"'Julie has a long striped tail that she uses to stay balanced,'" Joy read from the card.
"Oh, no..." Julie groaned. "Joy, stop reading."
"It's okay. You're not growing a tail."
"Indeed?" Lupo's booming voice startled both girls. Joy almost dropped the cards. "Perhaps it's hiding on us." He faced the crowd again. "Folks, would you like to see a tail?" Predictably, the audience was all for it. "Don't worry. I know how to draw it out." He stepped behind and to one side of Julie and rubbed his hands together. He leaned down, reached toward her and began repeating an exaggerated miming motion as if he was pulling something out from the seat of her pants. "Eenie, meenie, miney, mail..."
Joy put her hand to her mouth to keep from laughing. Lupo was just thrusting his fists backwards over and over.
"Does this, tiger, have a..." He reached in one more time and pulled forcefully, practically jumping backward. "...TAIL!" Joy and the audience gasped at what came with him. From somewhere behind Julie, Lupo had indeed snagged a long, slender tail with the same pattern as her fur.
"Oh geez!" Joy exclaimed underneath the audience's clapping.
Julie felt nothing. She looked behind her. There wasn't anything in Lupo's hands. He was just holding them together like he was bunting with an invisible baseball bat. She tried to walk away from him, but after half a step, something right in the small of her back caught her. But there was still nothing there! She even waved her arm between her ass and Lupo's hands. She couldn't find anything.
Well, that wasn't exactly true. She found Lupo's usual creepy smile.
"Sorry, Julie. I know it's terribly rude to play with a tiger's tail."
"How are you doing this?" she stammered.
"My dear," he smiled wider. "Have you no imagination?"
"I'm so sorry!" Joy said on the other side of Julie, making her jump. "I really didn't think you were going to grow a tail."
"But I DIDN'T," Julie sneered. "Pretend like you don't see it. Pretend I don't have a tail. SAY I don't have a tail."
Joy's eyes fluttered as she looked at her sister sympathetically. "Sorry. But...we both know that's not true. Lupo just pulled a real tiger's tail out of you, right through your pants."
"Ahhck--!" Julie flinched at a sudden jolt of pain at the end of her spine. She tried not to look behind her, but her instincts were too quick for her frazzled brain. There now, plain as day, was the striped tail everyone else had believed they'd seen. It was poking out of a hole in her expensive blue jeans. Its orange and black fur was bristling as Lupo held it taut.
"L-let go!" Julie grabbed the appendage and yanked it from Lupo's gloves. A thousand prickles from its new bundle of nerves shocked her and she dropped it. It swung back behind her and whipped the air angrily. Joy jumped away to avoid getting smacked in the face.
The magician backed up and lifted his hands in an open gesture, but Julie wasn't willing to accept his "mea culpa." She pounced. A fierce flurry of reddish-brown hair surrounded her, making her look larger than she was and putting Lupo off-guard. She grabbed his sleeve and shoved her hand inside.