The Magician
by Jeffrey Genung
"Douglas, you never want to do anything anymore," Raina whined as we walked.
My phone vibrated with another email from work about the latest
figures. Glancing at it, I knew I’d need to send annotations back
later.
"...God, Douglas... What good is money if you never spend it..."
We walked to dinner.
Alternative figures would need to be sent back to the office... Where
did I put that file? I might be able to scan them and email a scan.
"I want more than..." Raina continued. "I want someone who... it’s
about time and goals Douglas, goals that aren’t part of work. We aren’t
living. Tonight we’re going out."
Out? "Raina, I only have time for dinner. I need to get back to the
office,” I said as we were almost to the restaurant. The figures needed
more continuity to hold up after their accountant got a look at them.
Office.. I needed time at the office to make a clean spreadsheet.
"No Douglas, I bought some tickets to a show."
A show? "A show?" I stopped dead on the sidewalk. Final figures could be added with the last file.
"Yes, a show, it’s actually at a theater down the block from our
apartment. Fun, Douglas, it’s a magic show, it’s supposed to be
amazing. We WILL have some fun damnit!” She said. "Look, it’s close ok?"
Theater? "There’s a theater on our block?" I scratched the back of my
head thinking seriously about all the places I knew of on our block and
trying to place a theater.
"You’re so oblivious. Yes, around the corner is a theater."
"Huh..." I still couldn’t picture it, unconvinced that our block had a
theater on it. We walked in silence the remaining few steps to the
restaurant. I took a quick look at another incoming email on my phone
as we reached the door, one more email I would need to take care of
after we were seated.
Raina picked a bottle of a Bordeaux suggested by the waiter to go with
our meal and stayed quiet through most of the evening. When we were
almost done I went into a back restroom hallway to take a quick call. I
think she understood.
I asked, "Magic show huh?" Sitting back down after the call. The meal
over, the bus boy took plates and the waiter hovered to inquire about
desserts.
"Yes Doug," Raina said abruptly sitting up, "It’s close, it’ll be fun,
we’ve got 45 minutes, have a drink and some dessert. Relax... enjoy it,
please?"
"Oh, I’ll go... fun... let’s do have a little fun." I said, examining both the dessert menu and my phone.
*****
A sandwich board proclaiming ‘Gage Maddock, Magician, One Night
Only...’ occupied the sidewalk in front of the theater. "I’ve never
noticed this place." I said to Raina.
"There’s a lot you don’t notice Doug." She said quietly.
"That can’t be his real name," I snickered playfully. "How does anyone get to be a magician anyway?"
Raina stared daggers. I shut up.
The theater was dark and intimate. Once we were seated and the show
began I looked at Raina’s face. She smiled, enthralled, sitting forward
on the red velvet seat watching every movement of the sandy-haired
boyish magician. He was good... incredibly good. I wanted to explain to
Raina how various tricks were being done, and how threads and puffs of
air were enough to affect some objects on stage, but I held my tongue.
Many of Mr. Gage Maddock’s effects seem to involve things vanishing. I
couldn’t completely follow all the effects. Objects disappeared right
in front... right between him and the audience. The theater was small
enough to see everything on stage even though the show was sold out.
His hands would move, and things were just gone.
After a few sleight of hand tricks with cards performed with amazing
dexterity, he paused and called for an assistant to help on stage, a
volunteer. Raina was up like a shot, out of her seat and headed into
the aisle almost before he even pointed to her.
"Yes, you ma’am... Please come down... eager aren’t you!" He chuckled
as she leapt up. The audience had become close, everyone pushing
forward on their seats seeing a very well-executed show. They laughed
seeing the whole interaction. Raina raced forward.
I took a moment as applause washed over the theater to glance at my phone for messages.
"I usually work without any assistant but this young woman is so
beautiful, tonight I need some extra beauty on stage so please
everyone, give the lady a hand."
Raina stood gorgeous under the lights. Her radiant smile lit the stage.
"And your name?" He asked her.
"Raina."
