James and the Giant Peach Page #4

Narrator #1:
It was at this point that the first of many peculiar things

happened to him.

Magic Man:
Hello little boy.

7

(JAMES, seeing the Magic Man for the first time is startled and a bit afraid.

But he shouldn’t be, because the Magic Man is perfectly harmless and quite

magical.)

James:
Who are you?

Magic Man:
I’ve got a magical surprise to show you my boy.

(The MAGIC MAN holds out a paper bag that he is gripping to keep closed.)

James:
A paper bag?

Magic Man:
You know what this is my dear? You know what’s inside this

little bag?

James:
Gummy candies?

Magic Man:
(Laughs delightedly) No my boy! Oh my sweet precious boy.

Something much much much better than candy is in this bag. Take a look!

(The MAGIC MAN holds open the bag for JAMES to see.)

James:
Why they’re tiny green stones and crystals! Each one the size of a

grain of rice! They sparkle and glow in the most wonderful way!

Magic Man:
Listen to them! Listen to them move!

(JAMES puts his ear to the bag and listens.)

Magic Man:
There’s more power and magic in those things than in all the rest

of the world put together.

James:
But what are they? Where do they come from?

Magic Man:
Ah ha! You’d never guess that. Crocodile tongues! One

thousand long slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of a dead witch

for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! Add the fingers of a

young monkey, the beak of a greed parrot and three spoonfuls of sugar. Stew

for another week and then let the moon do the rest!

James:
And you made them?

Magic Man:
Here! You take it. They’re yours.

8

(JAMES takes the bag, and holds it like it is the most amazing treasure in the

world…probably because it IS the most amazing treasure in the world.)

James:
For me?

Magic Man:
And now all you’ve got to do is this. Take a large jug of water,

and pour all the little green things into it. Then, very slowly one by one add

ten hairs from your own head. That sets them off! In a couple of minutes the

water will begin to froth and bubble, and that’s when you must quickly drink

it down. All of it! The whole jug!

James:
I have to drink them!

Magic Man:
You’ll feel it churning and boiling in your stomach, and steam

will start coming out of your mouth and immediately after that, marvelous

things will start happening to you.

James:
Fantastic things?

Magic Man:
Unbelievable things!

James:
Truly fabulous things?

Magic Man:
Because you are miserable aren’t you? You needn’t tell me, I

know all about it. Now off you go and do exactly as I say! And don’t whisper

a word of this to those two horrible aunts of yours.

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