The Magic Misfits 2. Neil Patrick Harris

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СКАЧАТЬ too much to handle, Leila would recall her adoption by the Vernons. She held on to the hand of that memory, as if it could lead her to safety. Sometimes it worked. But sometimes the darkness in those locked cupboards was too difficult to see through.

      Especially after everything that had happened with B. B. Bosso and his circus of thieves several weeks before…

      Leila blinked at the ceiling, feeling both blessed and cursed – happy to have this home and this family, but annoyed that the past kept knocking to be let in. This won’t do, she thought. She whipped away the quilt, then scurried to her bookshelf, where she’d placed her secret tin box.

      The box rattled noisily. She drew it to her chest to quiet it. Next door was the room of her newfound cousin, Carter. She didn’t want the clamour to wake him.

      Leila lifted the lid and stared at her key collection, which had grown substantially in the years since she’d moved to Mineral Wells. But her first key, the one tied to the string, the one that had been with her on the night Mother Margaret found her on the orphanage doorstep, sat on the very top. Leila lifted the string and let the key swing back and forth like a mesmerist’s pendulum.

      She thought about Bosso and Carter and the other Misfits. She knew that Carter must also suffer from memories of his former life. She wondered if he ever thought of his missing parents, as she sometimes wondered why her own had deserted her on a dark, cold night. Other times, she was happy to not think of them at all. She pressed her hand against the cold key, as if to make an impression against her skin, one that she might use to forge a copy. Her body warmed the key, and the key warmed her body and calmed her mind.

      From somewhere beyond her bedroom door, the sound of a commotion stirred: a chair suddenly shifting, a pile of books toppling from a shelf, things crashing to the floor. Next came a sharp and fearful yelp.

      Leila raced into the darkness of the hallway, where she was instantly barraged with small, sharp objects flying at her, pecking her like angry birds. With a yelp, she swung her hand at the nearest light switch. The hall flooded with a soft glow.

      Carter was crouched at his own bedroom door, shooting playing cards from his hands toward Leila. (Not angry birds after all, thank goodness!) She swatted them away. “Carter, it’s only me!”

      He stopped immediately. “Oh geez, I’m sorry!”

      His blond hair was a mess, his cheeks red and marked by rumpled bedsheets. He must have been woken up by the loud sounds as well. Of course, he had come out of his room prepared with his favourite weapon – a deck of cards. He asked, “Are you okay?”

      Leila nodded. “You heard the crash and the yelp too?”

      Before he could answer, there was another crash. The clamour came from behind Mr Vernon’s office door. It was as if the man were barreling into furniture and knocking things over.

      Leila and Carter pounded on the door. From inside, her dad gave a muffled grunt. Carter tried the knob, but it was locked. Leila whipped out her lucky lockpicks from the pocket of her nightgown. With a few swift movements, Leila worked her magic, and the door swung inward.

      Dante Vernon was standing in the corner, his curly white hair messy, his dark eyes as wide as the crystal balls that he sold in the magic shop downstairs. His chest heaved as if he’d just sprinted around the neighbourhood. “Oh good,” he said with a sudden smile. “At least now I know I’m not dreaming. Please shut the door. We can’t let it get out of the room with my book.”

      Despite her confusion, Leila did as she was told.

      “It? ” asked Carter. “What do you mean by it ?”

      Mr Vernon pointed beneath his desk. Something in the shadows let out a horrifying screech.

      Both Leila and Carter jumped.

      “I’d been writing in my notebook when I dozed off. I woke up when something snatched the book out from under my hand,” Vernon explained. “The creature snuck in through the window, which I’ve closed and locked. It’s of vital importance that we get my book back. Understood?”

      Leila and Carter nodded.

      “Carter, toss me the little rope on the table beside you,” Vernon directed. Carter threw the white cord, and Vernon caught it one-handed. “Now, Leila, when I say go, slide the chair away, okay? On the count of three.”

      Leila nodded even though she wasn’t nearly as ready as she would’ve liked. But that was what it meant to be a Vernon and a member of the Magic Misfits. You trusted your friends and your family… even when they asked you to help catch a mysterious creature that had snuck into their office in the middle of the night.

      “One…”

      Leila edged toward the chair.

      “Two…”

      Something growled from under the desk. Leila felt her stomach move up into her throat.

       “Three!”

      Leila yanked back the chair as Vernon dove under the desk. A blur of blondish fur raced over his spine, back toward the wall, and leapt into the shadows behind a large houseplant.

      “What is that?” Carter yelped, more curious than frightened. Leila leaned forward. The creature’s silhouette was about a foot high and resembled a gremlin.

      Mr Vernon got up, pushing his hair out of his face. He flicked his wrist and the soft rope became rigid in his grip, a loop forming at the end like a lasso. “Children, back away now. I’ve got this.”

      “Hold on, Dad.” Leila’s voice quivered. She picked up the knocked-over lamp and aimed its bulb at the shadows.

      Instantly, they could see it clearly. The creature looked up at them with fear in its dark eyes – a skinny little thing with a long tail and a black spiked collar around its neck. It shrieked again. It was a monkey.

      Friends, I’ll bet you’re thinking that if you were ever in this situation, you’d plop yourself onto the floor, hold open your arms, and coo, “Give me a hug, you cuuuuuutie !” Let me assure you: Nighttime monkey thieves are not nearly as adorable as you’d like them to be.

      “It’s Bosso’s monkey,” said Carter, his voice shaking. “I’m s-sure of it.”

      Vernon raised his finger to his lips, trying to not startle the monkey, who snarled and tensed as if getting ready to jump at them. That was when Carter snapped his fingers, revealing a shortbread cookie in his other hand.

      Carter was doing a simple trick called palming. Every good magician has practiced palming at one time or another. Have you? It’s a form of misdirection in which a magician hides an object by cupping it in the palm of his or her hand. The magician will then reveal the object by using their other hand to create a distraction. In this case, Carter snapped his fingers to capture the monkey’s attention, then showed him the cookie.

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