R. A. Lafferty

“ And it was all assembled.
"Why does she get all the attention?" asked Clarence. "I was the one that made all the things disappear. How does she know how to get them back?"
"I knew it!" cried Clarissa with hate. "I knew he was the one that did it. He read in my diary how to make a disappearer. If I was his mother I'd whip him for reading his little sister's diary. That's what happens when things like that fall into irresponsible hands."
She poised the hammer over the gold watch of the mayor on the floor. ”

“ Why, there's lots of grown people who wouldn't know how to make a disappearer that would work. I wonder if Blanche Manners will miss her cat very much?"
Clarence went down to the Plugged Nickel, a pot house on the corner.
"Do you have anything you want to make disappear, Nokomis?"
"Only my paunch."
"If I make it disappear it'll leave a hole in you and you'll bleed to death."
"That's right, I would. Why don't you try it on the fire plug outside?"
This in a way was one of the happiest afternoons ever in the neighborhood. ”

“ Business was phenomenal at the Plugged Nickel, for it was in front of its very doors that the fire plugs disappeared in floods of gushing water.
"I know a way we can get rich," said Clarissa several days later to her father, Tom Willoughby. "Everybody says they're going to sell their houses for nothing and move out of the neighborhood. Go get a lot of money and buy them all. Then you can sell them again and get rich." ”