Frankie Sparks and the Talent Show Trick

by Megan Frazer Blakemore

  Dedicated to my South Portland librarian friends, who inspire kids like Frankie every day

  CHAPTER 1

  Magician

  FRANKIE SPARKS SAT IN THE front row of the town theater, her hands cradled in her lap. Next to her was her best friend, Maya. They both stared into the swirling purple mist on the stage.

  Crash! Maya jumped, but Frankie leaned in to see better.

  Flash! A blinding light, and then, stepping from the cloud, a tall woman with brown skin and curls just like Frankie’s walked to the center of the stage.

  “I am the great Tatiana Celestia,” she announced. “Prepare to be amazed.”

  Frankie was prepared!

  Frankie was, hands down, the world’s greatest third-grade inventor, but that wasn’t the only thing she was interested in. When Mr. Winklesmith, the owner of Wink’s Magic and Games Emporium, had told her that Tatiana Celestia, one of the world’s greatest magicians, was going to be in town, Frankie had been beyond excited. She had checked out all the magic books in the library, even the ones with really big words, and made her way through them.

  Now she watched, wide-eyed, as Tatiana pulled a trombone out of her billowy sleeve. The magician held her lips up to the mouthpiece and blew.

  Nothing.

  Tatiana frowned and shook the horn. She blew again.

  Still nothing.

  Then she pointed right at Frankie and asked, “Can you give me a hand?”

  Frankie leaped to her feet and climbed onto the stage. There were few things Frankie liked better than being onstage. The crowd clapped politely.

  Tatiana said, “This is my grandma’s trombone. She used to tour around with a big swing band. Once, she even played with Ella Fitzgerald.”

  Frankie knew who Ella Fitzgerald was: a jazz singer who happened to be Frankie’s grandmother’s favorite. “Really?” she asked.

  “Really,” Tatiana said with a smile. “So this horn is pretty old.” She shook a scarf from her sleeve. “Can you give it a good wipe-down?”

  Frankie did as she was asked, carefully polishing the horn and the long brass tube. A trombone was a funny-looking invention, and Frankie began wondering how it worked.

  “Yes, my grandma played trombone, and my mama was a dancer, toured the whole world. I’m following in their footsteps.” Tatiana turned to Frankie. “That looks good, my friend.”

  Frankie handed the horn back to Tatiana, who held it to her lips once more. She began to play. A low, beautiful note rang out. And, as if riding on the note, bubbles streamed out of the horn.

  The crowd gasped, and kids reached up to pop the bubbles.

  Tatiana kept playing and did a little dance. She stomped her feet to make a beat. Frankie joined in by clapping. She could see Tatiana smiling as she played the horn. When the song was finished, Tatiana lowered her horn. “Thank you, friend,” she said to Frankie, then turned to the audience. “Let’s give this young lady a round of applause.” As Frankie returned to her seat, the crowd clapped enthusiastically.

  “That was incredible!” Maya exclaimed.

  Frankie agreed, nodding her head. But her brain was already spinning a mile a minute. She had a new idol, and she was hatching a new plan.

  CHAPTER 2

  Magic Duo

  AFTER THE MAGIC SHOW, MAYA and Frankie had gone backstage and met Tatiana. Frankie had told her how impressed she was, and then asked, “How do you become a magician?”

  “Same way you do anything else,” Tatiana had said. “You study and you practice.”

  That’s exactly what Frankie did. With Maya’s help, she practiced magic tricks that wowed, zowed, and amazed. Finally Frankie and Maya were ready to perform. Sure, their first show was in Maya’s living room, but Frankie felt sure they’d hit the big time any day now.

  They did a card trick and a scarf trick, and they were in the middle of their disappearing-Frankie trick when things started to go a little off track.

  “Ta-da!” Maya called out. With a flourish, she yanked a bright red sheet off the cardboard box. Just ten seconds before, Frankie had crouched down inside the box. Now she had disappeared! Maya held both hands up in an exaggerated shrug. She looked into the open front of the box. “Where could she be?”

  “Someplace where we can’t hear her,” Maya’s older brother, Matt, said. “Which is a nice change, if you ask me.”

