Cub Scout magic show

It had not been a good morning for checking out the neighborhood garage sales. I had found only a couple of books that interested me I was ready to quit for the day when I spied one more sign. I pulled over and parked. The usual rack of clothes, tables of knick knacks and boxes of toys were on display. Off to the side, near the money box was an unusual table with a cardboard box draped with a blue handkerchief.
Noticing my puzzled look at the box, a uniformed Cub Scout called to me, “Wanna see some magic tricks? it’s free.”
I looked at his mother. “The whole garage sale is to benefit the Cub Scouts,” she said.
“Do you want to see a trick?” he persisted.
“All right,” I leaned against a post of the carport.
“This is an ordinary pack of cards and four jacks. The first jack went to the first floor.” He slid a card into the bottom of the deck. “The second jack went to the second floor,” another card squeezed between the cards a bit higher up on the deck. He repeated his chant with the other two cards.
“All of the jacks took the elevator to the top floor.” He turned it over one, two, three, four jacks from the top of the deck.
“For my next magic trick I will take an ordinary playing card that has been torn up and place the piece in an ordinary envelope.” He held up an envelope that almost covered a matching envelope behind it.
“Now I will say the magic words and the card will become one piece.”
He flicked his hand holding the envelop dramatically in the air, “Badada Boom,” and reached inside the envelope. He pulled out an untorn playing card.
“Now I need one penny, just one penny for my next trick. I won’t hurt it and you will get your money back. Do you have a penny?”
I found one penny tucked in a corner of my change purse and handed it to him.
He folded the penny into the blue handkerchief and stuff both into a small leather purse. “Badada boom.”
He emptied the handkerchief and purse over a glass of water. A penny sized, clear disk settled into the bottom of the glass.
“Now I will make the penny reappear.”
He reached into the water, removed the invisible penny and stuff it back in the handkerchief and bag, took out my penny and returned it to me.
His repertoire of magic tricks was finished, but not his magic show. “Now which trick would you like to see how I did it?”
His offer surprised me, but I knew immediately. I wanted to know how the cards got back tot he top of the deck.
“The card trick.”
His shoulders slumped as if to say, “that old trick, it’s easy,” but he reached for the deck of cards. After explaining the slight of hand involved, he couldn’t resist — he proudly reached for the envelope with the torn card. “To do this trick I … ” he showed me every trick he had done.
I knew the show was over when he zeroed in on another garage sale shopper. “Wanna see some magic tricks? It’s free.”
I walked back to my car smiling to myself – it had turned out to be a great day to check out the local garage sales.