Nothing Up My Sleeve

by Diana Lopez

  “So we’re putting aside our differences,” his mom said.

  “No more oil and water?” Dominic asked, and his parents nodded.

  “What’s oil and water?” Maria Elena asked. “Are we going to cook something?”

  Everybody laughed, and then Dominic described Mr. Garza’s magic trick. Maria Elena said it sounded interesting, but she still thought they should invent a special recipe.

  They spent a while longer discussing plans for the convention, and then they logged off Skype. That’s when Dominic’s mom sighed. She seemed sad all of a sudden.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Aren’t you glad you’re going to Houston?”

  “Of course. It’s just…” She paused a moment. “Talking to your father makes me uncomfortable,” she admitted. “We have a past, and it didn’t work out. So part of me feels like I failed. Then when you’re with him, you have so much fun, and even though I know that fathers and sons have a special bond, I get kind of jealous. I worry that you’re lonely over here, especially when I leave you alone while I’m at work. When I think about how nice it is for you to have a house full of people in Corpus, I get all panicky.”

  “Why?”

  “Because… because what if you decide to live with them instead?”

  Dominic had never thought about the situation from his mother’s point of view. No wonder she got a headache whenever he mentioned his dad. No wonder she worked so hard to make sure he had everything he needed. All this time, she was scared of losing him.

  “I’m sorry if I made you feel that way,” he said, giving her a hug. “This is my home. I’m not lonely. I have you and my friends.”

  She gave him a real hard squeeze before letting go. “You have no idea how good that makes me feel. And you’re right. You have very nice friends. Z is especially helpful.”

  Dominic laughed. “He’s totally hoping you’ll adopt him.”

  She laughed, too, and then she stood up. “Come on. Let’s go,” she said.

  “Go where?”

  “Bowling.”

  “Do you even know how to bowl?”

  “As a matter of fact, young man, I was a proud member of the Gutters and Pins bowling team when I was in middle school.”

  “Bet you hit more gutters than pins,” Dominic teased.

  “Trash talk, huh?” She thought a moment. “First person to make a strike gets a week’s vacation from chores.”

  Dominic held out his hand so she could shake it. “You’re on!” he said.

  prestidigitation—

  another word for skillful sleights of hand

  LOOP PACKED HIS SUITCASE, checking and double-checking the props he needed for his magic trick, and then he kneeled at the retablo with the little statue of La Virgen de Guadalupe. He usually only did this when his grandma was around, so it felt weird praying by himself. But since he was headed to the convention, he needed all the help he could get. First, he said the Our Father and Hail Mary. Then he gave thanks for a few things. And then, he started his petitions. “Okay, O.G.,” he said. “It’s almost showtime. I really want to win, but that’s not what I’m asking for because Grandma says I shouldn’t be selfish. So I’m making a petition for myself and for my friends. The last time we did magic in front of people, we all messed up. But we’ve been practicing all summer. That has to count for something, right? So please help us do our tricks without messing up.” He paused, and then he said, “Amen.”

  Just then, someone knocked on his door. Loop stood up. “Come in,” he said. It was Rubén.

  “Almost ready?” he asked. “Your friends will be here in a minute.”

  Dominic’s mom was driving them to Houston today, Thursday, so they could help Mr. Garza set up his booth in the dealers’ room. They were going to spend Friday attending different convention events, and on Saturday, they’d compete.

  “Yeah,” Loop said. “I have everything I need.”

  “Almost everything,” Rubén said. He held out a baseball cap. It was white with a giant black “W” for the Warriors baseball team. “It’s my lucky hat. I wore it when we won district.”

  Loop took it and traced the “W” with his finger. His whole life, that hat had taken an entire shelf of a curio cabinet in the living room. Rubén never wore it. The only time he touched it was to wipe off the dust.

  “I want you to have it. Maybe it’ll bring you good luck, too.”

  “Thanks,” Loop said. He knew he should say something else, but before he could find the right words, the doorbell rang, and a few seconds later, his friends rushed into the room.

