The Magic Misfits - Neil Patrick Harris Page 0,36

“I’ve been working on a device that would keep Dean from running off. In fact, I think it just might be ready for us to test out.”

“You mean like a rope trick?” asked Leila.

Ridley shook her head.

“Something that could make him disappear?” asked Carter.

“Nope.”

“I doubt it has anything to do with levitation,” said Theo.

“You want to make him laugh so hard, he can’t move?” asked Olly.

“What I’ve been working on is more like a giant version of one of our puzzle boxes,” Ridley answered. “I’m hoping Dean will simply step inside.”

The sound of a car passing outside made the Misfits jump. “Let’s get out of here,” Carter said grimly. The friends hurried back to the kitchen, making sure not to bump any furniture or leave a sign that they’d been inside Dean’s home. They filed silently out the door, and Leila quickly reset the lock before bounding after the others toward the safety of home.

SEVENTEEN

It took a few days for the Misfits to bring the pieces of Ridley’s box up to the ice cave in the woods—which was not far from the resort’s fire pit, where they’d found the two final puzzle boxes. They then spent hours reassembling it. Just as Ridley had planned, the box’s wheels fit directly onto the train tracks near the cave’s entrance. It helped that she’d created much of the contraption on top of an old bootlegger’s cart.

Over the course of those days, every time the Golden twins saw Dean in the lobby of the Grand Oak Resort, they brought up the idea of a Magic Misfits reunion show, just loudly enough for him to hear. On Friday night, the twins came right out and asked Dean if he wouldn’t mind coming to the ice cave the next morning to help them figure out their most complicated tricks. Being a big fan of the Misfits, Dean happily agreed.

Ridley woke up on Saturday morning with a lump in her throat. She’d said nothing to her mother of what she and her friends were planning that day, and it felt wrong. What if they encountered serious trouble in the ice cave? Didn’t Mrs. Larsen deserve to know the danger Ridley was about to put herself in? Didn’t the Vernons and the Stein-Meyers and the Goldens? Parents were supposed to keep their kids safe. But what did it mean when kids felt the responsibility to save their families instead?

After her mother helped Ridley with her morning stretches and exercises, they had breakfast and then Ridley announced that she was heading out to practice some new tricks with Theo. Not exactly a lie.

“Be careful,” said Mrs. Larsen. “The police tell me they still haven’t tracked down the hooligan who broke our window… and you know I don’t need anything more to worry about these days.… Ugh, just look at the hem of these pants… dragging on the ground.… Where’s my sewing kit? Wait, Ridley, you must have homework, don’t you? Do I need to have a word with Ms. Parkly about challenging you more? Where is she anyway?”

“It’s her day off, Mom. And I’ll be okay,” Ridley answered. “Me and Theo can take care of ourselves.”

Mrs. Larsen paused before heading upstairs to her office, then offered, “I know you can. You always have.”

Surprised, Ridley didn’t respond until her mother was out of earshot. “Love you,” Ridley called softly, closing the front door behind her.

As the Misfits gathered at the mouth of the cave, cold air belched out from its depths. The chill went right through Ridley’s wool coat.

Long ago, the hotel staff had built a gravel path that descended to the bootlegger tracks. Ridley struggled over the rough ground, but she had her reasons for wanting to set up down there. “Hurry,” she said. “Dean could arrive at any moment.”

The Golden twins had brought bunting, strings with triangular flags, and other decorations from the resort’s storage rooms. The others set up the performance space. “It’s important that he believes we’re actually preparing for a reunion show,” Leila had said the day prior. When they finished, the mouth of the cave looked like the set of a star-spangled, plaid, striped, and polka-dotted resort revue. Ridley looked up at it in awe. Her magic box sat like a set-piece in the center of a theater stage, the shadows and jagged edges of rocks pointing at it as if someone had designed them that way. She half circled the box, checking all of its various compartments, hinges, switches, and wheels, as the