The Third Movement Page 16

  He glanced back once more and saw the burning figure crumble to the ground, spraying embers up into the air.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  For Theo Stein-Meyer, the next few memories passed like a fog through his mind.

  Sometimes, however, there were moments of clarity.

  He would recall spending several days in the Mineral Wells medical clinic, where the doctors kept him for observation. They said he was suffering from shock, which Theo thought sounded more like a reaction to a very interesting magic trick than a serious medical condition. His parents alternated sitting at his bedside. In the meantime, he had plenty of visitors: his brothers and sisters, the two Mr. Vernons, and of course the other members of the Magic Misfits.

  Everyone helped him catch up on what was happening out in the world.

  The Vernons’ shop had been destroyed. Carter and Leila and both Mr. Vernons had taken a suite at the Grand Oak Resort. Top Hat, Presto, and Change-O were safe there.

  While exploring the bootlegging tunnels below the town, investigators had discovered evidence that someone had indeed set off an explosive underneath the magic shop.

  The Mineral Wells Gazette had printed an article about the radio transmitters inside the Darling Daniels. Now, instead of finding the dolls in all corners of the town, one was most likely to discover a doll peeking out from the top of a garbage can sitting at the end of a driveway or parked in an alley.

  Much like Vernon’s Magic Shop, Meridian’s Music had closed its doors, but for a very different reason. Leila and Carter had gone to check on Emily and Mick and had discovered a note taped to the front window. It read: To our beloved customers—The time has come for the Meridians to move along. Thank you for your many years of patronage. We wish you the best in your future musical endeavors. Fondly, Mick and Emily Meridian.

  Theo would not allow himself to believe that she was gone, not without seeing the proof for himself. On the morning he was discharged from the clinic, he asked his parents to drive past the music shop.

  The windows were dark. When he got out of the car and pressed his face to the glass, he saw that the instruments that had lined the walls were gone. All that was left were the wires and hooks that had held them aloft for so long.

  Returning to the car at the curb, Theo felt an emptiness growing inside him. Where once he had felt his heart beating strongly, there was only a hollow echoing.

  Almost a week later, Theo joined his friends at the Grand Oak Resort for a private brunch. The Other Mr. Vernon had prepared eggs Florentine, piles of blueberry pancakes, lemon-poppy scones, and enormous donuts of all flavors and colors.

  They were the only group in the dining room—the tall, broad doors were shut against the resort’s other guests. Ridley drummed her fingers on the table, gathering their attention. “After thinking about the anagram that Kalagan put on the poster,” she said, opening her notebook, “I did some playing around with Darling Daniel’s messages. There were six of them, remember?” She turned the notebook around for everyone to see:

  Made of wood but filled with laughs!

  You will not believe your eyes and ears.

  Look no farther than the Grand Oak Resort.

  No time like now to get your tickets.

  Escape your boring lives with Darling Daniel!

  Now you see me!

  “We remember,” Theo answered. “But what are we supposed to be looking at?”

  Leila squeaked. “Oh no!” She looked to her father. “Dad, this is scary!”

  Dante Vernon was at the head of the table, wearing a grim expression.

  “Will someone please share the secret?” Carter pleaded. Leila dragged her finger down the side of the page, touching the first word of each sentence. Carter read them aloud: “Made. You. Look. No. Escape… ” He turned the color of the bone china laid out on the table. “Now,” he finished with a gulp.

  Theo felt his scalp tingle. The twins simply stared at the notebook in horror.

  “Kalagan is still nowhere to be found,” said Mr. Vernon. “And Ridley’s discovery does not bode well for the Magic Misfits or their future.”

  “What do you mean?” Theo asked. “I thought we were better than ever.”

  “And that’s the problem,” said Mr. Vernon. “Kalagan must not believe that.”

  “You mean…” Carter started, looking puzzled. “What do you mean?”

  Ridley crossed her arms. “He means that Mick and Emily had the right idea.” She stared at the older magician as if trying to read his mind. “He thinks we shouldn’t meet anymore.”

  “Really, Dad?” Leila asked, glancing around the table. “But we have to. These are my friends. My best friends. And they always will be.”

  Vernon cleared his throat. “Ridley is right. I think the time has come for the Magic Misfits to disband.”

  Theo felt a creeping sensation across his skin.

  Olly sat up straight. “I’ll be better,” he said. “No more distractions. Only magic.”

  “Me too,” said Izzy. “I’ve always hated distractions anyway. Distractions are soooo distracting. We’ll help everyone keep practicing!”

  Vernon shook his head. “As long as Kalagan believes that you all are working against him, that you are my own little helpers, he will not stop coming. For you. For us. I don’t mean to frighten you, but… I am worried. Appearing together as you have been this summer will only be more and more dangerous. Kalagan must not see that anymore.”

  Something about the way Vernon said that last bit lodged in Theo’s mind.

