Horse Magic (13 page)

With Joe watching his every move, Phil slowly pretended to slice the banana into four equal sections with his invisible knife.

“Okay, it’s ready now,” he said. “I’ve cut it up inside the skin.” He handed the banana to Joe. “Why don’t you peel it for me?”

Joe took the banana. After carefully examining the skin to make sure it was still intact, he peeled the banana. He gasped. “Hey! It
is
cut up already!” he exclaimed, holding it up to show the other kids. Then he turned back to Phil. “How did you do that?”

Phil shrugged and reached for one of the banana sections. “I told you,” he said popping it into his mouth. “Invisible knife.”

While the kids applauded, Stevie turned to Dinah. “Okay, let’s hear it,” she said. “How did he do that?”

“Like I said, that’s actually a pretty easy one,” Dinah said with a grin. “All we had to do was prepare the banana beforehand by sticking a needle through the skin in three different spots and wiggling it back and forth so that it
sliced through the banana. There’s no way the audience would notice the tiny needle holes in the skin. So when the banana is peeled it seems like magic.”

The others laughed. “What a great trick!” Stevie exclaimed. “I think I’ll try it at school on Monday. Now, I’ll just have to figure out where to hide the needle.…”

Dinah grinned. “I’m sorry I’ll miss it.” She glanced back at the stage, where Phil was in the midst of a trick using a handkerchief and a coin. “In a minute I get to do my first solo trick,” she said.

“What is it?” Lisa asked.

“I’m going to make a riding crop seem to stick to my hand,” Dinah replied. She held up her left hand with her fingers spread and the palm facing away from the other girls. Then she wrapped her right hand around her left wrist so that the fingers and thumb met over the back of her left hand. “See, I only let the audience see the back of my left hand,” she explained. “Meanwhile, they’ll think my right hand is just holding my wrist, but really my index finger will be stretched out to my palm, holding the crop against it. But the audience won’t see that finger because it’s behind my wrist. And if I play it right they’ll never notice that only three of the fingers and the thumb on my right hand are showing.” She pulled a riding crop out of her pocket and demonstrated. It did look just as though the crop were attached to her hand with nothing holding it there. “I’ll shake my hand as if I’m trying to get rid of the crop—but of course I’ll be holding on to it with my right-hand index
finger the whole time. See, the hardest part of each trick is the acting. You have to make the audience believe that the impossible things they’re seeing are really happening.”

“Well, Phil is awfully good at that part, that’s for sure,” Carole said admiringly. “He almost had me convinced with that invisible knife business.”

Just then Phil finished another trick. After the applause died down, he clapped his hands. “And now, my talented assistant, Dinah the Dynamic, will bring me a riding crop for my next trick.”

Dinah winked at her friends and hurried out, holding the crop. The kids shrieked with laughter as she pretended the crop was stuck to her hand. Phil did a very convincing job of pretending to yank on it with all his might, while Dinah herself frantically tried to shake it loose.

Suddenly Stevie remembered something. She had hung her Betsy Ross flag on the fence of the outdoor ring during dinner and never picked it up afterward. Stevie had solemnly sworn to her mother that she would take good care of it. If it rained again and the flag got soaked, Mrs. Lake might never forgive her. Stevie sighed. She hated to miss even a few minutes of the magic show, but she knew she would hate being grounded for life much more. “I’ll be right back,” she whispered to Carole.

Carole just nodded, her eyes glued to Phil, who was now pretending to put a spell on the riding crop so that it would let go of Dinah.

Stevie crept out of the indoor ring quietly, not wanting to
distract the kids from Phil’s act. She needn’t have worried, though—Phil’s audience was completely engrossed. Stevie was glad to see that the kids were having fun. All kids deserved to have fun, no matter how poor they were or where they lived. And to have fun with horses around—that was even better, in Stevie’s opinion.

Outside, Stevie quickly spotted her flag still hanging on the fence where she’d left it. She grabbed it and hurried back inside, shivering a little. The sun had gone down and the air was damp and chilly.

