The travel agent 9/21

For the first time during her performance she looked directly at everyone and put on a very large ‘stage smile’. With a wave of one hand she produced a top hat and placed it carefully in mid air just in front of her.

Reaching inside she pulled out the usual conjuror's collection of coloured flags and silk handkerchiefs. Next she drew out three real rabbits, one after the other, which hopped around the stage, while she went on by producing a flight of half a dozen pigeons which flew out over the audience.

As everyone turned round in their seats to watch them, the rabbits vanished, while the pigeons made one circuit of the hall before landing on the hat brim and hopping inside. Finally she threw the hat up in the air where it hovered for a moment while she threw the flags and handkerchiefs back inside, before disappearing with its contents about ten feet up.

The whole school began clapping continuously, as she began to throw ever-increasing numbers of small wooden boomerangs into the air. Soon there were twenty or thirty whizzing round, continually being caught and once more sent on their way.

Then with a clap of her hands, every one of them disappeared. Finally she turned to one side and beckoned towards the wings. Someone appeared to walk onto the stage before there was a loud gasp among the clapping, as people realised that the ‘person’ was an old fashioned birch broom dressed up in a witches’ hat and cloak.

Jennifer Jane put the hat on her head, flung the cloak round her shoulders, straddled the broom and flew straight into the black backcloth. The cloth folded into a heap as she hit it and eventually collapsed flat on the floor before rolling itself up as it had been before the performance began.

There was simply nowhere for her to go and yet obviously she hadn’t been under the cloth, nor could she possibly be inside the roll. There was a moment’s puzzled silence and then uproar broke out as she stepped out from behind her father, dressed as she had begun, in her school uniform.

Children were standing on their seats shouting and whistling, while the adults applauded and shouted ‘encore’ in a rather more restrained manner. One or two were sitting thoughtfully, looking very puzzled and obviously trying to think of a rational explanation for what they’d seen, but everyone had obviously enjoyed the show.