Magic Betsey Page 2

  “But you still look pretty,” smiled Gran’ma Liz. “You’ve never looked prettier.”

  “Look, everyone! Look at what Betsey bought me!” May called out.

  And Betsey joined the others who were all around May, admiring her new bracelet.

  Get Lost, Betsey!

  Betsey hopped from foot to foot as if her toes were on fire. Today was going to be an excellent day! Betsey and her family were all going to the market – and oh, how Betsey loved the market! But there was an extra special reason why Betsey was so excited.

  “Dad’s coming home soon!” Betsey beamed.

  “Not until next week, Betsey,” Sherena reminded her.

  “But next week is sooner rather than later,” Betsey pointed out.

  Dad was abroad studying to be a doctor and it’d been ages since Betsey had last seen him. Although he sent lots of emails and Skyped almost every other day, it just wasn’t the same.

  But at last he was coming home.

  That’s why Betsey’s whole family were going to market, to get in all of Dad’s favourite foods and to buy other things to make him feel really welcome.

  “Hurry up, Sherena. You’re too slow! If we wait for you, we’ll never get to town.” Betsey ran over to Sherena and started tugging up the zip at the back of her dress.

  “OUCH!” Sherena yelled. “Betsey, you’re supposed to zip up the dress, not my skin!”

  “I’m only trying to help,” said Betsey.

  “Then get lost and leave me to do it,” said Sherena. “Your kind of help is too painful!”

  Betsey raced into Desmond’s room.

  “Desmond! You’re not ready. Hurry up!” said Betsey.

  “I just need to put my shoes on,” said Desmond.

  “I’ll get them for you,” Betsey offered.

  Betsey saw Desmond’s shoes under his bed and ran past him to get them.

  “OW! Betsey, those are my toes, not the carpet,” Desmond yelled as Betsey trod on his foot!

  “It’s OK, you’ve got five more!” said Betsey, pointing to the foot she hadn’t stepped on.

  “That’s not funny!” fumed Desmond.

  “Don’t be such a grouchy potato head!” said Betsey.

  “I’ll stop being a grouch if you go away, get lost, close the door on your way out, put an egg in your shoe and beat it, make like a tree and leave!” Desmond said.

  “All right! I’ll go. But I don’t care what you say to me today, because we’re going into town. And Dad’s coming home soon!” Betsey smiled.

  Betsey darted out of the room.

  SMACK! She crashed straight into Sherena. And was Sherena pleased? No, she wasn’t.

  “Betsey, why don’t you watch where you’re going?” snapped Sherena.

  “She’s a real pest, isn’t she?” Desmond agreed.

  “That’s quite enough from both of you.” Gran’ma Liz appeared from nowhere and glared at Sherena and Desmond. “You two say sorry to your sister.”

  “Sorry, Betsey,” Sherena and Desmond said at once.

  They’d both seen that look on Gran’ma Liz’s face before and they weren’t about to argue!

  “Now let’s get going!” Gran’ma Liz smiled.

  And at last they were off.

  When they got off the bus in town, Betsey hardly knew where to look first. All different kinds of fish and flowers and food and fruit filled the market stalls. Paw-paws, mangoes, bananas, cherries, sugar apples and coconuts on some stalls. Swordfish, flying fish, red mullet and salt fish on others. Sweet potatoes, yams, breadfruits, green bananas, eddoes and okras on still more. Betsey didn’t even want to blink, in case she missed something.

  “Gran’ma Liz! Isn’t it extra-amazing?” asked Betsey, her eyes wider than wide.

  “Yes, child,” smiled Gran’ma Liz. “And tiring! And noisy!”

  Betsey and her family weaved their way through the masses of people, looking at stall after stall.

  “Betsey, stay close to me. I don’t want you wandering off,” said Gran’ma Liz.

  “No, Gran’ma.”

  “Mum, I’m just going to do some window shopping,” said Sherena.

  “I think I’ll join you,” said Desmond.

  “Can I come? Let me come!” said Betsey.

  “No way!” Desmond and Sherena said at once.

  Gran’ma Liz looked at Sherena and Desmond. “You two aren’t being very kind to your sister today. Betsey, go along with them, but don’t give them any trouble.”

