by Marty Chan
“Let’s just stick with me doing the escape,” he said.
“Come on,” I said. “This will be your ‘wow’ moment. I’ll build it up so the crowd will think there’s no way you can escape…then ta-da! You’re free.”
“Not in my underwear,” he said.
“Okay, okay, but definitely I want to build up how much I want to get revenge on you.”
Min shrugged. “I think you’ve got more than enough material.”
“No. Not even close,” I said. “I can work in some of the things Peter has said to me. I want your character to be nasty.”
“I really don’t want to be that kind of guy,” Min said.
“It’s part of the act,” I said. “I make you look like a jerk. And when I mess up your escape, you have to do some real magic to get out. The crowd is going to love it when you finally get free.”
“Will they?” Min asked. “Or will they boo?”
“Hey, I’m just thinking of ways to give you the ‘wow’ moment.”
He glared at me. “No you’re not. Trust me. You’re not.” He grabbed his things and headed to the front door.
“Where are you going, Min?”
“I think you need to find a new partner,” he said.
Chapter Ten
No Min. No escape act. No magic show. Well, not one with Min anyway. But the show had to go on. I decided to work up a solo act to test out on an audience. Maybe somehow I could convince Peter to give me another shot even if I was solo. Mom booked a gig for me. The singer who had pulled out on Mom had also bailed on someone else.
I knew things weren’t going to go well when I showed up at the seniors’ home. There was no riser. My stage area was sandwiched between a rolling cart of dirty dishes and the buffet station.
The host seemed nervous to stand in front of a crowd. He ran in front of the seated seniors and said, “Natalie couldn’t make it this week. Here’s Kylie. Enjoy!” Then he ran off to hide in the back.
“Thank you,” I said as I pushed the cart of dirty dishes to the side.
The crowd looked confused when I stepped in front of them.
“Hey, where’s your guitar?” a grumpy man asked from his wheelchair.
“Oh, I’m not a singer,” I explained. “I’m going to do some magic for you.”
A few of the ladies clapped.
The grumpy man crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s Saturday. We always get the pretty girl who sings on Saturdays.”
Not a great start to my show, but I ignored him and launched into my act.
“As you can see, there is nothing in my hands,” I said, flashing both of my open hands. “But if you believe that magic is real, then anything is possible. Just like this.”
I closed my fist and held it up in the air while I reached into my closed hand with my fingers and pulled out a red silk.
One woman clapped. A few coughed.
The grumpy man yelled, “My grandson does that trick every time he visits me.”
Some of the people around him tried to shush him but with no luck.
“What else you got for us?” he yelled.
“Ah, I see that you don’t quite believe in magic yet, but trust me, you will,” I said. “When you see this, you won’t believe your eyes.”
It was so quiet in the room that I could hear a woman at the back ask her friend, “When does Natalie come back?”
Her question threw me. Instead of going with a card trick, I went straight to the end of my act. I wanted to get out of the room as fast as I could.
“Behold! A regular Rubik’s Cube,” I said. “Something you might have played with when you were a kid.”
“I know how that works,” the grumpy man said. “You get your grandkid to solve it.”
The audience chuckled.
“But I can solve it even faster. First, let me mix it up,” I said.
My fingers were sweaty, and the cube slipped out of my hand, landing on the tiled floor. I scooped it up, but my wand and cards did not fall out like they were supposed to. In a panic, I started to mix up the cube pieces, but I arranged them in the wrong pattern. The trick wasn’t going to work until I reset the cube to the right setup.
“Um, I will solve this cube in just a minute,” I said.
“Peel the stickers off,” the grumpy man said. “That’s how I’d do it.”
The crowd laughed.
Without anyone watching, I could solve the cube in five minutes. In front of the restless seniors, that five minutes stretched to seven and a half. When I finally solved it, most people were talking to each other and ignoring me. I took a half bow and got out of the place as fast as I could. I had failed. Hard.
I had to face the truth. Without Min, I had no act. There was no point pretending. I’d have to tell Peter that there was no act for the magic show tryout.
The following week was the final tryout session. I headed to the theater early so I could talk to Peter, but Min had beaten me there. Only he wasn’t talking to Peter. He was doing our escape act with Dana Wynn.
She wore a sparkly silver dress and a puffy blond wig that sat sideways on her head. She wobbled on a pair of high-heeled shoes beside Min, who was now tied up in ropes and chains. He held up his hands, which were in cuffs.
“And now that I’m tied up, Dana will cover me with this giant mailbag and set the timer for seven minutes.”
Dana bent over and grabbed the top of the mailbag. She lifted it up and over Min’s head. Min spotted me and quickly looked the other way just before the sack covered his face. Dana tied off the top and walked to the timer at the edge of the stage.
“And now the Magnificent Min will attempt to get out before the timer runs out,” she said. She sounded as nervous as a kid doing an oral book report.
Peter leaned forward. There was no music to cover the awful silence. Dana stared awkwardly from Peter to the timer. She called out each passing minute and then stood and watched the timer. There was no banter, no entertaining the audience. It was painful to watch.
Finally Dana shouted, “Thirty seconds left!”
