“I like that, thanks,” Victor said with a sincere smile. Ah, fuck. People could throw punches at him all night long and not even bruise his confident exterior, but the parents talk really knew where to hit. Sliding into the next conversation topic with a showman’s ease, he started on the wonderfully impersonal tale of how Harry Houdini would encourage people to punch him - since that was the 1910′s way of announcing how big your dick was.
Laughing a bit, he explained, “But yeah, he’d ask people to punch him and treated it like a hand-shake. I guess it was a way for him to renew his membership to the unestablished club of badasses? That’s actually what killed him though. A lot of people think it was a stunt that did him in, but it was actually some guy he’d pissed off who socked him before he could tense up or anything. Houdini powered through so he could perform, but the hit kinda…” Victor grimaced, making vague hand gestures towards his inner organs. “It was bad.”
“-Anyways, I guess you could say I’m handcuffed to Norbury - if I really wanted to, I could go, but it’s ill-advised.” Sighing a laugh, Victor elaborated, “I’ve had some weird health stuff go on recently, and right this second I’m doing fine, but just in-case, it’d be a really bad idea for me to drive down the mountains alone.” And he finished off the statement with a shrug, just to mellow-out the negativity of that last statement.
But had he ever been found out? Victor answered with a shameless grin, replying, “Oh yeah! But it’s mostly just because the person’s looked up how to do it before. I got a lot of that when I did tricks as a kid, but hey, if you don’t like people copying you, work to be harder to imitate. And then, with what I watch, I’m not that picky, honestly. I just go for what really grabs my attention.” Curiously, he asked Ali, “What kind of opportunities do you come across here? I imagine it’ll be a bit until the play, given that they just handed out your scripts, so what else do you like to do?”
“No problem. Once in a while that’s what I’m here for” Ali replied giving Victor a genuine smile. She had to admit how easy it was to talk to him and not have to sound like she was either defending something she believed in or sounding like she wasn’t happy. It was nice even if the subject matter wasn’t perfect. Losing someone was a terrible thing, and while Ali loved her aunt and was a heartbroken in losing her, she couldn’t fathom losing her parents.
She visibly winced at the idea of being punched that often. Ali had never been in a physical fight in her life and she was hoping never to be. “I cannot imagine being so blase’ about being punched. That hurts and I’d probably cry each time. I was hit once during stage combat for a play on accident and I really did not enjoy it. So it was what killed him, but also it wasn’t? Did they ever find out what had made that man so mad?” Ali asked sounding far more interested than she had intended
“ I guess you are. You’re a prisoner of this town. It could be a lot worse though. You could be stuck somewhere else. Not as many places have this view” Ali began before her expression fell briefly at the health comments. She at times wondered why she had gone into acting instead of medicine considering how concerned she could be over people’s well being’s, but performing was in her heart to do. “Well I hope you stay safe in that respect. I know your work is a bit dangerous, but that’s one thing I’d listen to the doctor about”
“That seems so dumb. It’s taking the magic away from magic. it’s like when people read movie spoilers before seeing the movie. It makes the experience less fun. “Ali commented before being faced wit her own question to think about. It was true. Norbury was no Hollywood, but it was home and it made her happy. “It’s always a little slow here, I admit, but it’s always worth the wait. I like singing. I sing every Sunday at church. My mom was a baker so I like doing that despite rarely eating it. I read a lot. I like to go on hikes. Honestly, I just like to keep myself busy. There are 24 usable hours in a day, you know? What bout you? Your day can’t consist of documentaries and escaping tings, right? “ Ali smiled