Hurry Up, Houdini! Read online

  “Not a problem,” said Mr. Dewey. “The Bambinis left all their props and costumes behind.”

  “See?” Annie said to Jack.

  “But—” started Jack.

  “I’m turning you over to Mr. Wilson, our stage manager, now,” said Mr. Dewey. “Good luck! I have to tell Mrs. Crenshaw to open the doors and let the hordes inside. The show will go on!” Mr. Dewey then disappeared down the hall.

  “You kids better know what you’re doing,” said Mr. Wilson, shaking his head. “Saturday-night crowds can be pretty wild.”

  “Don’t worry,” Annie said with a grin. “Our magic act can get pretty wild, too.”

  Jack couldn’t believe her! She had completely taken over their whole mission!

  Mr. Wilson laughed. “Good,” he said. “I’m glad you’re so confident, Amazing Annie. Come with me. Your dressing room is next to Mr. Houdini’s.”

  “Cool! Is Mr. Houdini here now?” Annie asked as they followed Mr. Wilson.

  “Nope, he won’t get here before eight-thirty,” said Mr. Wilson. He led them down the hallway and opened a door.

  “Here you go.” The stage manager waved Jack and Annie into a small room. “See, the Bambinis left behind all their stuff. Use anything you need. You can wear their costumes, too. Both guys were kind of short.”

  “It all looks great,” said Annie.

  On the dressing table were wands, cards, silver rings the size of dinner plates, top hats, bow ties, and white gloves. Strewn over a chair were tuxedos, shirts, and vests.

  “Oh, wow. Look!” said Annie.

  On the floor were two cages. One held three white rabbits. The other held two white doves.

  “They’re so cute!” said Annie. “What are they doing here?”

  “They’re part of the act,” said Mr. Wilson. He looked puzzled. “Most magicians use doves and rabbits. You don’t?”

  “Oh, sure,” Annie said quickly. “Absolutely, we do.”

  “This is crazy,” said Jack. “We can’t just use the Bambinis’ animals and birds and costumes and props. What—what if they come back?”

  “They won’t be back,” said Mr. Wilson. “Dewey’s threatened to call the police. They’ve stolen from the theater twice now. After the show, Mrs. Crenshaw’s going to take the birds and rabbits home to her kids.”

  “Oh, nice!” said Annie.

  “You have thirty-five minutes,” said Mr. Wilson, looking at his pocket watch. “You’ll go on at fifteen minutes after eight and do a thirty-minute show. Got it?”

  “Okey dokey!” said Annie.

  “Good. Get ready! I’ll call for you!” said Mr. Wilson. The stage manager left, closing the door.

  Annie grinned at Jack. “Do you believe this?” she said.

  “No. I. Don’t,” Jack said coldly.

  The smile left Annie’s face. “What’s wrong? You don’t seem very jolly,” she said.

  “I’m not jolly,” Jack said. “I’m angry. Really angry.”

  “Why?” asked Annie.

  “Because we didn’t decide on this together,” said Jack. “You didn’t even listen to me. Just like you didn’t listen to me when I wanted to buy our tickets early.”

  “But with the magic mist, this could be so much fun, don’t you think?” said Annie. “Plus we’ll meet the Great Houdini for sure. And—and we’ll help Mr. Dewey and his theater. It’s a good plan, Jack!”

  “It might be a good plan,” said Jack. “That’s not the point. The point is we didn’t talk about it together. We’re supposed to be a team on our missions.”

  “But if it’s a good plan, what difference does it make if we didn’t talk about it?” said Annie. “Why can’t you just go along with me?”

  “Because I don’t want to,” said Jack. “You decided by yourself to do this—so just do it by yourself. Just go on the stage and use the magic mist all by yourself.”

  “Really?” said Annie.

  “Really!” said Jack.

  “Well, fine,” said Annie.

  “Okay, then,” said Jack.

  “Good-bye,” said Annie.

  “Good-bye!” said Jack. He stormed out of the dressing room, banging the door shut behind him. He walked briskly down the backstage hallway, through the doors, and into the auditorium.

  A rowdy crowd was streaming down the aisles.