  “Come on,” Z said, all impatient.

  Dominic grabbed Loop’s suitcase and started heading out. “My mom wants to reach Houston before rush hour.”

  Loop looked at his friends, who were already in the hallway, and then he looked at Rubén.

  “Go on,” Rubén said. “Have fun. Your mom and I will get there tomorrow, okay? Grandma’s coming, too.”

  Loop put on the cap, and instead of a handshake, he offered his fist. Rubén smiled as they did a fist bump with explosion sounds. That had always been their version of a special handshake.

  Houston was two hours away, but it felt like a fifteen-minute drive because the boys talked the whole time. Soon, they were in the big city. Dominic programmed the GPS, and his mom asked them to be quiet so she could hear directions to the hotel.

  As they drove through Houston, Loop thought about all the cityscapes he drew and how he was looking at a real-life version of his pictures. They were on a ten-lane freeway—five lanes in each direction! It made the widest streets in Victoria look like sidewalks. At certain points, three or four Houston freeways met in a tangled mess of roads that turned and overlapped one another like a heap of spaghetti. Then there were miles of shopping centers, apartments, hospitals, and office buildings. Loop loved the idea of living in a place with so many choices and people. I’m definitely moving here someday, he decided. When they got to the downtown area, he was even more amazed. He loved the skyscrapers, especially those with mirrored windows. He pretended that each had a landing pad for spaceships and that he was really traveling in a hover car.

  They finally reached the hotel. It was so fancy, with chandeliers and a grand piano in the lobby. While Dominic’s mom went to the front desk to check in, the boys wondered which of the guests were magicians. Every time they saw another teen, they elbowed each other and whispered, “Think he’s in the competition, too?”

  “Here are the keys,” Dominic’s mom said. The boys were going to share a room; Dominic’s mom would stay next door in case they needed anything.

  Loop glanced at the room number. “We’re on the twenty-sixth floor!” He couldn’t contain his excitement. The tallest building in Victoria was twelve stories, so this was more than twice as high! As soon as they got to the room, the boys rushed to the window. The city looked like a giant 3-D map. From that high up, the people were tiny ants and the cars were Hot Wheels toys.

  After they settled down, Loop called Mr. Garza’s cell phone, but Ariel was the one who answered. “Where are you guys?” she asked.

  He gave her the room number, and a few minutes later, she knocked. She wore an official-looking badge around her neck. Dominic and Z seemed glad to see her, but in Loop’s opinion, Ariel still owed him for ruining his chop cup. He wasn’t as mad as before, but he wasn’t over it, either.

  “So first,” Ariel said, “we’re going to pick up your badges. That way, you have access to the convention.” As they followed her to the convention area on the second and third floors, Ariel gave them an overview of how things worked. “You need to wear your badge at all times. You can take lots of notes but no pictures during the lectures, and never open any door that has an ‘in session’ sign.” Usually she sounded bossy, but today, she sounded nice, like a tour guide.

  They reached the registration area and picked up their badges. Then they went to the dealers’ room, a giant area with rows of booths. Mr. and Mrs. G
arza were hard at work. They gave the boys two dollies and told them to unload the van, so Loop and his friends spent the next hour walking back and forth from the dealers’ room to the parking garage. He lost count of how many boxes they unloaded. Then they helped organize the booth. Mr. Garza had a few props, but mostly he planned to sell DVDs, books, and lecture notes.

  “Why aren’t you selling more magic supplies?” Dominic asked.

  Mr. Garza waved his arm across the room. “Too much competition.”

  That’s when Loop finally paid attention to all the vendors. There were more than twenty, and each had a different focus. One booth sold crystal balls and wizard figurines. Another sold juggling supplies, and another sold things a magician wears, like top hats, capes, and gloves. There was a booth with nothing but back issues of popular magazines like Genii and The Linking Ring, while others featured gaff cards or magic wallets.

