Hocus Pocus Hotel

by Michael Dahl

  They thought they were seeing the back wall, but they were actually looking at a reflection of the two side walls.

  Anyone standing inside the secret angle formed by the mirrors was now invisible.

  “Wow!” said Ty.

  Another click, and the two mirrors moved apart. Brack stuck his head through the gap.

  “Now you see him,” Brack said. “Now you don’t.”

  Ty turned to Charlie. “That was great, Hitch,” he said. “See? I knew you’d help out.” He glanced at the elevator operator, who was watching them carefully. “Uh, take us up to Mr. M.’s floor, Brack.”

  “Of course, Master Yu,” Brack said.

  The two boys stepped inside the elevator, now back to normal, and watched as the doors slid shut.

  As Ty led him toward a dim hallway on the fourteenth floor, Charlie turned to wave at Brack.

  The elevator door in the middle of the elevator bank was already closing.

  That’s weird, thought Charlie. Downstairs, Brack’s elevator is on the left. But up here, Brack’s door is in the middle of the row of elevators.

  “Hey,” said Charlie, “did you know that —?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” said Ty, without bothering to stop. “The elevator moves sideways. Don’t ask me how. It’s magic.”

  “Yeah, no big deal, just some magic,” Charlie muttered, shaking his head. “Okay.”

  They kept walking down the long hall, passing several hallways that branched off to the sides, leading into darkness.

  Charlie tried to listen for people inside the rooms, but he didn’t hear anything.

  Not music playing, not a TV, not a voice. Not a breath.

  It was like no one else was staying in the Abracadabra Hotel at all.

  “Here’s his room,” said Ty.

  They stopped at a door numbered 1413.

  A sign on the door read:

  Ty pushed the door open. “It’s not locked,” he said. “It wasn’t yesterday, either.”

  They stepped inside the apartment of the missing magician.

  Two figures rushed toward them.

  “Look out!” shouted Charlie. “Someone’s here!”

  Ty snorted. “It’s a mirror,” he said, rolling his eyes. “And, wow, I figured that out all by myself. I must have acute visual memory.”

  Charlie ignored him and started walking through the apartment. A front hallway led to a sitting room, a bedroom, a small kitchen, and a bathroom in the back. Most of the walls were covered with old posters from the days when Madagascar performed around the world.

  Ty pointed out various objects as they walked through the rooms. “There’s his suitcase, all his shoes, even his wallet,” he said. “No one leaves their home without their wallet.”

  Charlie nodded. He saw a bunch of keys lying on a nearby table.

  “Are those keys Mr. Madagascar’s, too?” Charlie asked.

  “Yup,” said Ty. “See what I mean? He just vanished. I kept checking this place out all last night, but he never showed up.”

  “Why would someone leave without their keys?” Charlie said.

  “Beats me,” said Ty, scratching his neck.

  Charlie walked back through the rest of the apartment. Although it was quite small, it was very neat. Everything was in its place. Mr. Madagascar’s rooms looked like the home of a very organized person.

  In the front entry room, Ty stepped on something by the hall table. He bent down and picked up three plastic cylinders. “What do you suppose these are?” he asked.

  Charlie looked closely. He stuck his finger through them.

  Three empty tubes, about the size of his middle finger, maybe a little bigger.

  Were they toys? Packages for candy? They didn’t seem like they’d be very useful.

  I’ve seen these before, he thought. He was sure of that. But where?

  “There’s something printed on the side of them,” said Ty.

  Charlie held the tubes close to his glasses. Ty was right. “They’re dated,” said Charlie. “From last week. A week ago today, in fact.”

  “Let me see,” said Ty.

  Charlie handed them over, and then noticed something on the hall table. A manila folder like the ones his teachers used at school.

  The folder was marked COME BACK. He felt a little guilty about reading someone else’s private papers, but Charlie opened it up and began searching for clues.

  Staring at the plastic tubes, Ty said, “Maybe the old guy likes candy.”

