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IT MUST BE MAGIC

The years when her birthday fell in the middle of the week always made Warrior Queen slightly uncomfortable. She was never sure what would be the best time to celebrate with both her many friends and that special friend, Ares, who always managed to show up when she least expected him. She always felt that he knew better than to show up at her work at the Adult Day Care center, but other than that anywhere and anytime in the general vicinity of her birthday was fair game.

Her RL friends wanted to go out and celebrate. She tried to steer them towards the weekend before her birthday or even Monday night. Cinco de Mayo was a great night to celebrate if it wasn't the night before your birthday. They had said that they wanted to celebrate "ON" her birthday, so she found herself crammed into the back seat of a small car with four of her best friends driving towards some unrevealed destination. Sometimes her RL friends were every bit as devious as her friends at Talking Hercules.

She tried to remember if the Phillies were in town. It would have been wonderful to get Flyers' tickets, but she considered herself fortunate to have seen that they had advanced in the playoffs, let alone check the schedule. Where would her friends get five playoff tickets? When they turned off the interstate and onto some rural road, she realized that they were false hopes. The place they were going was in an area where they might head for a camping trip, if it were not a Tuesday night.

"You're going to love this, WQ" was said several times during the trip. She wasn't so sure.

They pulled up outside a road-house type bar. The kind of place where you find locals gathered and sometimes get good pie. WQ didn't like drinking and wondered why her friends had driven so far to take her here.

"They have a special show tonight. A magic show." One of her friends said excitedly.

WQ thought "so. . ." but no answer came.

* * * *

She expected the inside of the bar to be dark and smoky. It actually was brightly lit with florescent lights and the knotty pine walls gleamed. Gleaming does nothing for half-century old wood paneling. The dark spots on the yellowed walls reminded her of a leopard, except it was wood. WQ ordered coffee and her friends ordered beers. Someone whispered to the waitress and she knew a cake would be coming soon. All these things could have been done in Bucks County, why had they driven so far?

"Who is this magician we drove so far to see?" She asked. "And if he is so good, why is he performing out here in the middle of nowhere?" she thought.

Her friends explained that he had sent a postcard to their work place announcing this one night performance. Usually it said he performed in Europe. They had no idea why he had chosen this place. The crowd was sparse; obviously he had not sent out enough post cards.

The magician was also late.

* * * *

While her friends ordered their second beers, she noticed a small man coming in from the kitchen area pulling a cart containing several huge and battered cases. They appeared even older than the rest of the restaurant. A few lights and a mike with huge speakers were set up along with a small table and some strange looking boxes. The show was about to begin.

The size of the speakers did not improve the sound quality. The music was loud and grating. WQ expected some high school boy to appear from . . .

Someone appeared alright, but it wasn't a high school boy. Where he appeared from was another question. There was just this flash of blue light and suddenly a large man in a flowing black cape stood before the audience. His face was obscured by the hood of the cape, but she could feel his eyes. He stood behind the table and pulled the cape back to expose his hands. That was all WQ needed, she could recognize Ares from just his hands.

He started doing card tricks. She realized that Ares had the requisite skills to make anyone believe that what he was doing was truly magic. He would ask them to pick a card and return it to the deck. When he produced the card, the picker would insist that they had picked another card, as Ares went back to the deck again and again producing the same card with the same result. Finally after the sixth or seventh try, they would say that it was their card. WQ thought this act would go over better at the Day Care Center, where people truly wouldn't remember their card, than it did here. Still people watched as if mesmerized.

He paced around the room, trying tricks at lots of tables, but not seeming to notice that she and her friends were sitting right in the front of the room. Was Ares ignoring her, or saving something special for her table?

He moved on to close up magic, quickly moving thimbles that when lifted revealed softball size foam balls. His adept fingers could compress the ball under the thimble or hide it in his palm. WQ knew Ares did other things with his fingers that were quite magical, but tonight this was a public presentation.

Finally, as the show neared its end, he stated that he needed a volunteer from the audience and walked her way. He reached over and took her hand, looked her in the eyes deeply and smiled that ear to ear smile. Without asking he introduced her to the audience as the special birthday lady. She tried to look surprised, but was not.

What happened next was a surprise. WQ knew that magician's assistants had to rehearse before performances and promise never to reveal the tricks of the trade the magician shared with them. Did Ares just expect her to know? To perform? Or was it magic? The crowd hushed when Ares began to wave a small dagger charm, like the one he sometimes wore as an earring, suspended on a cord in front of her eyes. She followed it carefully, listening to his voice and found herself getting very sleepy. He took her hand and led her to a large box that had been suspended between two chairs. She didn't remember climbing in the box.

* * * * *

She awoke to find herself walking barefoot in the sand along the ocean. There was a full moon rising over the surf. She knew that the moon that night should have been a small crescent in the western sky. Either it was two weeks past her birthday or Ares had manipulated the moon. She was wearing a long flowing black gown. She could see Ares, dressed in full GofW leathers, standing, near the other end of the beach. She wanted to run to him; she wanted him to run to her; she wanted to be part of a cliché.

The run across the beach seemed to take forever. Finally, Ares reached out his hand for hers and pulled her close. He glanced into her eyes, pulled her into a kiss, and whispered "Thud."

Not exactly what she expected.

"Isn't that what you TH writers say about me?" He commented slyly. "You have a lot of friends there, WQ. I've been there and to you're mySpace page, too."

"You've been there."

"Go there a lot. Once I get there, I don't seem to get out. I keep clicking on things that look interesting and before I know it . . ."

"It's two weeks past my birthday, right."

"What? Why?. . ."

"What did you do with the moon?"

"Just a little deal I worked with Selene. No one wants to walk on the beach under a four-day-old crescent. It sets too early."

"But I have to work tomorrow . . . and we have to drive back to Buck's County from Timbuktu."

"Had I known you wanted to go to Timbuktu, it could have been arranged."

"I didn't, it was just a phrase."

"In New Zealand they call it Eketahuna."

"And you are the expert on all things New . . ." She stopped mid-sentence because she realized he probably was, and he took full advantage of the stoppage to give her another kiss. This one lasted longer and there was a distinct thud in her chest when it finished.

"I almost forgot your birthday gift, Warrior Queen." He reached somewhere into the air and produced a pouch containing a small charm. He held it to her in his large hand. It looked like an eight with the two circles twisted around each other carved in black onyx. "It's an eternity charm, to symbolize how long I will continue to come to visit you on your birthday."

"Even when I'm eighty?"

"On your birthday, you'll always be young . . . we'd better get back, people might be tiring of your stage show."

* * * *

"Let's hear it folks for our Warrior Queen." The audience clapped and hooted. WQ's friends looked a bit shocked.

"How'd he know that alias you use on the internet?" One of them asked as she sat back down.

"I don't know, maybe he reads Talking Hercules."

"Or MySpace." Another added. "I told you that a lot of scary people read those pages."

"He's not scary."

"You're only saying that because you were totally out when he . . ."

"When he what? I didn't dance and cluck like a chicken, did I?"

"No, but we were wondering, can't wait for you to tell us what it felt like to be cut into two pieces?"

"What?" WQ wondered as she fingered the new charm on her necklace. "Oh, that was just a magician's trick."

McJude

May 2008