A Strange Case of Magic Read online

  Downstairs in the book stacks, they waited for the invisible magician to arrive. Then, Giles quickly told him about the spell in the ancient book.

  “I doubt it will work,” said Mr Kapoor dolefully. “Nothing seems to work for me.”

  “First, it is essential you clear your mind of all thoughts,” said Giles, reading from the dusty tome.

  “All right,” came the magician’s voice after a moment. “Now what?”

  “Calm your breathing,” instructed Giles.

  “Yes.”

  “Make a circle in the air with your right hand, and a triangle with your left.”

  Tina shook her head sadly, not believing any of it.

  “Now, read the rest yourself,” Giles said, offering the heavy book to the empty air.

  “Waxum. Holvex. Intra Quandum!” murmured Mr Kapoor, reading from the book’s crackling pages.

  “Javex. Ultrex. Mega Maxum!”

  “Keep going!” said Giles.

  “Optrex. Apex. Visitix is!”

  There was a long silence. Giles watched the air in front of him expectantly, but nothing happened.

  “It’s not working,” said Mr Kapoor miserably. “I knew it wouldn’t. I’m a terrible magician. I can’t even follow a recipe!”

  “I’m sorry,” said Giles, discouraged. “I thought this one would do the trick.”

  “It’s not your fault, Giles,” said Mr Kapoor. “It’s me. I’m just no good at any of it! I was a fool to become a magician!”

  Chapter 10

  The Plan

  Giles sat in the Quarks’ basement workshop, listlessly watching Kevin try to do a magic trick. He felt discouraged and helpless. Mr Kapoor was fading away fast, and he couldn’t think up any clever ideas that might help.

  Beside him, Tina stared at the large, empty space on her workbench.

  “I can’t believe they confiscated it,” she said. “Have they no idea of the value of scientific research?”

  “Mom and Dad took it to the shop,” Kevin told Giles. “They’re trying to get someone to turn it back into a film projector.”

  “Not a chance,” muttered Tina. “They don’t know what they’re dealing with.”

  “Hey, I think I’ve got it,” said Kevin. “Tina, look at this. I take these two dice and put them in my hand.” Kevin made a fist, hiding the dice. “Now I say the magic words—”

  Kevin muttered something under his breath and made a number of dramatic flourishes with his clenched fist.

  “And I open my hand and—”

  “They’re still right there,” said Tina blandly, pointing at the dice in Kevin’s palm.

  “What? Hey, no fair!” cried Kevin. “It worked last time. You must put a jinx on me. You take away all my confidence!”

  Suddenly it all clicked in Giles’s head.

  “That’s it!” he cried.

  “What?” said Kevin.

  “That’s why Mr Kapoor can’t come back!”

  “Someone put a jinx on him?” Kevin asked.

  “No, no!” exclaimed Giles, jumping up. “Because he’s lost all his confidence!”

  “Explain yourself more fully, Barnes,” Tina requested in a calm voice.

  “The problem isn’t the magic!” Giles went on excitedly. “How can Mr Kapoor possibly come back if he thinks he’s a terrible magician! He doesn’t want to come back! He wants to stay invisible!”

  Kevin nodded slowly. “There are times I’ve wanted to be invisible,” he admitted.

  “There are times I’ve wanted to make you invisible,” Tina admitted.

  “I think I know how to bring him back,” said Giles.

  “How?” Kevin asked.

  “It’s just an idea,” said Giles. “I’ll need to think it out first.”

  “You’re going to have a magic show,” said Giles.

  “What on earth are you talking about!” exclaimed Mr Kapoor. “I’m invisible!”

  “You’re going to reappear and give a magic show,” Giles told him.

  “Oh no I’m not! The last magic show I gave was a disaster! I wouldn’t do another one for a million dollars!”

  “Well,” said Giles, “I’m afraid it’s a little late. I’ve already arranged it with Miss Hibbins. She’s agreed to let us have the show in the library next week.”

  “But this is crazy!” cried Mr Kapoor. “How am I going to reappear? With the energy ray?”

  “I wouldn’t recommend it,” Kevin said. “Not unless you want to end up looking like a sizzled shoe.”

