A Matter-of-Fact Magic Book (6 page)

The zoo was in Prospect Park. Maggie Brown took Nora and Tad there on the bus. The sun was shining, and a lot of people were going to the zoo. The bus was crowded. They had to stand for part of the way. Nora wondered why the witch didn’t work some magic to get them seats. Tad thought she should have flown them to the zoo on a broom.

When they got to the zoo, Maggie stopped the first keeper she saw. “I’m looking for Mr. Perkins.”

“You’ll find him over in the llama’s cage,” said the keeper.

Maggie walked over to the llama’s cage. “Mr. Perkins,” she called, “remember me? Mrs. Rothstein asked me to look in on her bear.”

Mr. Perkins put down the shovel he was using. He smiled and came to the gate of the cage. “Of course I remember you, Mrs. Brown,” he said. He opened the gate and came out of the cage. “I want to thank you for your advice about that cockatoo. I used to have to hide it every time the inspector came by. He wanted the poor bird destroyed. It looked so terrible. You should see it now.”

“What was the matter with it?” asked Tad.

“It was the most raggedy bird you ever
saw,” said Mr. Perkins. “Mrs. Brown told me to pull out all the broken feathers, and they’d grow in healthy. It seemed like a terrible thing to do, but it was either that or getting rid of the bird.”

Maggie Brown was smiling. Nora looked at her. “Is that why you were going to pull out Chatty’s feathers?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Maggie. “One of my customers gave her to me because she was so scraggly. I’ve tried every other way I could think of to make those feathers grow, but nothing else worked.”

Nora was quiet. She knew that she had been wrong in thinking Maggie was cruel. Now she felt guilty for stealing the fudge.

Mr. Perkins took them to the back gate of the bear’s cage, behind the stone cave. The bear came to the gate, and Mr. Perkins gave him a carrot. “Mrs. Rothstein gave the bear to the zoo,” Mr. Perkins told
the children. “She had him when he was a cub.”

Mr. Perkins took them to see his favorite animals. He told them stories of things that had happened in the zoo. And he even took them to his office to show them photographs he had taken of the animals. Nora and Tad had never had such a good time at the zoo.

Maggie Brown seemed to be having just as much fun as Tad and Nora. After they said good-bye to Mr. Perkins, she bought them each a balloon on a string. Then they got back on the bus to go home.

Almost every afternoon after school Tad and Nora went to see Maggie Brown. Sometimes she gave them fudge, but never more than one piece. Nora always made sure Tad ate his. She was afraid of what might happen if he collected three or four pieces. She always ate hers too because it was so delicious and because it seemed the safest thing to do.

Maggie’s closets were full of shoes and hats. She no longer wore most of them, and she let Nora play with them. “You can take them home if you like,” the witch told Nora.

There was a big box of old beads and earrings without mates on the floor of one of the closets. “You can have any of that
stuff you want,” said Maggie. At first Nora thought the jewelry might be enchanted, but it never made her disappear or learn how to fly. It was just fun to dress up in.

Tad spent his time making and fixing things. He painted all the doorknobs with glow-in-the-dark paint. And he made a false bottom in the kitchen drawer in case Maggie needed to hide something.

Maggie’s kitchen table wobbled. When Tad tried to even up the legs, he made it two inches shorter. Maggie didn’t mind.

Meanwhile Maggie’s family was getting bigger. There was a baby sparrow that had fallen out of his nest. Maggie put him in a shoe box lined with cotton. Tad was afraid Henry would get him, so he made a little cage for the sparrow.

Maggie found a litter of kittens someone had left in the vacant lot around the corner. She brought them home, and Tad helped make a bed for them. Maggie put a hot water bottle in it to keep the kittens warm. They snuggled against it as if it were their mother. Tad and Nora helped Maggie feed the kittens with an eye-dropper. “As soon as they’re big enough,” she said, “I’ll give them to Gimbel’s pet shop. I used to work there.”

Four pairs of pigeons came to be fed every morning, and the squirrel brought his mate with him to the kitchen window.

Wherever Nora went in Maggie’s apartment, the lizard went with her. Nora didn’t think he was ugly now. She liked his sad brown eyes. And she even liked the way the lizard’s forked tongue would suddenly flash out of his mouth. It usually meant that he was excited about something—or glad to see her.

