The Magician

The clock read 6:54, the early evening of November 12 2010, and I was sitting under the fluorescent lights of the family room at Cardinal Care Hospital with my sister Ashley, and my mother Angela.  We were currently watching a couple of silly clowns make balloon animals.   I wasn't really paying attention to them, my focus was me and the floor.   I was dying from breast cancer.   I knew God had a plan for me, and I knew She wouldn't have put me through this if I wasn't a symbol,  an inspiration, or something.  Even if I was just a warning to other women, and teens.  

My doctor didn't catch it fast enough.   Who would think a thirteen year old girl would have breast cancer?   I didn't.   My doctor didn't.   Nobody did.   They call it IBC, Inflammatory Breast Cancer, that was almost a year ago when they diagnosed me, and now I was sitting under these lights, watching a couple of clowns, waiting to die.  A couple of tears escaped my eyes and fell down my cheek.   My sister saw and brushed them away.  She tried to give me a smile, and I tried to return it. 

Ashley was always really pretty, she was fortunate to get Dad's blue eyes.   Made me so jealous.   Mine were a bluish green, but much more green than her stunning blue.  She took after our dad much more than I had.   She was taller at 5' 6 to my 5' 2 and I was thinner, but not cause I wanted to be.  She had long flowing dark brown hair that curled naturally, when I had hair it was straight and light brown.   I use to dye it before I got sick.   I had the cutest  wedge cute with pink strips that framed my face.   That was when I had hair, I look at myself now and I am sitting here in my pink pajama bottoms, a "Nightmare before Christmas" long t-shirt and the knitted pink skull cap my momma made for me.   She knew I was embarrassed about not having any hair.       

Boys always showed Ashley attention, bought her gifts, wanted to be her valentine.   I made her tell me over and over about her first kiss.   Something I would never get to experience.   Ashley was very good to me, always had been, and when I became ill, she was the first to hold my hand, the first to hold me at night, and the first to listen to me cry.    She became much more than simply my sister.   I thank God every night for her.   I would have given up sooner if she wasn't in my life.  

My mom had been great too.   I don't ever want to downplay the role she had in my life.   She was my rock and my foundation, and everything a mother should be when facing a disease like this.   She cried every night, alone in her room, looking at my baby pictures.   Yet, she never showed any emotion in front of me, she bent her own rules, and did anything she could to help me experience as much life as I could.   She had never missed a day since I been here, and I am pretty sure she had been sleeping in the chapel.   The nurses won't let me go check on her at night.   O took after my mother much more than Ashley.   We were both short, although I think she had an inch or two on me, and as she always said, "Babies, make you chubby, but it's a loving chubby."  She was beautiful and I use to love laying my head on her soft tummy and falling asleep.  

"Would you like a new pet?"  I offered a soft nod and a smile, and honestly that's all I could muster.   She was trying her best to make me feel better, but I had started to feel sick to my stomach.   I am sure it wasn't the clown, she was your normal big red nose over sized smile with blue around her eyes.   Not too fancy, but enough to bring smiles to the other kids.  

"Alexis loves bunnies.   Could you make her one?"  Ashley played the roll of the big sister well.   She rubbed my skull cap and head as I just looked down.   The Clown got to work quickly taking out a long white balloon, pulling on it, snapped it on her fingers,  which made me smile and giggle a little.  Which brought a smile to the face of the clown.   Soon I had myself a white rabbit.  I was quite impressed.    It looked great.

"Now don't go chasing him down a rabbit hole Alexis."

"I'm not three mom."

"Grouch."  I looked up and smiled.   She put her arm around me as the MC walked to the front of the room.   He was one of the nurses, and a nice guy.   He was a really nice guy.   He had on his scrubs and had his dark brown hair combed back off his face.   He was good looking, which made it even more embarrassing when I got him to come in and help me off the toilet earlier.   I knew I was getting closer, as I could barely bring myself to stand on my own, or walk.    More tears.  I clutched onto my new balloon and laid my head on my mother's shoulder.

"Ladies and Gentleman, May I introduce,  The Magician"   I was too busy trying to hold back the tears to watch him walk in.   Ashley grabbed my knee and started shaking it.   I lifted my head to look and there he was, in his long black cape, black tuxedo with a red shirt, black vest and tie.  The lining of his cape was red, as was the theatre comedy mask he wore.   His hair was longer than I would have expected, just above the shoulder.  

