Holding his wand over a large, empty vase that stood on the table, he continued to chant mystic phrases as first a bouquet of roses and then Penny herself came up, smiling through the roses.
“A real girl and real roses!”
“And a real daddy,” she chirped. “Isn’t that real magic?”
Clapping hands answered her as the magician began throwing the roses. Helen Riker caught one, and held it in her hand.
“It will make up for everything I lost, unless—Judy!” she asked suddenly. “Who were those boys who came in with him? I saw them together in the store, too. He’s not married, is he? I couldn’t—”
Judy told her the Dran family were only caretakers for young Uncle Paul as her family had been caretakers for old Uncle Paul.
“He said he likes children around him,” Judy finished.
“I can see that. Oh, I’m so happy. We don’t need those little idols, Judy. We’re going to have each other.”
“See, Mommy!” Penny announced, returning to her chair and cuddling into her mother’s lap. “Didn’t I tell you he could make wishes come true?”
Soon after that, the curtain was drawn and the magician did not appear again in spite of all the clapping. Now the club members gathered around Penny. She began to explain in a mysterious voice just the way she had rehearsed the disappearing trick. “There’s a hiding place under the stage. You remember how thick the table top was? Well, there’s a sliding panel of thin wood—see! And when the panel slid out from under me, I dropped right into the table and disappeared.”