  “I’ve discovered a very powerful magic,” said Giles mysteriously.

  “You have?” said Mr Kapoor.

  “You have?” echoed Kevin.

  “Yes,” said Giles in reply. “I have. And by the day of the magic show, you’ll be ready to reappear, Mr Kapoor.”

  “You seem awfully sure,” said the invisible magician.

  “It’s never failed yet,” said Giles. “Not on anyone. So do you agree to have the show?”

  “All right, yes.”

  “There’s one other thing,” said Giles.

  “What?”

  “I’d like to be your assistant. That is, if you think I’d be any help,” he added humbly. “I’ve been practising every day.”

  “I’ve never had an assistant,” mused Mr Kapoor. “Usually only the very best have assistants. I must say I like the sound of it. I do like the sound of it!”

  “Great!” said Giles. “We’ll make posters, and put them up around the library and the classrooms at school!”

  “We’ll spread the word!” added Kevin.

  “We can practise every day after school,” said Mr Kapoor. “Let’s start right away!”

  Chapter 11

  The Great Kapoor

  “You look like you ran away from the circus,” Tina said.

  “It’s my costume!” said Giles indignantly.

  “She’s just jealous,” Kevin told Giles.

  It was the day of the big magic show, and the three of them were waiting in the library for Mr Kapoor. Giles peeked through the curtain. Miss Hibbins was rushing around, making last-minute preparations. She had done a fantastic job. She had rigged up a curtain across one end of the large reading room, and had arranged semi-circular rows of chairs for the audience. Black and orange streamers dipped from shelf to shelf, and multi-coloured balloons bobbed up against the ceiling.

  Already people were starting to arrive and take their seats.

  “Where is he?” said Giles worriedly. “He’s going to be late.”

  “I’m here,” said a nervous voice beside him. “Listen Giles, I don’t think I can do this. I’m no good!”

  “Of course, you’re good!” said Giles. “You’re better than good! You’re terrific!”

  “You’re the Great Kapoor!” said Kevin. “Don’t forget that.”

  “Sure, but what about this powerful magic you promised,” said the invisible magician. “It’s going to make me reappear, right?”

  “Well, it doesn’t work quite like that,” said Giles. “I’ll read out the words, and they’ll give you the power to reappear yourself! Are you ready?”

  “I hope this works,” came the magician’s uncertain voice.

  Giles cleared his throat.

  “Tangent. Cosine. Algorithmic!”

  “Oh, I like the sounds of this,” said Mr Kapoor.

  “Convex. Vector. Parabolic!” said Giles.

  “Wonderful!” said the magician. “I feel better already!”

  “Tetra. Octo. Trapezoidal! Rhomboid. Ellipse. Hexahedral!”

  “Yes, yes, I can feel the magic in that one!”

  Giles could see that Tina was about to say something, but he shot her a look which changed her mind.

  “Now all you have to do is reappear when I give the signal,” Giles told the magician. “You’re going to be fantastic!”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “I know it,” said Giles confidently.

  Miss Hibbins poked h
er head behind the curtain.

  “Everything ready?” she asked.

  Giles nodded.

  “Is the invisible man here?” she inquired.

  “I’m here,” said Mr Kapoor.

  “Thrilling,” she gasped. “Just thrilling!”

  The curtains drew back and Giles walked nervously out in front of the audience. There was quite a crowd—lots of kids from school, and plenty of parents, too. Kevin and Tina were just taking their seats at the front, and Kevin gave him the thumbs-up sign. He couldn’t find his father, but he knew he was there, watching.

  “Ladies and gentleman!” Giles said, in as big a voice as possible. “I’m pleased to introduce…the Great Kapoor!”

  He swept his arm through the air to where Mr Kapoor was supposed to appear.

  But there was nothing to be seen.

  “The Great Kapoor!” Giles said again. What if Mr Kapoor had run away! What if he’d chickened out! What if his powerful magic hadn’t been good enough!

  But then there was a burst of smoke, and the crackling and twinkling of a hundred firecrackers.

  Giles gaped in amazement.

  The smoke cleared.

  And there he was. The Great Kapoor!

  The audience applauded madly.

