There is Magic Everywhere

“Magic lies in between things, between the day and the night, between yellow and blue, between any two things.” 

Charles de Lint, The Onion Girl 

The following is something I just had to share with you. Yesterday, I was at my computer working and as client stopped by and inquired whether or not he could ask a question of me. Now, mind you, this is a brand new client. We've never spoken. I don't know his name, and he is not in any of my groups. He is literally a stranger to me at this time. I looked up at him, "Of course". 

At this, he held up a deck of cards and asked, "What do you see?" "A deck of cards," I responded. He now goes through the deck and shows me that it is an ordinary deck of cards. "Pick two cards", he says. All right, I think to myself. I'll go along with this, so I chose two cards. "Now, put them back in the deck", so I did, one near the top of the deck and the other in the middle.  "Now, tap the deck three times".  You all know what happens here.  Of course, my two cards mysteriously show up at the top of the deck. 

Okay, so that's an old trick, fun, but nothing really special.  Lots of people know card tricks. Next, asks me for a piece of paper.  I had none, so I gave him a blank sticky note which he promptly ripped in half.  "Okay, now ask me a question about yourself.  It can be anything from your middle name, your date of birth, anything."  "Okay, tell me my cat's name." I responded, smug in the fact that I just knew I had got the best of him.  He writes something on the sticky, folds it, tells me to hold out my palm and then places the folded note in my hand.

"Okay," he says, "Now, let's say you are going to buy a doll for a little girl in your family. Which doll would you choose?  Snow White or Cinderella? And don't tell me.  Just keep it in your mind."  A hard choice, but I chose Snow White.  He writes on the paper and does the same, folds it and puts it in my palm.  "Now, close your hand and shake the papers. Open one." I opened the first one and it said Snow White.  Okay, I'm willing to admit that was a good guess, but let's face it, he only had two choices.  "Now open the second one."  I did so and almost fell off the floor because on the paper was written the word, "Minga".  No one names their cat Minga, and there was no way he could have known what question I was going to ask. Later, I found out he told my superviser her middle name which NO ONE in the office knows.  

The man is downright eerie and uncanny, and perhaps a little frightening.  One can't help but ask, what else does he know?  However, his was a much-needed time out on a very busy day.  We're having an unexpected audit today, and yesterday was a race to get my files in order. I've always prided myself on being up-to-date, but with such a huge caseload I have fallen behind...and I am not alone.  We are all overworked and burned out. Perhaps now they will see that we need more help.

    "Come, if thy magic Glass have power

"To call up forms we sigh to see;

    "Show me my, love, in that, rosy bower,

        "Where last she pledged her truth to me."

    The Wizard showed him his Lady bright,

        Where lone and pale in her bower she lay;

    "True-hearted maid," said the happy Knight,

        "She's thinking of one, who is far away."

    But, lo! a page, with looks of joy,

        Brings tidings to the Lady's ear;

    "'Tis," said the Knight, "the same bright boy,

        "Who used to guide me to my dear."

    The Lady now, from her favorite tree,

        Hath, smiling, plucked a rosy flower:

    "Such," he exclaimed, "was the gift that she

        "Each morning sent me from that bower!"

    She gives her page the blooming rose,

        With looks that say, "Like lightning, fly!"

    "Thus," thought the Knight, "she soothes her woes,

        "By fancying, still, her true-love nigh."

    But the page returns, and--oh, what a sight,

        For trusting lover's eyes to see!--

    Leads to that bower another Knight,

        As young and, alas, as loved as he!

    "Such," quoth the Youth, "is Woman's love!"

        Then, darting forth, with furious bound,

    Dashed at the Mirror his iron glove,

        And strewed it all in fragments round.

    MORAL.

    Such ills would never have come to pass,

        Had he ne'er sought that fatal view;

    The Wizard would still have kept his Glass,

        And the Knight still thought his Lady true.

Thomas Moore