  Betsey grinned up at Desmond and Sherena. She was happy about going with them, even if they weren’t!

  “I’ll meet you three at Joe’s ice-cream stand in an hour,” said Mum, glancing down at her watch.

  “Come on then, Betsey,” tutted Sherena.

  And off Desmond and Sherena marched. Betsey had to trot to keep up with them but she didn’t mind. It was better than being with the grown-ups!

  “Keep up with us, Betsey,” said Desmond. “We don’t want you slowing us down.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Betsey.

  On the very next stall there were coconut cakes, all kinds of doughnuts, fresh biscuits and her favourite – banana fritters! They all smelt so scrumptious. Betsey stopped and breathed deeply to get the full effect.

  “Look at these!” Betsey called out to her brother and sister who were now some way ahead of her.

  “Betsey, get a move on,” Sherena called back before she carried on walking.

  Betsey ran to catch up with them – and then she saw it! A toy stall! There were rows and rows of dolls, magic playing cards, board games, bouncing balls and . . . marbles. Betsey had never seen so many marbles. Hundreds and hundreds of them piled up in buckets. Big ones, little ones, bright ones, glittering ones, marbles that were all one colour and marbles where all the colours fought for space to shine.

  “D’you like my marbles?” The woman on the stall smiled.

  “Oh yes!” breathed Betsey. “They’re beautiful.”

  “Bring your mum along and I’ll sell you some,” said the woman.

  Mum! Betsey looked around quickly. Where were Sherena and Desmond? Where were Mum and Gran’ma Liz? She couldn’t see any of them.

  Betsey jumped up and down, trying to see over the heads of all the grown-ups around her, but they were too tall. Betsey’s heart suddenly began to hammer in her chest. She raced forward, looking for Desmond and Sherena.

  They were nowhere to be found. Betsey ran past stall after stall but . . . nothing. She turned around but she didn’t see anything or anyone she recognised.

  “Botheration!” said Betsey. She said it two more times! “Botheration! Botheration!”

  “I’ll go back and try to find Mum and Gran’ma Liz,” Betsey decided.

  Betsey headed back the way she’d just come but that didn’t do any good either. There was noise and bustle and fuss everywhere Betsey turned. The market wasn’t a wonderful place any more. It was big and noisy and frightening. Betsey began to sniff. Her eyes started to sting with tears.

  “If you cry, you won’t see anything at all,” Betsey muttered sternly to herself.

  But it didn’t help.

  All Betsey wanted to do now was find Mum and go home.

  “Hello, sugar. Did you find your Mum? Are you going to buy some of my marbles?”

  Betsey turned her head. She was in front of the toy stall again. The woman behind the stall smiled at Betsey – and that was it. Betsey burst into tears!

  ‘What’s the matter?” Immediately the woman came out from behind her stall and squatted down in front of Betsey. “Are you all right?”

  “I can’t find my mum.” Betsey wiped her eyes.

  “Hhmm!” said the woman. “I think the best thing to do is find a policeman. D’you agree?”

  Betsey nodded. The stall woman stood up and looked around.

  “There’s one. OFFICER!”

  A policeman came over to the toy stall.

  “What’s the problem?” asked the pol
iceman, smiling kindly at Betsey.

  “I can’t find my mum,” said Betsey.

  “Where d’you live?” asked the policeman.

  Betsey had just opened her mouth to tell him, when, “BETSEY!”

  And Betsey was swept off her feet and hugged so tightly by her mum that she could hardly breathe. Betsey looked around. Sherena, Desmond and Gran’ma Liz were all trying to hug her too!

  “Elizabeth Ruby Biggalow! You had us all worried sick,” said Gran’ma Liz.

  “I know this morning, we told you to get lost . . .” began Sherena.

  “But we didn’t mean it,” finished Desmond.

  “Sherena and Desmond, the next time you take your sister somewhere with you, don’t wander off and leave her to get lost,” said Mum firmly.

  “I wasn’t lost. I knew exactly where I was,” said Betsey. “I was in the market, looking for all of you. That means you were the ones who were lost, not me!”

  “Betsey!” Sherena shook her head as everyone else laughed. “I wonder about you sometimes. I really do!”

