Free The Houdini Effect by Bill Nagelkerke

Despite
everything however, I tried to keep focused on the day’s pool plan.
I was determined not to miss that even if I didn’t feel much like
it. The thought of seeing the ‘backwards’ boy kept me resolute.
    I said to Harry, ‘Why do you want to carry
on doing this?’ and he replied, ‘Why do you think?’
    ‘ Money and glory,’ I
snapped at him.
    ‘ Glory first,’ said Harry,
‘but money a close second.’
    I felt claustrophobic just looking at him
swaddled in the thing. It gave me the creeps, in fact. Harry didn’t
seem one iota bothered (that means he didn’t care at all. Iota is
the name given to the smallest letter of the ancient Greek
alphabet) about what he was tied up in and who might have been
restrained in the straitjacket in days gone by. It gave me the
creeps but Harry was simply focused on escaping.
    ‘ Why don’t you admit you’re
never going to be able to get out of it?’ I said, much more
caustically than usual. Harry picked up my mood immediately and
gave me a sideways, irritated look.
    ‘ Because I will,
eventually,’ he said.
    ‘ You haven’t so
far.’
    ‘ Give me time.’
    ‘ The audience and the
judges of SHOW US YOUR TALENT won’t wait, not if it’s going to take
you this long. It’s painful to watch, not entertaining.’
    ‘ You’ll see. I’ll do
it.’
    This seemed highly unlikely to me and I said
so.
    ‘ But seriously,’ I said to
him, letting myself be distracted by his little game. ‘What if you
can’t get out? Even Houdini must’ve had an off day.’
    ‘ I won't fail.’
    ‘ You might’
    ‘ Thanks! I’ve already told
you. I’ve got a Plan B. I’ve got heaps more ideas,’ he
said.
    ‘ Really? Okay then. I’ll
believe you. Thousands wouldn’t. But what if you can’t get out of
the straitjacket right now, today? Mum’s at work. Dad’s disappeared
somewhere.’
    ‘ You’re here.’
    ‘ Not for much longer
Harry-o. I have plans.’ I tried to inject some enthusiasm into my
voice. ‘I’m escaping to the pool. Don’t count on me.’
    ‘ As if I ever would,’ said
Harry. ‘I’ll go see May next door if I have to,’ he added. ‘She’s
always around.’
     
    Harry was right. Being at school for the
best part of the day meant I hardly ever saw May but Dad (who was
also home most of the time) said that she was often ‘pottering
about’ (his words) in the garden, which he translated to mean that
she just wandered about, ‘looking a bit lost’ he thought. Sometimes
she took the car out for an hour or so - ‘probably to get the
shopping’ - but that was about it.
    ‘ What does Barry do for a
job?’ I asked.
    ‘ I’m sure he told me the
evening we had the barbecue,’ said Dad, trying to remember. ‘He
works for the City Council. Or is that what he used
    to do? Blowed if I know for certain
anymore.’
    ‘ Maybe he works in Building
Consents,’ I suggested, riling Dad up. His worst arguments have
been with Building Consents people.
    ‘ Nah,’ said Dad. ‘He would
have said. Wouldn’t he?’
    ‘ Better keep in his good
books,’ I said.
    ‘ Nah,’ said Dad again. ‘Not
worth it.’
    ‘ What did he say or do that
made you turn against him?’ I asked Dad.
    ‘ I didn’t ‘turn against’
him as you so melodramatically put it,’ he said. ‘He’s just not my
cup of tea. And, like I said, I feel sorry for May.’
    ‘ He’s not my cup of tea
either,’ I said. ‘And I feel sorry for her as well.’
     
    ‘If you do ever need May’s help just make
sure no one else in the street sees you wearing that thing,’ I said
to Harry. ‘You’d bring shame to our family.’

    As it turned out, that day
I was able to
untie Harry, much to our mutual annoyance: his because he was
forced to call on me for assistance and mine because I was at home
to be called on. As it turned out his cry for help signalled the
last straw in the straitjacket saga but his failure only motivated
him (eventually, and with my encouragement I have to admit) to