  Ushers yelled at teenagers who were shoving each other and fighting over their seats. Hooligans, Jack thought, glad he didn’t have to perform.

  Jack made his way through the auditorium, then through the packed lobby. He slipped by the ticket taker and squeezed past people streaming into the theater.

  Jack walked away from Henderson’s Music Hall as fast as he could. He hurried up the avenue, weaving his way through the crowds on the sidewalk.

  She can just do it by herself, Jack thought. I don’t care. She can use Merlin’s magic mist all by herself! She can perform for the hooligans and the hordes if she wants to! But I don’t have to! She can sniff the magic mist and just … oh. OH!

  Jack stopped. He dug into his brown bag. He pulled out the small bottle. “Oh, no,” he moaned. Annie didn’t have Merlin’s magic mist. He did!

  Jack whirled around and started back up Surf Avenue. The sidewalk was so crowded, he had to jump off the curb into the street and trot alongside the old-timey cars and the horses and buggies.

  When Jack reached the theater, people were still making their way inside. He squeezed through the crowd, trying not to push anyone too hard. “Excuse me, excuse me,” he said. He tried to sneak his way past the ticket taker, but the man grabbed him. “Ticket, sonny?”

  “I don’t have a ticket,” said Jack. “I just need to get backstage fast.”

  “Beat it, kid,” said the ticket taker.

  “Wait!” said Jack. He pointed at the chalkboard announcing their act. “I’m Jolly Jack. See?”

  “I don’t see nothing jolly about you!” said the ticket seller. “Beat it now or I’ll call the cops. Next!”

  Jack backed away from the door. He pulled out his pocket watch. It was ten minutes to eight! Annie had to go on at eight-fifteen! He paced up and down the sidewalk, desperately looking for another entrance.

  There must be a door somewhere that leads backstage! he thought. He peered down a long, narrow alley beside the theater. The alley was dark, except for the glow of light from high windows above a row of garbage cans.

  Jack hurried down the alley. A rat skittered out from behind a can. Jack kept going until he rounded the corner. He found the back entrance, but when he tried the handle, it was locked. He banged and banged on the door, but no one answered.

  The windows! Jack thought. He hurried back into the alley. To reach the row of windows, he had to step from a packing crate onto the top of a garbage can. Jack stood on his toes and looked through a lit window. He saw a hallway, but no one was there. He carefully stepped from one garbage can to another until he reached the next window.

  Jack looked through the glass into the Bambinis’ dressing room. He saw Annie dressed in an oversized tuxedo. She was staring at a piece of paper.

  Jack pounded on the window. “Annie! Annie!” he shouted, panting.

  When Annie saw him, her face lit up. “Hi!” she yelled. She put down the paper and jumped onto a chair. She lifted a latch and then pushed the window up. “Thanks for coming back!” she cried. “I am so sorry, Jack!”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said.

  “Are you coming in?” asked Annie.

  “Yeah. Hold on.” Jack jumped down and picked up the packing crate. He placed it on top of the garbage can. Then he carefully climbed onto the can and the crate. Clutching the windowsill, he hoisted himself through the window.

  Annie helped him step down onto a chair, and then onto the floor.

  Jack reached into his bag and pulled out the small bottle. “You’ll need this before you go … onstage,” he said, out of breath. “Mist gathered at first light … on the first day … of the new moon
… on the Isle of Avalon.”

  “Thanks!” said Annie, taking the bottle. “When I realized I didn’t have it, I didn’t know what to do.”

  “That’s what I figured,” said Jack.

  Annie grabbed the paper from the table. “Look at this,” she said, handing it to Jack. “The Bambini Brothers must have left it.”

  Jack and Annie looked at the paper together. “It looks like a list of tricks,” said Jack. He read:

  Instant Wand

  Three Bunnies

  Miracle Doves

  Cards from Thin Air

  Chinese Rings

  “Yeah, I think I have all the props for them,” said Annie. “See? There are two wands, three rabbits, two doves, a pack of cards, and three big rings.”

  “Yeah, it’s all here …,” said Jack.

  “But what do I do with it?” said Annie.

  “Maybe you’ll find out when you use the magic mist,” said Jack.

  “Oh, yes, I bet I will!” said Annie.

