Anna, Banana, and the Magic Show Mix-Up

by Anica Mrose Rissi

  I crossed my arms. “We’re not going to pay you. Just show us the trick again,” I said.

  “Nope!” Justin said. “You can only see it once for free. Sorry. Stinks to be you.”

  When he said that, I wanted to scream. He thought he was so smart, just because he knew how to do the trick and we didn’t. I wished I could force the secret out of him. But then I remembered my strategy from before. If we wanted to see the trick again, we had to make him want to show us. Our best bet was to act like we didn’t care about it at all.

  I shrugged as if it were no big deal. I couldn’t let him know he’d gotten under my skin. “Whatever. We’ve got other stuff to do right now anyway. Come on, Isabel and Sadie, let’s go to the swings!”

  I jumped off the merry-go-round and ran to the other side of the playground. After a few seconds, I heard my friends’ footsteps following me. They were probably confused about why I’d run away, but I would explain it soon enough.

  We needed to discuss and strategize. We had to figure out how Justin did that trick.

  Chapter Six Twice as Tricky

  When we reached the swings, the bell rang to signal the end of recess. All three of us groaned. I would have to wait to tell my friends what I was thinking.

  We walked inside with the rest of the classes, got our lunches, and claimed our usual spot near the windows in the cafeteria. Sadie unpacked her lunchbox and laid the food out neatly on the table in front of her, while I explained my idea about Justin. Sadie likes everything to be organized, even her food. Isabel is the opposite: more messy than neat. She was already halfway through her sandwich before Sadie or I had taken a single bite.

  “Hmm,” Sadie said when I finished talking. She bit her lip and narrowed her eyes while she thought about what I’d told them: that the best way to get Justin to do the trick again was to act like we didn’t want to see it.

  “You might be right. Justin does like to be contrary,” she said. “Contrary” had been a word of the day last week. It means choosing to do the opposite of what’s expected. That described Justin pretty well.

  “And he likes doing stuff just to bug us,” I added. Sadie shrugged and bit into a carrot stick. She didn’t find him as annoying as I did. She also didn’t have to sit in the desk right in front of his.

  Isabel swallowed the mouthful of sandwich she’d been chewing and took a sip of her milk. “Don’t you think twelve dollars each is a suspicious price?” she said.

  I polished my apple on a napkin. “What do you mean?” I asked, and took a big bite.

  “I mean, he can’t really expect us to give him that much. If he actually wanted to make money, he would charge an amount we could pay,” she said.

  “Hey, that’s true,” Sadie said. She spoke slowly, thinking out loud. “He set a price he knew we would say no to. It’s almost like that was his way of getting out of it.”

  I swallowed hard. My friends were right. “It’s exactly like that. He tricked us! Twice!” I said. I snuck a glance over at the table where Justin sat, then turned away quickly before he could see me looking. I didn’t want him to know we were talking about him.

  Isabel dug around in her lunchbox and pulled out a cheese stick. I pictured how eagerly Banana’s tail would wag if she saw it, and wished for the millionth time that dogs were allowed in school. If Banana were here, I knew Isabel would share with her. Everyone would. A dog in school would get so many snacks, she might actually beg to stop being fed. Plus, she could help us sniff out the secret to Justin’s trick.

  “It’s weird, because he loves showing off,” Isabel said. “So why doesn’t he want to show off the magic again?”

  “Because if we see him do it twice, we’ll figure out the trick,” I said. “There must be something that makes it super obvious the second time around.”

  Isabel pulled a few strings off the cheese stick and dropped them into her mouth. “Maybe he can’t do it again. Maybe it was just a lucky guess,” she said.

  Sadie shook her head. “No, because he did it on the bus this morning, too, remember? I couldn’t see it, but everyone was amazed.”

  Isabel frowned. “Well, if he really doesn’t want us to see it twice, acting like we’re not interested probably won’t work. Sorry, Anna,” she said.

  I knew she was right. I opened my box of raisins and sighed. Even though Sadie was the most competitive of all of us, I hated letting Justin win. Plus, I really wanted to know how the trick was done.

