Tippy Toler and the Fully Baked Magic Show

by Julia & Marty Kramer

“I can’t tell you what it says,” Mrs. Cruz answered.

  “Can you give us a hint what it says?” Missy Lane asked.

  “You want to know what it says?”

  “Yes.”

  “I can’t tell you what it says,” Mrs. Cruz repeated.

  “Just a little hint?” pleaded Kacie.

  “A tiny one?” squeaked Katie.

  Mrs. Cruz opened up her purse, took out a mirror, and put it on the table. I scratched my head. What in the world did a mirror have to do with anything? And then it hit me. It must be a magic mirror. I chanted, “Mirror, mirror, help us now … tell us what this says … meow.”

  All the girls looked at me funny.

  “What?” I said. “Haven’t you all seen Snow White? Chants and spells always rhyme.”

  “Meow?” Missy Lane asked.

  “Do you have a better idea?” I said.

  “Well, no.”

  “Try looking in the mirror,” suggested Mrs. Cruz. But when we did, all we saw were our own frustrated faces.

  “Is this a magic mirror or not?” I demanded.

  “It depends how you look at it,” Mrs. Cruz said. So we held it up, down, sideways … nothing worked. Then, when we were just about to give up, something spookifying happened. I was holding the mirror on one side of the table, and Penny, who was sitting across from me, was holding up the funny looking letters.

  “I CAN’T TELL YOU WHAT IT SAYS!!!” she screamed. The way she shouted it made me all goose-bumpally.

  “Yeah, that’s what Mrs. Cruz told us,” Missy Lane said.

  “No, that IS what it says! Look!” Penny held up the mirror across from the mysterious letters. Looking at the reflection of the note in the mirror, I could read the words clearly. I can’t tell you what it says, it said.

  “The best tricks are sometimes the simplest ones,” said Mrs. Cruz. “I thought you girls might want to create a magical backwards invitation to the show.”

  So we got right to work. Mrs. Cruz showed us an easy way to write backwards. We created a backwards invitation and made a bunch of copies. And this is how it turned out:

  I’m sure you want to know what the invitation says. Well, do what it says—hold it up to a mirror … you’ll see.

  Want to know how to make a secret message like this? Of course you do!

  First, get a piece of paper and cut it in half. On the top half, write your message. Now here’s the trick. Hold (or tape) the paper up against a window with the side you wrote on touching the glass. You’ll still be able to see the letters, but they should be backwards now!

  Put the bottom half of the paper (the one you haven’t written on yet) right on top of the paper you wrote on. Now trace the backwards letters. That’s all there is to it. Of course, if you want people to be able to read it, you might have to tell them to use a mirror. Cool, huh?

  CHAPTER 15

  Most of the time, grape juice belongs in a cup

  “Ladies and Buddy Boy!” I announced.

  “What ladies?” asked my brother.

  True, he was the only member of the audience. But when you’re practicing a magic show, you can’t be bothered with such silly, tiny details. I had tricks to try out!

  I know what you’re wondering. You want to know if Mrs. Cruz had actually taught us how to do any tricks besides the sliced banana and the backwards writing. Well … no, not exactly. She performed some tricks for us. What she didn’t do was give us the secrets to them yet. But I had watched her very closely. I was pretty sure I knew how to do a few tricks on my own.

  “For my first trick,” I announced, “I will perform the amazing Tip-Over Grape Juice in a Box.”

  “I love juice boxes!” said Buddy Boy.

  “Not that kind of juice box,” I said, still using my magician’s voice. “This kind!” I showed him the shoe box. Then, I held out the cup of grape juice. “You may taste it to prove that it’s real,” I announced. He did. (I had to tell him not to gulp down the whole thing.) Then I carefully put the cup of grape juice in the box, leaving the top of the box off.

  And speaking of rules you’ve never heard of, I guess Buddy Boy didn’t know the rule about not interrupting a magician in the middle of a trick.

  “Tippy? I’m not sure this is a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  “Mommy always says be careful with grape juice. It stains real bad.”

  “That’s what makes this such a great trick,” I said. Mrs. Cruz had told us danger puts the audience on the edge of their seats. And what kind of juice is more dangerous than grape juice?

