#108: Street Magician

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Joshua walked a few miles from the hospital to a city park. They’d kept him in the hospital for weeks. While he was in it winter had intensified. Today was warmer than it had been, an Indian Summer perhaps? When he reached the park he sat on a bench to think.

Yvette said “That went rather well I thought. Considering.”

Joshua said “You thought it went well? I’d hate to see what you think is bad!” .
Absentmindedly he held his hand out…a ball appeared. He was subconsciously good with SSmoke

“Huh...would you look at that?” he said. He tossed the ball from hand to hand for a few minutes. Suddenly there were two balls..then three. He was juggling more and more balls.

Yvette said “When you were impaled on that tree limb? That was bad.”

Joshua said “Yeah. Good point. That was bad. I guess I must keep things in perspective. Still, this has been a bad day.”

Yvette said “How was it bad? Think about it.”

Joshua said “Well I’d think it would be obvious.”

Joshua began changing his juggling routine. He casually made the balls do things that were un-possible for normal people. If, in fact they were possible at all. Unknown to him a small group of people were gathering. They watched the unnatural juggling in silence.

Yvette said “Hmmm….let’s see. You were fed good meals, a couple of months worth…for free.

They didn’t charge you anything for the lengthy hospital stay, not that they could get blood from a turnip...but still.

They even returned your SmartPhone
. How am I doing?"

Joshua said “Well yeah. That’s all true I suppose.”

He concentrated...the balls turned into small dragons. The dragons began to do even more outrageous things. Some of them rather…suggestive.

Yvette said “Stop that. You’ll scare the children.”

The dragons behaved.

“Children? What children?” Josh looked around. “Oh...those children.”

Yvette wasn’t done “As I was saying...there’s more.”

• One: You used the SmartPhone that you had never expected to see again to call your Aunt, at the house where your life has been a living hell for the last few years.

• Two: You’re young…and unattached…no obligations.

• Three: You have me.

“That’s bad how? Have I got it right so far?“ she finished.

Joshua said “Since you put it that way…I guess so. What are we going to do now?”

Yvette said “I’m not sure. Well have to think about it. Why don’t we build up a supply of SSmoke while we do? Can’t never have too much SSmoke.”

Joshua said “I suppose you’re right.”

The dragons flew off in all directions then returned with small bits of plastic, bags, cups, forks…etc.

Yvette said “Wait…you’ll need this.”

The shoulder bag opened..the little dragons dumped their ‘haul’ into the bag then circled Joshua’s head. Unseen in the bag, the carbon turned to SSmoke

“VERY GOOD” a voice said “I couldn’t see how you did that. That was excellent. ”

Joshua turned to see where the voice was coming from. A well dressed middle aged man was approaching and golf clapping.

“Excellent. I’ve seldom seen a street magician do an animal trick nearly so well. Don’t let me bother you…I’ll just sit here and watch you practice, if you don’t mind.” He said..

“But..but “ Joshua said.

Yvette said “Brilliant, the perfect ploy. Magic indeed. Let’s do this..”

“That is…rather…ah…Thank you sir. Yes…I am.” Joshua raised his hand as if to tip his own hat, had he been wearing one…and suddenly a hat appeared.

Joshua twirled the hat and spun it on the tip of his finger...then formed a cross with his arms. He raised one arm and lowered the other…the hat rolled down one arm. Behind his neck, across his shoulders, and down the other arm. Repeat. He did this several times…the hat rolled from hand to hand, back and forth.

A small crowd had gathered…they applauded.

“Thank you ladies and gentlemen..” Joshua said He tossed the hat up into the air…it sailed around a bit. Then passed slowly in front of the crowd at waist height. People began to toss money into it, coins mostly but also a few bills. It then landed in a convenient location for them to throw more money into if they were so inclined. Two tiny dragons broke off from circling Josh’s head and flanked the money hat. They wore armor and were armed. They were guards. The man who had spoken stepped over to the hat, nodded courteously to the dragons…who bowed back. Then he dropped a suspiciously large denomination bill into the hat..and stepped back to continued to watch.

“Oh..look what I found.” Joshua stepped close to a young child standing by it’s mother. “Did you know that you had a bird in your ear?”

Joshua mimed reaching for the Child’s ear… something appeared in his hand.

“Oh my…it’s not a bird. It’s a dragon. They’re all over the place this year.” Joshua said. And sure enough he held a red dragon in his hands.

The child stood, wide eyed, it’s hand to it’s ear.

The small dragon perched on Joshua’s finger like a parakeet. It squeak-bellowed a tiny roar and spit smoke and flames. Joshua tossed the Dragon into the air…it flew in a circle around the crowed…squeak-roaring, and smoke spiting as it went. Then the dragon began to perform aerobatic tricks, the earlier dragons joined in. They formed squads and engaged in aerial dogfights..spiting fireballs at each other in flight. The losers would scream pitifully, crash to the ground and bounce..then vanish in a puff of smoke.

Joshua ad libbed like crazy for over an hour.

“Thank you once again” Joshua waved to the crowd, a dragon on each shoulder, several more circling over head, a hat full of money at his feet……then he raised his arm holding his coat as if it were a cape, spun around and vanished in a puff of smoke…as did all the little dragons and the loot.

He was gone.

The crowd went wild. They applauded vigorously. They wanted for a curtain call, in vain. He stayed gone. He didn’t come back.

Eventually the crowd dispersed. Except for the middle class man…and his daughter and grandson..

“No son…that wasn’t real. That was make believe” he told his boy, who had had a dragon pulled out of it’s ear.

“If I could only figure out how he did that.” The man muttered. “ I predict that I get very little sleep tonight.”

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(Later, across the park)

Joshua sat on the ground with his back against a tree. He and Yvette were counting the take. He was invisible to anyone else in the park, of course Yvette was only visible to him anyway. She was a figment of his imagination so to speak. Yvette had activated the invisibility capabilities of the SSmoke cloud in which they were embedded. It bent light around them. Anyone glancing their direction would just see a tree.

Yvette said “Cool. That’ll help the cause. We almost ran short on SSmoke back there. The petroleum jelly, baby oil and the other stuff you got in the hospital will only go so far. We need to resupply. Money will make it easy. Let’s go for a walk, find a motel. Get a room for the night. I can scarf some carbon while we walk. In fact I have some ideas about personal transportation. Marvelous thing the internet, and wi-fi.”

Joshua was totally in the dark. He had, however, learned to trust Yvette. He conjured a walking cane and strolled casually along the sidewalk stopping to tap every piece of plastic that he saw. When the cane touched the plastic, the plastic vanished. Plastic bags, foam cups, straws, discarded oil cans …anything plastic, anything made from petroleum…just gone. It siphoned into his shoulder bag where it was transformed into SSmoke .

“Hey” another voice said ”that’s so cool. How’s that work?”

“It’s just a trash picker. It works on the same principle as a pooper-scooper. ” Joshua told him. “But different. It picks up litter. I got it at Wally World. This place is nasty…I thought I’d help clean it up some.”

“Awesome” the skateboarder said. He dropped a candy wrapper and continued on his way.

Joshua sighed and siphoned the candy wrapper. Then he continued on. Soon he found himself in front of a motel. It wasn’t in the best part of town but he’d take what he could get. He stepped inside, paid for the night. Then began the walk across the courtyard toward his room.

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The Next Episode is
#109: Mugged…
The Previous Episode was
#107: Grazing for Smoke Food…
the First episode was
#1 : Prologue
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@everittdmickey
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