  “Nobody asked you.” It was Frankie’s voice, coming from behind the box, where she was hiding. Frankie immediately clapped her hand over her mouth. Tatiana never would have ruined a trick by calling out.

  Maya, though, was the perfect magician’s assistant. She kept going like it was all part of the act. “Where could she be?” Maya asked again. She held her hand up to her forehead and peered around the room. “I can hear her, but she has vanished!”

  Matt opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, but Maya’s dad gave him a look.

  “Frankie?” Maya asked. “Frankie, are you ready to come back from the great wherever?”

  Maya’s dog, Opus, padded in from the other room. He saw Frankie and sniffed the air. He knew Frankie often kept treats like goldfish crackers or broken pretzels in her pockets. Frankie shook her head frantically at Opus. “I’m ready!” she said hurriedly.

  Maya threw the sheet back over the box. Frankie carefully lifted the hatch she had constructed in the box and climbed inside. Frankie made all her own magic tricks. Mr. Winklesmith had told her about magic cabinets, and she had designed and made her own cabinet out of cardboard boxes. The cabinet had a false back that she could crawl out of. It looked like a real cupboard, and she was even able to have a vase with fake flowers.

  Opus gave a whimper and tried to follow her through the hatch. “Shoo!” she called out. But by then his head was stuck. So Frankie grabbed him around the waist and tugged him into the box with her. Once they were both inside, Frankie said, “Abracadabra, bring me back to this terrestrial plain!”

  Maya pulled the sheet away again, and there were Frankie and Opus, both grinning wildly. “Ta-da!” Maya called. She helped Frankie to her feet, and together they bowed. Opus barked, and the audience, except for Matt, clapped.

  It wasn’t a huge audience—just Frankie’s parents, her aunt Gina, Maya’s parents, and Matt—but Frankie slurped up the applause just the same. She loved the hoots and the claps. She squeezed Maya’s hand, and Maya squeezed back.

  “Bravo!” Frankie’s mom called, standing up. She was clapping like crazy, and Frankie knew she thought that was the end of the show.

  “Wait!” Frankie said. “We have one last trick. And for this we need a volunteer named Matt.”

  Matt scowled, but Frankie was pretty sure he was secretly pleased. He came up onto their stage—it was really just a blanket on the floor—and brushed the hair out of his eyes. “What do I have to do?”

  Frankie tied a blindfold over her eyes while Maya took a deck of cards out of Frankie’s magic bag. “Shuffle the deck and then pick a card, any card,” Maya said.

  Matt shuffled. Then he shuffled some more. And some more.

  “Matt!” Maya cried. “Just pick a card already!”

  “I don’t want you to cheat me by setting up the cards ahead of time,” Matt replied.

  Frankie smirked. Magic tricks weren’t cheats. They used illusions and the art of misdirection.

  Finally, Matt chose a card.

  “Show it to the audience,” Maya instructed. “Now place it back in the deck.” She split the deck in two so that Matt could put his card back in. Frankie untied her blindfold. Timing was everything here. Maya waited just a second after Frankie had t
he blindfold off, long enough for Frankie to see the bottom card in the top half of the deck. It was the two of hearts. Then Maya put the deck back together and handed it to Frankie.

  “As you saw, I have not touched this deck in the whole process,” Frankie said. “Matt had a chance to shuffle. Then he took his card, and then my assistant gave the cards to me. No cheats.” She held the deck in her hand and closed her eyes tightly. This trick was all about the dramatics, which she loved. “Hmm. A vision is coming to me.” She opened her eyes and started flipping cards over one at a time. Sometimes she paused. “Maybe,” she began. Then shook her head. “No, not this one.” Matt smirked. Frankie kept going. Then Frankie flipped over the two of hearts. She nodded and flipped over the next card. The jack of diamonds. She hesitated. She closed her eyes again, then suddenly opened them wide. “This one!” she cried. “This is your card!”

  Matt’s mouth opened in surprise. Opus, catching the excitement, barked. Frankie put her magician’s hat on and curtsied.

  “Thank you for your participation, sir. You may take your seat,” Maya told him.

