Nick the Magnificent Magician

           Being the eldest child of two circus performers, Nick had been exposed to high quality magic acts at a very young age. He loved watching sleight of hand tricks, disappearing acts, and illusions of all kinds. His curiosity often led him to ask the performers how the tricks worked but every time they said that if they told him, they would have to kill him. This didn’t stop Nick, not by a long shot. He was a smart kid and he liked to learn so he set out to teach himself some magic tricks. He got some books from the library and soon impressed his family with card tricks and sleight of hand.

                “Hey! That’s pretty good!” said Dad after Nick successfully picked the right card from the deck. “If you want, I’ll teach you some simple rope tricks after dinner.”

                “Rope tricks?” Nick said.

                “Yeah, I’ll show you how to slide a knot off a string and how to cut a rope in half and then put it back together again.”  Dad said.

                “Okay! Cool!” Nick said enthusiastically. After dinner was over and Nick and Libby had clear the table, Nick and Dad spent the evening trying knots on “magic” string, slipping the knots off and making the knots disappear.

“Hey! This is really cool! I like doing stuff like this.” Said Nick.

                “Well then, maybe you would like a book I have on Harry Houdini. He was an amazing magician from the turn of the century. He was famous for his escapes from handcuffs, strait jackets, and large tanks of water.”

                “Really?” asked Nick. “How did he do that?”

                “Go get the book. You’ll find out. It’s on the shelf upstairs.” Nick quickly ran upstairs and was soon absorbed in the book. He was very impressed by the great magician’s feats and read every book on Houdini he could find. Nick was spouting off Harry Houdini facts to whoever would listen and after receiving a magic kit for his birthday, Nick began to think of himself as a young Houdini. His imagination began to unfold and fantastic schemes placed themselves before him.

                “Houdini started performing when he was young.” Thought Nick. “If I figure out my own escape act, I could be the next Harry Houdini! They would call me the Amazing Nickerino! Or, Vogie the Mystifying! Oh!”  He breathed in sharply as the perfect name came to mind. “I could be Nick the Magnificent Magician! Yeah, I like that. I could recreate Houdini’s strait jacket escape and the one where he escaped from a box wrapped in chains.” Nick’s mind ran faster and faster up the trail of aspiration. “And while I’m performing my escape act I’ll work on my signature act… What could that be? Something no one has ever done before, something impossible. AHA! I will move the moon across the sky quickly! Wow! Think of the Headlines! “Nick the Magnificent Magician Moves the Moon Across the Night Sky Using Only His Right Hand!” What an act that’ll be! I’ll be famous! I’ll perform before the crown princes of Europe, (whoever they are) and the Queen of England, and maybe even the President of the United States!” Nick began to envision the honor and glory that would be bestowed on him one he was Nick the Magnificent Magician. He was on his way to the kitchen when his day dreams made his stop in his tracks. He was still standing in the doorway when Libby came along five minutes later.

                “Ooofph!” Libby crashed right into her brother and the two got tangled and landed with a thump on the floor.

                “Libby! What are you doing?” Nick asked.

                “Dancing!”

                “Well, you should really watch where you’re going.” He said as he helped Libby off the floor.

                “Hey, I wasn’t the one just standing there in the middle of the hall. What were you doing?”

                “Oh, just thinking.” Libby was about to ask what he had been thinking about when Mom came in.

                “What was that noise? Is everything okay?”

                “Yeah. Nick was just thinking and I knocked him over.” Said Libby.

                “What?” Mom said, bewildered. “What made you knock your brother over?”

                “She didn’t mean to. She accidently trampled me.” Nick explained.

                “I didn’t trample you! You got in the way of my Grande jete!” The two of them began to bicker about what had really happened. Mom sighed and spoke over the top of their squeaky voices.

                “Alright! Alright! That’s enough.” Nick and Libby stopped fighting and turned to their mother. “Go brush your teeth. It’s time for bed.”

                That night visions of fame and fortune played through Nick’s head. Schemes of magical mystification were created by the little boy’s active imagination. The next morning he got up determined to learn how to escape from ropes. He pulled his magic kit out from under his bed and went to work.  In the room next to him Libby was still asleep, dreaming of tiaras and tutus. She was on a giant stage and she was spinning and twirling to the music and was about to finish her solo with a beautiful leap when she was startled awake by someone called her name.

                “Libby,” the voice said urgently. “Libby.” Libby rolled over and tried to ignore the voice. “Libby!” She sighed and stumbled out of bed and into Nick’s room.

