gratefully, accepting the new deck and turning to Jason, holding the cards in front of the pup in a fan. “Now pick a card.”

Jason drew a card and looked at it, with Jeffery looking over his shoulder at the card in the pup’s hand so that he couldn’t fib about what card he had. Jason placed the card back into the deck in Kit’s hand after memorizing his card.

Kit shuffled the deck and drew a card—King of Clubs.

“Is this your card?”

Jason stared at the card in awe. “Wow, that is my card! How did you do that?”

“Magic,” Kit said, smiling and gaining a little of his confidence back. “And now, for my next trick….”

For the next half hour, Kit had performed countless small magic tricks with Jason getting more and more delighted with every trick.

“And now,” Kit said, taking off his top hat and placing it on the special table. “I will pull a rabbit out of my hat.

At the mention of rabbit, Jason looked all around for Chris, but did not see him, Meanwhile, Kit plunged his whole arm into the hat, groping around inside, until he pulled the head of a bear in a rabbit suit out by the rabbit ears of his suit. It was Chris.

“Ta-da!” Chris said brightly, and Jason clapped loudly.

Kit pulled Chris up so that his shoulders and arms joined the head. Placing his hands under Chris’ armpits, he pulled the rest of Chris out of the hat, setting his light-weight brother on his hip, an arm underneath Chris’ cotton ball of a rabbit tail to support his weight as Kit held him.

Sitting on Kit’s hip, Chris had one arm around Kit’s neck; the other was waving at the audience.

The ‘audience’, which was just Jason and Jeffery, applauded loudly and cheering, all the while, Jeffery was wondering how did Kit managed to pull Chris fully out of the hat.

“And for my final trick, I’ll saw Jeffery in half!” Kit announced, pushing the box on a padded top cart with two pillows at each end, to the center of the living room. “Jeff, come on, step up,” he said, beckoning Jeffery forward.

Jeffery gulped. “N-no way, cuz, I’m not getting in there.”  

“Are you a chicken?” Jason asked Jeffery slyly.

“Well…” Jeffery said as Jason started to imitate a chicken. “I’d rather be a chicken than be Thanksgiving dinner. And n-n-no I’m not a chicken, Jason. I’ve done this trick at least hundreds of times with my Mom. B-but Kit's just a beginner.

“Hey guys,” they turned to see Chris’ legs hanging out of the neck hole of the box. “Is this right?”

“Chris!” Kit exclaimed exasperatedly, while Jason and Jeffery roared with laugher. “Get out of there!” he opened the lid of the box.

“Aww, do I have to?” Chris asked whiningly, giving Kit a pout. “I wanna do this, big brother! C’mon, let me try it. Jeffery doesn’t wanna do this trick anyway, do you, Jeffery?”  

“I don’t care, Chris, you’re not doing this trick.” Kit said firmly. “Now get out.”

Chris’ lower lip begins to tremble. “But, big brother…I’m not scared of this trick anymore. If you’re okay, then I’ll be okay too.”

"Kit, you been sawed in half before?" Jason asked curiously to Chris's comment

 

"Uh yeah I have actually." Kit said slowly.

 

“Please, big brother…” Chris said again with his bottom lip trembling and his eyes big and shining like a puppy dog.

“Aw, let him do it, cuz.” Jeffery said weakly, easily giving in to Chris’ trembling lips. “It’s not like you’re going to hurt him or anything, you can do this as well as I can.”

“I don’t know…” Kit said doubtfully looking down at Chris in the box.

Chris looked up into Kit’s eyes. “Please, big brother?” he begged, with the most persuadable puppy-dog pout in the history of the world.

“Yeah, pwease!” Jason cooed, adding his own pout.

Jeffery bit his lips, trying to fight down a laugh that was threatening to burst out. He decided against adding his plead or opinion on this, lest Kit decided to give him another Tickle Torture session.

Kit, meanwhile, seemed to be struggling with himself, torn between a desire to get Chris out of the box and a wish to honor his little brother’s request.

“Kit?” said Chris in concern; he hated to see his big brother under stress. “Are you alright?”

Kit looked down at Chris while the war inside his head wages on.

