FICTION CONTEST WINNER
Esther Ko
One Magic Thing a Day
I
used to perform magic tricks for Charlie. Nothing special—not even tricks, really—but he got a kick out of them. Once we were in the backyard trying to make as much noise as we could. We took turns throwing a half-deflated basketball against the chainlink fence. The ball left my hands, bounced off the fence, and smacked him in the ear. I was the one that threw the ball but I didn’t mean for it to hit him in the head like that, and definitely not that hard. I was careful not to be too rough with Charlie. I just had to put a lot of strength behind that ball to get a decent bounce out of it. He got really quiet, like he was trying to decide whether to cry or not. Before he could think too much about it I told him I’d show him a magic trick. We sat cross-legged on the concrete and placed the deformed basketball between us. I pulled a quarter from my pocket and placed it in the middle of my outstretched palm. I looked him straight in the eyes. “Do you know what I’m about to do?” I asked. “What?” “I’m actually going to use real magic, for real.” He furrowed his brows and chewed the corner of his solemn little mouth. He wanted to believe in magic. More than that, he desperately wanted to believe in me. He was like that, even back then. “Show me.” I made a cross-eyed carp face and while Charlie laughed I tucked the quarter under my thigh. Then I waved my empty hands in front of him. He clambered onto my lap and grabbed at my hands to inspect them. “Where did it go?” “Magic.” I nudged him off my lap.
He furrowed his brows and chewed the corner of his solemn little mouth. He wanted to believe in magic.
33 | Ko