by Diana Lopez
Dominic and his friends didn’t speak right away. Admitting you were wrong was tough, especially for someone like Ariel. She probably spent the last few weeks feeling terrible about what happened. She probably felt left out every time the boys went to the magic shop. Dominic was ready to forgive her, but he wasn’t sure about his friends. Then Loop said, “Don’t worry about it.” And Z said, “We’re not mad anymore.” So Dominic said, “It’s all forgotten.” And it truly was.
Ariel sighed with relief and smiled. Then she said, “Come on, Loop. Let’s go find those contest directors to see if they’ve got a sound system for you.”
They took off, so Dominic and Z decided to attend a lecture about comedy magic. Later, Loop joined them for a lecture about stage shows. But the boys spent most of the day in the dealers’ room. As it turned out, visiting the booths was the highlight of the convention. Like Mr. Garza, most of the vendors were professional magicians. They knew that the best way to make a sale was to demonstrate their props. Dominic saw tons of magic just by walking around. And every now and then, he spotted famous magicians like Bill Malone, Joshua Jay, and Jeff McBride!
Soon it was dinnertime. Loop was eating with his grandma and parents, and since Z’s family hadn’t arrived yet, he decided to join the Garzas. Meanwhile, Dominic’s Corpus Christi family had checked into the hotel and called a restaurant to make reservations for everyone, including his mom. Dominic wondered what it would be like for everyone to sit at a table together, but sure enough, his parents sat as far apart as they could. They didn’t talk much, but they didn’t completely ignore each other, either. Maria Elena had a dozen questions for Dominic’s mom, while his dad had a dozen questions about the convention. So most of the time, there were two conversations going on, with his stepmom switching back and forth between the topics. Every now and then, Dominic’s parents talked to each other directly. He could tell they felt uncomfortable, but he was glad they tried their best to have fun.
Later, when they returned to the hotel, Dominic and his mom had a moment alone in the elevator.
“Were you nervous at dinner?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. “But after a while, it wasn’t so bad.”
He felt inspired. If his mom could overcome her nerves after years of avoiding his dad, then Dominic could certainly overcome his stage fright.
outjog—
to position a card so that it stands out from the others
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, someone tapped on the hotel door. Z rubbed the sleep from his eyes and made his way to the peephole. His entire family waited on the other side.
“Dominic, Loop, wake up! My family’s here.”
“What time is it?” Loop mumbled.
Instead of answering, Z opened the door, and everyone filed in. They turned on the lights, opened the curtains, and found places to sit. Since there weren’t enough chairs, they sat on the beds, not caring that Dominic and Loop were still under the covers.
“We brought breakfast,” Z’s mom said as his brothers lugged in two Styrofoam ice chests. The smell of chorizo and papas filled the room.
“Do I smell taquitos?” Loop said, finally waking up.
Dominic threw off his blanket. “Are those homemade tortillas?”
Z’s brothers opened the ice chests, and it was a free-for-all with the taquitos—everyone talking at once and bumping into one another as they passed around napkins and drinks. The room was so crowded with Z’s entire family, including his brother-in-law, cousin, and two friends, but he felt right at home.
After they finished eating, his dad stood up. “Vámonos,” he said to the family. “The boys need to get ready.”
“Wait a minute,” Z said. He reached into the official TAOM Convention tote bag and pulled out an envelope. “You need these passes in order to see the competition.” He handed them out, glad that the competitors were given free passes for family members. Unfortunately, the evening event cost five dollars per person, but since his family planned to leave that afternoon, it didn’t really matter—unless, of course, Z won. But maybe it wasn’t such a bad-luck thing for his family to miss the awards ceremony because if Z did win, he’d get to celebrate twice—once with his friends and a second time with his family.
His brothers and sisters took the passes, cleaned up, and started heading out.
“You better do good,” Bossy said.
Boxer Boy punched Z’s shoulder. “Break a leg, hermano.”
Smiley just gave him a hug and smiled.