  Now that they had finished with their booth, Mr. Garza stood back and examined it. He nodded approvingly. Then he reached into a bag and pulled out three Conjuring Cats T-shirts and handed them to the boys.

  “Remember our agreement,” he said. “I helped with your routines, so now you have to wear a Conjuring Cats T-shirt. Wear them tomorrow and make sure you walk all over the place. We need to advertise. ¿Entiendes?”

  The boys nodded. Mr. Garza sat down to rest his feet, and they stood around wondering what to do next, but before they could ask, a kid walked straight up to them. He was tall and athletic-looking, not because he had muscles but because he wore silver rec specs that were slightly tinted. Loop guessed the boy was fourteen or fifteen years old.

  “Hello, Ariel,” the boy said.

  “Hello, Stewart.” She made a hissing sound when she pronounced the “S” in his name. They had a mini stare-down, and then Ariel said, “What are you doing here? The dealers’ room isn’t open to the public till tomorrow.”

  “I have my ways,” Stewart said. Then he looked at Loop and his friends. “So you have an entourage now?”

  Ariel tossed her head like a diva. “Jealous?” she asked.

  “Hardly,” he replied.

  “Just one of the perks of being the reigning champion of the TAOM teen stage contest.” She looked at the boys. “Stewart was the runner-up.”

  “Well, I’m sure to win this year,” he said.

  “Only because, as the reigning champion, I’m ineligible to compete.”

  “I’d win even if you were competing. You can’t hide behind petals and petticoats in a close-up act. It’s a lot more sleight-intensive.”

  “For your information,” Ariel said, “my card handling is top grade.” To prove her point, she took out a deck of cards and performed a cascade.

  “All flourish, no substance,” Stewart said, taking out his own deck and doing a perfect Faro shuffle.

  “Child’s play,” Ariel answered, performing her own shuffle while saying, “Engblom anti-Faro shuffle.” Then she performed another sleight and said, “False cut.”

  Stewart was quick to reply. “Dead cut,” he said as he did the move.

  “Side steal,” Ariel challenged.

  “Tamariz perpendicular steal,” Stewart countered.

  “Classic pass.” She did the move.

  “S. W. Erdnase pass.” He did the move.

  “Fan spread.”

  “Fan spread with palmed card to pocket.”

  “Ribbon spread.”

  “Ricky Smith ribbon spread with card control to top.”

  As they continued their card-sleight showdown, the boys’ eyes pivoted back and forth like spectators at a tennis match. Ariel and Stewart did passes, palms, color changes, and culls, all in rapid succession and all perfect as far as Loop could tell.

  Finally, Ariel dealt a few cards and triumphantly shouted, “Bottom deal!”

  Stewart paused and smiled smugly. “Center deal!” But before he could perform the sleight, Ariel gasped, and Mr. Garza stood up.

  “You can do that?” he asked. “The center deal?”

  Stewart shrugged. “Maybe I can. Maybe I can’t. You’ll just have to find out when I perform.”

  With that, he walked off.

  “What’s a center deal?” Dominic asked.

  “It’s the one sleight I have yet to master,” Mr. Garza said.

  Loop couldn’t believe it. He thought Mr. Garza could do every sleight that had ever been invented.

  “No one gets the last word when it comes to magic. No one but me,” Ariel said, her eyes like laser beams as she watched Stewart walk away. Then she turned to the boys. “Let’s huddle,” she said, and they made a circle just like a football team discussing plays. “Tomorrow, meet me at zero nine hundred hours by the pool. Bring your props. We must not let Stewart win.” She put her hand in the middle of the circle and the boys did the same. “Conjuring Cats on three,” she said. Then she counted off, and they cheered.

  For the first time since they had discovered her diary, Loop forgot to be mad at her. Maybe she was on their side after all.

  flash—

  occurs when a magician makes a mistake or accidentally reveals a hidden prop

  THE NEXT MORNING, DOMINIC and his friends met Ariel by the pool. She was sitting at a table with an umbrella for shade. As soon as she saw them, she said, “Show me what you’ve got.”