                “What?” she said grumpily. “You ruined my Grande jete again.” Her eyes began to focus and she looked at her brother in confusion. “What the heck happened to you?”

                Nick was kneeling on the floor with his neck and both wrists tied to the back of his desk chair. How he had managed to loop the rope around himself so many times and knot it in so many places, no one will ever know.

                “Libby, I’m stuck! I can’t escape and I can’t get the knot undone. Can you untie me?” he asked as she stared at him.

                “How did you do that?” Libby asked, still just standing there.

                “I tied the final knot with my teeth. Will you untie me? Please?”

                “But how did you get it-“ Libby started to ask.

                “I don’t know! All I know is I’m stuck! Can you just get me out already?” Nick said, starting to get desperate.

                “Okay, okay. Let me see. Is this the end? Whoops. Guess not.” She said as she accidentally choked her brother. She tugged on knots for a few minutes before giving up.

                “Don’t stop! Get me out!” Nick pleaded.

                “I can’t. I’ve tried every one. None of them will budge.”

                “What am I gonna do now? I’ll never be a famous magician if I’m stuck to a chair for the rest of my life!”

                “Forget that. How are you supposed to sleep? Or eat?” Libby said. At the thought of not being able to eat, Nick’s eyes widen and he started to panic.

                “Oh! What am I gonna do?” he moaned.

                “We could cut the ropes.” Libby suggested.

                “No! That’ll ruin the rope trick!”

                “Suite yourself. I’m not the one tied to the back of a chair.” Said Libby as she got up to leave.

                “Wait! Alright, cut the ropes. Do you have scissors?”

                “No. Do you?”

                “Uh, no.” The two kids, both still in their pjs, considered this. Not having scissors definitely put a stop to their plans. Libby shrugged and again turned to go.

                “Wait! You can’t just leave me like this!” Nick cried. “Go see if the school closet has scissors.”

                “Okay, but I have to go feed the dog first.” She said as she walked away, leaving her brother dumbfounded and tied to a chair.  A little later Mom passed Libby in the kitchen.

                “Where are you going?” Mom asked.

                “I’m going out to feed the dog.” Libby replied cheerfully.

                “Good. Where is Nick? He’s usually up by now.”

                “Oh, he’s still upstairs. He might be awhile.” Libby said off-handedly as she stepped outside.

                “Hmmmm.” Said Mom. She decided to go check on him and as she neared his room, sniffles and sobs attracted her attention. She opened Nick’s door, which Libby had closed, and saw Nick still tied to the chair, sobbing his heart out.

                “Oh my gosh! What did you do?” Mom asked. “Are you alright?”

                “Ye-es.” Nick hiccupped. “I-I-I tied myself to a chair, but then I got stu-u-uck!”

                “What in the world possessed you to tie yourself to a chair?” Mom asked as she tried to undo the knots.

                “I was going to be Nick the Magnificent Magician, the next Harry Houdini!” Nick wailed, completely breaking down.

                “Didn’t Libby see you? Why didn’t she say something?”

                “She was supposed to go get scissors but, but, but-“

                “But what?” Mom asked.

                “She said she had to feed the dog first!”
© 

The Old, Cold, Blue Van

               “Shotgun!” Nick cried as he ran across the parking lot.

                “”That’s not fair! You always get to sit up front. It’s my turn!” said Libby, her dance bag bouncing behind her.

                “Quiet down, guys. All of Hamburg doesn’t need to hear you two fight.” Mom admonished. “Nick, you sat in front on the way to dance.”

                The three of them reached the car as Nick agreed to let Libby sit up front. They waited a few seconds in the cold while Mom first unlocked one door and then reached inside to unlock the others.

                “It’s freezing in here! It’s as cold as it is outside!” Libby complained. She rubbed her hands together and secretly wished she had remembered her mittens.

                The Vogie van was more commonly known as the “Old Blue Van.” There was no air conditioning, you had to manually lower the windows, and the radio didn’t work. The worst part of all was that in the winter it took five minutes for the engine to warm up and a good fifteen for the hot air to start come out of the vents.

                “While we’re waiting, what should we do to warm up?” asked Mom. She was always thinking up wacky and wonderful ideas and she was trying to incorporate this creativity into her children’s minds.

                “We could sing.” said Nick. As soon as he said this, a mischievous gleam came into Libby’s eyes and a smile crept across her face as she started singing.