  Isabel jumped in her seat, startling me. “You know what we should do? Go to the library!” she said.

  I sat up straighter. That was a good idea. Sadie looked hopeful too.

  “We can find a book on magic tricks and look up how they’re done,” Isabel said. “We don’t have to see the trick again to figure it out. We can outsmart Justin on our own.”

  “Yes!” I cheered. I held up my hand and we slapped a three-way high five. I felt a million times better already.

  I hoped Justin was watching.

  Chapter Seven Books Are Magic

  After lunch we had math and social studies, then finally it was time to visit the library to check out new books for silent reading. I always look forward to finding a good book, but this week I practically ran through the doors and made a beeline for the school librarian, Ms. Hoyle. Isabel and Sadie were right behind me. They looked just as eager as I felt.

  “Ms. Hoyle!” Sadie said. “Do you have any books about magic tricks? Nonfiction?”

  “We need three of them,” Isabel said.

  “Yes, please,” I added. I looked behind us to see if Justin had overheard, but he was busy horsing around with our classmate Keisha, and not paying any attention to us.

  Ms. Hoyle’s lips twitched at the corners. She loved it when students got excited about books. “Why yes, I believe we do,” she said. Sadie beamed at Isabel and me. We were in luck!

  Ms. Hoyle showed us what section to look in—793.8 in the Dewey decimal system—and we found three books that looked promising: one all about card tricks, and two about lots of kinds of magic tricks. Sadie chose the first one, and Isabel and I took the others. Mine had a whole section on card tricks, but also chapters on showmanship and performance, disappearing objects, and other cool things like that.

  I was so excited, I bounced on my toes while Ms. Hoyle checked out my book. I thanked her, turned to the first page, and started reading right there in the middle of the library. I kept reading while we walked back to our classroom and returned to our desks. I didn’t stop until the bell rang to tell us that the school day—and silent reading time—were over. Then I grabbed my stuff, said good-bye to my friends, and put my nose back in the book for the entire walk home.

  “Don’t trip and fall and hit your head,” my brother warned as he walked ahead of me on the sidewalk. He waved his arms in the air. “Reading is extremely dangerous! Look out!”

  I rolled my eyes and turned the page. Chuck was only teasing, and I was an expert at reading while walking.

  When we got home, Banana was waiting for me right inside the doorway like always. She barked and spun in circles to show how happy she was to see me. I closed the magic book and knelt to scratch behind her ears. She licked my chin and I giggled. “I missed you too,” I said. “And boy do I have a lot to tell you.”

  Banana sat, wagged her tail, and looked up at her leash on its hook beside the door. Her eyes were big and hopeful. “Yes, I agree. We should go for a walk. I thought maybe we could visit Mrs. Shirley and Surely Cat,” I said.

  Banana lifted her ears at the mention of Surely Cat. She loves Mrs. Shirley’s little white kitten. And Surely Cat was learning to like Banana, too, or at least to put up with her most of the time.

  I stood and let my backpack slide off my shoulders. Dad poked his head around the doorway from the kitchen. He was wearing his red apron that says STIRRING UP TROUBLE and holding a wooden spoon stained with spaghetti sauce. I hoped that was what we’d be having for dinner. “Hey, kiddo. Good day at scho
ol?” he asked.

  “Yup!” I said. “We did a cool experiment to learn about solids, liquids, and gases.”

  “You mean the three forms of matter that come out Banana’s back end?” Chuck said.

  I wrinkled my nose at him. “Gross!”

  Chuck laughed. “You should bring her in for show-and-tell,” he said.

  I put my hands on my hips. “Banana is not a science experiment, and we are not studying dog farts,” I said. But Banana wagged her tail like she thought it was funny. She doesn’t mind when Chuck teases her.

  “That’s enough, Chuck,” Dad said. He turned to me. “If you’re going to Mrs. Shirley’s, will you ask her if she’s coming to the potluck on Saturday?”

  “Sure,” I said. Once a year, my parents invited all the neighbors over for dinner. We’d put invitations in the mailboxes of everyone on our block, and a few in the mailboxes of farther-away neighbors, too. I’d also invited Isabel and Sadie. It was going to be a lot of fun. I hoped Mrs. Shirley would join us. She couldn’t bring her kitten, though, because Dad is allergic.

