CHAPTER 14

The show went off with a  I mean, really it did, because one kid from sixth grade thought it would be cool to do a science experiment onstage, and he must have put too much of something in, because it made a big scary noise and there was yucky stuff everywhere.

I sneaked a quick look at Mom and Dad, who had their proud and disappointed faces on at the same time. They were probably so excited about someone else loving science enough to do it as their talent and disappointed that he’d messed it up.

We saw handstands, ballet, singing, more singing, poetry, tae kwon do, acting, more singing, break dancing, juggling and,

more singing!

Lancelot Macintosh clapped really loud for each kid and said, as if their talent was the best thing he had ever seen. Except for when the science went wrong, which is when he said,

Sometimes his reactions were more fun to watch than the performers themselves. I couldn’t stop glancing at him. Every so often, he would twiddle his mustache, and twice he looked over at me and winked.

Then it was intermission, which is when people could walk around and buy the stuff we were selling. Everyone was talking about the cookies. They were the first to sell out, and the samosas were next. Daniel’s origami birds weren’t doing so badly, either. Lancelot Macintosh bought five. And he never leaned on his walking stick. Not once. I wondered why he even had it. It was like a prop. Maybe for tap dancing? I thought he was probably full of mysterious surprises.

By the way, you might be wondering why I keep calling by his full name. That’s because he is one of those people whose name has to be said in full. You can’t just call him Lancelot or Mr. Macintosh. It doesn’t sound right at all.

The performances after intermission were more exciting. The Green Eggs and Ham kid came on. Somebody had cleverly attached a microphone to his sweater, so we could still hear him when he was upside down. I heard Mrs. Hutchinson whispering happily along with some of the words.

Daniel and Charlie had decided to do an act together in the end, because Charlie had felt a bit too shy to do one on his own. Daniel sang a song by an old band called the Beatles while Charlie did an awesome

that made the most of his weird double-jointed elbows. They looked like they were having the most fun ever, even more than the time they had a competition to see who could fit the most Whoppers into their mouth!

Then a girl from fourth grade came on wearing a Batman costume and did the best Batman impression I’ve ever seen a kid do, because kids have

voices and Batman does not. But that wasn’t all! She had on a Spider-Man costume underneath, and she hung from the curtain as if she had sticky spider fingers. Then she had an Iron Man costume under that! I couldn’t believe all the voices she could do.

Lancelot Macintosh loved this. He stood up and said,

That was the final performance, so we had a mini break while the judges wrote down their choices. I chose the last girl as the winner, and the Green Eggs and Ham kid as the runner-up.

Mrs. Hutchinson gathered together our slips of paper, and her curls seemed to get

as she read them all. “We picked exactly the same winner and runner-up—it’s unanimous!”

Then she went onto the stage to announce the results, but first she said, “We wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for a young man who hasn’t performed but who has a great talent of his own. Omar has shown love, compassion and drive. He cares greatly about how it would affect others if our local mosque were to close down—and he did something about it! That, to me, is just as much of a talent as doing something onstage, Omar. We are proud of you, and of Charlie and Daniel.

For a minute, I thought I felt a lump in my throat. Nah, it must just have been the samosa I had shoved in earlier . . .