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 Smoke and Mirrors  (5 ratings)by Martin Hazelbower Page 2 of 2 "It can turn time around, make it stop or double back on itself." He drapes the cloth over the kitten, who accepts it stoically. "It can make time advance at a fantastic rate." He snaps his fingers at the cloth, and whips it away from the table to reveal a full-grown black cat sitting there. With an exaggerated feline yawn, the cat jumps off the table and prowls offstage. The magician bows. Again, the reaction of the audience is only polite. "I would like a volunteer," he says. He looks through the motley selection of raised hands, then points to a ten-year-old child from New Jersey who has stayed in the hotel all day while his parents have lost two hundred dollars to video poker and slot machines. The magician sees that rarest expression in the boy's eyes: wonder. The boy walks up onto the stage, accompanied by the nervous clapping of his parents. The magician draws a deck of cards from his pocket, then shuffles them with a practiced hand. He holds a few up to the audience, demonstrating that they are all different. Offering them to the boy, he asks "Do you notice anything special about these cards?" The boy flips through the deck. "No," he eventually says. "Put them down on the table," says the magician, and the boy does. "Shuffle them, please," and he clumsily cuts the cards a few times. "Pick a card," says the magician. The boy does so. "Show it to the audience, but not to me," he asks. Holding it up to the clubgoers, the boy shows them that it is the king of diamonds. "Put it back," and the boy slips it into the middle of the deck. The magician chuckles dryly, and claps his hands together. He points to the deck of cards that now lays on the table. "Take the top card, and look at it." The boy looks at his card, and his eyes widen. "It's mine!" he almost shouts. "Pick the second one up," says the magician. It is another king of diamonds, and the boy's jaw drops. He asks the boy to shuffle the deck again, which he does. Picking another card, the boy sees another king of diamonds. "Magic is limitless," the magician states. He suddenly hurls the deck of cards into the audience, and for a second the air is filled with fluttering spades, diamonds, hearts and clubs -- but no kings of diamonds. He stoops to the boy's height for a second, and smiles at the child. "You can go back now," he whispers. The boy does so, and the magician can hear the parents calmly explaining that it's all done with mirrors. He continues his act. Two hours later, he is walking down the hotel hall towards the small room he gets as a large part of his pay. He turns his key in the lock, and tosses the rolled-up cloak which is slung over his shoulder onto the bed. He sits on the bed, and makes the pack of cigarettes resting on his dresser float into his waiting hand. As he has done every day for much too long now, the magician lights the cigarette with a small yellow flame that jets secretly from his finger, and wonders where his life went wrong. You can reach the author of this story, Martin Hazelbower, at the following email address hazlbwr@cow-net.com.
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001 Martin Hazelbower, sffworld.com. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the author. The author has submitted the work in accordance with and in agreement with the following Submission Guidelines. |
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