  I grabbed Banana’s leash and clipped it to her collar. “Are you ready to hear all about magic-trick secrets?” I asked. Banana danced at my feet and we headed out the door.

  Chapter Eight Abracadabra

  On the way to Mrs. Shirley’s house, I told Banana everything that happened at school. When I described how smug Justin got about the magic trick, Banana’s ears went flat. When I told her he refused to do it twice unless we paid him, her eyes grew extra round. And when I explained our plan to find the answer to the trick in our books, she at first got distracted by a squirrel running up a tree, but then nudged my hand with her snout to say she thought it was a good idea. Banana is very supportive. It’s part of what makes her the best dog ever.

  Banana tilted her head to one side, and I knew what she was wondering. “No,” I answered. “We haven’t found out the secret yet. But I’m only partway through my book, and I’ve already found lots of other cool tricks. I want to try doing them myself.” Sadie and Isabel had said the same thing after silent reading when I asked how their books were. Even if we couldn’t learn the same trick as Justin, we definitely planned to learn a few of our own. “I bet I can learn one that’s even better than Justin’s. Then I can be the one to trick him.”

  We rounded the corner onto Mrs. Shirley’s street. Banana tugged at the leash. She was eager to see Surely Cat. I walked faster.

  “The book says many magic tricks are all about diversion,” I said. “A diversion is a distraction the magician creates. The diversion gets the audience to pay attention to something other than the tricky part of the trick. Like, maybe she’ll wave around a handkerchief or say ‘abracadabra,’ but the words and the handkerchief have nothing to do with the magic. The point is to get the audience to look at the handkerchief instead of at what the magician’s other hand is doing. Isn’t that clever?”

  Banana swished her tail in agreement. I opened the gate in front of Mrs. Shirley’s house and Banana pulled me up the path to her front steps. I rang the bell and a few seconds later, Mrs. Shirley opened the door. Before I could even say hello, Banana poked her nose inside.

  Mrs. Shirley laughed. “Come on in, Banana!” she said. She opened the door wider and smiled at me. “You too, Anna. I’m glad to see you both.”

  “I have an important question,” I said. “What do you know about magic?”

  Chapter Nine Magic Memory

  “Goodness,” Mrs. Shirley said. “That’s a big question. What kind of magic?”

  I unclipped Banana’s leash and she led the way to the living room. Surely Cat was curled up on the couch, taking a nap in a sunbeam. Banana ran over and shoved her nose onto the couch cushion. Surely Cat opened one eye to look at her, closed it, and continued his nap. Banana’s tail went wild with excitement. Surely Cat ignored her.

  I slid onto a chair at the table where we usually had tea and played card games. “Magician’s magic. Like, card tricks and stuff,” I said.

  “Oh. I’m afraid I don’t know much about that,” Mrs. Shirley said. She stepped into the kitchen and returned a moment later with a plate of cookies. “I know a lot of card games but I don’t think I know any tricks.” She set the cookies on the table and motioned for me to help myself. We each took one, and I bit into mine. It was magically delicious.

  “Edward knew a card trick he sometimes did for visitors. He was quite a performer. I must have watched him do it a dozen times, but I never learned the secret. I liked being his audience, and being surprised,” she said.

  Edward was Mrs. Shirley’s husband. He died many months ago, before I met Mrs. Shirley. She talks about him sometimes, and I like hearing the stories. Mrs. Shirley says that as long as we hold on to our memories of someone who is gone, in a way they are always still here with us. I like that.

  “I got a book on magic tricks from the library today. Do you think I could borrow a deck of cards to practice with?” I asked. Mrs. Shirley has a lot of cards that she keeps in a special drawer. Each deck has a different photo or drawing on the backs of the cards. My favorite decks are the giraffe cards and the hot-air balloon cards. I always choose one of those when we play together.

  “Sure, I’d be happy to lend you one,” she said. “You could even take these.” She nudged the giraffe deck toward me.

