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In the dressing room Bill Smith was agitated, his sister
more sanguine.
"It's an absolute outrage. If I wasn't such a
civilized man I would positively call my agent. Who
the hell was that?" Bill asked.
"Beats me." She shrugged. "At least
the audience couldn't see her. I guess she was one of
us, checking us out."
"Yes. A witch, another witch. I told you there
are still some about." He poured two glasses of
Merlot. "You said Pittsburgh was just an isolated
case but I told you. I told you there were more."
"OK, OK, so she's a witch. Why are you so obsessive?
Why can't you date regular people like I do? Why does
it always have to be another witch?"
"How can you bring yourself to date regular men?
It's so tacky." He brushed a piece of lint from
his robe. "Really."
Sophie's eyes twinkled. "Oh, I don't know. Sometimes
regular men hit the spot just fine."
Her brother rolled his eyes and sighed. "Come
on, let's go. It's getting late. Where shall we dine?"
"Shall we do the Stage Door Trick?" She saw
him pout. "Oh, come on, let's do the Stage Door
Trick. Another encore always makes you feel better."
They made their way to the side of the building. A
guard was already there with their lighting engineer.
The guard was checking the crowd outside through a peephole.
"How many?" asked Sophie.
"We got a lot tonight," he replied. "Could
be close to a hundred."
She straightened her coat, looked heavenwards and took
a deep cleansing breath. Then she checked her brother.
He looked great. "Smile," she whispered. "Do
I look OK?"
"You always look delightful." He seemed more
cheerful. Maybe he was warming to the idea of the waiting
audience. "Come on, let's shock them."
On the wall behind them was an array of high powered
spotlights. The lighting man warned them, as he did
every night, to face the door and then he turned on
the spots. Blinding white light filled the corridor.
The guard opened the door and they heard the crowd gasp,
felt them take a step back. Bill and Sophie walked very
slowly forward, bathed in the light. They could see
the individual faces in the crowd very easily, but the
people had to squint savagely to see them. The guard
waited the prescribed ten seconds and then slammed the
door noisily shut.
The crowd was almost silent. Bill reached into his
pocket for a small glass jar. He held it before him
so that the people could see. With his fingertips he
unscrewed the lid and handed it to Sophie. With finger
and thumb he picked some powder from the jar and threw
it into the air. It ignited instantly, making the crowd
gasp again. Satisfied Bill took another pinch of the
powder. He looked at Sophie and then straight ahead.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Sophie said. "We
have saved one last trick for you our most dedicated
audience. I will need your help to count down. Ten."
She paused. "Nine." Some of the crowd joined
her with "Eight." By the time she reached
"Six," everyone was counting.
When she reached 'one' she moved very close to Bill.
On 'zero' he threw the powder to the ground. There was
a brief bright flash of light, just long enough to disorientate
everyone. Bill and Sophie used that moment to turn themselves
invisible, rose directly upwards twenty feet, and set
off to look for a decent restaurant. They were both,
as it happened, in the mood for curry. Six blocks away
they landed in an alley and turned visible again. Then,
on foot they looped back to Broadway.
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