                “This is the song that never ends! It just on and on my frie-“ But before she could finish the first round Libby’s serenade was put to an end by her mother.

                “We could dance.” Nick offered.

                “I just did that, Nick. I’m tired.” Said Libby, who had just taken an hour of ballet and an hour of jazz. “Besides, how are we supposed to dance in the car?” Mom pulled out of the parking lot as the bickering began. The engine was warm but the people were still freezing and that wasn’t helping the cranky atmosphere.

                “I got it!” cried Mom. “We could howl!” She let out a bay that could have passed for a werewolf. “Come on guys!” Libby joined in and found it really did warm you up. She didn’t know why, but it did. Nick, on the other hand, sat in the back shaking his head and wondering why no one liked his ideas.

                The car had just gotten warm when the car pulled into their driveway. They rushed into the house and Nick and Libby were promptly sent to bed. Ten minutes later, all was quiet upstairs.

                “My plan worked.” Mom said to Dad as she settled down with a cup of tea. “All that howling wore them out!”

Escape from the Living Room

The four Vogie kids sat in the living room trying to be quiet. Mom and Dad were in the front room with some possible tenats for the apartment that they owned. The kids had been told not to make a lot of noise but they had already been shushed by Mom once. They weren’t loud kids but it was a rainy day and the little kids were starting to get rowdy. It didn’t help that the family dog, Lancelot, was being held on his leash by Nick.

                Lance was under a year old and not very well behaved. When he was just with his family of Vogies he was fine. Well, except for a chewed-up sandal once in a while. When other people were around, the little black dog turned into a maniac! He would start barking and jumping and running around and nothing could make him stop.

                As you can probably guess, having strangers in the house did not sit well with him. Occasionally he would growl low in his throat and his little body was tense. However, he had managed to take one of Alex’s socks from his feet and was currently chewing on it.  “I wish we could go upstairs.” Whined Alex as he pulled his sock from the dog’s mouth.

“Why can’t we just pass by the table?” asked Sarah, who was lying on the couch with her legs against the back and her head hanging off the edge.

“Because, Sarah, that would be distracting and rude.” Libby said. “And why are you lying like that? It’s not very ladylike.”

                “I don’t care. It’s entertaining me. And it’s more fun that talking to you.” To finish off this sentence she stuck her tongue out at her older sister. Libby rolled her eyes and turned to her other siblings. Sarah giggled and said in an impish tone, “I’m just kidding! But it is fun to annoy you.” Libby ignored this comment, which is good because anything she could have said would have started an argument.

                “We could go through the cellar to the other side of the house, but it’s locked.” Nick said while he tugged on the leash. “Lance, be quiet for once in your life.”

                Suddenly, Libby was struck with an idea. “The basement has a door leading outside AND it has a door that goes into the cellar that has the door into the house! We could unhook the latch between the basement and the cellar with a screwdriver and then go through the cellar to the kitchen and then up the stairs to the playroom! We won’t have to pass Mom and Dad because they’re in the dining room and we would be in the kitchen! Aren’t I brilliant?”

                “Uhhhh, no?” Sarah said.

                “You’re just being difficult. Come on, it’s a great plan!”

                “I don’t have my shoes down here. “ Alex reminded them. Considering the fact that it was pouring and chilly outside this definitely put a damper on the plan.

                “You could wear Dad’s boots!” Sarah suggested. “I do sometimes.” Libby looked at her with confusion.

                “May I ask why? And may I ask why you are still lying that way?”

                “The answer to both of your questions is… ’Cause it’s fun.” Sarah cheekily replied with her grin.

                “I’ll never understand you and your need to do strange things.”

                “Yeah, well, I don’t get you either.”

                “Alright you two stop bickering. You sound like the typical sister set, fighting about dumb stuff. Might I remind you that we Vogie kids are anything but typical? Alex you wear Dad’s boots. We’re only going down the deck stairs. Let’s move out!” Nick took the lead and retrieved a screwdriver from Dad’s toolbox. With that in hand, he took the dog to the basement.

                Libby, Sarah and Alex took a few minutes longer to get their shoes on. Since Alex was wearing his father’s boots, they went above his knees. Libby looked at him and said, “You better let me go ahead of you so I can catch you when you fall.” They then proceeded down the slippery deck stairs. Sarah went first, then Libby and finally Alex.

                When they got to the basement the three of them found Nick failing to get the latch unhooked. “I don’t think this is going to work. I can’t even find the hook.”