  “And that concludes our show.” Frankie flipped off her magic hat, and a bouquet of silk flowers popped out.

  The grown-ups, and even Matt, clapped their hearts out while Frankie and Maya beamed.

  “How did you do that?” Matt asked.

  Maya giggled. “You know that a magician never reveals her tricks.”

  “Only to her best friend and spectacular assistant,” Frankie said. “That was a good trick. But I think the kids at school are going to like the one where I make the coin come out of Maya’s nose the best.”

  “The kids at school?” Maya asked.

  “Sure!” Frankie said. “We’re in third grade now, so we can be in the talent show. Ms. Cupid made the announcement about it this morning.” Frankie zipped up her magic bag, which was one of her mom’s old briefcases painted with glitter glue.

  “The talent show?” Maya asked.

  Frankie nodded. “Tryouts are on Monday. We are definitely ready!”

  Opus sat down right at Frankie’s feet.

  “I think it’s a great idea,” Maya’s dad said. “The two of you are a magical duo. A pair of aces.”

  “More like the gruesome twosome,” Matt teased.

  “Anyway,” Maya’s dad said, “I think it will be great for you both to get up onstage. Especially you, Maya.”

  “Me too,” Frankie’s mom agreed. “But no more practicing tonight. The only magic I want to see is you going to bed without a fuss.” She handed Frankie her coat, which Frankie shrugged on.

  “I already signed us up,” Frankie said. “Our audition is at three thirty in the gym.”

  “I can get the girls after their tryout,” Frankie’s mom offered.

  “See,” Frankie said. “Easy-peasy.”

  “Lemon squeezy,” Maya replied.

  Frankie and her parents stepped out into the cold night air. They said good night to Aunt Gina, who got into her car to drive home. The sky was clear, and Frankie could see all the stars in the galaxy, it seemed.

  She thought about Tatiana Celestia. Frankie wondered if Tatiana had ever done a school talent show.

  In a lot of ways, magic was like inventing. There was a lot of science behind magic tricks. Magicians often came up with new tricks, and they had to test and retest them, like when inventors designed inventions. Plus, magic was just plain cool.

  “Hey, guys?” she asked.

  “Yes, Frankie?” her dad replied.

  “Do you think I can be a magician and an inventor?”

  “I would be very surprised if you were not both of those and about six things more,” her mom told her.

  “It seems like inventing and magic have a lot in common,” her dad said.

  Frankie nodded. She liked the idea of being not only Frankie Sparks, the world’s greatest third-grade inventor, but also Frankie Sparks, third-grade magician. She liked it so much that when she got home, she got herself ready for bed without a fuss. She crawled right under her covers, where she read a chapter in one of her magic books and then fell asleep and dreamed about herself onstage.

  CHAPTER 3

  Where’s Maya?

  “HOW DO YOU MAKE A tissue dance?” Ravi asked Frankie when she came into the classroom. Normally she liked jokes, but she was looking for Maya. Maya hadn’t been out on the playground before school. Frankie told herself not to get nervous, but it’s hard not to be nervous when you are a magician and you can’t find your assistant. She felt like she had root beer and popcorn dancing in her stomach.

  “Come on, Frankie,” Ravi said. “How do you make a tissue dance?”

  “I don’t know, Ravi.”

  She peered around him. No Maya.

  “You put a little boogie in it!” Ravi slapped his leg. “Good one, right?”

  “Uh-huh,” Frankie said. She shoved her coat into her cubby and started walking toward her desk.

  Ravi was right beside her. “Here’s another one,” he said. “What did the Atlantic Ocean say to the Pacific Ocean?”

  “What?” she asked.

  “Nothing. It just waved!” Ravi guffawed, but Frankie dropped into her seat.

  Where was Maya? The auditions were this afternoon. Frankie’s mom had driven her to school so that they could bring in her magic cabinet and put it on the stage. Frankie had worn her abracadabra socks. Her magic bag was in Ms. Cupid’s closet. Frankie was all ready to rock the tryout. Except Maya wasn’t at school yet. Frankie couldn’t do her act without her assistant.