The mailbag began to move more violently as Min thrashed about inside.
“Twenty seconds, Min,” Dana said, picking up the timer.
“I’m stuck!” Min shouted, his voice muffled.
“Ten seconds!”
The bag hopped twice.
Dana counted down: “Five…four…three…two…”
The mailbag popped open and fell around Min’s feet. He stepped out, holding the opened handcuffs in his right hand and one of the ropes in his left.
“One!” he shouted as he tossed both behind him.
Peter jumped to his feet and clapped. “Bravo! Excellent. Amazing.”
Min grabbed Dana’s hand, and they took a bow. He refused to even look my way.
Peter jumped up onstage and clapped. I strained to hear what he had to say.
“I love the way you honored Harry Houdini with the escape act,” Peter said. “Dana, you could maybe talk some more while Min’s in the bag. Or walk around and smile at the audience. Something to keep us entertained.”
Min smiled. “We’ll work on the script.”
“Well then, I think I have the final act for my talent show,” said Peter.
My face felt hot. My best friend had just stolen my idea.
Chapter Eleven
Min nearly sprinted off the stage, leaving Dana to clear the props. I had to talk to him. A few magicians were warming up backstage and getting ready for their tryouts. One guy made a dove appear in his hands. Another teen spun a smartphone on his finger like a basketball. Min slipped past them and headed into the boys’ washroom.
Like that was going to stop me.
“Coming in,” I announced, shoving the bathroom door open.
Inside, two kids watched themselves in the mirror as they practiced their tricks. A curly-haired kid made a red sponge ball disappear, while his freckled friend pulled fake flowers out of his sleeve. They both gasped w
hen they saw me.
“This is the boys’ room,” the freckle-faced kid whined.
I ignored them, making my way to the stalls. I could see Min’s black dress shoes under the closed door of the last stall in the bathroom.
Bang, bang, bang! I slapped my hand against the metal door. “I know you’re in there, Min. I can see your feet.”
The two kids scrambled out of the room.
“Um…I’m busy right now,” Min said.
“Get out here right now,” I ordered. “I want to know why you stole my idea.”
The stall door swung open. Min charged out. “Your idea?!”
“Yes, it was my idea,” I said.
“No, it’s my escape act,” he pointed out. “I taught you how to do the escape. You had no idea how anything worked until I showed you.”
“I was the one who came up with the assistant bit,” I said.
His face turned bright red. “I did not use any of the script you came up with. All Dana did was count down the time. It’s the way the trick has always been done. The classic way. The right way!”
“What?” I said. “That is a terrible way to do it.”
“She’s building the drama of the countdown.”
“So she’s a talking clock,” I said. “She’s a prop. Nothing more.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “How is that any better than what you had me doing?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “You got to be the magician.”
Min shook his head. “You got to perform your tricks while you made me look bad in the mailbag. First you wanted me to look like a fool who didn’t know how to get out. Then you wanted me to act like a jerk who deserved to fail. Then you wanted me to come out in my underwear! How is that fair?”
I glared at him.
Min kept ranting. “You wanted to look good. You wanted to be the star. You never stopped to think about what I wanted.”
“That’s no excuse to steal my idea and replace me with Dana,” I said.
“You took away my ‘wow’ moment. All I wanted to do was show off my magic, and you turned me into a joke.”
Min wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his tuxedo.
“You just had Dana counting down the timer,” I said.
“If you had watched our act from the start, you would have seen that Dana was the one who set up the escape. She wasn’t just a girl in a sparkly dress.”
“I came in late,” I said.
“Well, if you had seen everything, you’d know that I gave Dana a chance to shine in the show as well,” Min said. “And she didn’t have to put me down to get it. I treated her better than you treated me.”
His comment hit hard. I’d wanted to build a comedy act so much I’d forgotten that it wasn’t just a comedy act. It wasn’t just a magic act. It was a chance to do something fun with my best friend.
“Min…I’m sorry. I got lost in the moment,” I said.
He glared at me for the longest time, saying nothing.
A knock at the door.
“Um, are you guys done in there?” a boy asked through the door. “’Cause I really have to go.”
“Yes, I’m done,” I said. “Min, I am sorry for everything.”
I headed to the door and pulled it open. Whoosh. The curly-haired kid pushed by me as he waddled to the stalls with his legs squeezed together.
I stopped and looked back at Min. “Break a leg at the show,” I said.
“Thanks,” he mumbled.
I headed into the backstage area. This year’s talent show was a bust for me. Getting no stage time was going to sting. No friend was worse. I’d lost sight of what really mattered, and I only had myself to blame.
“Wait!”
I turned around. Min was walking toward me. I couldn’t tell if he was going to yell at me or cry.
“Kylie, you know I’d never steal your idea,” he said. “You’re my friend.”
“Still?” I asked.
He nodded. “Even when you’re being a jerk.”
“I was being a jerk—you’re right,” I said. “I’m sorry for what I did. I guess I wanted to show Peter that I could be as good as anyone else in the club.”
“I know you’re good,” Min said. “And I’ve heard a lot of the other club members say the same thing. And you saw the crowd at the seniors’ home. Does Peter’s opinion really matter anymore?”