"Miss Raina, very nice... can you hold your hand palm up. I'm going to
drop some cards into your hand and I want you to hold onto one of them."
"Sure..." She said.
The trick involved the card she held in her hand showing up in various
places about the stage. Showing amazing dexterity, he finally opened a
fresh deck of cards and the card was on top.
He performed several more tricks, and then she was the centerpiece of a spectacular finale with even more things vanishing.
As the performance wound down, Gage Mattock smiled and leaned over
Raina with a little peck on the cheek. He whispered into her ear as he
did, "My number is in your pocket, call me later..." she pulled back
and momentarily looked deep into his eyes seeing the burning desire
there. She was shocked, falling into his eyes. She recognized the
impulse, and understood the appetite that he showed. She knew she was
being hunted like prey on a savannah, and she could run or stand but
that she would be devoured if she didn’t run fast enough. She wanted no
man more than she wanted him at that moment. Raina’s entire being was
tuned to him and she felt her body vibrate with the wavelength he
transmitted to her. She looked down to her shoes and back up to him,
out of the zone she unknowingly entered. "I will," she said to him
quietly.
*****
I, of course, knew nothing of their interaction. I watched the
performance with rapt attention to the tricks looking for how each
might be done. She pulled cards from a hat, and tossed balls to the
Magician where they disappeared halfway to him. She drew cards from a
stack and at one point he picked one out of her hair. She was brilliant
as the assistant.
I watched them work comfortably together. She smiled a million-watt
smile and the performance was over. Raina was still on stage as the
magician kissed her on the cheek and whispered to her. I saw them look
at each other and Raina said something back to him. Perhaps she thanked
him as they were both smiling. The applause and whistles from the
audience gave away the joy of an amazing performance.
Raina walked back to her seat. Her time on stage was no more than five
or six minutes, but several members of the audience congratulated her
as she made her way up the stairs. The Magician thanked her from the
stage and the curtains closed.
I took the moment as Raina stood at her seat next to me retrieving her
purse and coat to check my phone for incoming work mail. I had left my
phone on vibrate during the performance and felt multiple messages
coming through. I needed to get Raina home so I could answer at least a
couple of the emails. I might even be required to run to the office for
some paperwork. It was par for the course that papers they wanted were
always the ones I didn’t have at home or in my briefcase.
"You were good" I said as we made our way out.
Raina looked at me beaming, "That was amazing, he's amazing," She said, still full of adrenaline.
"Let's get out of here, I need to get home."
"Ha... No... damnit, I want to go out for a drink," Raina said, her demeanor changing.
"Let me run home for a bit, I have a couple of emails I need to respond to."
"Need? Douglas, your leash is too short."
"Yeah, I need to get this done." She knew exactly what I needed to do.
"Doug there's a damn point..." Raina sighed. "Get it done... maybe there’ll be still be time later. Let’s go."
From the theater we walked quickly to our place down the block, and
continued the conversation. We went through stages of argument and
conversation all the way home.
"I’ll lay on the bed and watch TV... get the shit done Doug, I mean
it... my night is not over. I want to go out and have some fun."
By the time I was done, she was asleep. I covered her and slept in the guest room. When I woke, she was gone. There was no note.
Thursday night Raina rented a movie. I kept an eye on work even as I
took the time out to watch most of it. The movie was a mystery,
romantic comedy thing. We both managed a lot to drink.
Raina didn't seem engaged. She seemed distant and I thought that maybe
she was right that I often failed to notice things. She was up and
down, there was a lot of texting. I heard her laughing while looking at
her phone.
"Do you wanna let me in on the joke?" I asked.
"Oh, it’s nothing, just reading the trivia on the movie," she said.
I doubt if that's what she was doing. We didn't end up talking again and there was nothing intimate that evening.
I slept in the next morning, but needed to run to work for a while
first. Theoretically I was taking the day off. I thought I could be
home by mid-afternoon and told Raina. "What can we do for dinner? I can
make some reservations. I’m sure I’ll be free by five if you want to
plan."