  He wasn’t at all the way Giles had imagined him. He imagined someone taller and fatter. He imagined someone with a bushy beard and a big chest. As it was, you couldn’t have said Mr Kapoor was an impressive man. He was quite small and thin, and he would have been very ordinary-looking without his high black top hat, his flowing purple cape, and his gleaming black magician’s uniform with gold piping. Giles thought he looked magnificent.

  The applause was just beginning to die down.

  The Great Kapoor started off slowly with the billiard ball trick. Then he picked up the pace. He did the bottomless jar trick, he did the floating hoops. With Giles’s help, he did the Mongolian juggling trick, the turtle into the hare, and then the extravagant flaming zucchini! The Great Kapoor was fabulous!

  The audience applauded furiously.

  “And now,” said the Great Kapoor, “for the grand finale, I will perform the Disappearing Act. I will need a volunteer from the audience.”

  A hush fell over the crowd.

  “Perhaps you would like to volunteer, young lady,” said Mr Kapoor, pointing at Tina Quark.

  “Me?” said Tina. Giles thought she looked a little pale.

  “There’s nothing to be afraid of, my dear. Come right up.”

  Tina walked hesitantly to the front.

  “Are you sure you’re up to this?” Giles whispered to the magician.

  “Never felt better,” the Great Kapoor whispered back.

  “Observe!” he cried out to the audience. He swirled a large blanket around Tina, and when he pulled it away, she had disappeared into thin air.

  The crowd gasped in amazement.

  “And now,” cried the Great Kapoor, swirling out the blanket for a second time, “she reappears!”

  There was a flash of light, and Tina was back again, looking slightly bewildered.

  With a colossal burst of cheering, the magic show was over. Fans flocked to the front to ask the Great Kapoor to sign autographs. Giles saw his father making his way through the crowd towards him.

  “It was a fabulous show,” said Mr Barnes, giving Giles a hug. “And you were great.”

  “Thanks,” said Giles.

  “You’ve made this library a much more exciting place!” exclaimed Miss Hibbins. “I think we’ll have a magic show every week!”

  “You’ve got to teach me some of those tricks!” said Kevin.

  Tina still seemed a little dazed. She kept looking at her arms and legs, making sure they were still attached to the rest of her body.

  “I have to admit, Barnes,” she began, “your methods are highly unscientific, but you seem to have found the answer to a very difficult problem.”

  “He certainly did!” said the Great Kapoor. “Without Giles, I’d still be invisible! Now tell me, where did you find such powerful magic?”

  “It wasn’t magic at all,” Giles confessed. “I made it all up.”

  “You what?” said the Great Kapoor in amazement.

  “Yep. It was all gobbledygook from one of my Mom’s math textbooks. You reappeared all by yourself.”

  “But I could feel the magical power inside me!” objected the Great Kapoor. “It was like bottled thunder and lightning!”

  “Nope,” said Giles. “It was just you. All you.”

  “Well, if you say so,” said the magician. He didn’t seem totally convinced, but he looked pleased nonetheless. “All the same, I’d like to give you something in return.”

  “More magic lessons,” said Giles and Kevin instantly.

  “Done!” said the Great Kapoor.

  “And I was wondering,” whispered Kevin, “do you think you could teach me how to do that disappearing thing on Tina?”

  Have you read all of the Barnes & the Brains adventures?

  ALSO BY KENNETH OPPEL

  Starclimber

  Skybreaker

  Airborn

  Darkwing

  Firewing

  Sunwing

  Silverwing

  Dead Water Zone

  The Live-Forever Machine

  (For Younger Readers)

  The King’s Taster

  Peg and the Yeti

  Peg and the Whale

  Emma’s Emu

  A Bad Case of Ghosts

  A Crazy Case of Robots

  An Incredible Case of Dinosaurs

  A Weird Case of Super-Goo

  A Creepy Case of Vampires

  Copyright

  A Strange Case of Magic

  Copyright © 1994, 2000 by Firewing Productions Inc.

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  EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-1-443-40093-0

  Published by HarperTrophyCanada™, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

  Originally published in Canada by Scholastic Canada Ltd: 1994

  This HarperTrophyCanada™ edition: 2010

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