Altered Memories

Intertwined

"Welcome! One and all! To the extraordinary talent of Marvin the Magnificent!" An Irish male voice booms out from the speakers. The curtains from the stage opens up, revealing a man in a magician outfit, blue jumper, black cape, and to top it off, a cat mask that conceals his face.

"Why thank you." The magician said in the microphone, whose voice sounds exactly like the announcer. He cleared his throat and faces the carnival attendees who was gathered around the stage. "Magic, is it real? Is there some things that science can't explain? Or is it just an illusion and your eyes are just deceiving you? Well, we're going to find out today!"

Pulling his wand out of his back pocket, Marvin swirl it around, pointing down in front of him to create a table. A table with a top hat appeared from a green cloud of smoke, receiving a chorus of "Ooh," and "Aah" from the audience. The magician flipped the top hat upwards, intended for it to land perfectly onto his head, but instead bounced off his head and onto the ground. "Whoops." Marvin said, crouching down to pick up his hat, but before he can touch it, it started to bounced away from him.

"Hey!" He shouted running around clumsily and chasing the hopping hat, earning a laugh from the audience. The hat bounced offstage to get lost in the sea of people.

"Uh, no matter." Marvin fumbled back up to stand confidently like nothing happened. "For my next trick, I need help from the audience!" He took a deck of cards from pocket and started shuffling them then put them in small box. "Now, everyone check your pocket, if you have one!"

Everyone in the audience checked their pockets. To everyone's amazement, they each found a playing card in their shirt or pants pocket.

"Don't show them to me!" Marvin shield his eyes with his hand. He placed the box on the table then tapped the box with his wand. Uncovering his eyes, he opened the box and pulled out a card. "Five of Spades!"

A girl in her teens held up a card with the five of spades on it.

"Alright! Come on up!" Marvin gestures to the girl. With a wide grin, she ran up to the stage to stand next to the magician. "Well, top of the mornin' to ya." He tipped his pretend hat to her. Taking the cards out of the box and shuffled them once more then put them back in, tapping it again with his wand. "Now open it and pull out a card." He instructs the girl.

The teen did as told and pulled out a card, not letting Marvin see it.

"Hm, I wonder what it is." He starts rubbing the ears on his mask, like the mask has telepathic magic powers. "I'm guessing it's... it's..." He hesitated, tying to read the design on the back of the card. "Uh.. It's a Diamond... It is the King... of Diamonds."

"You were so close." The girl flipped the card for Marvin to see.

"It's a Jack of Diamonds!" He screamed in frustration, grabbing the table and flipped it. The audience laughed at his frustration, thinking all of his mistakes were part of an act from the bouncing hat to the missing canisters from his pockets.

"Boo! You stink" A boy shouted out from the crowd. "Magic ain't real!"

"Bet he just secretly shove the cards in our pockets when we weren't looking." A man said.

"And the table was just an illusion. It was there all this time." A woman added

"All he could do are cheap parlor tricks."

Marvin tried to ignore the heckler as best he could, but his short attention span got the better of him.

"Excuse me?" The magician faces back down at audience, offended.

"Yeah, you heard us! All you're doing is scam us with cheap parlor tricks!"

"Cheap pa-" Marvin stuttered out. "I'll have you know, I am a great magician! And magic is real! Right kids!" He scan around for the kids out in the crowd and saw a few. The kids just stared in confusion at the argument happening in front of them.