The Sweaty Invisible State
The magician pulled out a card and showed it to the audience. The audience oohed in amazement and began to clap. He then summoned a woman from the audience to enter a narrow photo booth-looking box and drew the curtain so she couldn’t be seen. He then waved his hands and murmured some magic phrases and then pulled the curtain back, revealing an empty box. The audience then clapped louder, and money began flowing into the young magician’s hat laid on the sidewalk in front of him.
Magician: Thank you! Thank you! Tell your friends about the show! A new one starts up every 15 minutes! Don’t miss it!
He took a deep and slow bow as the crowd began to disperse into the city streets. A small boy lingered behind and approached the magician slowly with great caution.
Boy: Excuse me, magician?
Magician: Yes young man did you like the show?
Boy: Yes but where did the woman go? Is she okay?
Magician: Oh yes no harm is done when people vanish. They just disappear for a little bit, but it doesn’t feel that long to them, time in the invisible state goes by more quickly then here in the solid state.
He gave the boy a wink and patted his head and turned towards the booth, remembering the woman was still sealed behind the mirrored wall.
Boy: The invisible state? (The boy runs up along side the magician) How do you get there?
Magician: Ah, the number one rule of a magician is that he must never reveal his secrets.
Boy: What is the invisible state like? Have you ever been? Can you send me there?
Magician: Well you sure have a lot of questions now don’t you, where are your parents young man?
The magician slowly back peddles towards the booth, irritated and trying to get rid of the boy so he does not realize that he’s a fraud.
Magician: Look kid, if you come back tomorrow and bring your friends I’ll tell you about the invisible state.
The boy runs off down the street and the magician quickly lets the woman out of the booth, apologizing for the wait.
The Woman: That took forever! Here I am trying to do you a favor and you take forever! I’ve never sweat so bad before, you need to consider getting some AC for that thing.
The woman continues to mumble as she walks away down the street. The magician lets out a sigh of relief as he begins packing up for the day. He pockets the few ones and the rare five from the bottom of his hat, he pours the rest of the loose change into his backpack.
The magician unloads all of his magician equipment onto his living room/bedroom floor. The small apartment is poorly lit and there are dishes piled up in the sink. He heads towards the window to open up the blinds. He hears a loud crack as he takes a step closer. He looks down to find his wand broken in half.
Magician: Great, just my luck.
The magician browses through the store, picking up trick cards and weighted dice. He looks up and sees a big red curtain with a sign that says ‘A magician’s ultimate trick’ above it. He dropped the dice and cards and went behind the heavy curtain. The woman at the counter perked up when she saw the young man disappear into the back room. She got up and quietly followed him, making sure he did not notice her. The magician picked up a few different wands and weighed them in his hand. He flipped them both around to look at the price. $11.95 and $15.99. He put them both down and dug around in his pockets. He pulled out a wad of money and shows off a $5 and $4 in ones. He puts the money back in his pocket as he looks around. No cameras in either corner. The woman hides behind a shelf and watches him carefully. He then notices the back door is cracked open, a beam of light shows the alley on the other side of the door. He takes one final look around and slips the wand up his sleeve and heads to the back door. The woman says nothing and lets him leave, a slight smirk on her face.
As he makes his way onto the main street he checks behind him to make sure no one was following him, when he sees that no one is he continues happily down the street. He notices people walking very close to him and refusing to move as they walked towards each other. The magician was getting frustrated at the crowds of oncoming people he had to swerve to avoid. One man rammed into his shoulder.
The man turned around in shock but refused to make eye contact.
The magician began to set up his magic equipment very early in the morning. He began doing magic tricks and trying to lure people to his show but no one would come, he couldn’t even get a passerby to glance at his magic tricks.
Magician: What is wrong with me today? (He mumbled under his breath)
He sees the boy who questioned him about the invisible state walking down the street with a group of other kids.
Boy: He said to meet him here tomorrow and if I brought you guys he would tell us abut what it feels like to disappear.
Other Boy: Do you think he could make us disappear?
3rd Boy: Yeah! That would be so cool.
Boy: Hopefully he will un-disappear us, he made a lady disappear yesterday and I never saw her show up again!
3rd Boy: Do you think he sent her somewhere else?
Boy: Like the travelport on Diego’s Adventure?
Other Boy: Disappearing doesn’t work like the travelport Timmy! You don’t go anywhere or people wouldn’t buy cars anymore they would just go to a magician.
Boy: You don’t know that you’ve never disappeared before!
3rd Boy: Well where is this magician to tell us then Timmy you said he’d be here?
The magician overhears the conversation and turns to the boys, confused how they didn’t notice him yet.
Magician: I’m right here guys, it takes a long time to be able to learn how to make someone disappear, are you sure you boys are ready to know what its like?
None of the boys paid attention to him.
Other Boy: Yeah Timmy I don’t see him and the t-ball game starts soon, I can’t be late again my dad will kill me!
Boy: I don’t know guys he told me he would be here.
3rd Boy: I think he was messing with you, he probably doesn’t know anything about what its like to be invisible.
The magician is confused and starts waving his hands in front of the boys. No reaction. He realizes he has been sweating and rips off his sweatshirt. Halfway through taking it off he freezes in horror.
Magician: I know all too well what its like to be invisible, kid.