  Loop went first. He didn’t have any patter. Instead, he used audio effects. Since they were on his cell phone, the sound track seemed like it came from another room. “It’ll be on the speakers tomorrow,” he said.

  “Are the contest directors bringing speakers?” Ariel asked. “Do they have your music file?”

  Loop was confused. “The contest directors?”

  “Yes, you have to coordinate with them,” she explained. “You can’t expect them to bring a sound system without a request. Didn’t you read the contest procedures?”

  Loop scratched his head.

  “He doesn’t like to read,” Z tattled.

  “Are you kidding?” Loop said. “I spent the entire summer reading. I’m one hundred percent sure I read more than you, probably more than Dominic, too.”

  Dominic doubted it, but he didn’t say anything. This was no time to argue about who read more books.

  “After we finish here,” Ariel said, “we’ll look for the contest directors to make sure there’ll be a sound system in place. If we’re lucky, someone else is using a sound track, too. If not, then we’ll have to brainstorm another approach.”

  Loop touched his baseball cap. He’d told Dominic that Rubén had given it to him. “I’m feeling lucky,” Loop said.

  “Good, because you’re going to need all the luck you can get,” Ariel replied. Then she turned to Z. “What about you?”

  Z did his trick. Dominic felt very impressed by how well his friend handled cards.

  “You’ve come a long way since the Pen-through-Dollar trick you performed at the beginning of the summer,” Ariel said. Dominic couldn’t believe she was actually complimenting someone. “And,” she went on, “you seem very comfortable with your patter.”

  Z smiled. “Thanks!”

  “But”—Ariel held up a finger—“you’re not giving me any eye contact.”

  “Eye contact?”

  “Yes. You kept your eyes glued to the props, even when inviting the audience to participate. Your magic is fine,” she explained, “but your performance could use some improvement.” She included Dominic and Loop as she continued. “The judges are looking for skill, originality, and performance. In other words, how well can you entertain the crowd? You have to look at the audience, and you have to pretend that you’re not nervous, no matter how much you’re freaking out inside.”

  Dominic felt his stomach twist up again. Calming his nerves was the toughest part of magic.

  “The judges will be sitting in the first or second row,” Ariel went on, “and they’ll have mean-looking faces. For some reason, judges always have mean-looking faces. I think they do it on purpose. I
t’s an intimidation tactic. Your job is to make them smile. If you make them smile, you’ll win some points.” She focused on Z again. “So I suggest you give them direct eye contact. Let them know you’re there to have fun and that you’re not afraid of them.”

  Dominic couldn’t help it. He moaned.

  “What’s wrong?” Ariel asked him. “Why do you sound like a dog taking its last breath?”

  “I have stage fright,” he answered. “I don’t think I can look directly at the judges. I’ll freeze up. I just know it.”

  She thought a moment. “Have you ever heard of imagining people in their underwear when you’re about to give a speech?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “It’s supposed to make them less threatening, right? You think I should imagine them in their underwear?”

  “No!” she said. “Don’t do that. It’ll totally gross you out. Trust me. You don’t want to think about people in their underwear.”

  “Then, what am I supposed to do?” he asked.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m going to teach you some breathing and visualization techniques.”

  They spent the next hour practicing how to use eye contact and how to calm their nerves. Ariel also had tips for being more expressive and for covering your angles so you didn’t flash. “Flashing is an automatic deduction,” she warned. She knew those contest rules inside and out. No wonder she was the reigning champion.

  “Well,” she concluded, “that’s all I got. The rest is up to you.” She paused, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. It was the same calm-your-nerves technique she’d taught Dominic. When she opened her eyes again, she said, “I’m sorry, guys. I caused a lot of trouble this summer, ruining your stuff and getting you mad at one another. I’ve got no excuse, but I’m hoping to make it up to you by helping with your routines. Will you accept my apology?”