Story of the Final Trick

“As you can see, there is nothing up my sleeves!” The loud man barely plucked at his sleeves, showing a scant amount of wrist. The beautiful assistant felt his arms, somewhat too adoringly, and nodded to the packed seats.

Florence didn’t particularly like that. Sitting to the side of the stage where it would be hard for her little sister to see her, what with those bright lights pointed right at her cleavage for viewer’s pleasure, Florence picked up her drink. In the guise of taking a sip, she instead blew softly on the liquid.

The oils that had been added to the alcohol moved just slightly. As they did, the tall man on stage spread his arms wide to show the rapt audience the card he had summoned.

As his arms dropped, nearly a pound of cards fell from his sleeves. All of them that summoned card’s same designation. They sprayed all over the stage, making guests chuckled nervously as they tried to understand if it was a joke or not.

The beautiful assistant started squinting past the lights at the crowd. As her boyfriend looked about in a panic, the back of his badly made top hat had more of those cards tucked in the hem. The crowd of fancy guests were now more focused on the show than the dinner in front of them. They laughed loudly at what must now surely be a joke.

“Apologies!” He tried to recover. “Sometimes my magic is a little more potent than expected!” He sounded slightly nervous to Florence.

At his gesture, his assistant walked towards the front of the stage, arms wide to garner all the attention, as he brushed off all the cards he could find and mentally tried to focus on the next trick. Coming to join her at the front of the stage while his back stage crew tried to sweep the offending cards from behind them, the magician pulled off his top hat and showed the empty interior to the crowd of now very interested patrons.

He then reached in to pull out the expected rabbit.

Florence delicately swirled her drink.

His hand came back with a white, fluffy, cat. The feline was beautiful and about the right size, but as it let out a very loud meow, certainly not a rabbit. The dinner guests laughed and cheered the magician, none of them seeing the concerned look he passed his assistant. She returned the look, somewhat sheepishly.

Then the large white cat gave a mighty sneeze, and became a snowy owl in an explosion of feathers and fur. The audience was loud in its applause.

Stage hands were already rushing forward to take the owl. All of them looked a little pale. They certainly weren’t expected the change in the program, and all of them knew that they hadn’t set up the changes in the tricks.

As one took the owl, another handed the magician a very large cape of bright fabric the size of a man. Florence could see that he gave a very curt command and perhaps threat to the poor helper.

“For my last trick!” He attempted to guide the audience again as a visible sweat started down his face. “I will now make my lovely assistant disappear!”

Florence noticed that his voice cracked just slightly on that last word. Understandably. He had no way of knowing what would change on this last stunt.

The magician took his assistant’s hand and motioned for her to turn. It was as if to show the guests that she didn’t have anything on her she was hiding to aid the trick. Really, it showed all the angles of her very scantily clad form. Some men whistled.

Then she gave a pose as the magician covered her from view to the audience. He said some very fancy words of nonsense as he shook the red fabric dramatically.

Florence took a sip of her altered drink.

When the red fabric fell, Florence blinked out past the lights of the stage that were brighter than she had expected. The rush from the drink and magic made it very believable that she was confused, a subject of the audience, still on her dining chair with her drink in hand, now suddenly on the stage and the center of focus.

The dinner guests roared with approval. They thumped the tables and raised their glasses and spoke among themselves so loudly that it was certain that the story of the magician’s incredible show would be the story in all the papers by morning.

Florence stood up, trying to look embarrassed and pleased.

With little else he could do than pretend it was all intended, the magician stood next to her and tried contain his shaking. As was custom with assistants and female guests, he went to kiss her cheek.

She made careful that her face was on the opposite side of the cheering guests.

She spoke clearly in his ear as he leaned in close.

“You sneak about behind my sister’s back again, it is you that is going to be disappearing. Permanently.”

When he pulled away, the now famous magician looked pale as a death bed and smelled of a nervous sweat. She could tell from the look in his eyes that he now understood his position perfectly.

“Florence!” Came the barely contained hiss from across the room.

Stage lights turned to show the lovely assistant standing on one of the few tables unoccupied at the back of the room. The room was then so loud and breathless with their approval at her return that Florence couldn’t possibly hear whatever would have been said next. She left the stage confident that her message was received in all clarity.

*

I hope you liked the story.

I also write under the name Katty Jay, in case any of you would be interested in finding any more of my work.

Smile Always.