkerchief from the breast pocket of his jacket and used it to dab the corners of his mouth. Then he went to shove the kerchief back into the pocket, but another one had already popped up to take its place. Mr Vernon pulled that one from the pocket too. And another kerchief appeared. He yanked five more kerchiefs from his jacket, dropping them all into his lap with a baffled look. The kids laughed. “The proof is in the pudding,” Mr Vernon said finally.
“What’s that mean?” Ridley asked.
“If it looks like pudding and tastes like pudding, it’s likely to be pudding?” Mr Vernon didn’t seem sure.
“That is not what it means,” Theo said. “The adage means you have to try out a new thing for yourself to know whether you like it or not.”
“That’s not how I understood it,” Carter said. “I thought it meant you could only declare something a success after it has been tried out.”
“I thought it meant ‘Trust me, the pudding is good,’” Leila said.
“Oh, all pudding is good,” said Olly. “Especially chocolate and butterscotch. Yum!”
“But only after Mum removes the gross, leathery skin that forms on top,” added Izzy. “Or else Olly won’t touch it.”
Mr Vernon laughed. “I guess old sayings are just like magic. It’s all in the interpretations. People take what they want from it.” He scooped up the extra kerchiefs from his lap and bunched them into one fist. With his other hand, he tugged the edge of one until it flopped loosely between his fingers. Then, with a dramatic flourish, he whipped a single kerchief from his fist and held it up. All the other kerchiefs were gone. The Misfits gasped and then chuckled. “Psychics are like magicians, Ridley. It often doesn’t matter whether or not the magician is pretending. What matters is what the audience believes.”
Ridley turned back to Sandra. “So then, to be psychic, you just have to make people believe that you are?”
Sandra’s eyes twinkled. Leila recognized a glimmer of her dad’s own mischief. No wonder they’d been close friends once upon a time. “Something like that,” Sandra answered. With a wry grin, she added, “How do you know I’m not actually psychic, Dante?”
“Are you?” he asked.
She lowered her voice to a spooky cosmic tone and said, “I’ve learned much since we were young. ” She raised her hands and wiggled her fingers and moaned, like a ghost, “Ooo-ooo-ooh! ”