  “Yeah,” Jack said.

  “Now I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen!” said Annie.

  “Bet you’ll have a good time,” said Jack.

  “What are you thinking?” asked Annie. “Should I still perform all by myself? Or do you think maybe we should perform together?”

  Jack stared at her a moment, then sighed. “Together,” he said softly.

  “Yay!” said Annie. “We’ll be a great team. I promise.” She held up the bottle. “Should we use this right now? Do you want to?”

  “Hmm,” said Jack. “Yeah. Then we’ll be able to figure everything out. But remember, the magic only works for one hour.” He looked at his watch. “It’s five after eight. If we start the magic now, we’ll be great stage magicians until five after nine.”

  “No problem!” said Annie. “We go on at eight-fifteen for thirty minutes. That means we’ll leave the stage at eight-forty-five.”

  There was a knock on the door. Mr. Wilson poked his head inside, and the noise of the audience rushed into the room like a lion’s roar. Jack heard stamping and whistling and shouting.

  “You go on in ten minutes!” Mr. Wilson said.

  “Thanks,” said Annie.

  The door closed. Jack looked at Annie in a panic. “Did you hear that crowd?” he said.

  “Don’t think about it,” said Annie. “Quick, let’s use the magic!” She pulled the cork out of the bottle. “Ready?”

  Jack nodded.

  Annie held the bottle under her nose. “We wish to be two great stage magicians!” she said, and she took a deep breath. “Ahhh!” Then she handed the bottle to Jack.

  Jack closed his eyes and inhaled the mist. It smelled of dewy grass, sparkling lake water, and wild thyme. He stuck the cork back into the bottle and put the bottle into the pocket of his pants.

  Jack gave Annie a big grin. He felt like a new person. The crowd wasn’t scary anymore. In fact, he could hardly wait to get on the stage and show them what he could do.

  “Okay!” Jack said, clapping his hands. “I’d better put on my costume!” He grabbed the extra tuxedo and slipped behind a dressing curtain.

  As he changed his clothes, Jack realized that everything was slightly too big. But it didn’t bother him. Not at all. He rolled up his pants cuffs and the sleeves of his shirt and jacket, and then stepped out from behind the curtain.

  “You look just like a real magician!” said Annie.

  “Of course,” said Jack, looking in the mirror and straightening his bow tie, “for that is exactly who I am. And so are you.” He looked around the room. In the corner was a table on a pedestal. The top was covered with black velvet trimmed with gold fringe.

  “Now let us prepare for our show. First we’ll put the rabbits and doves in the hidden compartments of that table,” he said.

  “Yep,” said Annie. “No problem.”

  Jack and Annie began preparing their props quietly and expertly, as if they’d done it a thousand times before. Jack picked up the rabbit cage and set it on the table. He pressed a small trapdoor in the middle of the velvet-covered tabletop, and the door flapped down.

  “Here you go, bunnies,” said Jack. He lifted the three small rabbits out of their cage and placed them comfortably in one of the table’s hidden compartments. “See you soon.”

  While Jack took care of the rabbits, Annie handled the birds. She opened a second small door on the tabletop and carefully placed the two white doves into another secret compartment. “They look happy in there,” she said.

  Jack set the deck of cards in the center of the table. Annie hid the two wands inside the sleeves of her tuxedo jacket.

  Jack pulled his pocket watch from his pants. “Eight-fifteen,” he said.

  Annie smiled. “We have fifty minutes of magic left,” she said.

  Jack slipped the watch into the pocket of his tuxedo jacket. Annie arranged the silver rings on top of the table.

  A knock came at the door and Mr. Wilson looked into the room.

  “Ready? Jolly Jack? Amazing Annie?” the stage manager asked.

  This time, the roar of the crowd did not alarm Jack in the least. In fact, it thrilled him. “Yes, indeed, Mr. Wilson! Thank you!” he said with a jolly laugh.

  “If you’d be so kind, Mr. Wilson, please set our table center stage,” said Annie.

  “Hank! Butch!” Mr. Wilson shouted. Two stagehands immediately appeared. They picked up the table and carried it out of the dressing room. When the stage crew was gone, Jack and Annie pulled on their white gloves.

