What's happened to Toady?

 

        What began as a silly prank, left Toady wedged inside the grandfather clock, with no way to open it from the inside.  Unless someone looked to see why it had stopped ticking, he could end up in there all night.  He could see them through the glass panel in the door, but someone needed to look at the clock to notice him.  Due to his current state of panic, time was not on his side.   So far none of the other children had noticed him missing, which only added to his mental discomfort.

 

       That was several years ago, and Toady hadn’t thought about that night until this happened.  Several days back he was up on stage helping his friend Warren.  Warren had been learning to do magic.  He wanted desperately to become a magician and being his best friend, Toady was his choice for an assistant.  That is, until he could find a good-looking girl willing to help him on stage.

 

       The illusion Warren had purchased was a wooden coffin.  It was called the disappearing corpse trick.  Warren had seen it done a few times and saved up to buy it.  Now, and without an audience of any kind, he set it up so they could practice on the high school auditorium stage.

 

       It took some time, but they finally figured how to stand it upright so it would stay without wobbling, even when Warren opened and closed the lid.  When open, the audience would be able to see directly into the coffin.  They’d see that it was empty.

 

       Unknown to Warren, Louis Scruffner, the school’s custodian had walked in through the back of the auditorium to see why the lights were on.  He sat quietly and watched from the back row while the two students attempted to get the illusion to work.

 

       Warren, dressed in his homemade cape and goofy looking hat told Toady to stand inside the coffin while he closed the lid and said his magic words.  The moment Toady stepped in, his thoughts flashed back to that grandfather clock and the worst birthday party he had ever been to, but he reluctantly did it.  Warren closed the lid and then waved his arms around in exaggerated gestures.

 

       Then he turned to face the audience.  That’s when he noticed Louis sitting in the back, watching him.  “I’m practicing a magic illusion.” he announced to Louis.  “Don’t let me stop you.” The custodian responded. “Just shut the lights back off when you leave.”  Warren spun around and faced the coffin, and with a theatrical flair he opened the lid.  Both he and Louis saw at the same time, the coffin was now empty.  Toady was gone.  Louis started clapping while Warren stood there dumbfounded, his mouth hanging open.  He had no idea how this thing worked.

 

       “Can you bring him back?” Louis yelled, but Warren couldn’t move.  He couldn’t believe he had done it.  Where had Toady gone?  There was no false bottom or fake side panel.  None of this should have worked.  When Louis noticed Warren’s arms fall to his side and his shoulders slum he knew something had gone wrong.  He stood up and walked to the foot of the stage.  “So where is he?”  Still, Warren couldn’t bring himself to speak.  He just looked at the custodian.

 

       Louis walked to the end of the stage and went up the few stairs and over to the coffin.  He felt the sides and back and examined the seams.  This did not look like some prop.  “Where’d you get this, son?”

 

       When Toady awoke, he was laying on his back on the living room carpet.  Two paramedics were kneeling over him.  “He’s coming around.” One of them said.  “Why did you climb into that clock anyway?  We had to take that door off to get you out.”

 

       Toady could feel his hands on the carpet.  It felt good.  “I’m back. he said smiling.  Is there any cake left?”