                “I think it’s up a little higher. The screwdriver is too low.” Libby was always fond of telling people what to do. Sarah on the other hand liked to just do it herself.

                “Let me try. I think I got it! Wait, no. I thought I had flipped the hook off but the door still won’t open.” Nick took a step forward and tried to pull on the door but it wouldn’t budge. Alex waddled over in the big black boots and said in his squeaky little voice, “Umm, Nick? I think it opens the other way.”

                “Oh, duh.” Sarah marched up to the door and pushed it open. A chorus of victory came from the small band of siblings. Lancelot just growled grumpily. He did not like being taken out in the rain and then being pulled, pushed, and stepped on.

                “Alright, everyone, take your boots off here. We’ll come get them later. Nick, close the door and relock it.” Libby instructed. This being presently accomplished they agreed to go upstairs one at a time. Nick and the dog first, Sarah next, Alex, and finally Libby.

                Nick came out of the cellar door and went into the kitchen with the dog under his arm and his hand gently over Lancelot’s mouth. He still had to pass the open door between the kitchen and the dining room before he reached the stairs. Swiftly he walked past the door and up the stairs. The rest of the Vogie kids followed him quietly.

                “We did it!” High fives were exchanged and a movie was decided on. Soon even Lancelot was quiet. A little later Mom and Dad walked the future tenets to their car after signing a lease.

                “What a nice tree house! Do you have children?” asked the woman.

                “Yes, we have four. Nick, Libby, Sarah, and Alex.” The couple looked surprised.

                “I remember seeing a little boy in your living room and later I heard someone come in, but I would have never guessed there were four. They’re very quiet children.”

                “Thank you.” Mom replied She was glad to they had been so good but wondered what had kept them so quiet. Later that night at dinner Mom asked what they did while the tenats were there. Alex looked Sarah, Sarah looked at Libby, Libby looked at Nick, and Nick explained their escape in full detail. Dad laughed, Mom rolled her eyes, and dinner resumed.

Introduction to the Kids

The stories on this blog are based on the lives of four children, the Vogie kids. Most of what is written really happened, but the author reserves the right to embelish, alter, or exaggerate any part of any story.
That being said, let the four kids be introduced.
Nicholas was the eldest child of the bunch and he was probably the nicest one. Now, all the children were nice, good kids but Nick was the most trusting and caring and he had a very compassionate nature. He took good care of his younger siblings and could always be relied upon to do a  job well. He could be a little forgetful, but then again, all boys are. He was a tall, thin kid with dark brown hair and matching eyes. He had a handsome face with a stately, Roman nose. His boustrious laugh was infectious, and  he had an aptitude for telling stories. In fact, being good story tellers was a trait that all four children shared. This they got from their mom.
Libby was the next kid in line. She had very long, very brown hair that her mother loved to french braid. She had everything needed to be a good leader, (another trait that was prevalent in all the kids) but when she was with her siblings she often tried to tell them what to do. Nick, being so nice, often let her have her way. Unfortunately, Libby's bossy nature and Sarah's willful personality often clashed.
Sarah was the middle child. How this is possible in a family with four, no one is really sure. But the poor kid was in the middle of every argument. However, aside from her tendency to bicker, Sarah was a great kid, and she was funny. Oh, was she funny! First of all let it be said that Sarah was a very pretty little girl. She had shiny brown hair with honey gold highlights and these big, rosy cheeks that made her very, very cute, but she had one of those rubber faces that could twist into these hysterical faces. Ever since she was a baby, Sarah would make the entire family laugh because she was so goofy.
The last child, the one who completed the set of Vogie kids, was Alexander. The youngest, he could be whiny sometimes, but he was the happiest and most confident out of the siblings. He wasn't afraid of looking foolish and he didn't care what other people thought. Alex did what he liked and seemed to skip through life without a care. He was an adorable kid and it was certain that he was going to break hearts when he grew up. Brown hair paired with big brown eyes, an Italian skin tone, and a compact, muscular body, (Even at the age of nine, Alex had a six pack. Don't ask how, he just did) Alex had a fan club follow him where ever he went.
These four kids got along better than most siblings. They loved each other very much and actually had more fun with each other than with anyone else. They had a lot of inside jokes and could have conversations entire composed of movie quotes and song lyrics. Monopoly was their favorite game and they liked to take walks together and make up stories as they went along. The stories posted here are in no particular order, some happening before Sarah and Alex were even born. Hopefully you enjoy these tales and they can amuse you and entertain you.