After they cleared out, the room got quiet again. Z glanced at his friends. “Well,” he said, “this is it. The day we’ve been waiting for.”
“Showtime!” Loop cheered.
Dominic had a thoughtful look on his face. “I know that we all want to win, but since that can’t happen… well… can we just agree that if one of us wins, it’s really a victory for all of us?”
“One for all and all for one?” Z said.
“Yeah,” Dominic answered. “Like—”
“Don’t say it,” Loop warned.
But Dominic ignored him. “Like the three musketeers!”
Loop threw a pillow at him. “I told you not to say it!” Then Z threw a pillow at Loop, and in no time, they were all throwing pillows at one another until they realized they had to stop or they’d run out of time.
So they got ready and made their way to the contest room. Z wore his brand-new outfit, Dominic wore his everyday clothes, and Loop wore tattered jeans, an Affliction shirt, and the Warriors baseball cap.
When they got downstairs, they signed in, and the contest director reviewed the procedure and gave them the schedule. The competition started at 10 a.m. Z’s name was first on the list. He couldn’t believe it. For once, he didn’t want to be first. Dominic’s name was somewhere in the middle, and Loop’s was second to last. Z saw the names of other kids, too, including Stewart’s. In all, thirteen people had signed up. Seven would perform, and then there’d be a fifteen-minute break before the last six. In the afternoon, the judges would discuss their notes, and during the evening stage show, Ariel, as last year’s champion, would announce the winner in a giant auditorium, right in front of all the famous magicians who’d been invited to the convention.
“Do you have any questions?” the contest director asked. Z and his friends shook their heads. “Okay, then,” she said. “Good luck.”
They thanked her and stepped into the contest room. Z had imagined a theater with velvet curtains and a spotlight, but this was a normal-looking room with beige carpet and walls, rows of chairs, a wide aisle in the middle, and no platform, just a clearing at the front and a table covered with a black cloth.
The boys headed to the seats reserved for the competitors, and as they walked up the aisle, Z spotted his family. They took up two whole rows! Dominic’s family was there, too—everyone in a red shirt—and Loop’s parents and grandma sat next to them. Then he saw the Garzas, who’d closed their booth for a few hours so they could watch the contest.
The boys sat down, and Z took a moment to size up the competition. Most of the kids looked a year or two older, like Stewart.
Then, it was 10 a.m., time to begin. The doors closed, and once everyone took a seat, the emcee addressed the crowd. “If you like this sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you like,” he joked. Then he thanked a few people, and at the end of his speech, he said, “One of the worst things about doing nothing is that you never know when you’re done.” Nobody laughed, but he didn’t seem to care. He just glanced at the schedule and introduced the first competitor—Z.
Z stepped to the front, but before saying a word, he took Ariel’s advice and established eye contact with the crowd.
“Some people have pet rocks, but I have a pet rope.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a white rope. “And here’s my first pet project.” He made a loop and secured it with a square knot. “I’m cutting my rope so that one becomes two.” He took a pair of scissors from his pocket, snipped the to
p of the loop, and held it so the audience could see that he had two pieces of rope tied together. “The only problem?” he said as he wrapped the rope around his hand. “My rope is not a teacher’s pet. It refuses to be two ropes tied together. Instead, it wants to be one rope.” He unwrapped it, and sure enough, he had a single rope again. The knot had disappeared.
“Now,” he said, putting the rope back in his pocket and in the same move taking out a deck of cards, “let me try a new pet project with my deck of cards.” He fanned them faceup to show that it was a normal deck. Then he shuffled them, but the four of hearts popped out. He did another fan, this one facedown, but one card was outjogged—the four of hearts again. “Hmm…” he said. “All the cards are teacher’s pets except for this one.” He held up the four of hearts. “Let me place him in the middle and see if he stays put.” He put the card in the middle of the deck, blew on it, and then he lifted the top card. Amazingly, it was the four of hearts!
