Matthew and the Chimney Sweeps: Book One (Completed, Editing)

Chapter Thirteen: A Highwire Act

  Amanda was extremely happy to see Matthew and the others when they showed up at her place, giving them all hugs, except for John that is, who brushed aside her attempt. Due to the weather, they were the first guests she had had for an entire week. This time she didn't open the sarcophagus wrapped like a mummy.

  ' . . . I love my rabbits,' Amanda said, 'don't get me wrong, but they're not very good when it comes to making conversation.' She gestured for them to sit down.

  Taking a seat on a couch draped with the carpet Amanda had used at her performance, Chloe said, 'First, we just want to say that your magic show was incredible.'

  'Quite,' said Matthew. He stared at all the rabbits in their cages, picking out the one that had evaded capture on stage. 'Absolutely amazing.'

  'You're too kind,' said Amanda.

  Slink sat down on the floor and said, 'Do you know what? I've been racking my brain for days now, trying to figure out how you made the stage disappear. I'm still clueless. I built that stage solidly. A tornado would have had a hard time making it vanish.'

  There was a look on Slink's face that made Matthew somewhat suspicious.

  'Well don't ask her how she did it,' John said miserably, 'because she won't tell you. All she will say is, "with much practice."'

  'Oh, John,' Amanda said in disappointing tone, looking at him with sad eyes. She was putting it on. 'If you didn't like the assistant's dress, you should've just said. I could have made it more sparkly if you just asked.'

  John stormed out that very second.

  'Speaking of your vanishing act at the end,' said Chloe, trying to stop giggling. 'Did Apricot's sheets come with you?'

  'They did,' replied Amanda. 'I was going to take them back to her, but I didn't want to ruin them in all the rain.'

  'We'll take them to her,' said Slink.

  'Fine by me,' said Amanda, strolling over to a cabinet next to the table with all the science equipment. She opened it, revealing a pile of clothes, a small safe and which were clearly Apricot's sheets all wrapped up in one, like a ball, and tied at the top with a piece of string.
Flinging the ball at Norman, who wasn't at all prepared to catch it and which hit him squarely in the face, Amanda said, 'Do you think you could tell Apricot I'm sorry about the delay. What are you staring at, Matthew?'

  Matthew was eyeing the small safe inside the cabinet with much interest. 'Is that a Stone's safe?'

  'Why, yes it is,' said Amanda. 'It used to be my mom's. How did you know that? Do you know about safes or something?'

  Matthew nodded. 'My father and grandmother were locksmiths who specialized in cracking safes.'

  Amanda lit up. 'That's so funny.'

  'Why? Because your mother picked locks for her escaping acts?' said Matthew.

 'That,' said Amanda, 'and because she – before becoming a magician – was a professional locksmith too, first working for a company here in Spring Heights making padlocks in their factory and then becoming a locksmith for them.'

  What a truly funny coincidence, Matthew thought.

  'Really?' said Jennifer, looking very surprised. 'We didn't know that.'

  Nodding, Amanda said, 'When she became a magician she started out using locks that were made at the factory, as she knew how to pick them with ease. It was only a few years into her career when she started to make her own locks.' She walked over to a shelf, picked up a rusty padlock and showed it to the others. 'This was the last lock from the factory my mother used.