“Maybe he wasn’t trying to steal the notebook,” said Carter. “If he got left behind by the circus and hasn’t eaten in a few days, the monkey probably got lost looking for food. Poor thing is alone and confused and just needs a home.”
Mr. Vernon smiled. “Anything is possible if you believe it so. In the meantime, we’ll need to sleep with the windows closed.”
“But won’t it get stuffy in here?” asked Leila.
Mr. Vernon shrugged playfully. “We’ve all dealt with worse, no?”
The Other Mr. Vernon came through the doorway holding a tray of treats: steaming mugs and a plate of chocolate chip cookies. “Milk and honey for my honeys! Drink up and then everyone back to bed.”
As Mr. Vernon slid the parlor window shut, Leila thought she heard a cry in the night. Could it have been the mysterious monkey, angry at them for chasing him? Or had it merely been the old window, squeaking in its frame? At that moment, Leila wasn’t sure which she’d rather believe.
Instead, she sipped the creamy and sweet froth from the mug her poppa had handed to her, allowing it to calm the fluttering in her belly.
FOUR
“Pick a card, any card!” Carter said, fanning out a deck.
Ridley Larsen raised an eyebrow and tilted her head with a withering stare. “Before we start sharing tricks, we should officially call Magic Misfits meeting number eleven to order.”
“If you say so, boss,” Carter said with a grin. He split the deck into five small packs, then spiraled them around one another in a single grand gesture before flipping his palms over and revealing empty hands. Sometimes, it seemed to Leila, Carter could have made even the gazebo in the town green vanish with little more than a flick of his wrist.
“Boss?” asked Izzy Golden. “I think of Ridley more as our queen.”
“Queen is too generic,” said Olly Golden. “Empress has a nice ring to it.”
“Your ears’ll ring when I give you a sock to ’em,” Izzy said, waving her fist in the air playfully at her twin.
“Rings and socks? But I’m already fully dressed!” Olly noted.
Summer break had started, and Main Street was flooded with shoppers who were down from the resort and kids tasting the freedom of a school-free sunny afternoon. At almost every corner, food vendors handed out samples of their wares: ice cream, chocolates, caramel corn, fruit-flavored ice-slushes.
But the Magic Misfits had no sense of what was happening outdoors. With all six of them crowded into the secret room behind the rear bookcase in Vernon’s Magic Shop, they were practically bumping elbows in the dim light. None minded, though; they were practicing what they loved most: magic.
Ridley reached inside Carter’s sleeve and removed the deck of cards he’d hidden there. “Hey! No fair!” Carter cried out. “Stealing is not cool, Ridley.”
“Stealing?” Stone-faced, Ridley flipped through the cards and held them out to the group. The playing cards had somehow transformed into a handful of purple note cards—each marked with dots and dashes in black ink. “I brought these Morse code study cards from home. Your playing cards are right where you left them, Carter.”
Crinkling his brow, Carter raised his sleeve to find his deck of playing cards right where she’d said they’d be. Not only was Ridley an expert with transformations, she was also skilled at transforming the color of people’s cheeks. In fact, Carter’s pale skin had instantly become a fierce pink.
“Nicely done!” said Theo Stein-Meyer.
“Thank you,” Ridley said. “Would you mind passing these out?”
Theo guided his bow over the study cards, and one by one, they floated to the members of the Misfits. Theo’s levitation ability was one of his most closely guarded secrets. When he finished, he slipped his magic bow back inside the leg of his tuxedo pants.
“I hope everyone has been studying this week,” Ridley went on. “The sooner we learn this Morse code stuff, the better we’ll be prepared to communicate secretly.”
“Oh, Ridley,” said Leila, “I don’t think we need to worry about another situation like the one with Bosso.”
“And yet only a few nights ago, his pet monkey tried to break into Mr. Vernon’s office to steal one of his ledgers.” Ridley squinted at them. “Are you sure you’re not just inventing excuses to get out of doing your club homework?”
