The Magician

The following is a story from a long time ago.

A magician performed at our school one afternoon while I was in the fourth grade.

The magician, I don’t remember his name, probably “The Magnificent something or other,” placed an extravagant bird cage on a table. There was a dove inside. Using a large silk cloth, he covered the cage and bird. With a magic word and a flourish, he snatched the cloth from the cage and, you guessed it, the cage and bird were gone!

At home that evening, I placed my portable record player onto the center of my bedroom floor, and covered it with a bath towel. I spoke some magic words, flourished wildly, and quickly snatched the towel from atop the record player. To my surprise, the record player was still there. I repeated this dozens of times that night, each time concentrating a little harder. I thought that if I performed just the right move with just the right incantation, magic would happen.

I’ve been doing basically the same thing every day since then.