“Bad card!” he said to it. “Now stay in the middle of the deck!” He pushed the card in very slowly. This time his cheeks puffed as he blew. Then he turned over the top card, pausing for a more dramatic effect and for a chance to look at the audience. Once again, the top card was the four of hearts! Z glanced at the audience, and then he spotted the judges. Ariel had called it—they had mean-looking faces—but he didn’t let that distract him. “Perhaps,” Z said, “I can get the rope and the cards to be teacher’s pets if they work together.” He took out the rope, pulling it taut to show how strong it was. “Perhaps I can make it impossible for the four of hearts to rise to the top by wrapping this rope around the deck, and tying a very tight knot.” He performed those actions as he spoke. Then he held the deck out to a spectator in the front row. “Pull on the ends to make sure it’s good and tight.” She pulled. “Is it tight?” Z asked.
“Yes,” she said.
He smiled. Then he took the four of hearts, showed it to the audience one more time, and very slowly slipped it into the middle of the deck. When it was halfway in, he revealed it to the audience, and they could see that it was definitely in the middle. After he squared the deck, he said, “This rope is wrapped tight. There is absolutely no way the four of hearts can misbehave.” He held the deck out to the spectator again. “Will you do the honors and pull out the top card?”
She did, and guess what! “It’s the four of hearts!” she announced, holding it so everyone could see.
Z shook his head, pretending to be disappointed. “My rope and cards refuse to be teacher’s pets, and that’s why my pet projects are now my pet peeves.”
Maybe it was a lame joke, but a lot of people laughed.
Z took a bow, and when he straightened up, the crowd went wild—or rather, his family went wild. He could hear their whistles and gritos. Z should have been embarrassed, but he wasn’t. He felt proud, and it didn’t matter what place he got because, as he looked at his family and his friends, he realized that he’d already won.
stooge—
a person deliberately placed in the audience to help a magician cheat
THE CONTEST CONTINUED, and Dominic watched his fellow magicians, his finger running down the schedule of names. Z was so lucky. Going first meant he could sit back and enjoy the rest of the competition. Meanwhile, Dominic had to focus on keeping calm. Breathe in, breathe out, he told himself. Visualize your routine and imagine you are performing without a hitch. Ariel had insisted that imagining success was a good technique for fighting anxiety, and she was right. Little by little, Dominic relaxed. And he remained that way even when the girl before him finished her routine to wild applause. Instead of feeling intimidated, Dominic pretended everyone was clapping for him. Then the audience settled down, and the emcee called his name.
Dominic breathed in and out one more time before stepping to the front. Once at the table, he reached into his backpack and pulled out a Sharpie, a packet of large Post-its, and his copy of Lost: Fifty True Survival Stories.
“Hello, everyone.” He looked at the audience. They’re just normal people, he told himself.
“For my act, I’ll need a volunteer,” he said, scanning the crowd. Maria Elena waved her arms wildly, but he needed a stranger. If the judges learned they were related, they’d think she was a stooge. So instead of his sister, he pointed to a teenage girl sitting in the third row. “How about you?”
“Me?” she said, pointing at herself, and when he nodded, she joined him.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Dominic began. “Today I will demonstrate my psychic abilities. Right before your very eyes, I will read someone’s mind. But first”—he turned to the girl—“have you ever seen me before today?”
“No,” she answered.
“Have you ever talked to me on the phone or received any text messages from me?”
“I don’t even know your number.”
“Are you”—he paused—“my relative?”
“No.”
“My classmate?”
“I’m a senior, and you’re, like, in junior high.”
“Are you my friend?”
“No.” She shook her head for emphasis.
“Not even on Facebook?”
“Look, kiddo, we don’t know each other, okay? I’ve never seen you or talked to you. I don’t even know your name.”
“There you have it,” Dominic said to the audience. He was still a little nervous, but when he glanced at Ariel, she gave him a thumbs-up, which made him feel more confident. “We are total strangers, so there is no way we could have planned this trick in advance.”