“I thought summer was supposed to be homework-free,” said Izzy.
“No, no, Izzy,” said Olly. “You’re thinking of sugar-free!” “But we love sugar!” said Izzy. “Mom and Dad hate it, though. Strange, because I always feel funnier after I eat sweets.”
Leila smiled from the back corner of the far wall. She used to hate small spaces, but now she didn’t mind them so much. Blocked by Ridley’s wheelchair, she mentally worked out a path through her friends that would allow her to escape the crowded room in less than five seconds. She was always solving puzzles in her head, as if she might one day use them on a stage.
“Leila, would you like to go first?” Ridley asked.
Leila glanced at her note card. The code read:
Leila figured out the translation in her head. “If you work together…”
Carter read his secret message. “And stay true to one another…”
Theo went next. “Nothing will bar you.”
Then Ridley: “Alone you are weak.”
Followed by Olly and then Izzy: “Together… you are…” They struggled over the final word until Izzy finished, “Together you are… strange?”
“Almost,” said Ridley, raising an eyebrow. “Together you are strong.”
“Nice,” Carter said to Ridley. “It’s the message from the psychic at the carnival. I’m happy you remembered it!”
Just outside their secret headquarters, Mr. Vernon finished ringing up his customers. After they left, Mr. Vernon knocked on the wall and called out, “You do realize it’s a beautifully perfect day outside. Some people believe it’s a crime to be indoors on a day like this!”
Leila perked up. The escape route she’d been scheming suddenly came into sharp focus. She ducked down, shimmied beneath the chair Theo was perched upon, then popped up, leaping over Ridley’s wheelchair and rebounding off the wall behind Carter before turning sideways, taking a deep breath, and squeezing between Olly and Izzy. She slid open the secret door and caught Vernon’s eye. “And would you consider yourself to be one of those people, Dad?”
“Of course not, my dear.” Mr. Vernon winked and then rubbed at his eye as if a speck of dust had suddenly gotten stuck. “I was only commenting on the crime rate in this country. Practically soaring.”
“Practically soaring!” echoed Presto, the store’s prized green parrot. The beautiful bird held court from her perch near the store’s entrance. Mr. Vernon cooed at her, holding up his hand for the parrot to nuzzle briefly. He whispered something into her ear, then climbed the spiral stairs to the store’s balcony.
“Waaaaak!” Presto answered with a curious blink and a nod before going strangely silent.
“Leila, I know your magic-club meeting has begun, but would you and Carter please keep an eye on the store for a moment?” asked Mr. Vernon. “I think my bottle of vanishing ink has actually vanished.”
“Of course it did.” Leila giggled. “And of course we will!” She turned to Carter, Theo, Ridley, Olly, and Izzy and then waved them out of the secret room.
“Boooo,” said Ridley, rolling her chair into the store. “I like it better when our meetings are in there. In the dark. It’s more magical.”
“More magical than when we are in an actual magic shop?” asked Theo. Olly and Izzy grabbed hands and twirled into the space, then pretended to be dizzy and fell down. Leila slid the bookcase door shut as Theo held his magic violin bow over Ridley’s head. Her notebook levitated out of her lap and floated just beyond her reach.
“Give that back!” Ridley snarled, grabbing Theo by his tuxedo tail.
“Easy, tiger,” Carter said, snatching the notebook from the air
and returning it to Ridley. “Play nice.”
Ridley thumped Theo’s bow tie, changing it from a solid black into a garish mustard plaid. Theo flinched as he glanced at himself in the giant mirror nearby, then adjusted the lapels of his tuxedo jacket. He always looked like he was on his way to a grand party. “I suppose I can make these colors work too,” he said to himself, then winked at Ridley. She winked back.
“Since we’ve gotten 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 practicing 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 nut-so,” 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 Z,” Olly noted.
“And then back again,” Izzy added, “z through 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 practicing 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!
FIVE
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?”