"Harrison, Harry - Rat10 - Stainless Steel Rat Joins Circus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

The wand vanished again to free his hands. He picked up the first box and walked over and placed it in the center of the stage. Then placed the others on each side of the first to make a platform. The wand reappeared to be tapped on their solid surfaces, passed through their open ends. This done he turned and bowed.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen and honored guests, I ask you to welcome my assistant, the lovely Angelina, who will assist me in this display of magic."
I clapped as loudly as I could, as any audience certainly would as my Angelina made her entrance. Slowly and seductively, smiling warmly and waving to the enthusiastic crowd of one.
Soft music welled up as Grissini took her hand and led her forward to bow. Then back to the row of cubes. Slowly and carefully, she sat down on the center cube, then swung her legs up and lay down on the cubes. She smiled at the audience, her right hand supporting her chin, her fill black skirt draped over the white edge of the cubes. Grissini was making magical passes over her in time with the music and his wand vanished yet again.
Then he bent over and pulled the center cube out from under her.
I gasped in awe, as any good audience would gasp, because she still lay there, unbending and straight as a die even though the center of her body was no longer supported.
Then I gasped even louder as he slowly pulled the supporting cube out from under her elbow so that she was floating in midair.
Floating totally in midair when he pulled away the third and last support.
She smiled and waved at me when Grissini looked away. I applauded until my hands hurt. The music crescendoed as he held up a large metal hoop, bounced it on the floor to prove its solidity-then slowly slipped it over her head. Moved it down the entire length of her body. Even around her feet to show that that she was truly suspended invisibly in midair. My hands were numb with unceasing applause.
The ring moved back the length of her body and was thrown, clanging, into the wings. Now the sprightly music accompanied the magician as, one by one, he slipped the white cubes back under her floating body. Then helped her down to join him in a bow. She came forward: I jumped to my feet to embrace her.
"My magical wife!" I cried aloud. "Didn't the wires hurt?"
"No wires. You saw the ring go the entire length of my body."
"I did-and I didn't understand it. Real magic?"
"Let us rather say real illusion."
Grissim exited-towards the atrium I noticed; magic can be exhausting. Or perhaps he did not want to be there when his magic secrets were revealed.
"I still don't understand how it is done. Something about the cubes maybe?"
"No. They are exactly what they seem to be. Solid wood. Placed in a row you will remember. Then I made my entrance, you will remember."
"Unforgettable!"
"But distracting. Grissini walked across the stage to greet me and the spot stayed on him as he moved. Distraction. That is when the magic happened-not later when he took the boxes away."
"Of course! Many magic tricks occur well before the trick is seen to be happening. The audience was looking at you and him. And not looking at the boxes. That was when the illusion occurred."
I went to look at the spot where the boxes had been placed close to the black curtains at the rear of the stage. The illusion was so good that I was a foot away before I saw it.
A thin black platform, floating in midair, that had supported Angelina.
"But that is magic as well! That can't just float there."
I looked closely at it, under it, then ran my hands along it.
To find the strong black steel beam that protruded from the curtains. Undoubtedly supported by a strong frame hidden by the curtains. Understanding struck.
"Of course! That platform wasn't there when he walked around the stage, then put the boxes into place. Only when he went to greet you and the spotlight followed him. In the darkness, radio-controlled undoubtedly, the beam came forward and slid the platform into place atop the boxes. Invisible from the audience because it was black like the tops of the boxes. But the ring-it went the length of your body, even past your shoes-"
"And back," she reminded. "The loop was big enough for the back of the loop to stop when it reached the supporting bar. Big enough for the front of the ring to go past my feet and even behind me."
"Of course! It had to come back the way it came on because the bar was stopping it from going all the way. What a wondrous effect!"
We went to join Grissini and to congratulate him. He shrugged it off as his accepted due. And shook an admonitory finger.
"You have little time left and very much more to learn."
He was right, of course. I had only a week to go.
I worked even harder. Drank nothing and slept only a few hours a night. And I practiced. By this time I was adroit at producing large birds from apparent thin air, and could draw hundreds of flags from an empty tube. I practiced with the floating apparatus, which Angelina greatly enjoyed, until I had the illusion under perfect control.
I could even read written questions from the audience by pressing the papers with their questions to my forehead.
I was most happy when I learned to do this. It had always impressed me on stage. And the illusion was so simple. I read the name of the first questioner and he responded from the audience. After answering his written question, I opened it and read his name aloud again. Discarded the paper and took another one. Which I read aloud as the audience gasped.
But the first question had been a plant, the man in the audience my accomplice. When I glanced at his question to verify it-it was not his question at all. But the first real question. Memorized and read out while the second real question was on my forehead. I was one question ahead all of the time. Illusion! Misdirection!
The week was over, our bags packed, tickets bought. It was time to go-and begin earning money again. It hurt to spend my own money as I had been doing since Chaise produced his microscopic contract.
We all shook hands and the Great Grissini was not looking that great.
"It was nice to be working again," he said, then sighed heavily.
"I will be ever grateful for your aid. Sorry it had to end so quickly." I turned away, trying not to see the pathos in his eyes.
"Take care of yourself," Angelina said. He grimaced.
"It will be Happy Hectares that will be doing the caring," he said. No pleasure in his voice.
I got ready to plant the prepared spear-but I could not.
"Look," I said. "It was a privilege to work with you, to bring some happiness into your life. And it is going to continue, I promise that."
"What do you mean?"
"The bank. They'll send you a check every week. Enough to buy better food and decent drink and all the little pleasures of life that make it worth living."
He was shocked at the thought. Then his eyes narrowed. "What's the catch? Why you doing this?"
"Because he is a nice man," Angelina said.
"Not that nice," I said. "I had not planned to be so uncommonly generous. Let us say I have had a change of heart."
"Jim-what in the world are you talking about?" She looked puzzled.
"I just couldn't go through with it. You see, I was going to arrange for the payments to continue, but only in exchange for . . . the secret of the Vanishing Boy Sprout. But I have to look at myself in the mirror every day. And the one crime I have suddenly realized that I have never committed is blackmail. I'm a little too old to start that kind of thing now. So enjoy your retirement. And think of me every night when you celebrate the cocktail hour." I whistled to our luggage and tiny motors hummed as they followed after us.