wand at Kit and Kit was suddenly engulfed in a cloud of smoke. From within the smoke came the sound of Kit fake coughing. When the smoke faded away, it was to reveal Kit wrapped from neck to ankles in a rainbow color scarf. His hands were pinned to his back by the straightjacket scarf and handcuffs. Jeffery looked at his wand and gave it flick. “I asked for a bag straightjacket, and I get a scarf straightjacket… Heh, heh, heh…Oh well, this works even better.”

“Hey!” Kit protested, struggling against his bonds.

“And now…” Jeffery said, twirling his wand a bit. “Into the trunk you go!” and with a wave of his wand, levitated Kit off the floor and made him glide into the trunk. Another wave and the trunk closed shut with a snap.  Jeffery then wrapped the trunk with chains and padlock. “Oh!” he exclaimed, clapping himself on the forehead. “I forgot the keys.”

“WHAT?!” came Kit’s muffled voice from within the trunk.

“Not to worry, cuz, good thing for us, we’re magic.” Jeffery said.

“Yeah, and good thing for you, I can’t turn you into a duck for forgetting the keys!” Kit retorted sarcastically.

Jeffery grasped the front of the trunk and walked, moving the trunk in a circle motion and disappearing behind it. But it did not stop moving, and when the front came back around, it was Kit pushing the trunk instead of Jeffery!

There was a storm of applaud, to which, Kit took a bow. And then, he raised his wand and tapped the trunk. The chains and padlocks fell off the trunk and the lid opened up to reveal Jeffery inside, wrapped in the scarf straightjacket.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Kit said loudly, twirling his wand and levitating Jeffery out of the trunk, still wrapped in scarves. “For my grand finale, I will saw my assistance in half!”

The curtains behind Kit rose up to reveal the saw-in-half box. He walked toward it, levitating Jeffery in front him. He then lowered Jeffery into the box and closed the lid.   

“Uh, Kit?” Jeffery said worryingly. “You’re supposed to let me out of the scarves first… C'mon, this isn't fair here.” He then gulp: Why am I suddenly getting a bad feeling about this?

“Aw, c’mon, Star Bear…” Kit said, positioning the saw on top of the box. “This won’t hurt a bit.”

“Gee, that’s comforting….” Jeffery said sarcastically. “Considering you already forgot your sawdust goggles.”

Kit made a small exclamation; he stopped sawing and turned his back on Jeffery, bowing his head slightly as he put on his sawdust goggles.

He repositioned the saw on the box and was just about to start cutting through the box, when a glance at Jeffery made him stop. He stared at Jeffery with wide eyes, because for a moment he thought he saw Chris’ face instead of Jeffery’s. But no, this was definitely Jeffery. He resumed sawing through the box.

He was just about to have the box and Jeffery half-way sawed, when he stopped again. Jeffery’s face morphed into Chris, looking as innocent as a lamb. He shook his head vigorously and Jeffery reappeared. But this time, Kit found it a difficult task to start sawing again, his hand holding the saw shook as he push the saw back and forth through the box.  

Every third push of the saw, Kit would pause, thinking he’d seen his brother in his cousin, and therefore making it hard to carry out the trick.

He was beginning to get nervous, and the awareness that he was now sweating like a donkey in August didn’t help.

“Kit, cuz…what’s wrong?” he heard Chris whisper in Jeffery’s voice, and a moment later, Chris morphed back into Jeffery again. “It’s just a trick…”

“Yeah…” Kit mumbled and he started sawing and then stopped. “I—I can’t do it, Jeff…” he said, tears were starting to leak from his eyes.

In the audience, Baloo looked concerned for his navigator.

“What’s wrong with Kit?” he asked the two she-bears sitting by him. “Why’d he keep stopping?” 

“Because he doesn’t really want to go through with the trick.” Melissa said. “It all looks too real for him. He really cares for my Jeffery and he doesn’t want to hurt him. He knows in his heart that it’s fake but his mind is playing tricks on him,”

“Yeah, well, he’d better think o’ something fast,” Baloo said, looking up at the clock. “Because he’s only got one minute left to do the trick before the time runs out.”

Rebecca glared sideways at Baloo. Does he have to remind them of THAT?

