\u201cThat\u2019s amazing!\u201d she said, clearly impressed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was nothing.\u201d He sketched a bow.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut I didn\u2019t see where they came from.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe same place as this.\u201d He waved his arm to reveal Cornish hens over wild rice with grilled asparagus.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOoh, my favorite!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThen we must celebrate.\u201d He gestured for a floating bottle of Mumm\u2019s to fill two champagne flutes.<\/span><\/p>\n She clapped her hands and giggled. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen someone with so much command at his fingertips.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOh, I am but an amateur,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut these things. I don\u2019t see how you can do them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell, as they always say,\u201d he said, \u201cthings that occur that we cannot yet explain might as well be magic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat else can you do?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He conjured a glass of small-batch bourbon and gave it a sip.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDamn,\u201d he said. \u201cI was hoping for Blanton\u2019s.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat is it?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cKnob Creek,\u201d he replied.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou mean you don\u2019t always get it right?\u201d She touched her lips.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cActually,\u201d he said, \u201cit rarely happens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat bouquet?\u201d He nodded toward the flowers.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat about it?\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re lovely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey were supposed to be orchids,\u201d \u201cOh.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Cornish hens?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYes?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking quail.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo the champagne?\u201d she asked.<\/span><\/p>\n He nodded. \u201cDom Perignon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut I thought you knew magic.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOh, I do.\u201d He winked.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo you can conjure up all of these things, but you rarely get them right,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s it in a nutshell,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy God, I feel like I\u2019ve been tricked.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIsn\u2019t that the goal?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut you\u2019re a fraud.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a little harsh. Magic is just like life: imperfect even in its beauty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo you\u2019re OK with doing parlor tricks and getting them wrong,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n He gestured at the table and made everything disappear.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOf course. After all,\u201d he said with a shy smile, \u201cI\u2019m only human.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 2016![\"fiction-dec16\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Fiction-Dec16-300x215.jpg\")
“Voila!\u201d He presented the bouquet of red carnations with a flourish.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nhe said.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nVoila!\u201d He presented the bouquet of red carnations with a flourish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[114],"class_list":["post-12233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","tag-december-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12237,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12233\/revisions\/12237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}