One afternoon Tad went with Maggie Brown to the hardware store around the corner. He helped Maggie choose a new set of hinges for her kitchen cabinet. When they came out of the store, Tad noticed a little black cat sitting in front of the new delicatessen next door.

“That’s Whiskers,” said Tad. “Doesn’t he belong to Mr. Samuels who used to have the grocery store here? I wonder why Mr. Samuels didn’t take the cat with him when he sold the store.”

“Whiskers made his home in the store,” said Maggie. “He wouldn’t be happy anywhere else. Mr. Samuels told me he gave the cat to Mr. Hellman—the man who bought the store.”

Maggie went into the delicatessen. Tad followed her.

“Mr. Hellman,” said Maggie, “what’s old Whiskers doing out on the street?”

“I can’t have a dirty animal in my store,” said the delicatessen man.

“But Whiskers has never been out of the store.”

“He’s out now,” said Mr. Hellman.

Tad watched the little black cat. It was huddled against the storefront, trying to keep out of the way of people passing by.

A big striped tomcat strolled around the corner. He stopped to hiss at little Whiskers, who ran under a parked delivery truck.

“He’ll get killed!” said Tad. “Please, Mr. Hellman, let him back in the store. He’s a clean cat.”

“I won’t have a cat getting into my salami,” said Mr. Hellman. “If you’re so fond of the cat, you take him.”

Maggie pressed her lips together. Her green eyes glinted. She looked hard at the delicatessen man. “I won’t be buying anything more from you,” she said, “and don’t be surprised if rats get into your salami.” She took Tad by the hand and marched out of the store.

Outside on the street Maggie stopped to coax Whiskers out from under the truck. Tad scooped him up. “Are you going to keep him, Maggie?”

“I guess I’ll have to. Henry won’t like
it, but I’ll keep Whiskers in the living room. Henry can still be king of the kitchen.”

After supper Tad told Nora about Whiskers. “Why doesn’t Maggie just feed the delicatessen man some of her fudge?” Nora asked.

“It wears off, silly,” Tad reminded her.

“Sometimes,” Nora said, “I wonder if we dreamed all that stuff about the fudge. Nothing magic happens anymore.”

“Well, why don’t we get out that fudge I swiped and test it?” asked Tad.

“I can’t trust you to stop at two pieces,” said Nora. “And I’m saving it till we really need it. Now, go do your homework. I still have my arithmetic to do.”

Tad and Nora were coming home from school. They passed Hellman’s delicatessen just as a lady came running out. She was carrying a little boy, and she seemed very upset. “No, no, Tommy. That was
not
a squirrel, and you can’t pet it!”

Mr. Hellman came out of the store after the lady. “It won’t happen again. I’ll get rid of them. I promise.” Mr. Hellman caught sight of Tad. “Boy,” he said, “come here.”

“What do you want, Mr. Hellman?” Tad asked.

“I’ll give you a dollar if you bring that cat back.”

“You mean Whiskers? I don’t think Mrs. Brown will give him back,” said Tad.

“Why not?” Mr. Hellman looked angry.

“She wants Whiskers to have a good home,” said Tad.

Mr. Hellman looked ready to explode, but he just said, “You tell Mrs. Brown I’ll be good to the cat. Now go get it.”

Tad and Nora went around the corner and down the street. Tad rang Maggie’s bell. When Maggie opened the door, Tad said, “Mr. Hellman wants Whiskers back.”

Maggie smiled. “I thought he would.”

“You mean you’ll
let
him have Whiskers?” said Nora. “Suppose he’s mean to him?”

“He won’t be,” said the witch. “And Whiskers will be happy to be back in his old home. Henry will be happy too. He hates being kept out of the living room.” Maggie went upstairs to get Whiskers.

Tad took the cat back to the delicatesseri.
Mr. Hellman forgot to give him the dollar.

Later in the afternoon Nora’s mother gave her some money and told her to buy a pound of potato salad for supper. Nora went to the delicatessen. She wanted to see how Whiskers was doing.

The cat was chasing something behind the counter.

Mr. Hellman was busy talking to Mrs. Hastings. Neither of them saw Nora when she came in.

“That Mrs. Brown you have living in your house is ruining the neighborhood,” said Mr. Hellman.

“Well, she does have too many animals in that apartment,” said Mrs. Hastings. “I’ve asked her not to feed all the stray cats, but I think she still does. It’s very annoying.”

“That’s not all she does. That woman raises
rats
,” said Mr. Hellman.