The Magic Misfits: The Second Story

  Carter handed the flashlight to Ridley, and the rest of the Misfits got down on their hands and knees to search.

  Leila knelt by a stone where the image of a wooden wand crossed the image of a gleaming sword. “I found it!”

  SEVENTEEN

  The others crowded around as Leila shoved her fingers into a small space along one edge. She grunted as she lifted the corner of the stone. It slipped out of place, revealing a shallow hole just below.

  “Whoa!” Carter exclaimed. Ridley’s jaw dropped in shock. Theo shouted, “Yes!” Olly and Izzy locked elbows and did a quick spin around each other.

  “Reward,” Leila whispered. Ridley shone the flashlight into the hole. A small wooden box sat snugly beside a metal box. Leila reached in and pulled them both out. She wasn’t thinking about reward in the same way as the twins. She was hoping to find what she’d come in here for. Answers to her questions about who her father and his friends used to be. As she placed the wooden box on the floor beside her, Carter said, “It kinda looks like my puzzle box. The one with my father’s initials.”

  “This one has initials too,” said Theo. “AIS.”

  “Who is AIS?” asked Carter.

  “Maybe the same person whose initials were carved into the wall upstairs,” said Ridley. “Or at least one of them: A.”

  “Weird,” said Leila. “I wonder what’s inside this thing.” She tried to open it but the lid wouldn’t budge.

  “I could never figure out how to open my dad’s box either,” Carter explained.

  “Maybe all the members of the Ring had impossible boxes like this,” Theo suggested.

  “Try the metal one instead,” Ridley insisted.

  To Leila’s surprise and delight, the metal lid squeaked open. She reached in and pulled out a folded, yellowing piece of paper. She opened it up and showed the others. Rough black lines squiggled around the page. Several Xs were marked on the lines. And beside each X were strange letters.

  “It looks like a map—except all weird,” said Leila.

  “A map of what, though?” Ridley asked.

  As the others pored over the map, Leila noticed Carter examining the wooden puzzle box. It was so like his own—the one which once belonged to his father. He slipped it into his satchel for safekeeping.

  “Maybe the letters are another riddle,” Theo suggested.

  “Or a cipher,” said Ridley. She reached into her wheelchair’s secret compartment and retrieved the coin that had fallen out of the air at the magic shop. She examined it. Two rings, one inside the other, each contained all the letters of the alphabet. Every letter in the inner ring matched up with a letter in the outer ring. “And here’s what we can use to decode it. We just switch out the letters for their corresponding counterparts.”

  “Whoa,” said Carter. “This is crazy!”

  “It’s simpler than it looks.” Ridley produced a pencil from her wheelchair’s arm and started decoding. “Check this out.” She showed the others her work.

  T.L.I.=G.O.R. E.N.H.=V.M.S.

  “It still makes no sense,” Theo said with a sigh.

  “Maybe they’re just initials,” said Olly.

  “G.O.R.,” said Izzy. “Grand Oak Resort?”

  Ridley laughed. “Olly, Izzy, you’re geniuses!”

  “Thanks!” said Olly. “Most people compliment our smiles, so it’s nice to hear that you like our brains too.”

  Ridley rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t go that far. But I was right to ask everyone to study Morse code! See? Secret clubs use secret codes!”

  (Yes, friends, Ridley was right! And the cipher that the Magic Misfits discovered was a substitution cipher called Atbash. This cipher has a long history. It’s been used by secret clubs and societies all around the world. Maybe you’ve already encountered the cipher in this very book.… Hmm, I wonder where. If you’re ever feeling secretive, you might try using Atbash to send encrypted messages to people you know—people like your little brother or sister, or maybe your mom or dad or teacher. Who knows? They might be clever enough to figure it out all by themselves!)

  “So then it is a map,” said Carter, pointing at the page. He placed his finger on one of the Xs and traced the line to the next X. Glancing at the cipher, he said, “The Grand Oak Resort. V.M.S.” After a second, he cried out, “Vernon’s Magic Shop!” Then he scowled. “But these lines don’t look anything like the roads around Mineral Wells.”

