MAGIC WORDS Like an ancient bell that forever swings. O, I love to hear That word make clear Humanity's General Sense of Things. • "Geoffrey pulled up his sleeve, cleared his throat again, and tried once more. 'Arzemy barzemy yangelo igg lom,' he intoned. Quickly, he added, 'Abra cadabra.' Turning to Kate, he whispered, 'That sometimes helps.' At that moment, the cooking pot quivered slightly. It slid toward the rim of the barrel. Then, with a slight crackling sound, it slowly lifted into the air, hovering a few inches above the barrel. 'You did it,' said Kate in wonderment." -- T.A. Barron, The Merlin Effect (1994) • "'Whatever.' A single word. A single, everyday word. Who would expect it to be as powerful as 'Abracadabra.' Full of enough magic and monstrosity to stir the Something Ugly that had been sleeping between them for a long time. Two people who need each other always have one -- an Ugly -- be witched by mutual agreement, a stone neither person turns, a door neither one opens for the common good. To turn, to open, doesn't just rock the relationship boat, it upends it. And for all either person knows, that boat might not ever, ever float again." -- Karyn Langhorne, A Personal Matter (2004) • "Like a reverse abracadabra, the desire would be wiped away, stuffed down, and stomped." -- Diane Conway, What Would You Do If You Had No Fear? Living Your Dreams While Quakin' in Your Boots (2004) • "'Perhaps it's waiting for the magic word?' After all, the mule was just an animal, like me or the cat, only bigger. And I knew what motivated the cat and me. 'Magic word? Yes, perhaps that would work. Now let me think, magic words . . . all right. Abracadabra.'" -- Peggy Christian, The Bookstore Mouse (2002) • "Couldn't he have just said the divine equivalent of abracadabra, and all would be well?" -- Robert Lewis, The Church of Irresistible Influence (200 ) • "[O]ur world burned up to ashes because someone somewhere said 'Abracadabra' the wrong way." -- Holly Lisle, Memory of Fire (2002) • "Think of a [story's] premise as the abracadabra that puts the rabbit into the hat." -- James N. Frey, How to Write a Damn Good Novel (1987) • "[T]he Baltic president of an abracadabra-stan that didn't exist until three weeks ago." -- Linda Fairstein, Likely to Die (1998) • "The owl's name was Abracadabra. He was so big and important that he thought the toy shop belonged to him." -- Rumer Godden, "The Story of Holly and Ivy," Hey! Listen to This: Stories to Read Aloud (1992) • "I didn't move my gaze off the coffin except once, to turn the page in the order of the service; and when I looked back it had vanished -- gone clean