  Must not see…

  “But Mr. Vernon,” Carter went on, “we’ve already agreed. If Kalagan were still here in Mineral Wells, we would know it. Even if he was wearing a disguise, he couldn’t hide what happened to his knee when Emily kicked him. We heard the pop. All we need to do is keep a lookout for someone with an injury.”

  “I’m afraid that will not be enough,” said Mr. Vernon. “After what I learned on my recent journey north, I fear that he has ways to circumvent suspicion.”

  Leila scowled. “You’re still not going to tell us what happened while you were away?”

  Her father blinked. “I can only apologize for not being here for you all. After Sandra Santos showed up last month, I should have told you that Mick Meridian was a member of the Emerald Ring. Living right here in Mineral Wells. I suppose I need to learn to accept that secrets, while important in magic, hurt more often than they help when real life is concerned.”

  “So, what do we do now?” Ridley asked. “Just stop talking to each other?”

  Vernon looked down. “Keep up the charade. Pretend that you have grown apart. That you cannot get along any longer. Only then will the target be removed from your backs. I am so sorry that I have put us in this situation.”

  The Misfits glanced around the table at one another. They had no words. There was nothing more to say.

  The first few days without his friends were the hardest. Theo had his brothers and sisters to keep him company, but their long visit was coming to an end.

  “Until next year,” said Leo, hugging Theo good-bye from the front porch of their family’s house. “Keep up with that violin. It will do you good.”

  August drew to a close. Theo prepared for the upcoming school year. His parents bought him a new tuxedo to replace the one he had dirtied over the summer. He hurried to read the several books that his English teacher had assigned.

  One afternoon, he discovered a letter in the mailbox with his name on it. There was no stamp, no postmark, no return address. Inside was a neatly folded letter. And tucked inside the letter was a mysterious brass key. It fell out into the palm of his hand as he read:

  Dear Theo,

  I’m so sorry I never had the chance to say good-bye. Despite everything that happened this summer, I want you to know that I enjoyed the time I spent with you. My father was afraid that if we stayed in Mineral Wells, our shop would have been targeted just like Vernon’s Magic Shop.

&nbs
p; I’m writing to you in confidence that my family feels safer where we are now. My mother and father are trying to work things out. I know it’s not going to be easy, and that it’ll take time. Love is as complicated as the insides of a metronome. But then, time is something that we have a lot of now. And I hope that in time I can give you a real good-bye.

  And maybe someday, another hello.

  Yours truly,

  Emily Meridian

  Wiping away tears, Theo tucked the letter in the drawer next to his bed. He grasped the key in his fist. Then he headed out toward Main Street, walking slowly so he would not bring attention to himself.

  He listened to the sounds of every car that passed, to every child shouting from a backyard swing set; he listened for phantom footfalls that might, at any moment, come racing up behind him. He wished that Ridley could accompany him, but he knew that appearing with her would be even more dangerous than walking through Mineral Wells alone.

  Theo paused as he came to the corner where Vernon’s Magic Shop had stood a few weeks prior. Now there was only an empty lot. Even the basement had been filled in. It looked like someone had taken a giant eraser and rubbed one of the most iconic parts of Mineral Wells off the map. He continued on, breathing heavily as he approached his destination.

  The windows of the old music store were still dark, and they reflected Theo’s own solemn face back at him. He took the brass key from his pocket and slid it into the front door. Just as he had expected, the bolt turned easily.

  But why had Emily sent him the key?

  Theo made his way to the back of the shop, feeling the loneliness of the empty shelves where countless instruments once lived, the abandoned workbench where Mick built his whimsical gadgets. On the workbench itself, though, sat a small parcel. Holding his breath, Theo grabbed the object and brought it back out into the light at the front of the store.

  The package was rectangular in shape and smaller than a bread box. It had been wrapped in brown butcher paper and tied neatly with twine. A note was attached. It read: Keep safe. He glanced around the shop, making sure that this was not a trap, that no one was hiding, waiting to step out from the shadows, a knife glinting in their fist. He slipped outside and turned the key, locking the shop once again.

  A few steps from the door, Theo’s curiosity got the best of him. He pulled the twine, then tore off the butcher paper.

  It was a wooden box intricately inlaid with multicolored pieces. It did not appear to have a lid, nor any other obvious way to open it. After a moment, Theo realized that the inlay spelled out letters.

  MXM.

  It took Theo several seconds to realize why the box looked familiar. When Carter had arrived in Mineral Wells in the spring, he had brought one almost exactly like it with him. The letters on his box were LWL. And Leila had discovered another one in the basement of the lodge of the Grand Oak Resort. That one had been marked AIS.

  Theo knew that the letters were initials. The AIS box had belonged to Sandra Santos, the psychic, whose first name was really Alessandra. LWL was Lyle Locke, Carter’s father. Which meant that MXM was Mick Meridian.

  Keep safe, the note read. The words made Theo remember what Kalagan had said to him and Carter and Leila outside the ruined magic shop.

  Not safe.