  Of course, Mrs. Cruz had this fancy metal box with a swinging lid when she performed the trick for us. But I knew I could pull this off. I noticed the secret when she did the trick … tip over the box super slowly, and for some reason, nothing spills!

  I started to tip the box real slowly. Buddy Boy said, “Be careful, Tippy.”

  “If the audience would please stop being a fraidy cat all over the place, I can get on with this trick,” I said. And I did. I slowly tipped the box more and more and a little bit more.

  Guess what? First I heard a sliding noise. That’s because the cup of juice was sliding. Then I heard a thud. That’s because the cup of juice hit the side of the box. And then? Well, let’s just say that moving slowly turned out not to be the secret at all.

  Neither of us moved for a few seconds. We just looked at the carpet that used to be beige. And then, my audience said the worst possible word. Worse than “Boooo!” Worse than “P.U.” What did Buddy Boy say? He yelled, “Mommmmmy!”

  He was halfway through shouting for my mother again when he suddenly stopped—mostly because I clamped my hands over his mouth. “Shh-shh-shhhhh,” I said. I had to think fast. His warning had already gone out. My mother was probably already on her way.

  Then, my brain did something fantastic! It thought of the perfect solution! “Good little brain,” I said as I patted my head. With my brother’s help, I pulled a chair right over the grape-juice stain.

  “You called?” my mother said playfully as she walked into the room. I looked at Buddy Boy and shook my head just enough for him to see. That was my warning for the little macaroni head to keep his mouth shut.

  “Nope,” he said. “We didn’t.”

  “That’s funny,” said my mom. “I thought I heard you call out for me.”

  “Nope,” the little guy repeated.

  “Did you two move that chair?”

  My brother and I answered at the same time. But he said nope again while I said yup. We looked at each other and switched answers. “Yup,” he said, right as I was answering “Nope.” I quickly added, “We were building a fort.”

  Then I noticed two horrible sights. The first was my left shoe. It had grape juice all over it. The second was my right shoe. It had grape juice splatters on it, too. I had to keep my mother’s eyes off my shoes.

  “Mom?” I asked. “Did Daddy paint the ceiling?”

  “What? No, I don’t think so.” She looked up. My plan was working. I was about to kick off my shoes and slide them under the chair when Umpy the cat ran up to the chair and … sniff, sniff, sniff … ruined everything.

  “What’s got you all excited,” my mother said to the cat as she moved the chair. That’s when my mother gasped.

  “Tippy did a magic trick!” blurted my little brother cheerfully.

  Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t always come up with good answers on the spot. I think I said something like, “Uhhhhhhhhh …”

  “Tipitina Louise!” said my mother.

  I explained that it was a mistake—that the magic must have taken a vacation at just the wrong time. Or maybe the magic had lost its memory. My mother put her hands on her hips at me. It was time to stop talking and start apologizing.

  “I’m sorry, Mommy,” I said.

  “Grape juice!” she hollered, which is not exactly the proper reply to an apology. “Do you know how hard it is to get out a grape juice stain?!”


  “I’ll go see if my magic book from the library says anything about this,” I said.

  “Not so fast,” said my mother. And before I knew it, I was wearing the official uniform of a cleaner person—sloppy clothes and rubber gloves.

  We used baking soda, hair spray, and a few other weird things my mom thought might clean that horrible purple stain. They did a sort of magic of their own. The stain turned from deep purple into a kind of pretty lavender blob.

  Then the weirdest thing happened. Umpy the Cat started sucking the carpet over that spot. And would you believe it? She must be some kind of super-slurping cleaner cat. The stain was getting even lighter. And then, a most unfortunate thing happened. Want to know what? Are you sure?

  CHAPTER 16

  Being sick as a dog is bad, but I know something worse

  OK, so you do want to know what happened. I hope you’re brave.

  First Umpy shot me a strange look. Then her stomach pooched out. Then her stomach sucked in. Then it pooched out and sucked in again. Then it sucked in twice in a row. And then I heard a gurgle.

  Guess what kind of stain looks at least as bad as a grape-juice stain and smells even worse? Yup, an Umpy-got-sick stain.