  Magic Betsey!

  “Ladies and gentlemen, Betsey the Great, Betsey the Wonderful, Betsey the Magnificent will now put on a magic show for you! A magic show so excellent that nothing like it has ever been seen before and will never be seen again.”

  “Betsey, get on with it,” Desmond said.

  Betsey ignored him! She wasn’t Betsey Biggalow, Desmond’s sister any more. Oh no! She was Betsey the Magician! Betsey’s Uncle George had bought her a book on magic tricks and Betsey had spent the last few days reading it and practising her tricks over and over. And now she was ready.

  Betsey looked down at the table which had all the things she needed for her magic tricks on it.

  “What shall I do first?” Betsey wondered out loud.

  “Today, Betsey! Today!” said Sherena. “I’ve got other things to do, you know.”

  “Botheration, Sherena. You can’t rush real magic!” Betsey said. Being a magician was hard work!

  “Mum, can I leave?” Sherena asked.

  “No!” Mum said firmly. And that was the end of that!

  “OK then,” said Betsey. “Before I do anything else, I have to wave my magic wand over this table or none of my tricks will work.”

  Betsey picked up her wand. She’d made it by covering the ends of a twig from the garden with some tinfoil and it looked perfect! She waved it over the table and said the magic words, “Betsey Magic! Magic Betsey! Do your magic! Show us! Let’s see!”

  “Oh, good grief!” said Desmond.

  Gran’ma Liz gave him one of her looks and he shut up!

  “For my first trick, I’m going to ask Sherena to pick a card,” said Betsey.

  She walked over to Sherena and fanned all the cards out in front of her, face down.

  “Pick a card then,” Betsey urged.

  Sherena picked out a card and looked at it.

  “Now put it back,” said Betsey.

  Carefully, Sherena put the card back into the middle of the pile. Betsey split the pile of cards into two and turned to walk back to the table. She knew Sherena’s card was the one on top of the pile in her left hand. She picked it up and stuffed it up her shirt sleeve, keeping it in place by squeezing her arm against her side. It was difficult – especially as her sleeves were short! Then Betsey turned around to face her audience.

  “I will now shuffle the cards and produce Sherena’s card by magic!” said Betsey.

  “And some cheating while your back was turned,” muttered Desmond.

  “I don’t need to cheat. I’m a real magician,” Betsey said loftily. She shuffled the cards, tapped them with her wand, then shuffled them again. But this time she quickly tried to reach up and fish the card out of her sleeve at the same time. It didn’t work. The cards flew out of her hands and up into the air.

  “BETSEY! Those are my cards you’re bending and ruining,” said Sherena.

  “Botheration, Sherena. I’m not ruining your cards. They’re ruining my trick!” said Betsey.

  Mum and Gran’ma just looked at each other. Betsey bent down to pick up the cards that now lay scattered at her feet.

  RIP! As Betsey tugged at the card beneath her left foot, half of it stayed under her foot and the other half was left in Betsey’s hand.

  “Betsey! I told you to be careful with my cards.” Sherena sprang off the sofa. “Look what you’ve done!”

  “Sorry, Sherena. It wasn’t deliberate,” Betsey said quickly.

  “Is that it then?” asked Desmond, standing up. “Can we go now?”

  “But I haven’t finished,” said Betsey.

  Desmond sat down again. They all waited for Betsey to move on to her next trick.

  “This next one is a water trick,” said Betsey. “But first I have to say the magic words – ‘Betsey Magic! Magic Betsey! Do your magic! Show us! Let’s see!’”

  Betsey picked up a glass off the table.

  “I’m holding an ordinary glass of water in my right hand and an ordinary piece of card in my left hand,” said Betsey.

  She walked over to Mum. “I will now tip the glass upside down over Mum’s head but the water will stay in the glass.”

  “Er, do your trick over Desmond’s head, please,” said Mum.

  “Over my head! No, thank you,” Desmond said quickly.

  “This trick will work, Desmond. I promise,” Betsey pleaded.

  “Oh, all right then,” Desmond grumbled. “But I’d better not get wet, Betsey.”