  Leila pointed to the corner of the map. “What’s this jumble of letters say? Can I see the cipher coin so I can decode it?”

  Quickly, she replaced the coded letters with the real ones. Her eyes went wide with surprise. “They’re not roads after all. They’re”—she read the words—“bootlegging tunnels.”

  “What are bootlegging tunnels?” asked Carter.

  “Ooh, I know!” Ridley spoke up.

  “Of course you do,” Theo teased.

  Ridley scowled at him, but continued, “Back during the era of Prohibition, the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol was a federal crime. So smugglers—called bootleggers—had to do it in secret. Folks skirted the law by serving alcohol to customers in secret clubs called speakeasies.”

  “A secret club like ours?” asked Izzy.

  “Not exactly,” Theo said.

  Ridley went on, “To get the cases of alcohol inside these speakeasies without the authorities noticing, oftentimes the bootleggers would dig secret passages, connecting the sites with an intricate tunnel system.”

  “Secret passages.” Carter considered. “Like the bookcase at the back of the magic shop! Hey, I wonder if Mr. Vernon’s place was once an old speakeasy.”

  “Remember what Poppa said? It used to be a jazz club!” Leila said.

  “There must be an entrance to the tunnel system here too,” Theo surmised. “GOR. Grand Oak Resort. Right?”

  Leila nodded. She refolded the map and handed it to Carter, who tucked it into his satchel. “This feels important. Let’s look around. Carter, take your flashlight to that side of the basement. And Ridley can use her secret fire-finger to illuminate this side.”

  “Be careful not to set off any booby traps this time.” Ridley winked.

  The group split in two and started to explore. Soon, Carter’s flashlight beam settled on a tall, rusted door embedded in the wall behind the staircase. “This must be it!” He shoved his shoulder against the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “There’s a keyhole,” said Ridley. “What’s that strange emblem marked just above it?”

  Since Leila was the lock expert, she leaned close to the hole and examined it. When she saw the emblem, her body went numb. It was the same exact shape as the design on the key she was wearing around her neck!

  She knew what she had to do, but she’d never told the others about the key. Would her friends be mad at her for keeping it to herself? Would she be mad at herself for finally revealing one of her most precious secrets—the one that always reminded her where she’d come from?

  She reached into her shirt, removed the key, and showed it to the Misfits. They all gasped.

  “Where’d you get that?” asked Carter.

  “I’ve had it ever since I can remember. Someone left it in my bassinet on the steps of Mother Margaret’s Home. I’ve never told anyone. Not even Poppa or Dad,” said Leila, her stomach fluttering as if filled with a hundred butterflies. She waited for their responses, for Ridley to scowl at her, for Theo to look hurt that she’d never shown him before. Instead, they rallied around her, giving her a hug.

  “Thank you for telling us,” Carter said.

  “Now see if it fits,” said Ridley, her voice hushed with anticipation.

  Had Leila been worried all this time for nothing? The others looked over her shoulders as she inserted the key into the hole. It fit perfectly. She tried to give it a turn, but the key wouldn’t budge. Her disappointment felt like the shock of a pick against a block of solid ice. Wounded, she couldn’t keep her voice from wavering. “
I really thought that would work.”

  Ridley smacked her arm lightly. “Since when has a tough lock ever stopped Leila Vernon?”

  Trying to hide her frustration, Leila reached into her pocket and removed her lucky lock-picks. She fiddled with them at the rusted door, turning and spinning and snagging at the impossible contraption inside, but it was no use. This lock appeared to be one of the most sophisticated she’d ever encountered. “If I keep it up,” she said, “I might damage my tools.… And then I’d have to rethink my plans for the show tomorrow.”

  “Speaking of which,” said Ridley, “didn’t you agree to practice with your dad for the performance tomorrow?”

  Leila looked at her watch. “Oh no. I’m gonna be late.”

  “And I’m about ready to be out of this basement,” Carter said. “Shall we all head back?” Everyone agreed they’d had enough excitement for one day. They could come back and solve the mystery of the bootlegging door soon.

