On a warm Saturday afternoon Jake was walking back home from school. He looked at his watch and saw that he was going to be late for dinner and this time his mom said she would give him consequences for not being home on time. His friend Jered told him that there was a shortcut to Smik Street, which was the road Jake lives on. The shortcut goes through the old part of town and Jered says its kind of spooky in a ghost town kind of way.

Jake willingly took the shortcut through Cigam Road. Just the feeling of the place gave Jake the chills, but he trudged along until he came across an old scary looking man. His eyes were like daggers and then the man smiled and gave Jake a box that was so dusty he couldn’t even see the cover. Being polite Jake smiled back and took the box. Then the man spoke to Jake, but his voice crackled and whispered in such a way that Jake couldn’t understand and suddenly the man disappeared right in front of Jake’s eyes.

Jake looked at his watch. It was already 3 minutes until supper and he was barely half-way home. Jake suddenly got a burst of adrenaline and raced home. Gladly Jake got home on time, but the recent experience with the old man still floated in his mind. Jake ate supper not telling his mom what happened.

After supper Jake examined the dusty box and wiped the dust off with a napkin. The box said Trick Box on the cover. Jake opened the box and there was a top hat, wand, gloves, and a performer’s coat. Then the hat jumped out of the box and ran in circles around the room. As soon as Jake caught the hat a rabbit jumped out and fainted. The gloves walked across the floor using their fingers as feet. And the coat floated in mid-air.

Jake saw that with these literally magical props he could become the greatest magician in the world. He would be able to accomplish the impossible and break the laws of physics in font of thousands of people. The only question left was what did the old man tell him?