  Theo shivered and tucked the box inside his jacket. He wished he could ask the Misfits what they thought about this. Why would Mick have left this box behind for Theo? Was there something hidden inside?

  At home, Theo made room for the MXM box at the back of his closet, on the shelf behind his extra bed pillows. He was not sure if it was the safest spot, but it would have to do for now. Or at least until he could get more information.

  He took his violin downstairs, made his way out into the backyard, and approached the coop where his doves perched, cooing. Peeking inside, he noticed three small rolls of paper lying on the floor. He swung the chicken-wire door wide and scooped them up.

  Making his way into the yard, Theo sat down in the chair where Leo had practiced his cello earlier in the summer, then opened each scroll. He took a special coin out of his pocket so that he could decipher the writing inside. Then he opened his violin case, removed a small pad of paper, and tore a page into three pieces. He checked the coin, wrote out his own message three times, then rolled up each piece and went back to the coop.

  After attaching one scroll each to the legs of three birds, he set the doves free, watching as they flew toward the setting sun. One was headed for Ridley’s house, while the two others flapped toward the resort—to the twins and to Carter and Leila.

  Theo did not worry. He knew they would come back soon.

  He returned to his open violin case and pulled his magic bow from his pocket. He held it aloft, and moments later, the violin rose up to meet his hand like an old friend. He placed it under his chin and raised the bow to the strings.

  Music floated and swirled on the wind, dancing and looping in the air around the Stein-Meyer home, and farther up into the sky over Mineral Wells.

  As he moved the bow rapidly, then languidly, then with staccato bursts, Theo allowed his emotions to swell. He felt happiness and loneliness and pride all at the same time. He didn’t know what would come next, but he wasn’t about to stop now. The rhythm danced and swayed, but it always kept time, just like the metronome that sat on the desk in his bedroom.

  Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock…

  HOW TO…

  Make a Card Rise Up from a Deck

  If you have been paying attention, you may remember that during the first magic lesson in this book, I asked you to mark the page so you could find it again. For those of you clever enough to have done so, go back and find that first magical moment. (Look for your bookmark. Or feather, or rose petal, or fake mustache!) For those of you clever enough to realize that I would remind you about all this later on, go back and look here. Do not worry. You are not cheating.

  Did you find the trick? It is the one called “How to Find a Spectator’s Card.”

  Splendid! You can use the following trick as a continuation of that first trick, or you may simply do this trick on its own. Either way should delight your audience and make them want to pat your back.

  WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

  A regular deck of playing cards

  STEPS:

  1. Go ahead and try that first trick with a volunteer.

  2. Once you have located the volunteer’s card, cut the deck in two. When you reunite the two piles, make sure that their card is on the top of the stack.

  3. In one hand, hold the deck with the suits facing your audience so that they see the bottom card. The card on the top of the deck will be the one that your volunteer chose.

  4. With your other hand, hold your pointer finger just over the top of the deck, so that your finger points away from you.

  5. Explain that the tip of your finger is filled with so much magic it can make a card rise out of the deck. You might try blowing on your finger beforehand, or even rubbing it on your shirt, as if “charging” it.

  6. Slowly lower your hand so that your finger rests on top of the deck.

  SECRET MAGIC MOVE:

  As you bring your pointer finger down, extend your pinky finger of the same hand so that it is touching the back of the deck. Keep this move hidden from your audience.

  7. Slowly raise your pointer finger while pressing the tip of your pinky against the top card. Use your pinky to move the card upward. Astound your audience as the volunteer’s card appears to rise shockingly out of the deck, as if attached to your “magically charged” pointer finger.

  8. To maintain the illusion, when the card is about halfway up, use your pointer finger and thumb to grab the top of the card and pull it away from the rest, while quickly tucking your pinky finger into your palm. Hand the card to the volunteer.

  9. Smile and take a well-deserved bow.

  FAREWELL, FOR NOW

  Thank you, dear reader, for choosing to spend your time with m
e, and with the Magic Misfits. I know the end of this tale must feel rather heart-wrenching, but do not despair. There is another story to come.

  What a tale it will be!

  Adventure, laughs, deception, revelation, and more magic than can be safely experienced in one sitting. Like the twine wrapped around the package in Meridian’s Music, I promise that all your questions will be answered, tied up in a bow.

  I cannot say that the bow will be pretty.

  Nevertheless, a bow it will be.

  You might be wondering what was written in the scrolls that Theo discovered inside the bird coop. I have included the transcripts. You may read them if you can decode them, just like Theo had to do.

  When you are finished, make sure you take the time to hug your loved ones. Thank your friends for being your friends. Your family for being your family. Go out and create some wonder. Make some magic. At this point, you should have plenty in supply. Your loved ones will be filled with gratitude for your bringing smiles to their faces, as I am filled with gratitude for you, my friend.

  Until next time: Be brilliant, be brave, be curious, be kind. Be a misfit.

  Be the magic you wish to make in this world.

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