  He gave them back to Charlie and then, suddenly, his expression changed.

  “It’s my fault I missed him,” Ty growled. “I should have come up here when my mom told me. Now I won’t get my money this month.” Ty pounded the wall with his fist. His face turned red.

  No rent.

  No money.

  No Tezuki Slamhammer 750.

  Charlie was sure that would be the end of his partnership with Ty. Surely the bully would demolish him now.

  Suddenly, the lights flickered off and on.

  “Not again,” Ty groaned.

  The lights went out, this time for several seconds. “This is not good,” said Ty.

  When the lights came back on, Charlie was staring at the mirror. Another face was staring back at him. An old man’s face with bulging eyes and an open mouth. The man’s head had poked through the open door behind them.

  “That’s him!” yelled Ty. “That’s Mr. Madagascar!”

  Then the man’s face disappeared.

  The two boys darted out the door.

  “Where’d he go?” shouted Charlie.

  “This way!” yelled Ty.

  Charlie followed Ty through a maze of long, endless corridors. Hallways split off into more hallways. Every now and then they had to travel up or down a short flight of steps.

  The sound of footsteps ahead of them was their only guide through the maze. Then the footsteps stopped.

  “Did we lose him?” asked Charlie.

  Ty shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said.

  A cold October breeze passed down the hall. Somewhere, a window was open.

  Without warning, Ty shouted angrily and banged his fist against a wall. “What an idiot!” he muttered.

  Then a door nearby creaked open. A woman’s voice called out, “What’s all this ruckus? What’s going on?”

  The two boys followed the voice and turned a corner.

  An older woman stood leaning against a doorframe with her hands on her hips. Light spilled from her room and glittered on the fancy red bathrobe wrapped tightly around her. Her silver hair was piled high on her head.

  “Is that you, Tyler?” she said. Charlie noticed that the woman’s cheeks were bright pink.

  “Sorry, Miss Drake,” replied Ty. “We’ve been chasing someone.”

  “Chasing someone?” she cried. “Heavens to Betsy. I thought the hotel was falling down, with all that noise.”

  Ty introduced Charlie to the woman. Dotty Drake had once worked with magic herself. She had been a magician’s assistant. “One of the best,” she said, smiling.

  “Were you sawn in half, or did you float through the air?” Charlie asked.

  “A little of both,” said Miss Drake.

  “Sorry to butt in, Miss D., but did you hear anyone else run past your apartment tonight?” asked Ty.

  “I heard lots of running,” said the woman. “But who would be running around here?”

  She stopped. She raised a hand to her mouth.

  The lights flickered off and on again.

  “Him …” she said faintly. With her other hand she pointed back down the hallway, behind the boys.

  Charlie turned and saw a shadowy figure standing near the middle of the hall.

  “Mr. Madagascar,” called Ty. “Is that you?”

  The figure shouted back. “I’m sorry, young man. But I have to do this.”

  “What’s going on?” said Miss Drake.

  The lights flickered off and on. Miss Drake screame
d and fell to the floor. “Oh no!” yelled Charlie. He and Ty knelt down beside her.

  The lights turned off for several more seconds. When they came back on, the older woman’s eyes fluttered.

  “You must stop him,” she said.

  The boys looked back down the hall. The shadowy man was now standing at the far end, next to an open window. A breeze was blowing the purple curtains that hung on either side of the window.

  “Wait!” cried Ty. “Mr. M.! What are you doing?”

  Then, as Charlie watched, not believing his eyes, the man called Mr. Madagascar took a running start and leaped headfirst through the open window into the darkness beyond.

  Miss Drake screamed again.

  Ty jumped up and hurried down the long hallway. Just as he passed another hall, a second shadowy figure appeared. It collided with Ty. A shudder passed through the hall. Then Ty groaned and collapsed, and the lights continued to flicker off and on.

  At the far end, the window still stood open. The purple curtains rustled in the night wind. The sound of cars and traffic floated up from the streets below.