Everyone nodded except Stewart. He was wiping his rec specs with a handkerchief and completely ignoring the competition. Amazingly, Dominic didn’t care. Stewart wasn’t a judge, so what did it matter?
“Take this.” Dominic handed the girl his book. “In a few seconds, I’m going to turn my back while you open the book to any page you want. You can turn to page one or seventy-two. It doesn’t matter to me. When you find a page, I want you to pick a word.”
“Any word?” she asked.
“Any visual word. Don’t pick something like ‘the’ or ‘but’ or ‘than.’ My mind-reading powers work only with pictures, so pick something you can see, like an action or an object. And when you find this word, don’t say it aloud. Just think it, okay?”
She nodded, so he turned his back while she opened the book and scanned a page.
“I’m ready,” she said, closing the book. “I found a word.”
She handed him the book, but all Dominic did was slap a giant Post-it on the cover. He gave it back to her, along with a Sharpie. “Now,” he said, “the audience wants to know what you’re thinking, but you can’t say it aloud. So when I turn my back again, spell out the word on the Post-it, real big, and then show it to everyone, okay?”
She nodded again, and Dominic turned his back. In big letters, she wrote “fireman” on the Post-it. Then she showed it to the audience. “They know what my word is,” she said.
But Dominic kept his back turned. “Before I face you, take that Post-it, crumple it up, and throw it away so that I have no chance of peeking at your word.”
She did as he asked. “Okay, you can turn around now,” she said.
He did, taking the Sharpie and the book from her. He stuck another Post-it on the cover and stared at the girl, his forehead creased with concentration. In fact, he was so focused on his trick that he actually forgot other people were in the room. “I’m establishing our psychic connection,” he explained. “Just keep thinking of the word. It’s very difficult to read someone’s mind, so this might take a while.” He closed his eyes and sniffed around. “I smell something. I smell… hot dogs and… Fritos!” The audience giggled. Then he glanced at Loop. “Hey, buddy, I know you’re superhungry right now, but calm down a bit. Your food fantasies are interfering with my psychic abilities.” Loop gave him the “okay” signal, and Dominic turned back to the girl. “Okay, now. Focus on that word. Think only of that one word while I
draw it on this Post-it.” He held the book close to his face so no one else could see it. “I see… limbs… tree limbs?” He scribbled something. “No, wait! Limbs as in appendages as in… as in legs. But what kind of legs?” He glanced at the girl. “Keep thinking. We’re getting somewhere. I see four legs. Aha, a table perhaps.” The audience giggled. “No, no, no,” he said. “I see two legs. A ladder, there’s definitely a ladder. It keeps fading in and out. You have to concentrate!”
“I am!” the girl said.
He stared at her once again. “Yes! It’s crystal clear now.” He scribbled furiously, taking an exhausted breath when he finished. “My psychic powers are second to none!” he said triumphantly. “Behold!” He turned the book toward the audience so they could see the picture. Everyone cracked up.
“Dude!” a heckler said. “It’s just a stick man. It could be anyone! Your psychic powers are weak!”
Dominic shrugged it off because he’d purposely messed up. Then he glanced at Z, since he was the one who suggested adding a magician-in-trouble phase to his routine.
Dominic looked at his Post-it again. “Hmm…” he said. “Looks like I forgot to draw this.” He scribbled something. “And this.” He scribbled some more. “And this!” He examined his picture for a moment and smiled as he slowly revealed his revised drawing. “I guess a fireman needs a ladder, a hose, and a hydrant, doesn’t he?”
Everyone’s eyes widened with wonder. Stewart put his rec specs back on so he could take a look, too. It’s over, Dominic realized, and I didn’t freak out.
He took a bow, and everyone applauded. Then he returned to his seat. Z whispered, “Way to go!” and Loop said, “You aced it!”
Dominic glanced back to see his family. He couldn’t get their attention since they were giving one another high fives, but he smiled when he caught his mom and dad slapping hands.
finale—
the last part of a performance, usually the most exciting moment
