Part 12 (1/2)

”Your father, your mother and, er, me.”

Why would they do such a thing? Why would anyone want to fool Candy into thinking her own sister had died? Kitty holds up her hands: ”Candy brought it on herself. We had to make her believe Christa had been killed.”

Killed? What dreadful secrets had gone up in smoke all those years ago? John and Christa aren't here to explain; it's down to Kitty to reveal everything.

She admits to Sam that the witch doctor really had sent his son on a global quest. That much is now indisputable. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as John had expected. Hardly surprising. The chances of crossing the Pacific in a mwa sawah and surviving are very slim. The witch doctor must have known the canoe would capsize, so, given that he was desperate for his only son to step into his shoes, why would he send him to his inevitable death?

I suspect Yafer Tabuh knew a s.h.i.+p would be pa.s.sing the right place at the right time to save his son from the shark-infested water. He could read the patterns of the waves. Even if the s.h.i.+p was far out to sea, its ripples could be read at the upper end of the Sepik, and he could judge its position with amazing accuracy.

In fact, John had told Kitty that his mwa sawah capsized on the third day of his journey and that he and Lola had been rescued by an ocean liner called The Trinity. John had worked aboard the s.h.i.+p until a dreadful incident occurred, forcing him to flee to London. There he'd met Bart Hayfue who'd given him Kitty's address.

”What dreadful incident?” asks Sam. ”Did he tell you?”

”He refused, so I asked the ancient spirits.”

So Bart had been right. Kitty did believe she could communicate with the spirits. Trying to sound as sincere as possible, Sam asks her what they'd said. Kitty lowers her voice.

”Murder by magic!”

When Kitty told John what the spirits had written, he couldn't look her in the eye. He claimed that automatic writing was a load of nonsense and insisted on showing her a mind-reading trick to prove that although it made him appear psychic, it was just an illusion.

”Was it the trick where you have to write something on a piece of paper and the magician sets fire to it and guesses what you've written? asks Sam.

”Yes argh! You read my mind!”

”No, I didn't. He wrote it down in a notebook I found in the attic.”

She still doesn't know how the notebook came to be in the trunk or how John Tabuh came to be a magician. I do, but now isn't the time to share it with you. I'm happy to share the secret of the mind-reading trick though no doubt you found it at the front of this chapter. I thought twice about telling you. Once you know how the trick works it's so obvious, it's disappointing. But I need you to understand why John Tabuh became so sceptical. The more he learnt how illusions were done, the more he felt there was no such thing as real magic; all was trickery, manipulation and deception.

His English mother was partly to blame. She was determined to bring John up the western way. She didn't have long to live; she knew the world was changing and wanted her son to be prepared. That's why she taught him to ask questions, why she told him that science and psychology were behind most of the phenomena his father called magic most, but not all. Sam opens the sh.e.l.l locket and shows Kitty the photo inside. ”Is this his mother?” she asks.

”Yes, that's Freya. When she died, John lost faith in his father because he failed to bring her back from the dread.”

”Do you think it's possible to bring someone back from the dead, Kitty?”

Kitty isn't sure, but John told her that when he was thirteen, Lola was. .h.i.t by a poisoned dart and died in his arms. Sam interrupts the story.

”And didn't he beg his father to bring her back to life?”

That's what she'd dreamt and Kitty says yes. Seeing his son's sorrow, the witch doctor took Lola into his hut and chanted for two days. When he called John inside, Lola was alive.

”See what power I have, my son!” he'd boasted. ”I can raise the dead.”

But when John's mother died, the same magic didn't work and John was left with nothing but her photo and three questions: 1. Did Lola really die or had she just swooned?

2. Did the witch doctor simply give her an antidote for poison?

3. Had the witch doctor swapped the dead orang-utan for a live one?

”I wonder if John's found the answers yet?” sighs Kitty. ”He was supposed to be asking three questions his father gave him: What is magic? What is real? What is-”

”Illusion,” says Sam. ”I know.”

But there's one illusion she knows nothing about; her mother's death. How was it faked? She won't find out this afternoon. Kitty is dozing off; she tires easily. She says she has a weak heart, something to do with smoke inhalation. She must lie down in her cabin.

”Do you sleep with your mask on?” asks Sam.

”What mask?”

It could be a weary attempt at a joke. But trust no one.

THE MAGIC CHAMBER TRICK.

The masked magician's a.s.sistant climbs into a box. The lid is closed, and with a wave of a wand the magician says, ”Be gone!” The box is tilted towards the audience with both hands and the lid is opened. Hey presto! the box is empty. How?

THE SECRET.

You need: a large cardboard box, extra cardboard, strong tape, black paint, a little friend.

1. Cut out the bottom of the box leaving a lip on three sides.

2. Cut a false bottom from another piece of cardboard. Fit it in the box and attach with a hinge of tape. Tape on a handle.

3. Cut or tape together a one-piece cardboard top.

4. Paint the whole thing black.

continued over

HOW TO DO THE TRICK.

Your magic chamber has a false bottom. When you tip the box forward, the box slides over your a.s.sistant, who pulls the hinged bottom shut by holding the handle. Your a.s.sistant is now crouched down, hidden behind the box, but to your audience, she's vanished!

THE MAGICIAN'S a.s.sISTANT

It is dawn. The Cat Barge has grown a platform of foliage near the top of the mast. It's Lola's nest; she is asleep inside, cuddling her monkey. In the rainforest, she'd have slept in the trees, building a new nest every day. She's used to sleeping in Sam's bed now, but, last night, she wanted to sleep under the stars.