  Charlie ran to the middle of the hall. “Ty, are you okay?” he asked.

  In the darkness, Ty mumbled, “Where is he?”

  The lights turned back on. Charlie ran over to the open window. He brushed aside the waving curtains and leaned out.

  Far below on the sidewalk, people walked along as if nothing had happened. The outside of the building was smooth. The nearest windows were closed. It was a straight shot down, at least a dozen stories to the ground. There was no ledge, no roof, no awning, nothing that would have slowed down, or caught the body of the falling Mr. Madagascar. Where was he?

  Miss Drake joined Charlie at the open window and looked out cautiously. The breeze tugged at her silver hair.

  “What happened?” she asked. “Where is he?”

  “Gone,” said Charlie.

  Miss Drake’s face turned pale. Charlie was afraid she was going to faint again.

  “That’s impossible, young man,” she said.

  “Even for a magician?” asked Charlie.

  The older woman stared hard at him. There was a glint of steel in her eyes. “Maybe not,” she said. She looked at the sidewalk far below. Then her gaze wandered to the buildings across the street. “He was the Master of Levitation, after all,” she said.

  “But that’s just fake magic,” said Charlie. “I mean, it was a trick, right?”

  “A trick?” asked Miss Drake, leaning out the window for a final look. “Well, if it was a trick, then it was the greatest magic trick in the world. Madagascar would be the first human to fly!”

  That’s impossible, Charlie thought. But a little voice inside him added, Or is it?

  Miss Drake adjusted her red robe, and Charlie noticed that it matched the waving curtains behind her. That’s funny, thought Charlie. I thought the drapes were purple.

  Miss Drake said, “We need to take Tyler downstairs.”

  Ty was sitting on the carpet, holding his head in his hands. “Where is he?” he mumbled again.

  “Mr. Madagascar jumped out the window,” said Charlie. “Um, do you think you might have a concussion?”

  Ty shook his head. “No, I mean the guy who ran into me.”

  In the craziness, Charlie had forgotten all about that second figure. The lights had been going off and on then. The shadowy stranger must have escaped during a blackout.

  “I didn’t get a good look at him,” said Ty. “He looked tough, though.”

  “I didn’t see him either,” said Charlie. He looked closer at Ty and added, “You look terrible.” Ty’s face was covered in bruises. “You two really banged into each other.”

  “That should make him easy to find,” said Ty, slowly getting to his feet. “Keep your eyes open for some jerk who looks like me, covered in bruises.”

  “Let’s get you downstairs,” said Miss Drake.

  Mrs. Yu was upset when Ty and Charlie walked into the Yu family home, a small apartment tucked away behind the lobby.

  “Tyler! I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she cried. As soon as she gave her son a closer look, she screamed. “Look at your face!” she yelled. “What happened to you? Go wash that blood off in the bathroom. And who is your friend?”

  “This is just a kid from school,” Ty said. “And I’m okay,” he added.

  “Does this have to do with Mr. Madagascar?” Mrs. Yu asked.

  “Um, sort of,” Ty said. “He jumped out the window.”

  Mrs. Yu shrieked. “I’m calling the police!” she said. “These crazy magicians —”

  Ty hurried Charlie down the hall as Mrs. Yu ran into the kitchen.

  In the bathroom, Charlie helped Ty wash crusted blood off his forehead. “I do look terrible,” said Ty, staring into the mirror.

  “You look like you ran into a wall,” said Charlie. “A couple of walls.”

  Ty snorted. “Well, man, it’s all over. I can’t get rent money from a guy who jumped out a window. Even if he is a magician.”

  Charlie looked at Ty’s reflection in the mirror. “I’m not so sure of that,” he said.

  “That he’s a magician? He definitely is,” Ty said.

  “No,” Charlie said. “That he really jumped out the window.”

  “Are you kidding?” said Ty. He balled a towel up tightly in his fist. “Madagascar jumped out that window. We both saw him.”

