EllRay Jakes Is Magic Read Online Free

is it with girls and talent? Alfie’s already nagging Mom and Dad for classes in ballet, horse riding,gymnastics, and
archery
, which is just one SCARY idea.
    “Maybe,” I say. “But none of them stepped up when we were talking about it on Friday, that’s for sure.”
    “Too bad,” Dad says, heading like an arrow for a table with an old basket of geodes on it.
    He doesn’t seem too worried about my problem.
    But that’s okay, I figure—because I’m worried enough for both of us.

    I spot it five minutes later, among a bunch of other toys spread out on an old picnic blanket on the brown grass. The toys include:
    1. A marionette cowboy puppet whose strings are so badly tangled that the puppet looks permanently frozen in place, like something from a monster movie. Not that I’ve ever seen a cowboy puppet in a monster movie.
    2. A handful of little metal cars that look as if they were left out in the rain—for a year or two.
    3. A bucket full of small plastic building blocks thatlook like someone spilled pancake batter on them a long time ago.
    4. And, most important and best of all, a colorful but faded cardboard box that is taped shut and labeled “Your Amazing First Magic Set, with Top Hat, Wand, and DVD!”
    There’s a five dollar sticker on the box.
    Magic. That’s it! Magic is a talent, isn’t it?
    “It’s missing the DVD,” the bored-looking teenage kid guarding the blanket tells me. “And I think the top hat got wrecked, so that’s gone, too. But otherwise it’s good. You should get it, bro.”
    I have only three dollars in my pocket, and I wanted to spend at least a dollar to buy a present—okay, a
bribe
—for Alfie. And he’s not my “bro.”
    But even if I spent all my money on myself, I wouldn’t know how to turn three dollars into five dollars. I’m not that good a magician—
yet.
    My dad says you can usually bargain with the sellers at yard sales, but I don’t know how to bargain—especially with a teenager.
    I don’t even know whether I should try to look rich or poor.
    So I just stand there, as frozen as the tangledcowboy puppet, staring at the taped-shut magic set. “Does it still have the wand?” a voice behind me asks.
    Dad! Just in time.
    “Yeah,” the boy says, standing up a little straighter. “And a few props. I
think.
”
    “What about an instruction booklet?” Dad asks.

    “Most of the instructions were on the DVD, which got lost,” the teenager says, scowling. It sounds like he’s blaming the DVD itself for getting lost.
    So basically, he’s trying to sell a box with a stick—excuse me, a
wand
—inside it.
    “How about three dollars?” the kid says, starting to sound desperate.
    “Can you afford three dollars?” Dad asks me.
    “I can afford two dollars,” I tell him. “Because I have to save a dollar for Alfie’s present. I promised.”
    “Hey,” the kid says, eager for a sale. “If you’re gonna spend money on something else here, too, I’ll let you have this magic set for two dollars. It’s really cool,” he adds, not sounding very convincing.
    “Did you learn any tricks?” Dad asks him.
    Besides figuring out how to sell a taped-shut box with a stick in it for two dollars, I guess Dad means.
    “I could kind of make something small disappear,” the teenager says, trying to remember. “But that was a few years ago. Do you wanna look inside the box?” he asks.
    I can tell he’s scared we’ll say “Yes.”
    “EllRay?” Dad asks. “You’re the buyer, son.”
    “No. That’s okay,” I tell the kid. “Here’s your two dollars,” I add, fishing the CRUMPLED bills out of my pocket.
    “You’re sure you don’t want to look inside the box?” Dad asks me. “‘Let the buyer beware,’” he adds, quoting from somewhere.
    My dad loves quotations. I think that’s part of being a college professor.
    “I’m sure,” I tell him, tucking the almost-empty box under my arm. We walk away from the toy blanket and the relieved teenager.