As she was heading back toward the indoor ring, Stevie heard a familiar whinny. She turned down the aisle and went to Belle’s stall. The mare was looking out over the half door.

“Hi, girl,” Stevie whispered, giving her a pat. Then she gasped. Someone had braided the horse’s mane! The neat rows of dark hair were plaited with black and orange ribbons. The ends fluttered gaily in the air.

Stevie fingered the tight braids. Then she slipped inside the stall to get a look at the mare’s tail. Sure enough, it was also braided with black and orange ribbons, looking neat and trim enough to step out in a show—a Halloween show.

“But who?” Stevie muttered. Who could have done this? She was already convinced that Phil wasn’t the poltergeist, and this proved it once again. He and Dinah had been busy setting up in the indoor ring the last time Stevie had seen Belle. And although for one crazy moment Stevie suspected Carole simply because the braider had done such a professional
job, she knew that Carole couldn’t have done it either. For one thing, Carole hadn’t been out of Stevie’s sight for more than five minutes at a time for the last couple of hours, and this braiding job had certainly taken a lot more than five minutes. For another thing, Stevie was sure that Carole wasn’t the poltergeist. It wasn’t like her. And besides, she hadn’t even been around when some of the pranks had happened—the first appearance of the poltergeist book, for instance.

Stevie sighed and gave Belle a farewell pat. “Well, if a poltergeist did this, he sure knows what he’s doing,” she told the horse. “He could get a job with any stable in the country.”

She turned and walked back to the indoor ring, arriving just in time for Phil’s grand finale. She watched as he made a series of objects disappear inside a big red horse blanket, then made them reappear again throughout the audience. It was an impressive trick, but Stevie wasn’t really concentrating on it. She was too busy thinking about an even more mysterious trick—Belle’s braided mane and tail. She knew it had taken more than sleight of hand to do that. It had taken know-how and, more importantly, time.

“Okay, everyone,” Max said, stepping forward after Phil had finished. “Let’s have a big hand for the Magnificent Marsteno and his talented assistant, Dinah the Dynamic.”

The kids cheered loud and long. Stevie could tell they had all loved the show, and she felt proud of Phil.

“And now,” Max continued, “it’s time for something special. Who wants to go trick-or-treating?”

Every hand in the place went up, including Stevie’s, Carole’s, Lisa’s, Dinah’s, and Phil’s.

“Come on,” Carole said to her friends. “Let’s go get saddled up.” Since Mr. Toll’s hay wagon wasn’t large enough for everyone, most of the Pine Hollow students were going to ride alongside it on their horses. They hurried away to get ready.

A few minutes later, everyone gathered outside the stable entrance. Carole glanced at Belle’s mane and tail, which were still braided with the bright Halloween ribbons.

“Nice look for Belle, Stevie,” she commented. “When did you do it?”

Stevie bit her lip. “Oh, yeah—um—thanks,” she said, avoiding the question. She didn’t want to go into details about the poltergeist’s latest trick right now—not until she’d figured out who had done it.

“Is Mr. Toll here yet?” Lisa asked Max.

“He should be arriving any minute,” Max replied, glancing at his watch.

As if on cue, a jingling sound came from the road. A moment later the wagon rolled into sight. Mr. Toll was sitting in front, holding the long reins with which he drove his team—a perfectly matched pair of sturdy black workhorses. The horses trotted up the drive and stopped in front of the waiting crowd. Mr. Toll climbed down from his perch and went to greet Max.

Meanwhile, Stevie grabbed Dinah by the arm and pulled her forward. “What a lucky break!” she exclaimed.

“What?” Dinah asked, looking confused.

Carole and Lisa were confused, too. They exchanged a glance and followed Stevie and Dinah toward the wagon. Phil was right behind them.

“This is her!” Stevie walked up to one of the black workhorses and laid a hand on its huge neck. “It’s Black Magic! Isn’t she wonderful?”

Carole and Lisa gasped. So this was what Stevie had planned to humiliate Dinah!

