The Magic Hat ~ A Short Story

 The Magic Hat

Jade walked with her friend, Emily, down to her locker. They both paused to read the bulletin board mounted on the wall.

“Hey.” Emily pointed to a small flyer on the board. “Look at that.”

Jade leaned forward to read it. “A magic show?”

“Yeah. Today after lunch.”

“‘The Wonderful Walter’? Seriously?” Jade snorted. “It’s going to be some corny thing with lame tricks.”

“Probably,” Emily agreed.

____________

Jade walked past the auditorium after lunch that day. A boy stumbled out.

“That magic show was amazing!” he said. “The magician made things vanish into his hat!”

“There was probably pockets in the hat,” said Jade dismissively.

Other students began streaming out, talking about the magic show. Jade didn’t know why, but she slipped into the auditorium. There was no one there; the kids and magician had all left. Jade turned to go and tripped over something small and black. She leaned down and picked it up; it was a black top hat. The magician’s hat.

Jade glanced around. She ran out of the auditorium and scanned the hallway, looking for the magician.

“Jade,” said a voice of a teacher behind her, “you should be in class.”

Jade mumbled a reply, shoving the hat deep inside her backpack.

____________

Jade sat at her desk that night and rummaged in her pack for her homework. Instead, her hand landed on the velvet top hat. Jade groaned. How would she return it to the magician now?

She sighed and put the hat on the floor. She would deal with it later. She reached to grab a pencil and accidently knocked the pencil cup over; all the pencils spilled on the floor, and one bounced into the hat.

Scowling, Jade picked the pencils up and shoved them into the cup. She reached inside the hat and felt around for the pencil. She looked inside. She turned the hat upside down. No pencil.

There was no doubt about it: the pencil was gone.

It just fell into the pocket, Jade thought. That’s how magic hats work.

But try as she might, Jade couldn’t find any pockets in the hat at all.

Jade got an eraser from her desk and carefully placed it in the hat. It sat there a moment, then slowly melted out of sight. It seemed to be descending into the hat.

____________

Jade was the last to leave the classroom the next day. She was packing up her books when she heard soft footsteps behind her.

She turned around to see a short little man with a mustache. He wore shiny black shoes, a cape, and a red vest. Jade looked at him for a moment.

“Are you – are you Walter?” she said uncertainly. “Wonderful Walter?”

“That would be me,” he said with a wink.

Jade withdrew the top hat from her backpack and held it out to him. “Here. This is yours. You left it behind by mistake.”

Walter took the hat and set it upon his head. “Well, thank you ever so much for finding it for me!” he said. “I thought I had lost it forever.”

He turned to go.

“Wait,” said Jade. He turned back.

“The…the hat,” said Jade. “How does it work?”

Walter grinned. “Magic, of course.”

Jade turned back to her backpack, shaking her head. “Magic doesn’t exist.”

“Perhaps you shouldn’t be so certain.”

Jade lifted her head just in time to see Wonderful Walter dissolve into thin air.

The End