  Betsey carefully put the piece of card on top of the full glass and then turned them both upside down. She then stretched out her arms until the glass was directly over Desmond’s head.

  “I don’t like this . . .” Desmond said, hardly daring to blink.

  “I will now take the card away and the water will stay in the glass,” announced Betsey confidently.

  “Betsey . . .”

  “Trust me, Desmond,” Betsey whispered.

  Slowly, she removed the card. To everyone’s amazement the water stayed in the glass. Mum, Gran’ma Liz and Sherena all started clapping, really impressed. Betsey grinned.

  “It’s working?” Desmond couldn’t believe it. He looked up and WHOOSH! Water came flooding out all over his face.

  Gran’ma Liz, Sherena and Mum all sprang off the sofa before they got drenched as well.

  “Elizabeth Ruby Biggalow, just look what you’ve done to the sofa,” Mum said.

  “The clingfilm came off the top of the glass,” Betsey wailed. “It wasn’t meant to do that!”

  Desmond leapt up, coughing and spluttering. “Look what you’ve done! I’m soaking wet!”

  Mum, Sherena and Gran’ma Liz looked at him, flapping about like a fish out of water. They couldn’t help it. They all burst out laughing!

  “It’s not funny,” Desmond said, annoyed.

  “Yes, it is!” Sherena grinned.

  “Betsey, that’s the first and last time I ever let you do your magic tricks anywhere near me,” said Desmond crossly.

  “But I’ve got a string trick, and a coin trick, and a marble trick to do yet,” said Betsey.

  “Betsey dear, I think it’s time for you to call it a day,” said Gran’ma Liz.

  Gran’ma Liz went into the kitchen to get a drink, followed by Mum and Sherena. Desmond went to his bedroom to change his clothes, giving Betsey a dirty look on his way out of the living room.

  Betsey sadly wandered out into the front yard. Everything had gone wrong, wrong, wrong. Then Betsey spotted someone walking up the road who had her jumping up and down and gasping with excitement. She ran forward to meet him.

  Five minutes later, Betsey ran into the house.

  “Everyone! Everyone, where are you?” Betsey shouted.

  Gran’ma Liz, Mum, Sherena and Desmond all came running.

  “What’s the matter, Betsey?”

  “What’s happened?”

  “I’ve got another trick for you,” said Betsey.

&n
bsp; “Is that all?” Sherena frowned.

  “Betsey, don’t shout like that. I thought there was something wrong with you,” said Mum.

  “Please! Just one more trick. It’s my best trick ever and this time it will work. Guaranteed!” said Betsey, excitedly.

  “All right then. But this is the last one,” said Mum.

  “You’ve all got to stand over there,” said Betsey. And she shooed her family over to the window.

  Betsey walked back to the open living room door and stood by it.

  “And now, Betsey the Tremendous, Betsey the Stupendous will make a real, live person appear before your very eyes,” said Betsey proudly. “I’ll just say the magic words first . . .”

  “Oh, not again,” said Sherena.

  “I have to, or the trick won’t work,” said Betsey. Then she began. “Betsey Magic! Magic Betsey! Do your magic! Show us! Let’s see!”

  Betsey waved her wand three times in the air and – PEOUFF!

  Dad sprang up from behind the sofa. “Hi there!” He grinned.

  “DAD!”

  The whole family came running over.

  “I told you I was magic!” said Betsey proudly.

  “You saw Dad outside and got him to sneak behind the sofa for your trick, didn’t you?” asked Desmond.

  “No, she didn’t,” said Dad, hugging everyone at once. “Betsey waved her wand and here I am! She really is Magic Betsey!”

  And with that Dad winked at Betsey – and Betsey winked back!

  Mind-blowing Magic Facts

  * Magic tricks have amazed audiences for hundreds of years. The first ever book of magic tricks appeared in 1584.

  * Erik Weisz was born in Budapest in 1874. He would grow up to become the most famous magician of all time, Harry Houdini.

  * Harry Houdini was most famous for the art of escapology – the ability to escape from any trap, even when chained up! Don’t attempt any of his tricks yourself though – a lot of them were very dangerous!

  * There are magic societies all over the world which promote the art of stage magic. The most famous, The Magic Circle, was set up in London in 1905.