  “I’m trying out for the talent show,” Ravi said. “With jokes. My mom wanted me to play the piano, but I was like, ‘No way. I am a comedian.’ I’ve been practicing all weekend.”

  “I’ve been practicing my whole life,” Frankie said with a sigh.

  “I think that’s an exaggeration,” Ravi said. He sat down in his seat, which was across from hers. Sometimes Ms. Cupid let Frankie and Maya sit together, but this was not one of those weeks. Frankie’s seat did look right across the room at Maya’s, though. Normally that was great, because normally Maya was in the seat. But not this morning.

  Frankie twisted around to watch the door, so that she would see Maya the second she got to class. There was no sign of her, and then Ms. Flower, the principal, came on the announcements and they stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. As soon as that was finished, they started morning meeting, and of course the share question was about the talent show.

  Everyone was trying out! Lila Jones was going to tap-dance. Luke Winslow was going to do basketball-dribbling tricks. Even mopey old William Percival had a talent: yo-yo tricks. When it was Frankie’s turn, she looked at the door. “Maya and I are going to do a magic show,” Frankie said. Even to her, her voice sounded as flat as a pancake, with none of its usual zest. “I’m the magician, and Maya is my assistant.”

  “Maya isn’t here,” Lila said. She smiled at Frankie.

  “I know.” Frankie’s voice wobbled. She actually felt hot tears on her cheeks.

  “I’m sure she’ll be here soon,” Ms. Cupid said. “I don’t have a call in from the office that she’s absent, so maybe she’s just running behind. Maybe she overslept!”

  Frankie nodded, but she knew there was no chance of that. Maya was never late. No one in her family ever overslept. Frankie’s dad said their internal clocks were always set to the right time.

  “Maybe she’s sick,” Luke said. “Maybe she barfed all night long. That happened to me once. I—”

  Ms. Cupid held up both hands. “Red light, Luke. I don’t think we need those details.” She stood up. “Gather your things. We’re going down to meet with our kindergarten buddies.”

  Frankie groaned. Normally she loved learning-buddies time. Her buddy was a cool kid named Violet. Violet always wore tutus and said she was a unicorn princess from outer space. On reading days, Frankie would bring books about the planets, and they would talk about what it would be like to visit each one.
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  It was hard for Frankie to get through some of the science words, but Violet didn’t mind, and so those days Frankie usually felt like a rock-star supergenius.

  But the kindergarten wing was as far from the front door as Frankie could get. She wouldn’t be able to watch for Maya.

  As they walked in the hall, Lila Jones whispered, “Is Maya really going to do the talent show with you?”

  “She is,” Frankie whispered back.

  “But she isn’t here. If you don’t audition, you can’t be in the show,” Lila said.

  “I know,” Frankie snapped back.

  “Frankie!” Ms. Cupid said from the front of the line, without even looking back at Frankie to see if it had been her. “I expect a nice quiet line from third graders. We’re setting an example for our kindergarten friends.” Ms. Cupid stopped at the door of the kindergarten classroom. “Are you ready to set a good example?” Ms. Cupid asked Frankie.

  “Yes, Ms. Cupid,” Frankie replied. Out of the corner of her eye, Frankie saw Lila smirking. Stupid Lila! She had been the one talking to Frankie in the first place.

  Ms. Cupid pushed open the door, and Frankie and the rest of the third graders walked in to meet their kindergarten buddies. It was a learning-games day, and the kindergartners were already waiting with dice, cards, blocks, and more.

  “Greetings, Earthling,” Violet said to Frankie. “How are you today?”

  “Cruddy,” Frankie replied.

  “What does that mean?”

  Frankie sighed. “It means awful. Rainy-Saturday, soggy-cornflakes awful.”

  “That’s really bad.”

  Frankie nodded. “What’s the game we’re playing?”

  Violet explained the card game, called Top It. There was a card already flipped over, and the first person had to put down a card with a higher number than that one, and the next person had to put down a higher card than that one. The person who placed the last card won and got to keep all the cards. Frankie started shuffling.

  “Wow!” Violet said. “You’re really good at shuffling.”