  As she climbed the stairs, Leila remembered what Sandra had told her at dinner the other night. The psychic reading felt like a prophecy now. This key will become important in the coming days. Keep it close. Feeling suddenly woozy, she grasped at the wall to keep from falling backward.

  EIGHTEEN

  The sun was dipping behind the bigger hills in the west as Theo and Ridley accompanied Leila and Carter up to the resort before the show. Leila tried not to focus on her dad’s absence, especially because her friends and Poppa would be present. To ease her anxiety, the group stopped at the resort’s kitchen. The Other Mr. Vernon gave her a warm hug and said, “You’ll be amazing tonight.”

  The quartet found Izzy and Olly waiting for them in the lobby, then together, the Misfits walked to the theater. They took the talent entrance, went downstairs to the snaking hallways under the stage, and located one of the large communal rooms where grand orchestras and choruses would prepare for the bigger shows. It was a perfect spot for Leila to rehearse one last time. She took a deep breath and said, “Let’s get down to business.”

  As she finished tying together fake knots and pasting patches of fake skin onto her forearms (to cover up her special lockpicks), Leila’s mind raced back through everything they’d discovered about the Emerald Ring in the abandoned wing. The riddle written on the poster had been intriguing, the skeleton both terrifying and silly, the symbols on the stones mysterious, the boxes and code and tunnel map surprising, and the secret door and impossible lock a bit shocking. Put them all together and they seemed to hint at a conspiracy that made Leila’s gut ache. Sometimes, it felt safer to not have all the answers. Yet she understood that if she took that stance, she’d be left with her butt pointed toward the sky, and anyone walking by could kick it.

  That wouldn’t feel safe either.

  What did make her feel safe was running through her escape act one final time with her friends.

  A knock sounded at the door, and Sandra peeked in. She wore a brightly patterned floor-length caftan, her hair was tucked underneath a spangled purple turban, and her makeup made her look like a lioness. “Hello, everyone,” she said. “Are we excited?”

  The others nodded while Leila mustered up as much enthusiasm as she could. “Hi there,” she said, cringing when her voice came out sounding shrill and terrified.

  “Sorry for only now checking in.” Sandra sighed. “It’s been a hectic day, dealing with other people’s wants. Is everybody ready?”

  “We’re getting there,” said Ridley.

  “How about you?” Theo asked Sandra.

  “All this theater stuff is old hat to a dame like me. I can read minds with my hands tied behind my back. In fact, I may do just that.” Sandra seemed to notice Leila’s dour mood. “What is it, Leila?”

  “Poppa will be here, but Dad can’t make it. He has extra work at the store tonight.”

  Sandra’s face slackened. “But he has to be here! It’s your first real show!”

  “I know,” Leila said.

  “Well, I don’t mean to make you feel worse.” Sandra clicked her tongue. “Let me give him a call.” She walked toward a black rotary phone sitting on a desk in one corner of the room.

  “Really?” Leila said. “You’d do that?”

  “Of course,” Sandra said. She plucked the receiver from the cradle and dialed the store’s number. The Misfits listened in on Sandra’s half of the conversation:

  “Dante? Hello, dear!… Yes, yes… We’re all together in the rehearsal room at the theater. Listen, Leila tells me… That’s right! Oh, I’m surprised at you!… You simply must come up, Dante, and that’s an absolute fact. Just for a little while, for your daughter… Nonsense! Everything can be rearranged!” Sandra listened and continued to smile, but the light went out of her eyes and her voice changed, growing softer as if she was desperate to get through to him. “If you won’t do it as a favor to an old friend, do it for Leila, Dante. Please?”

  Leila watched as Sandra’s smile dropped. She tried to imagine what her dad could possibly have said to make Sandra look that way.

  Sandra turned toward the wall so none of the kids could see her face. Now she was whispering. “Dante, listen, I’m begging you. You have no idea how important—” Surprised, she held the receiver away from her ear and said, “Hello? Dante?” She pressed the phone switch several times. When she finally faced the Misfits, Sandra put on a forced display of acceptance. “We must have gotten disconnected. I’m sorry, Leila. He was adamant. I did try, though.”