  “You sure you feel okay about doing this?” Annie asked.

  “Totally.” Jack smiled at her. He tightened his gloves and wiggled his fingers. Then he put on his top hat. “Let’s go, my dear,” he said, leading the way out the door. “It’s showtime!”

  As the orchestra played, Mr. Wilson guided Jack and Annie through the backstage area. “Watch out, kids,” he said. “Like I said before, it’s a tough crowd out there tonight.”

  Jack smiled confidently. No crowd is too tough for us, he thought.

  Hank and Butch set the table with Jack and Annie’s props center stage behind the closed curtain. The stage was lit with a soft rosy light.

  “Places!” called Mr. Wilson.

  Jack and Annie nodded and calmly took their places in front of the table. They heard a long drumroll, then a cymbal crash. They heard Mr. Dewey speaking to the audience from in front of the curtain:

  “Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Great Houdini show! I have a very special and wonderful surprise for you this evening. As you may know, the Bambini Brothers were scheduled to be our opening act. But instead, it will be your great good fortune to welcome a truly remarkable pair of young illusionists. These master magicians have performed in theaters all around the world, and tonight they are here to perform for you! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jolly Jack and the Amazing Annie!”

  A trumpet blasted, the curtain rose, and the crowd clapped and whistled as Jack and Annie stepped into a yellow spotlight.

  Looking out at the audience, Jack chuckled like a seasoned performer. His heart pounded, but not with fear. It pounded with an excitement that made him want to do his best.

  “Good evening, friends!” Jack shouted over the applause. “They call me Jolly Jack because nothing brings me greater joy than entertaining folks like you! And they call my sister Amazing Annie because—” Jack held his gloved hand out toward Annie.

  “I love to amaze you with my amazing ability to amaze you!” Annie shouted.

  The cymbals crashed. The crowd laughed.

  “Do not let our youthful appearance fool you!” Annie went on. “My brother and I have traveled the globe to discover mysteries both ancient and modern!”

  Jack took off his top hat and turned it toward the crowd. “I direct your attention to my hat,” he said. “As you can see, the inside is quite ordinary. But strange things happen with this hat, especially when I touch it with a wand given to us by an
Arabian princess.”

  Jack looked around. “Oh, dear, I seem to have forgotten my wand.”

  Annie stepped forward. She swept her right arm in front of her—and presto! A wand appeared in her hand! Jack knew that when she waved her arm, she had simply allowed one of the hidden wands to slip from her sleeve.

  The cymbals crashed.

  The crowd cheered.

  Annie grinned triumphantly and bowed.

  While Annie was distracting everyone, Jack casually put his hat upside down on the velvet tabletop, over one of the hidden trapdoors. As he set the hat down, he pressed on the trapdoor and it flapped open.

  “Thank you, Amazing Annie!” Jack called.

  Annie handed Jack the wand, and he stepped back and waved it around the brim of the top hat.

  The crowd grew quiet.

  In a deep, mysterious voice, Jack intoned, “Zoom-bally-win-doo-chee-gone-hay! Which means, Oh, marvelous hat, what do you have for me today?”

  Jack tapped the hat, stepped back from the table, and turned to Annie. “My dear, may I ask you to check my hat, please?” he said. “I have a feeling it holds a surprise.”

  There was a drumroll as Annie slowly reached into the hat. Jack knew she was pushing down on the top of the hat, which also had a secret flap.

  A small white rabbit suddenly leapt from the secret compartment, through the hat, and into Annie’s arms!

  The orchestra played triumphant music, and the audience cheered.

  Two more rabbits jumped out! Each time, Annie caught the rabbits and pretended to be surprised.

  The cymbals crashed.

  The audience laughed and clapped.

  Annie handed the rabbits to Hank and Butch, who carried them offstage. Then she took off her own hat. “Ladies and gentlemen!” she shouted. “As you can see, my hat is as empty as my brother’s was.” She showed the inside of the hat to the audience. “But it also holds wonders.”

  Annie set her hat on the table beside Jack’s, carefully placing it on top of the second hidden door. “Oh, I’m going to need another wand!” she said. This time, she swept her left arm in front of her, and presto! The second wand appeared in her hand.