  “Thanks. We have a deck at home but Chuck lost eight of the cards from it.” I took another cookie. “I won’t lose any from the one you lend me,” I promised.

  Mrs. Shirley nodded. “I know you won’t.”

  “Oh! I’m supposed to ask you. Are you coming to the potluck on Saturday? Banana and I think you should,” I said.

  At the sound of her name, Banana looked away from Surely Cat for just a second. She barked once. Surely Cat reached out a paw and batted Banana’s snout like it was a toy. Banana jumped with surprise, then barked again, this time at Surely Cat. Surely Cat’s whiskers twitched with mischief. I giggled.

  “Well, in that case, how could I say no?” Mrs. Shirley said. We shared a smile. “Did you know that day is my seventy-sixth birthday?” she asked.

  “On Saturday? Wow! We’ll have to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to you,” I said.

  “I’d like that,” she said.

  “What’s the best birthday you ever had?” I asked.

  Mrs. Shirley shook her head. “Oh, gosh. I’m not sure. There have been a lot of nice ones. What about you, do you have a favorite?”

  I thought about it. My last birthday definitely wasn’t my best one. That was when Sadie and I had our biggest fight. We made up later, but it was sad and hard before it got better.

  “Hmm,” I said. “Actually, my next birthday will be my best one because I’ll be celebrating with two best friends, and Banana.” Sadie and I have been best friends forever but we only met Isabel this year. Having two best friends at my next birthday was sure to be twice as much fun.

  “That does sound good,” Mrs. Shirley said. “Actually, speaking of magic tricks, I thought of a favorite birthday, but it was someone else’s, not mine. Does that count?”

  “Sure,” I said. “What was it?”

  Mrs. Shirley took another cookie. “It was a long time ago, when I was about your age,” she said. “My friend Eleanor had a party and the whole class was invited. At the party was a magician who performed all sorts of magic tricks.”

  “Cool!” I said.

  “It was cool,” Mrs. Shirley said. “And very impressive. He did a card trick or two, and made quarters come out of the birthday girl’s ears, and turned a handkerchief into a bouquet of flowers.”

  “Wow!” I said.

  “Indeed. But the best trick was at the end of the show, when he pulled a live rabbit out of a hat. It was amazing, and all anybody at school talked about the whole next week.” She shook her head. “I still don’t know how he did that. It really seemed like magic! I wished and wished for a magician at my next birthday, but my family couldn’t afford a party lik
e that. I had nice birthdays, but never one with a live magic show.”

  That gave me a great idea. I jumped out of my seat, startling Mrs. Shirley and Surely Cat. Banana didn’t look startled, though. She knew exactly what I was thinking.

  I couldn’t wait to get started on my plan.

  “I have to go,” I said. “Thank you for the cookies, and thanks for lending me the cards. I’ll see you at the potluck on Saturday, for sure.”

  “All right, then,” Mrs. Shirley said. She reached down to scratch Banana behind the ears. “See you Saturday.”

  I gave a quick pat to Surely Cat, tucked the giraffe cards in my pocket, and rushed out the door with Banana at my heels. We needed to get straight to work. Today was Wednesday, and the potluck was on Saturday. There were only three days to prepare for the big surprise!

  Chapter Ten The Magic Plan

  Banana and I discussed the secret plan and talked it over with my parents that evening. They were almost as excited as I was. The next morning before school, I told Isabel and Sadie my big idea while we flew back and forth on the swings.

  Sadie pumped her legs and flew higher. “Let me get this straight. You want us to put on our own magic show at the potluck?” she said.

  “Yes! A surprise magic show, for Mrs. Shirley’s birthday,” I said. The wind blew a few strands of my hair into my face. I pushed them out of the way and kept swinging. “She said she likes being in the audience and being surprised, and that she always wished for a magician at her birthday party. We can surprise her and make the wish come true!”

  “But we don’t know any magic tricks,” Isabel said.

  “Not yet, but we can learn some. We already have the books to teach us how,” I said. Isabel’s swing and mine went side by side for a few seconds as our speeds matched up. She grinned at me. We both loved it when that happened.