A Magician

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“Watch this.” The brother and sister stared up at the magician, faces full of wonder. He stood in front of them, tall and skinny, in a purple top hat and suit. 

He pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and placed it on the little boy’s head. The golden buttons on his coat glistened as he pulled a black and white wand out of inside of his jacket. One tap of the wand on the paper and the paper lit on fire. The conflagration engulfed the paper but didn’t hurt the boy at all. It tickled him, a little bit, but his hair wasn’t even singed.

Both kids stared up at him with awe as the ashes brushed themselves off the boy’s head. “How’d you do that?” The girl asked, showing her missing front teeth. The magician smiled a mischievous smile as he put a finger to his lips. 

Suddenly the kids heard chirping from the magician’s jacket. The girl’s jaw dropped as the buttons flew off his coat. Upon closer inspection, the buttons were little golden birds. One of them landed on the little girl’s outstretched hand. She was elated when it stayed there, as she closed her fist. It was hers now.

“What’re your names?” The magician knelt down to their level. 

The boy smoothed down his honey colored hair, shaking the last of the ashes out. “I’m Luke and she’s Sosie.” 

“Sosie? That’s an interesting name.”

“Thank you.” The little girl said; her golden curls bouncing as she let the little yellow bird go. 

“What else can you do?” Luke asked. 

“He’s such a wastrel. He’s just obnoxious. I don’t even want the children around him.” They heard a women talking on a cellphone behind them. “Oh there you are!” She exclaimed, as she saw the children. “Where have you been? Oh, Sosie, honey, your curls are askew!” 

The siblings shot each other a look. They had to come up with a pretext and fast. 

“We were-“

“Look, we’ll talk about it later. We have to go or mommy’s going to be late.” The children followed the mother. They looked back, to get one last look at the magician, but he was gone!

Later on that night, as they were getting ready to go to bed, Luke said, “Look at what I can do.” Sosie glanced up from smoothing her nightgown, just in time to see a towel light on fire. 

“I’m a magician.” Luke said. Sosie couldn’t fathom how he did it, especially since the wall wasn’t even blackened at all. Luke was elated that he could do something so cool. 

“I wanna do it!” Sosie cried.

“You can’t.” Luke said. 

“I want to!”

“Go ahead. Try. You can’t do it! You’re too little!”

“Am not!” Sosie stared hard at Luke’s favorite blankie, sitting on the toilet seat. She coveted her brother’s new power and wanted to be like him. Besides, he was mean. She wanted to burn his blankie. The blanket flew across the bathroom and landed in the tub. 

“Told ya, you couldn’t do it.” Luke sneered. Sosie just smiled, she could do something he couldn’t. 

The kids lay down to sleep that night, hoping their strange new power’s would still be there in the morning. 

Reviews

[Tunder]

Very interesting story line. I hope you continue this. And I love the casual way the kids discuss their powers. It really shows how naive they are. Well done.