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The theater was on Broadway not far from James' office.
James' former office. He arrived early but Kath was
already there with Debbie and Ben. She had half a dozen
carrier bags, each of them emblazoned with a name that
even James could recognize.
"You spent the severance before you even got it?"
"Pretty well," she grinned happily. "Look,
it's still cheaper than therapy! And it works better."
They had seats in the sixth row of the stalls, just
to the left of center stage. This would be Ben's first
visit to a theater. There were other children there,
but none as young as he was. Other boys his age might
have been bored but he sat contentedly, his tiny legs
barely reaching the end of the seat, his eyes wide with
expectation. The proscenium arch around the stage was
golden, the curtain a rich velvet crimson. Chandeliers
hung from the ceiling far above them. Ben soaked it
all in with evident delight.
While they waited for the auditorium to fill Debbie
chatted to Kath, and James enquired about Ben's day.
He was never without an answer. He could always remember
what he'd done. "We watched television," he
explained. "About pyramids..." he paused to
think. "In Egypt."
"Was it good?"
The little boy nodded earnestly.
When the house lights finally dipped the audience went
silent. There was a roll of timpani and the curtains
swept aside fast to reveal a turntable upon which stood
an empty transparent cube, maybe six feet wide. Dry
ice formed a mist across the stage. The cube rotated
slowly with the turntable. A deep bass note sounded,
very quiet at first but gradually becoming louder and
more resonant. Suddenly there were three sharp notes
from the timpani, and Ben jumped in his seat. With each
note a spotlight turned on. The three beams intersected
in the center of the cube. James reached down to take
Ben's hand and the child grasped two of his father's
fingers gratefully, but his eyes remained on the stage.
The timpani sounded again, three times, then three
times more with the same note, and then switched to
a different drum tuned a fifth higher, and alternated,
getting louder with each beat. James thought he could
see a shimmering inside the cube. He stared as the shimmering
became more definite, and grew, and gradually, as the
drums slowed, became two separate shimmers that resolved
themselves into two people, and man and a woman, standing
inside the cube.
The turntable stopped, the two people facing the audience.
The woman took one graceful step forward, placed the
palm of her hand onto the front wall of the cube, and
pushed. It fell slowly forward and the two stars of
the show used it as a ramp to step down.
The man was wearing a cape and a top hat and carrying
a cane. The woman wore almost nothing. Over her torso
was a sparkly aquamarine one-piece suit, a little like
a swimsuit but even more revealing. She had matching
stilettos, choker, and bands around her wrists. To James
she looked mouthwateringly pretty, almost feline.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," the man began. His
voice was deep and strong. "Tonight you will see
things you cannot explain, things that defy belief.
Forget anything that you have seen in the past. Forget
all the tricks that have been presented to you as magic."
He laughed. "Tonight you will see real magic."
He reached into his pocket and produced an egg. He
recited an incantation, then paused and threw the egg
to the woman. Somewhere along its parabolic locus the
egg turned into a dove. Looking back no one could quite
say how it happened. It just set off through the air
as an egg and ended up in the woman's hands as a dove.
The woman passed her hand over the dove and it vanished.
The audience gasped.
The show continued in a similar vein. The magicians
levitated things, the man sawed the woman in half, then
invited a member of the audience onto the stage and
sawed him in half. James wasn't totally sure but he
didn't think he'd ever seen that done. He'd always assumed
the trick relied on complicity.
After 45 minutes he decided that everything was done
with a high degree of professionalism but none of it
was really more remarkable than any other good magic
show.
"And now,' the man began. For dramatic effect
he said everything slowly. "We show you the Incredible
Flying Girl."
Alarm bells began to ring in James head. Surely not.
Surely not Sue.
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