But Dinah didn’t miss a beat. She rushed forward. “Oh, yes!” she squealed, reaching up to pat the gigantic mare on her nose. “She’s everything you said she was, Stevie! No, she’s even more wonderful than you said she was. Why, I think she’s the most beautiful horse I’ve ever seen in my life!”

Stevie looked confused for a second, then started to look annoyed. She was beginning to have the funniest feeling that
she
was the one who had been had, not Dinah—especially since the rest of her friends were giggling wildly. “But—but—” she sputtered. “You mean you
knew
?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Stevie,” Dinah said innocently, flinging an arm around Black Magic’s neck. The horse was so big that she had to stand on tiptoes to do it. “You’ve been telling me all week long about this incredible horse, and now here she is.”

Carole grinned. “She’s got you there, Stevie,” she said. “You can’t tell me that this big girl isn’t pretty incredible.”

Stevie pouted for a second, then smiled. “I guess you’re right,” she admitted, giving Black Magic another pat. Then she joined in the laughter. Even though the joke had been on her, it had been pretty funny, and Stevie could certainly appreciate that.

“Come on, everyone,” Max called to them. “It’s time to go.”

The Saddle Club and their friends hurried to mount their horses, which were waiting patiently near the ring, while the visiting kids clambered into the soft, scratchy piles of hay in the back of Mr. Toll’s wagon.

“Ready when you are, Mr. Toll,” Max called.

The old farmer nodded and took his position in the driver’s seat. “We’re off, then,” he said gruffly. With a flick of the reins, he clucked to his team, and the two big horses stepped off into the cool evening.

“Look at the mist,” Lisa commented to Carole as they rode after the wagon at a walk.

Carole looked around at the wispy gray mist that floated just above the ground all around them, a reminder of the damp, rainy weather they’d been having. “It’s pretty spooky-looking, isn’t it?” she commented.

Stevie overheard. “Perfect trick-or-treating weather!” she declared happily.

T
HE FOLLOWING DAY
passed quickly. First Dinah left for the airport, after promising Stevie, Carole, and Lisa that she would return soon for another visit. She also invited all of them to visit her in Vermont anytime.

Then it was time to return to Pine Hollow. After the trick-or-treating hayride the evening before, the exhausted but happy city kids had climbed back onto their bus, clutching bags of candy and other goodies and mumbling sleepy good-byes to their hosts. Max had sent the older kids home soon afterward, after extracting promises from them all that they would return the next day to help clean up.

He had meant it, too. As soon as The Saddle Club arrived, he put them to work. The three girls barely had a
chance to exchange a word for the next several hours, let alone discuss the events of the day before.

So when the work was finally finished and Stevie announced, “Saddle Club meeting—TD’s,” her friends eagerly agreed. Fifteen minutes later the girls were seated in their favorite booth at Tastee Delight, the local ice cream parlor.

While they waited for the waitress to come and take their order, Stevie pulled the poltergeist book out of her pocket and began to flip through it idly. “You know, I still can’t figure out this whole poltergeist thing,” she admitted. “I was so sure it was Phil at first. He could have done some of the tricks, like the cats in the tack room and the currycombs in my locker. But then I realized that there were lots of others he couldn’t possibly have done. He wasn’t around when the saddle soap disappeared, or when this poltergeist book first turned up on the chair. And then there was the falling hard hats—he wasn’t there that day, either. And, of course, that disgusting grain burger.”

Stevie paused when she saw the waitress approaching.

“What will you have, girls?” the waitress asked, pulling out her pad and giving Stevie a resigned look. Stevie was famous for the strange and often disgusting combinations of ice cream she ordered.

Stevie didn’t disappoint the waitress this time. “I’ll have a Stevie Lake Halloween special,” she announced.

The waitress just raised an eyebrow and waited.

“That’s orange sherbet and black licorice ice cream,”
Stevie continued. “With some ghostly white marshmallow topping. And, of course, a cherry on top.”