Saving Houdini by Michael Redhill Read Free Book Online

cufflink.”
    Dash ran his eyes over the picture again until he saw the telltale glint of the hockey stick poking out from the sleeve of his suit jacket—the one he was wearing this very moment. His face was hidden behind Walter’s shoulder, but that was him all right.
    Walter took Dash’s plate away. “I don’t know how you did this or how you got here, but I want you to leave my house, and don’t come back. And don’t ever talk to me again.”
    “You boys done?” came a voice from the doorway.
    Dash grabbed Walter’s wrist before he could escape back into the house. “I live at 94 Victor Avenue. In an empty house. I have no money I can spend here and I have no idea how long I’m going to be stuck here!”
    “Let go of me!”
    “At least bring me some food! Okay? I know you believe me now!” The other boy pulled away. “Walt! Help me!”
    Walter went to the door, where his mother was waiting.
    “Come in, but keep it quiet,” Mrs. Gibson said.
    Dash thanked her, and she offered him that smile again.
    “Oh, there you are, sweetie,” she said.
    He wasn’t sure who she was talking to until he saw a girl of about six shuffling sleepily into the kitchen. She was grinding a fist into one of her eyes, and her mouth was turned down into adramatic frown. Her expression said:
I’m sick!
She pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat in it heavily.
    “This is our poor little Dee Dee,” Mrs. Gibson said. The girl’s hair was messy and her eyes were red. “She has a
terrible
cold.” She kissed the girl on the forehead and frowned.
    Just watching her made Dash feel sleepy.
    “I am rather unwell,” said Dee Dee. “My mother has given me a syrup that will make me feel better.”
    “I’m glad,” said Dash. He could see Walter standing down the hall in the foyer, waiting to see him out. Or maybe
punch
him out. The kid was steaming mad. Dash leaned back into the kitchen. “Hey, Dee Dee? Would you like to watch a magic trick?”
    “Yes, that would be very nice,” said the girl. “Seeing as I am sick and in need of a distraction.”
    Dash looked back down the hall at Walter and tried to flash him a friendly little smile before he took a step
away
from the exit. He showed Dee Dee a quarter as Walter inched toward the kitchen.
    “Now watch this coin,” Dash said, placing it in his left palm. He put the date face down.
    Dee Dee stared at the quarter, her eyes a little glassy. “I am watching it carefully,” she said.
    “Here it is, lying in the palm of my hand,” he said. He waved his right hand over the coin. “Do you still see it?”
    “I do.”
    He repeated the gesture over his upturned palm two more times. “Once … twice,” he intoned, and the third time his hand passed over the coin, it had vanished. “Gone,” he said.
    Dee Dee made a small
O
with her mouth. “The most important thing about vanishing something,” Dash said, “is making it come back.” He leaned over, pulling the coin from behind her ear. “Tell your brother,” he whispered to her, “if he wants to learn this trick, I can teach it to him.”
    The little girl was speechless.
    Dash went up to Walter and put the quarter into his palm. Then he saw himself out.
    There was nothing to do but go home and wait. And
worry.
Dash started across the park, like he would have done if he’d been coming from Alex’s house on Wroxeter instead of Walter’s on Frizzell. Though, he would never come home from Alex’s house on Wroxeter again because Alex now lived in Leiden. Which was in Holland.
    There were people in the park as the sun was high now. This was the warmest it had been since Dash arrived. The snow that had fallen the night before had mostly disappeared, although there were woolly tufts of it here and there on the grass. Two children were chasing each other around a large stone. One of them was crying,
Hey, lolly lolly!
They weren’t so different, he supposed. Except for their get-ups, they were still