  CHAPTER 17

  You may think you know what you saw,

  but I’m not sure you really saw what you think you saw

  Missy Lane’s sister was not exactly the best audience in the world. She sat there with her arms crossed and sighed. “Is this going to take much longer?”

  “Just a little more,” Missy Lane told her sister. She dealt the cards into three lines and asked her sister which line her card was in.

  Her patience was slipping off of her right in front of our eyes. But she pointed to the middle line. “That one.”

  I gathered up the cards and figured out which one was hers. “This is your card,” I proudly announced, and I flipped over a card.

  Missy Lane’s sister rolled her eyes. “No, it …”

  Then her mouth dropped open. She stared at the card. Her card. Suddenly, she wasn’t so bored. “Hey ... how’d you do that?” She actually smiled. I think she was impressed.

  How we did it was exactly the way Mrs. Cruz taught us.

  “That was alright,” said Missy Lane’s sister. “I might even come to your show.”

  “Bring your friends,” I called to her as she left the room. Then Missy Lane and I high-fived, turned around, and hugged.

  Wanna know how to do that surprising trick? It’s pretty easy. I have a video that shows you how to do it. Visit the Fun Stuff section of TippyToler.com to find out.

  Chapter 18

  Showtime!

  Now, if you know me at all, you know I’m not the kind of girl who gets nervous easily. But when I looked in the audience and saw how many people were there, my stomach started doing a hula dance without my permission.

  “Calm down,” I told myself. “Mrs. Cruz has taught us a bunch of great tricks. We practiced them plenty. All us magician girls are ready.”

  I took a deep breath and looked in the audience again. At least one part of the show was already a success … snack sales. Almost everyone I saw was holding a magically sliced banana or a cup of lemonade or both.

  I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering if the lemonade tasted as bad as the stuff we mixed up for our failed lemonade stand. I can assure you it did not. This time, we used a totally different recipe. I don’t mind sharing it with you.

  Ingredients

  Your mom

  A few dollars

  I’m not saying your mom tastes like lemonade. You can’t even drink a mom. What you do is ask your mom to take you to the store. Then, use the money to buy lemonade mix. Believe it or not, you’re almost done. All that’s left is to follow some incredibly easy directions. For ours, we just poured water and lemonade mix into the pitcher and added ice. Maybe not quite the same as homemade, but boy were those people in the audience drinking it up!

  Enough about lemonade and bananas … you probably want to know how the show went. Well, I’d be delighted to tell you.

  First, Missy Lane and Meghan welcomed everyone and told a few jokes to get the audience in a good mood.

  “Did you hear what happened to the magic truck as it was driving down the road?”

  “No, what?”

  “It turned into a parking lot!”

  “How many magicians does it take to change a light bulb?”

  “I don’t know … how many?”

  “Depends what you want to change it into!”

  Then came the first trick. “No magic show would be complete without this trick,” Missy Lane announced right before Meghan pulled a rabbit out of a hat … a real live one! The audience applauded like a bunch of happy trained seals!

  Then Katie and Kacie asked for a volunteer from the audience. They had that volunteer take off his watch. Then Katie put the watch in a bag. And then … well, you’re not going to believe this … Kacie and Katie smashed at that bag with a hammer. Everyone gasped when Kacie poured the bits and pieces of the broken watch out of the bag. What everyone didn’t know, though, was that those pieces weren’t really the same watch. And they were all astonished when Katie reached into her pocket and pulled out the “magically fixed” watch. I have to admit it was very convincing.

  Next was my turn. I performed this funny trick where my magic wand turns rubbery, then straightens out, then turns rubbery again. The audience laughed. Their laughter turned into gasps of amazement when the wand changed into a bouquet of flowers right in front of their eyes.

  After that, Penny wowed everyone with that trick where you put a drink into a box and turn the box upside down. Good thing she learned the real way to do it from Mrs. Cruz. Step one is that you don’t use a shoe box. Penny didn’t spill a drop.

  Then it was time to really show our audience a thing or two. Mrs. Cruz joined us on stage.

