Ice Magic Read Free Page B

twist of the knobs one way
     or the other turned the players, making them hit the miniature puck.
    “It’s just like games you can buy in stores,” Pie remarked. “Except this one is real old.”
    “You should’ve seen it when we found it,” Jody said. “It was covered with dust.”
    An inch-high wooden wall surrounded the rink. There was a box in one corner where the score was kept. The only thing the rink
     lacked was a red light like the one that flashed on in a real rink when a goal was scored.
    “Look at this,” Jody said, handing Pie a rolled-up piece of paper that had yellowed with age. “It was wrapped around one of
     the rods with a rubber band.”
    Pie unrolled it and saw a neatly printed four-line paragraph.
    To whom it may concern: This hockey game is endowed with magical powers.
    However,
    Beware what happens on a real rink first
    Repeats here not, for fate
    Promises that, as true as bubbles burst,
    The magic will dissipate.
    Pie read the message again, then murmured, “Hmm. This is the strangest thing I ever saw.”
    “Us, too,” said Joliette. “And it is magic. We proved it.”
    “I wonder if anybody else has ever played it,” Pie said.
    Jody shrugged. “I don’t know. It was stuck in a far corner of the attic. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were the first.”
    “Could be,” said Pie. “Well, let’s play a game.”
    They sat at opposite sides of the game and began to play. Pie had difficulty manipulatinghis men as rapidly as Jody did, and after ten minutes of play Jody won, 5 to 1.
    During all that time Pie looked for something strange about the toy hockey game, something that would prove to him that it
     definitely had magical powers. But he saw nothing, and in spite of the message that the twins had found with the game, he
     began to doubt its genuineness. If he weren’t so sure that the twins were sincere believers in magic, he’d think they were
     pulling his leg.
    He was sure they were sincere, though. The expression on their faces when they had first told him about the real game was
     plenty of proof.
    He was sure, too, that they wouldn’t pull a mean trick on him about such matters. Magic to them was a real, wonderful thing,
     and they loved it. You don’t pull practical jokes about something you love.
    “Can I come over before our next hockeygame?” Pie asked. “I’d like to see if it’ll work like the first time.”
    “Sure, you can,” replied Jody.
    “Maybe it won’t work if you play it,” Joliette said, her blue eyes looking at him avidly.
    “Then I’ll watch you guys play,” Pie said.

4
    O n Friday Pie went next door to the Byrds’ house and knocked on the door. No one answered, and he knocked again. Still no one
     answered.
    “Hi, Pie,” said a voice behind him. “Aren’t your little friends home?”
    Pie turned and saw that it was Terry “the terrible” Mason. A calico cat was at his feet, sitting on its haunches and looking
     at Pie with large, yellow eyes.
    “I guess they aren’t,” Pie said, and started off the porch.
    “I heard that you and the twins are reallycrazy about magic,” Terry said, an amused glint in his eyes. “That right?”
    “That’s right,” agreed Pie.
    Terry chuckled. “Why don’t you use magic when you’re on the rink? You could be the greatest.”
    Pie forced a smile. “Maybe I don’t want to be the greatest,” he said. “But I suppose
you
would.”
    Terry shrugged. “Why not? What’s wrong with being the greatest?”
    Pie considered. “Nothing, if you don’t let it go to your head.”
    The cat at Terry’s feet suddenly rose on all four paws and looked across the street. Its tail swished back and forth, and
     Pie looked up. What had caught the cat’s attention was another cat.
    Two cars were coming down the street, one behind the other, and for a moment Pieheld his breath.
Does Terry see what could happen, or should I warn him?
he thought.
    Too late! The cat leaped off the curb and started to run across