"Oh, Doug, I forgot to tell you I’ll be gone the next couple of days...
I need to go upstate to take care of some estate stuff for my mother.
I’m taking the train this afternoon," She said.
This was news to me. I didn't remember being told about any travel
plans, and I doubt that I was that disengaged. "Sure, Raina, I could
meet you up there if you'd like. Take the train up, maybe take you and
your Mom out for dinner Saturday night? Would you like that?" I asked
as I made coffee.
Raina was quick to answer. "No, she has some plans. I'll call you Sunday."
I fixed a to-go cup of coffee, my briefcase, and a bag of clothes to
take to the cleaner. "I've got to run, I guess I’ll see you Sunday," I
told her.
She turned her cheek she let me kiss her cheek rather than a kiss on
the lips or even a hug. Friday and Saturday I would have to myself it
looked like, a bachelor’s day off. Definitely not the weekend I wanted
but as they say, the weekend I was given.
There was work to do Friday even if it was a day off but I had plans
for the evening. Plans that involved a new book I wanted. After that I
figured a good meal at a restaurant with hopefully not too many work
calls. There were new places that I wanted to try. It would be an
adventure without Raina and without work. One of my favorite things is
to be able to get a table for one, read a book, have a good meal, and
lay my phone out so I could see anything important. A definite plan, I
thought. She wouldn’t complain about what she would never know.
I worked all day dreaming about a wonderful meal and a book, and I was
psyched by the time I left work. It was several blocks to the
bookstore, many of which I nearly skipped, speeding along and happy for
a change. A book was bought and my sense of excitement continued. I
knew exactly which restaurant I was headed to, and I was fairly
positive I wouldn’t need a reservation for one of the single tables.
This was my own neighborhood, full of small intimate restaurants on the
ground floor of buildings. I passed several swanky restaurants where
smells were amazing but my sights were set on one in particular. In a
brasserie past the apartment, I chanced to look in the window. There,
seated at a small corner booth was Raina with Gage Mattock the
Magician. Bold as life. She was obviously not headed upstate to her
home to see her mother. I stood anchored to the sidewalk, and as is
typical in the city there were rude comments in the crowd flowing
around me.
My mouth was agape and dry. Pain of betrayal bubbled up from my gut. I felt punched a thousand times.
Perhaps this duplicity was in the air and I should've seen it coming. I
immediately thought back to signs of unfaithfulness in the last week.
She spent time suddenly secretive on her phone, the whispers on stage,
how did she know this guy? How long did she know this guy? How long
have I been conned?
I stood still watching for a few minutes through the window. I didn't
want them to see me, but they were so involved with each other that
they would never chance a glance out the window to the cold hard dark
of the street. I saw her lay her hands on his arm. I saw her look into
his eyes. I saw her laugh at his joke. My possessive mind reeled, this
was mine.
I'm not sure about everything I've done wrong in our relationship, but
I'm sure she would make it so somehow it would be my fault in the end.
I felt the need to talk to her, to discover my errors. Why him? My
mouth filled with ashes. My eyes blurred.
This was the end of our relationship, seeing them in that window.
Emotions swam, sadness and anger fed my heart. My gut tumbled, falling
endlessly into a pit of dark fear and an unknown future. I left. My
walk wandered without purpose. Maybe I could rescue at least my own
dignity talking to her without recrimination, without judging.
The skip in my step gone. My smile was gone. I still wanted my supper
but I didn't think I'd go to the restaurant. My new book, weighty under
my arm, now a reminder of a shock. I had no concentration, the evening
was broken. My walk headed home to our apartment without conscious
thought. Was it still ‘Our apartment’? Was I being moved out like
furniture and left on the curb? At home I shut the door, ate a can of
soup, and went to bed early. She wasn’t sleeping here this eve, I knew
that much. Anger became dominant. Tomorrow I would talk to her and find
out if we were done.