  “We need to go back upstairs,” said Charlie. “Before the police get here. We need to examine the scene of the crime. And,” he added, “we need to figure out what these are.” He pulled the strange plastic tubes from Madagascar’s apartment out of his pocket.

  “And figure out what those dates on them mean,” said Ty.

  “The dates are from one week ago today,” said Charlie. “And didn’t you say the lights were blinking off and on last week, too?”

  Ty nodded thoughtfully. “Hey, have you noticed that the lights aren’t blinking anymore?” he said.

  Good call, thought Charlie.

  In fact, the lights had stopped flickering ever since Mr. Madagascar jumped. Was the blinking light somehow connected with the magician’s disappearance?

  “Okay, let’s go back,” said Tyler, throwing down the towel. “Come on.”

  Tyler and Charlie ran down a hall behind the Yus’ apartment.

  “There’s a way back to the elevators around here,” called Ty.

  When they got to the elevator bank, Mr. Brack’s car was open. The boys quickly rushed inside.

  “The fourteenth floor?” asked the operator. Charlie was silent. He was busy thinking of all the clues in this puzzle.

  “Hey, Hitch,” said Ty. “We’re going back to Mr. M’s, right?”

  The old elevator operator leaned toward Charlie and grinned. “A penny for your thoughts, Master Hitchcock.”

  Penny? thought Charlie.

  Yes, pennies made sense!

  “Wait!” he said. “All the stuff I’ve seen tonight. It’s all smooshed together like a jigsaw puzzle. You know that the teachers said I had a —”

  “Yeah, yeah,” said Ty. “A photographic memory. Acute visual whatever. I get it.”

  “Exactly,” Charlie said. “So here’s what we definitely know.” He made a list of all the clues they’d come across that night.

  “What does the sign have to do with anything?” Ty asked. “And the color of the drapes was purple. At least I think that’s what I saw before I got knocked down. Let’s go back up and check.”

  “Not yet,” said Charlie. “We need to go to the basement.”

  Mr. Brack kept grinning, and down the elevator zoomed. At the bottom, the boys found themselves in the huge cellar and power center of the hotel. “Where are the fuses?” asked Charlie.

  Ty led him to a small room at the back of the cellar. The walls of the room were lined with old metal boxes. The boxes all hung about four feet above the damp floor. It reminded Charlie of a miniature locker room. On
the closed doors of the metal boxes were labels: First Floor, Second Floor, and so on.

  “I thought they’d have the old ones down here,” said Charlie. “We need to find the fuse box for the fourteenth floor.”

  After a few minutes of searching, and reading faded numbers on the boxes, Ty found the right one. “Here it is,” he said.

  “Did you have to come down here last week to check on things? When the power went out?” asked Charlie.

  “No, the problem didn’t last that long,” Ty said. “It came back on by itself. We thought maybe it was the thunderstorm that night.”

  Charlie carefully opened the fuse box. Dust covered everything … except for some small round shapes on the bottom lip of the box.

  As Ty took a step closer, his shoe crunched on something. He bent down. “Hey, it’s another one of those plastic tubes,” he said.

  “And I’ll bet if you look around, you’ll even find a few pennies,” said Charlie. “It’s an old trick.”

  It was a good thing he spent so much time playing Sherlock Holmes Maximum Z. The penny trick had been used by one of the criminals he’d faced in the game. Then he’d done a bunch of Internet research on it, because he thought it was cool.

  Charlie went on, “But the trick only works on old fuse boxes like these that have the old glass fuses. If you put a penny next to the fuse, it can cause it to short out, or flicker. That’s what was in those plastic tubes. When you go to the bank and get change, you get it wrapped in those things.”

  “Oh yeah. I’ve seen people use them at cash registers when they run out of change,” said Ty.

  “So someone was causing those blackouts on purpose,” said Charlie. “These circles where there isn’t any dust? That’s where someone put a stack of pennies. In fact, since the pennies were bought last week — the tubes had the date stamped on them, remember? — it means someone was planning for the lights going out.”