It didn’t. Min was absolutely right. It really didn’t.
“Kylie, I have a new idea about our act,” Min said. “If you’re still interested in doing it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You sure? I don’t want to kick Dana out.”
“No. She’ll still be in the act. And we can all have our ‘wow’ moment.”
“Go on,” I said. “I’m listening.”
Chapter Twelve
Eager families packed the theater to watch their kids perform in the magic show. I peeked through a break in the black curtains and searched the audience for my parents. There they were, sitting in the front row.
Mom talked to Min’s dad in the second row while my dad stared at his phone. Min’s entire family filled the second row as well as part of the third. They looked pretty excited for the show to start.
Min paced back and forth as he went over his lines. Dana followed in his footsteps, also rehearsing her lines. She wore the same type of suit as Min and me. Not a whiff of a sparkly dress anywhere.
Dana stepped over a metal bucket in the middle of the floor. I wondered if Min or Dana had brought it in case one of them needed to throw up. My money was on Dana puking. She looked greener than Min did.
I stopped them from pacing.
“Breathe,” I said. “Just breathe.”
Min gritted his teeth. “I think I’m going to pass out.”
“Me first,” Dana said.
“No one’s going to pass out. You’re both going to knock them dead. Now straighten your tux, Min. And Dana, you’ve got some crud on your shoulder.”
They fixed their costumes as I turned around to watch the kid onstage pull a silk out of his fist. The audience clapped loudly for him, and the boy took a bow.
Peter stepped onstage from the other side. “Yes. One more round of applause for the Magnificent Justin.”
Hearing his stage name (geez, did every kid use “magnificent”?) made me think about how I hadn’t been very magnificent to my friend. I was so glad we had worked things out.
“Thank you, Justin,” Peter said, nodding toward the wings for Justin to leave.
Justin kept bowing until Peter gently pushed him off the stage. The audience laughed.
“Aaaaaaaand now for something truly special,” Peter said. “We are going to turn back the calendar to the years of the great Harry Houdini. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for our very own escape artist—the Magnificent Min and his two lovely assistants!”
Dana and I rolled our eyes at each other.
“That’s our cue, Min,” I said. “Go.”
“I can’t. My legs won’t work,” he said.
“Mine too,” Dana said.
I shoved Min and Dana in front of me and stepped onto the stage.
“Good evening,” I said. “My name is Kylie, and this is Dana. We are more than lovely assistants. We are magicians as well. And tonight you are in for a magical journey to the impossible,” I said, glancing at Dana to prompt her to say her line.
Right on cue, she boomed, “Prepare to be amazed!”
Min looked at me. I nodded. He stepped forward. “I, Min the Magnificent, will attempt to free myself. I doubt even Harry Houdini himself could escape these bonds. My partners in magic, Dana and Kylie, will restrain me.”
Oohs filled the theater as Dana and I wrapped Min up in the ropes and chains. Dana bumped into me as she circled around Min. She dropped the rope.
“Oops,” she said. “Sorry.”
The audience laughed. Min frowned.
“Dana and Kylie will do a better job of tying me u
p. Or else I’ll have to replace them with someone who knows what they’re doing,” he said.
Dana and I glared at Min.
“Well? I’m waiting,” he said.
I gave Dana a quick nod. “Don’t worry, Min. We’ll make sure you’re tied up good and tight.”
This got a chuckle from the audience. They let out a laugh when Dana tugged hard on the rope and Min started to gasp.
“Maybe not that tight,” he said.
“Tighter?” Dana asked. “Okay.”
The audience laughed louder as Min doubled over and moaned.
“Oh, are you okay?” I asked. “Are we not doing it right?”
He grunted. “It’s fine. I’m good. Keep going.”
Once we had him tied up and cuffed, Dana and I lifted the mailbag up and over Min’s head.
I ran to the edge of the stage to pick up the timer. “We will set the time for seven minutes and see if the Magnificent Min can escape before the timer runs—” I stopped and glanced at Dana.
“What’s wrong?”
“Seven minutes seems too easy, doesn’t it?” I asked. “How about we set this thing for five minutes? Would you all like that?”
The audience cheered.
“What?” Min shouted from inside the sack. “No! That’s not what we planned.”
The crowd laughed.
Dana cracked a grin. “He says no. Make it three minutes.”
“That’s not what I said!” Min shouted from inside the sack.
“I have an even better idea,” I said. “What if I try to do a magic trick with…” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my Rubik’s Cube. “Let’s see if the Magnificent Min can escape before I solve this puzzle.”
I mixed up the colors on the cube and showed it to the audience. Then, with a flick of the wrist, I solved the cube instantly.
The audience howled and clapped.
“What do you say, O great magician?” I asked.
“Stick to the timer!” Min yelled from inside the mailbag.
Dana cupped her ear close to the bag. “He said he will go for it. And if you solve it before he gets out, he’ll buy everyone an ice-cream cone.”
“I did not say that!” Min’s muffled voice screamed.
“Sorry,” Dana said. “Two ice-cream cones.”