 

He moved slowly but gracefully, every step seemed to have a purpose and he seemed to be studying the crowd.   He grabbed my attention which had been more focused on the tiles of the linoleum floor.  Mom and Ashley brought me down under mild protest, I wasn't in the mood for clowns and magic.   I wasn't in the mood for anything really, I just....I just don't want.....to die.   That's why I am here today, that's why I am feeling week, that's why I keep crying.  I am here in this place, to die more comfortably.   That last thing the medical field could do for me.   "It will be best Alexis."  My mother told me.   They gave me two weeks, the tumors had spread to my spine and up to my brain.   I found out when I went into a seizure.   The following CT scan found that the cancer had spread, and spread much more quickly than anticipated.  

I wasn't hooked up to monitors, or machines.   I didn't need to be, I was on a steady diet of pills and shots.  Most of the time, I was numb, but aware enough to spend time with my mom and Ashley.  Too weak to walk, too weak to eat, and required assistance to go to the bathroom.  It was embarrassing to have to ask for help to go to the bathroom.  

My gaze started to drift back down, as more tears fell from my eyes.  "Keep your faith Alexis!  In the end, you will be on the right hand of the Lord and Savior watching over your sister and I.   Be strong Baby, be strong."  My mother's words continued to ring through my head, as tears turned into me crying and sniffling.  I felt my sister wrap herself around me as my mother wrapped herself around us.   But an unfamiliar touch was placed on my chin and I looked up to see the masked magician looking at me.  He traced his soft hand over my cheek to collect my tears, he let them roll into his palm, he closed it.  

"Dry your eyes.   Our show is about to begin."  His voice sounded young, but it was the smell of chocolate chip cookies, fresh from the oven, like when we went to my grandma's when I was younger.  She had passes a few years back and I missed walking into her house after mass on Sunday's to find her baking them for us.   He opened his hand to show a gold necklace with a tear drop crystal on the end.   My eyes lit up and I looked up at him and in his eyes.   The were a beautiful brown pulling me into his soul, I felt a connection to him.   I felt alive.    He placed the necklace around my neck and leaned in to me.

"You are so beautiful.   Please don't cry."  He softly whispered into my ear.   A smile broke onto my face, as I had never heard anyone call me beautiful.   I even giggled softly as he pulled back.

"Okay.  I won't"  He stood up, nodded to my mother and sister, then walked backwards to his place on the floor.   I felt like he was doing this show just for me, like he was here for me.   I clutched the gem around my neck checking to make sure it was real.   I held onto it tight.   

The lights went down, and single spot light flashed upon the Magician.    He stood still, his eyes watched me, at least that's how it felt to me.   "Billy Jean" by Michael Jackson started to play, he started off with a few slight moves of his hips. He took a step, and tile he stood on lit up like a light bulb.   He took another step and that tile lit up.  He started to do a full on dance, and on beat with every step the tiles light up. He stopped just moving his hips and his head, up came his cape.   Down to show a purple tragedy mask.   He started dancing again, the floor lit up like the sky brightening the room with different colors, each color matching the color of the mask, that was being rotated from Tragedy to Comedy theatre mask.   He would twirl and the mask changed colors and style without the cape going up.   He was amazing.   The song started to whine down and he off course ended the song with a moonwalk the entire time changing the color of the mask with quick flips of his cape and the tiles matched perfectly as he slid across the floor. The whole room was clapping and cheering him on.

Till the song stopped, and he stood up in front.  No mask.   He looked so young, maybe sixteen.   I couldn't believe he could be that good as a magician, but he was absolutely amazing.    He pulled his hair off his face and twirled his hips out to an unheard song.   He held his hands out away from his body on either side and fanned out decks of cards.   His right hand came up to his face and he looked out over the crowd over the fan, He showed his left hand which was again empty.  He turned sideways showing the cards again in his right hand.  He flung his hand out and the cards in a straight line flew out from his body, but he quickly dropped to one knee and the cards came back to him.  He tilted his face as his hair fell to his face only showing one eye, and a smirk.   He tossed the cards out toward the crowd and again they yo-yoed back  to him.   He winked at me.   Once, again he tossed the cards out.  Crazy Train by Ozzy Osborne started to play as he pulled the cards back to him, then he after catching them he flipped two cards from the same hand and they levitated there in front of him.   He stood as the spun defying gravity.   He walked around them, put his arms in a circle and twirled his arms around the cards one then the other.   He plucked one of the cards from mid air, showed it to us, then tossed it out over our heads.    It flew just over my head as the spotlight caught up with it, although I wasn't even sure where the spotlight was coming from.  The card flew like a paper airplane over the small crowds head and boomeranged back to him.   He didn't catch it.  It started to fly around him circling his body and landed back in the middle of the deck which he cut with his hands.   We were going crazy clapping.  