*****
Raina was to be home in the afternoon. I didn’t want any confrontation
so I went to work. There was plenty there to take my mind off of her,
and it was late afternoon before I finally worked up enough courage to
go home. I hadn't called first but I expected her to be there. We
needed a conversation, and I needed to find out where we stood. When I
got to the building I went directly to our floor. An open door met me,
cracked only a little bit, but open. Concern took over, I walked to the
door, listening closely for any sense of something happening inside. I
pushed it completely open, slowly looking inside. The couch, someone,
not Raina, was sitting with their back to the door. I walked into the
apartment.
"Hello," I said, tentative.
The figure moved slightly but until I entered and turned I didn't know
who it was. It was the Magician. The man who caused me this visceral
pain, this gut full of swirling anger.
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"Why are you here?" he said in a low, menacing voice.
"I’m here to talk to my wife. I'm here to find out what type of relationship she's having with you."
He snickered and looked at me, his face one of contempt looking down at
me. "I’m having the entire relationship and there’s no room for you..."
"Excuse me?" Stunned, bile rose. "Raina and I are married. I’d like to talk to her at about it and not just disappear."
"Funny you should say disappear," he said. "Because that's where you're headed..." He mocked me.
I lunged at him, blood boiling, hands out to do harm, hands willing to
go around his neck. Vision turned flaming red with outrage. My mind a
seething cauldron of hate for this man that had ripped my entire life
from me. I touched him. The tips of my fingers touched him and I was
flung backwards. I smashed into the wall and fell to the floor.
Darkness followed.
Time passed. My mind and body stunned from hitting the wall so hard. It
was dark. I supposed I may have been knocked out. The fight was out of
me, but nothing, no one had touched me.
My eyes. I waited to open my eyes, but they were already open. I saw nothing but black.
My back was to the wall. Around me I reached out my hand and could feel
paper, and what I thought was a felt-covered ball. Still, time passed,
bringing no better sense to my situation. Blind? It wasn’t that I
feared to see anything, but that there was instead, nothing to actually
see. The darkness was a palpable weight I struggled to breathe in. The
atmosphere enveloped me as I sat quiet, hearing nothing besides my own
breathing, the pulse of my blood and the rasp of my breath. I whimpered.
There were other things I kicked with my feet, cards? balls? light
cloth? but I didn't feel furniture or carpet. The floor and wall felt
rough, wood? stone? I had no idea about the wall, it felt substantial
and not drywall or plaster. I was in so dark a place that I thought of
the old adage, couldn’t see a hand in front of my face. It was true. My
eyes were open, but there was nothing. I had seen places this dark
taking tours of caves. Usually even at night in the country there is
some light -- even star light.
I waved my arms above myself, and to the sides, and felt nothing more.
I dreaded to move, but at some point I would have to discover the edges
of my surroundings. Had I knocked myself out? I was alone. I’m sure I
would have heard Gage or anyone else if they were near me. I was sure
this was no longer our apartment, and that confused me. I couldn’t see
either Raina or Gage moving my inert body. My phone was here, with no
signal. The time... I saw that mere minutes passed so I couldn’t have
been unconscious more than a moment when I hit the wall. I hadn't been
moved. I didn't believe my phone's time had been nefariously changed.
Explanations narrowed.
In my pocket I did have a lighter, it took some time to remember it and
before I did I crawled with the wall at one hand to a corner. I was
surprised to find the corner didn't close the room, but it was an open
corner leading to my right. I crawled back along the wall and found
another corner in the opposite direction. This time a closed corner. It
was a significant distance away however. This was definitely not the
apartment. Crawling, I found several pieces of what I took to be card
stock the shape and size of playing cards; a ball; and a paper
airplane, if my paper folding skills had not failed me. At the second
corner I sat back and thought about how long I was in the dark. It must
have been be at least a half hour at that point. I thought I should
take stock of what I had ... two mechanical pencils in my shirt pocket,
phone with no signal and an almost dead battery, wallet; things found,
a tennis ball, playing cards, a paper airplane, and the lighter.