 “Baloo dear, Kit needs time to think. I'm sure they can work it out.” Melissa said holding her hands in prayer while thinking: Oh, Baloo, ye of little faith, you’ll soon see what Kit can do.

Back on stage, Jeffery was watching Kit’s tears sympathetically.

“Kit, just do the trick.” Jeffery said to Kit. “I’ll be alright, I promise…Just do the trick, and don’t cry, cuz, please.”

“Are you sure?” Kit sniffed, wiping his tears away on his sleeve.

“Yes, I’m sure. You’re the best, cuz.” Jeffery said with an encouraging smile. “Just do it, Kit, you don’t have much time left.” 

But Kit stood there; a wall of doubt was threatening to overpower him.

“You can do it, big brother!” yelled Chris’ voice from behind them. Kit snapped out of his trance and turned his head to look at the back curtain to see Chris’ head poking out between the openings of the back curtain. “I believe in you, Kit!” he said, giving Kit the thumbs up

Kit smiled warmly. “Thanks, Lil brother,” he said gratefully, as the wall of doubt shattered and fell.

With his courage restored, he begins sawing away until he had sawed through the box. Then he took two mirror boards and slid them, one after the other, into the gap he made in the box. Then, he split Jeffery and his lower body apart.

The audience went wild with cheers and clapping. Kit smiled and bowed. He then put the box and Jeffery back together and removed the mirror boards.

Jeffery kicked the lid of the box open and he stood up with his feet still in the box.
“Ta-da!” he said, raising his arms above his head, showing that he somehow escaped the scarves while he was being sawed in half. 

Kit took Jeffery by the hand and helped him down from the box. Still holding hands, Kit and Jeffery bowed together.

As the cheers and applause started to fade away, Kit and Jeffery retreated backstage, where they were greeted by Chris dashing toward them and throwing himself at them, hugging them very tightly.

“You two were great!” Chris shouted happily as Kit and Jeffery hugged him between them. “That was amazing, you guys! I didn’t even know how you did most of it. How did you get out of those scarves when you were being sawed in half, Jeffery?”

Jeffery just winked mysteriously as Mr. Pomeroy got up on stage and addressed the audience through the microphone.

“There you have it, folks. As you saw, we have some remarkably talented students here at Cape Suzette Middle School.” His words were greeted by applause from the audience. “And now, I’ll call out the winners.” He cleared his throat and held up a bronze medal hanging on a blue ribbon. “In third place, for his amazing musical talents—being able to play the piano despite having his glasses broken—Oscar Vandersnoot!”

Oscar looked very surprised and startled. “M-m-me? But I didn’t play that well.”

Chris and Jeffery clapped and cheered for Oscar while Kit gently pushed Oscar on stage to accept his medal, as his legs didn’t seem to want to move.

He walked shyly over to Mr. Pomeroy, who placed the medal around Oscar’s neck and then took Oscar’s broken glasses off and put a new pair on. (The school always kept a spare pair for Oscar.)

“Vandersnoot, I’d like for you to give us an encore.” Mr. Pomeroy said kindly, gesturing to the piano.

“Um… O-okay.” Oscar said nervously, he walked over to the piano and this time, he played Heart and Soul perfectly and by the end of the song, the cheers and applause were louder than the first time he played.

“Bravo, Vandersnoot! This goes to show that you really deserved third place.” Mr. Pomeroy said with a kind smile and a hand on Oscar’s shoulder. “Your mother must be very proud.”

Oscar looked out at the audience and saw his mother sitting next to Melissa Cunningham. She was crying happily, wiping away happy tears with a handkerchief. He smiled with pride as he thanked the audience with a bow and went backstage again.      

“Congratulations, Oscar!” cried Kit, Jeffery and Chris in unison, all three of them engulfed Oscar in a three-way hug.

“You were really good on the piano.” Chris said to the smaller bear cub. “I’m really glad you won.” 

“T-t-thanks guys,” Oscar stammered, not out of nervousness, but out of overwhelming gratefulness. 

And from that moment on, Oscar Vandersnoot took all three of the Cloudkicker Trio as his very best friends.

“Second place goes to Linda Ping, for her amazing balance,” Mr. Pomeroy said to the audience, holding up a silver medal. “Very few people can balance a set of books on their heads for ten minutes, very well done, Miss Ping, brava!” 

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