—Get him out of that box! NOW!—

—No, he wants to do this trick…—

—C’mon, he’s like a little kid, he doesn’t know what he wants!—

—Yeah, but still… it’s his choice to make, I-I have to let him make his own decisions.—

—Do you want to be responsible for anything that might go wrong?—

Kit staggered forward, catching himself on the edge of the box, a tear sliding down his face.

“I—I c-can’t do it,” Kit said in a croaky voice. “I just…can’t, not with my brother.” 

Jeffery dashed at Kit and threw his arms around him, holding him in a comforting embrace.  Kit buried his face in Jeffery’s chest while Jeffery patted the back of his head.

“Shh… it’s okay cuz.” Jeffery said soothingly, knowing full well that Kit was fearful that he might hurt Chris in some way, even though it was just a trick. “It’s always hard the first time doing it with a very close relative.”

“R-r-really?” Kit asked, choking back tears.

 

“Yeah, my Mom fainted the first time she tried to do me.” Jeffery said, he couldn’t help but grin slyly at the memory. “Well, at least you’re faring better than my Mom did—don’t tell her I said that.”

That cheered Kit up a little bit; he chuckled and then looked gloomy again.

 

“But I still don’t think I can do this, not with Chris.”

 

“Aww, but I really wanted to see this trick,” Jason whined, pouting.

Jeffery looked from Kit, to Jason and finally to Chris, thinking and then coming to a decision.

“Kit, cuz, why don’t you take a break?” Jeffery said, taking Kit’s top hat. “I’ll saw him in half—relax, cuz,” he added as Kit opened his mouth to protest. “I’m a professional; I’ve done this hundreds of times. Besides, you need to rest if you’re gonna be ready for the show tonight.”   

Kit sighed in defeat. “Alright Jeff, just be careful with him.”

“You know I will cuz.” Jeffery said, playfully shoving Kit into an armchair. “Chris will be fine, I promise. Beside, I love him too; he’s my cousin and little brother. Do you really think I wouldn’t be careful with him?” Jeffery strode over to the box and opened the lid. “Uh, Chris cuz…you’re facing the wrong way,” he said, pulling Chris’ legs out the neck hole of the box. “That’s where your head is supposed to be.”

“Oh,” said Chris as he allowed Jeffery to shift him in the right position. “But I was comfortable the other way,” he added, pouting as Jeffery closed the lid on him.

“I know, cuz, but you’re supposed to be on your back, not on your belly.” Jeffery said as he locked the lid into place. “Beside, if I tried this with you laying on your belly, the trick might go wrong and then Kit would have my hide.”

“And your nutty head...” Kit muttered from his corner.

“Eeek!” exclaimed Jeffery in a high-pitch voice. “No, anything but that, cuz!” he cried, clutching his own neck with both hands. “I’m rather attached to my head—please don’t chop me!” he fell to his knees with his hands together as though in prayer. 

“Jeff…I was just joking.” Kit said with a humorous smile. “Now get on with the trick before I take Chris out of that box.”

“I know, but I wanted to make you smile.” Jeffery said, playfully sticking his tongue out at Kit. 
“Come on!” cried an impatient Jason. “Cut him in half already!”

“Okay, okay,” said Jeffery, signaling Jason to calm down “And now, without further ado...” he reached behind his back and with classic cartoon style, withdrew a saw from nowhere. “I will now saw Chris in half.” He bent down and whispered in Chris’ ear: “Cuz, don’t pretend to groan in pain, Kit is worried enough as it is…”

Chris casted a look of concern toward his brother. “Okay,” he whispered back.

Jeffery held the saw up high, where the sharp edges glinted in the light. He then bend the blade back and let go, as a result, it wiggled back and forth on its holder.

Kit covered his eyes with his hands and moaned as Jeffery positioned the saw on top of the box and begin sawing through it.

As the trick unfolds and Chris was sawed in half, Jason clapped loudly and cheered.

Jeffery continued sawing while Jason and Chris were getting even more excited at the climax of the trick. As Jeffery finished sawing through box, he slid two mirror boards in the gap he made in the box and separated Chris in two. Just then, they heard a voice at the door.

 

 “Hello, boys! I'm home, did you have a good—” Mrs. Robinson called from the door, entering the living room. And then she stopped dead in her

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