He grabbed the second floating card and showed it to us, as it barely floated over his right hand.   It burst into a purple flame, that floated over his hand.    A new song started to play.   Send me an Angel by Reel Life and he again started to dance, he pulled another card from his left hand and it too burst into a purple flame.   He started to dance again mostly with his hands making tracers with the flames.  He stopped standing still as the flames started to circle him like the card.  Leaving tracers around him.   He caught both flames and again let them roll over his arms.   The parents, the sick children, everybody in the crowd was moving.   He caught the flames in one hand and slapped his hands together pulling them apart to show a single purple rose.   He walked up to me, laid it in my lap.  He smiled at me with a little wink.  I wanted to reach out to him, I wanted to touch his face.   He had already walked back to the front as the lights started to come back up.   The crowd clapped, the parents were all standing giving him an ovation.   He tapped his foot on the floor again, twirled pulling his cape up around him and was gone.   Vanished in front of our very eyes.  

"Can I smell it?"   Ashley's voice broke me from the trance I was in and I looked back at her smiling.   I placed it under he nose and she took in a deep inhale.   "Oh my Gosh, it's real."  She started to laugh and I offered to my Mom, who leaned in and also took a smell.   I laid it back in my lap with my balloon rabbit.   Don't let the rose go anywhere little bunny that was the first flower I ever got from a boy.

"Wasn't he amazing girls?"  I hadn't seen my mother this giddy in some time.   The three of us had smiles on our faces.    "Well, it's a warm night for November, why don't we go outside and enjoy the evening for a bit?  Want to go outside Alexis?"

"Yeah.   I ... I kinda do."  My mom smiled again as her and my sister stood up.  "Thank you for bringing me down here."  My hand immediately went to the gem around my neck, I had almost forgot he placed it there.   I traced it's smooth surface with my finger tip.  "I wonder if he wants this back."   I pulled it up of my chest to look at it, it was beautiful.   It hang from a silver chain on a silver trinket.  My mother took it into her hand and looked it over.

"It looks so real, but surely it isn't.   He might.   We will have to see."  My sister had started to push me toward the door as My mom collected their purses.   I let it fall back to my chest, as we waited our turn to roll out of the family room.   I started to feel warm inside, I couldn't believe how good I felt.   How alive I was becoming.    Ashley bent down and wrapped her arms around me.  

"And I think he must have liked you, I saw him watching you." She softly whispered into my ear and I immediately blushed.   She started to make kissing noises in my ear and I heard my mother giggle too.  Ashley's whisper wasn't whispered enough.  

"He was quite handsome for a younger man.   I am curious to know how old he is.  He didn't look much older than you girls.   I wonder if he is outside here doing a meet and greet.   I would love to ask him about his tricks."   She was trying to get on her tip toes to look past some of the other parents outside the door.   "I don't see anyone really bottling up outside the doors however.   I guess he just vanished.  Ashley, take her out to the statue and I will meet you both there.  I want to let the nurses know we will be outside for small time."

Author's Note

Critiques, suggestions, complaints, everything except. Please let me know what you think.

Reviews

[luciddreamer]

It has taken me awhile to get around to reading stories...sorry I just can't hold my attention to one thing for very long....but, I was so pulled in by these characters and this story line that I didn't want it to stop...I am pleasantly surprised....glad to see there is more to read :)....great job
Peace
Robin

[Tina Kline]

This is very moving and wonderful. It makes me wonder if there's more to the Magician then just being an ordinary magician. I enjoyed this first chapter a lot!

[Grace Catherine C.]

Very nicely done, and the girl in the picture is just gorgeous!

[Alexa Tasch]

very very nice. i love it! wait...... it that too biased? oh well i still loved it!^^
and i love purple roses

[Amber Tasch]

give me an hour to finish reading it, lol. its really epic.

[Erin]

At some points, it was kinda choppy with the fluency, and you missed a few periods here and there, but it was good. The Balance was maintained well. Description was really good. You had moments that were amazing. Great job.
PBP

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

you've such a way of enriching characters~ they flesh the story around them~
you're also bringing to light a form of breast cancer I personally never heard of~ and doing it within the body of a story where one immediately develops empathy for the girl~

[Miss Coral]

Love it and am looking forward to more! :)

Glad to see that you expanded on it and are continuing with it- I think it could be a really interesting story and you've already done a great job creating real characters. Nice job. :)

-Coral-