The lighter was left in my pocket from the previous evening of lighting
a candle and incense in the apartment. Raina kept a small shrine by the
fake fireplace in a corner of the living room with vanilla incense. It
filled the apartment most evenings, made the entire place smell
wonderful. The room would fill with her smell and the earthy tones of
vanilla. I couldn’t smell it here, which was another indication that I
had moved someplace else. I loved the feeling and taste of Raina’s
kisses when I smelled the vanilla... She was so gentle and...
I smelled dark here. There was an odor in the air of evil... perhaps decay... mildew? Mold? Something old...
My reverie broken I pulled the lighter out of my pocket and... I could
see... the flame was small and the lighter nearly empty. This was not
permanent. I would need to husband the use of it.
I could see. My heart jumped, this was just a dark room. I stood and
then walked to each of the two corners I knew about. One corner to the
right and the other nearly 30 steps away from the first. I felt the
entire wall between them for light switches or plugs and found neither.
It was time to try the next wall. I wanted to see more of the room, the
flame was so small and its pool of light so feeble that I might be
better off moving along walls in the dark.
What else was in the room was a question I would hold. Moving to the
closed corner off to my left I wanted to follow the next wall standing
and walking. Slowly I slid my feet a few inches at a time and again
moved along the wall. I felt the wall as I moved into the darkness
again. No plugs, no light switches broke the featureless wall. Nothing
was hanging, nothing was on the floor. The wall completely blank from
the bottom to above my head. I moved another 30 steps and ran into
another corner. This would be a wall opposite from the first one.
Perhaps I was in a closed room, the shape of which now coming into
focus for me. I stepped on more objects on the floor as I moved, but
that was the extent of anything but a featureless room. Balls, paper,
cards; all small items.
The odor of the room changed as I reached about thirty steps along the
next wall. If I was moving as I thought I was, I closed three sides of
the room and had come to a hallway at this point. I smelled a pungent,
bad odor in the air. Musty, decaying, it lay in my nose.
I needed to move to the next wall. Eventually I would touch every wall,
and if there were not furniture in my dark cave, it wouldn't take long.
I needed to mark one spot so as to have a signpost of my movements. I
backed up and picked up several objects and placed them at the next
corner. If I again got to this corner, I would hit the pile, knowing
I’d been in a complete circle.
Faster I moved along the walls, turning several corners, and then
stopped. The stench of rot was upon me... there was death here. My nose
and mouth were assaulted on the last turn with a smell that was solid
and nearly impossible to move past, but slowly I moved forward.
Ruination was here. The odor seeped into my nostrils, it oozed through
my hair, it permeated the fibers of my clothes.
My foot touched solid that gave a bit, not cards or balls. I knelt with
the lighter and a flame to determine what I was touching.
The face, the decayed face of a man greeted me, smiling without skin to
cover teeth. Where I kicked the body the miasma of death and the stench
rose from the cadaver of this man long dead. My fate, as I moved
farther and farther through this maze perhaps. My gut twisting with an
unknown fear. I knew what I felt with the steps I took. These were the
objects disappeared by the magician. This was his box to catch
everything that he had vanished so simply and I was gone exactly the
same way as cards and balls and scarves from a nightly performance.
Just as this last person, I was another problem simply solved.
*****
"Ah Raina, you're home."
"Gage, you’re here!"
"Thanks for leaving a key with the doorman, I got in early and I’ve got
a wonderful supper almost done." He said waving his hands to the
candles and meal on the dining room table.
"Gage, you’re amazing," Raina cooed.
"And after dinner perhaps I can make the dishes disappear and we’ll have drinks on the town."
"I love it when you make problems disappear," she said.
THE END
© 2020 Jeffrey Genung
Bio: Jeffrey Genung is an author writing from a ranch in the
center of Texas. His hobbies include chicken wrangling and bee raising.
While many of his stories explore the world between the strange and
science fiction with a good dash of the unexpected, he also likes to
find the humanity in every plot.
He regularly teaches scientific photography and gives hikes to teach
plant identification and botanical photography. He is both a Texas
Master Naturalist and a Sierra Club hike leader.
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