  “For our next trick,” Missy Lane announced, “we will saw a real live girl in half!” Penny and Meghan wheeled me onto the stage. I was lying down in Mrs. Cruz’s special saw-a-person-in-half box. My head … and only my head … stuck out of one end. I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Katie was also in that box. Her feet … and only her feet … were sticking out the other end. Everyone thought they were my feet, though.

  Mrs. Cruz held up the saw, and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I need complete silence to perform this very dangerous trick. I need to concentrate … this is the first time I’ve done this with my new assistant.”

  Missy Lane said, “What happened to your last assistant?”

  “Oh, she’s fine.”

  “Good.”

  “She just moved. Now she lives in Dallas … and Chicago.”

  While the audience laughed at that joke and Mrs. Cruz put the saw on the box, I made my eyes real wide. Katie kicked “my” feet.

  As the principal of my school was pulling and pushing the saw down through the box, I made a surprised face, like, “Hey, this doesn’t actually hurt.” The audience laughed even louder. And then Mrs. Cruz pushed the two sides of the box apart. On the left part of the stage was the half with my head sticking out. On the far right side of the stage was the other half with my feet sticking out. But don’t worry—they were really Katie’s feet, remember?

  Anyway, I said, “Hey, that didn’t hurt a bit! In fact, I feel great!” And Katie slowly wiggled her feet around. The audience cheered wildly. Then Mrs. Cruz tickled Katie’s feet and I started giggling. More laughs from the audience. Mrs. Cruz then pushed the two halves of the box back together.

  Katie pulled her feet inside the box and stayed there. Then.I crawled out of the box. We totally fooled everybody!

  Can you believe that we had one trick left that was even more amazing than that? The disappearing girl! Meghan was the lucky one to disappear. She stood right in the middle of the stage and ABRACADABRA! SHE WAS GONE!!! Everyone ooohed and ahhhhhhed. Really, she had run quietly off stage behind a
big puff of smoke. It was so simple! Mrs. Cruz says that lots of the best tricks are.

  After a while, we gave Meghan the signal to run back for her grand re-appearance. The puff of smoke went up. And, I have to tell you, there was some good news and some not-so-super news about that. The good news is that the audience didn’t see her run back on stage. The not-so-super news is that she didn’t actually come back at all. She had disappeared for real! That’s right … abraca-uh oh!!

  Mrs. Cruz whispered at us. “OK, girls, we’re going to have to improvise. Katie and Kacie, pretend this was all planned … do some tricks, tell jokes, whatever you can think of. Tippy, Penny, and Missy, you come with me to look for Meghan.”

  We heard Katie and Kacie telling more jokes to the audience as we spread out back stage, searching for our disappeared friend. We called out her name. No answer. We went out into the hallway. Not there.

  I was about to return to the back-stage area when I heard something weird. It was like a yell, but kind of muffled. It sounded like this: “Met beep atmosphere!” Then I heard pounding. And then, louder, “MET BEEP ATMOSPHERE!” I followed the noise. It seemed to come from the girl’s bathroom.

  “Is someone in there?” I called out. The answer came again, but this time more clearly. “LET ME OUT OF HERE!” I recognized that voice. It was Meghan! I shouted out to Mrs. Cruz, “I found her!” I tried to open the door, but it was locked.

  We had to track down Mr. Gillups, the janitor, to get the key.

  “I didn’t realize anyone was in there when I locked it,” he said.

  “I thought I was going to be trapped forever!” Meghan said when the door opened.

  As we hurried to the back part of the stage, I asked her, “What were you doing in there anyway? You were supposed to wait off stage until it was time to reappear.”

  “What do you think I was doing?”

  I considered that for a second. “Oh!” I said. “You had to go!”

  Finally, we were able to wow the audience with another puff of smoke and the magically re-appearing girl.

  Everyone stood up and applauded. The show was over. Or so I thought.

  Mrs. Cruz came out on stage to make an announcement.

  “Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming. Let’s give our magicians another round of applause, shall we?” And they did. Mrs. Cruz continued. “I want you all to know about another amazing trick that happened here tonight, and it took place while no one was looking.” She paused. The crowd started to buzz and look around.