  “I appreciate it,” Leila said. “There will always be next time.”

  “That’s the spirit!” said Sandra, returning to her former spunky self. “Spirit! Ha-ha! There should be plenty lurking about this evening. I’ll tell them you say hello. Now I must be off to tend to last-minute matters.” She gave a quick wave, then closed the door behind her.

  The stage manager knocked on the door and entered. “You’ve got a big crowd out there tonight! Five minutes ’til curtain. Okay?”

  “You’re shaking,” Ridley noted to Leila.

  “I’m nervous,” Leila said.

  “You’ve got this,” Carter said. “When you get on stage, imagine yourself back home at the magic shop, doing your escape act for just your dads.”

  “For once, Carter’s right,” Ridley added. “Think of Mr. Vernon holding up a timer as you beat your record for getting out of the straitjacket. That’s how you’ll make it through these jitters.”

  Carter clasped Leila’s arm. “You’re going to do great. We’ll be right beside you.”

  “I know you will.” Leila smiled, trying to shake off the bad feeling. She glanced at her reassuring friends. “Thank you all.” Her throat felt as if it were coated in sand, but she went on, “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for being so… strange lately.”

  “There is no need to apologize to us,” said Theo. “You only have to be yourself.”

  “That’s the thing, though—my usual self is happy, supportive, and optimistic. I want to be all those things all the time. But recently, I’ve realized that I’m more than only those things. All the stuff boiling inside feels impossible to hide these days. I’ve tried to keep my past to myself, because it hurts to remember, and I don’t want anyone to ever feel bad for me. That’s why I never told you guys about my key. Or about some of the memories that keep my mind whirring on certain nights.” Leila struggled to catch her breath. “I want to be the girl you’ve always known me to be… but sometimes… sometimes, it’s hard.”

  Ridley took her hand. “We know exactly who you are, Leila. And we love all your various parts… even the ones you think you’ve kept secret.”

  Leila chuckled nervously, and then her five friends gathered close and gave her a big group hug.

  From down the hall, the stage manager called out to them, “You kids coming or what?”

  NINETEEN

  The Magic Misfits climbed the stairs and stood where the stage manager told them to. Across the stage, Leila could see Sandra waiting in the
wings. Her eyes were closed, like she was concentrating. Peering around the edge of the curtain, Leila looked out at the enormous crowd. People filled seats from the front of the orchestra to the back, from the railing of the balcony all the way up to the nosebleed section. Poppa was directly in the center with a few of his cooks, all wearing their kitchen uniforms. Seeing him made her beam with calm. And when she took in the faces of her friends, she knew she’d be okay.

  The lights dimmed, the curtain pulled upward, and the stage manager poked her in the shoulder. “Go on, kiddo!”

  “I thought someone might introduce me,” Leila whispered.

  “Just introduce yourself, honey,” the stage manager said, shooing her forward. “Everyone’s going to love you.”

  A spotlight turned on, blinding her. Leila held up her hand so she could see, then realized she was blocking her face. She dropped her arms to her sides.

  “Hello!” she cried out. She felt like her voice sounded as small as a mouse’s, but she recalled the last time she was on this stage, when the stakes were much higher, as they took down Bosso and saved her father. She then thought of how hard it had been to tell her friends about her secret worries and fears, and she realized that she could definitely do this. In fact, she could do it with her eyes squeezed shut.

  “My name is Leila Vernon!” Her voice was steady now. She noticed her friends standing in the wings. She waved them toward her, and Carter, Theo, and the twins stumbled out into the stage lights, while Ridley rolled in her chair. “My friends and I have quite a show for you!”

  The audience applauded politely. But then came one loud whoop and cheer, which Leila recognized as Poppa, and her heart swelled with love for him. At the same time, she wished her poppa and her dad were sitting, and cheering, together.

  “First, a simple rope trick.” She presented several pieces of white rope. The Magic Misfits helped her hold them up and stretch them across the stage. Then, with a quick snap of the rope, all the sections seemed to join together. The divided rope became whole!