The clock on his nightstand blinked to 12:00. The crack of midnight, when magical things happen, when rocks come alive and trees come alive. Jimmy had a feeling that mysterious and wondrous things might be afoot. He knew he had to be very careful and very quiet when Mom and Dad were working. When the greatest magicians in the world were perfecting their craft they would not tolerate any interruptions from young boys. Jimmy slipped out of bed and slowly started tip-toeing towards the door. Being the son of two of the world’s greatest magicians was an awesome responsibility, and Jimmy took it very seriously. He knew Mom would be in the sunroom practicing, and Dad always did his work in the basement. Slowly, carefully he opened the door enough to squeeze through and get into the hall.
He heard a soft rhythmic voice from downstairs in the sunroom. It seemed to him that Mom had been working on that particular incantation for some time now. Jimmy had not studied much in the way of foreign languages, but from reading a book he got from the school library he was rather sure she was speaking Latin.
“Sit magia incipere, Sit magia incipere, Sit magia incipere”. The “Wondrous Apollonia” was concentrating on the table before her. A large glass vase sat in the center of the table, full of dead flowers. The flowers were dry and ugly; petals falling off and littering the table. The Wondrous Appollonia (known to her friends as Becky) reached into her robe and brought forth a large red scarf. She began to slowly pass the scarf over and around the flowers, knocking more petals onto the table. She picked up the speed, a little faster, a little faster, the scarf became a blur. “Sit vita vestra ad vos revertatur”, she shouted, scaring the heck out of Jimmy, who had managed to sneak behind the couch in the sunroom. As she shouted her incantation she jerked the scarf away and returned it to her robe in one motion. There, on the table, in the same vase, sat a beautiful bouquet. Pink roses, Gerbera daisies, Oriental lilies, and larkspur, white snapdragons, and lavender stock. The old flowers and all the debris on the table had vanished.
“About goddam time I got that to work”, Becky muttered under her breath. She had been working on that for a long time, and getting it to work had been a challenge. She sighed, and picked up the vase of fresh flowers. “You could use a drink,” she said as she headed toward the kitchen. She turned on the water in the sink, giving Jimmy the break he needed to head back upstairs before he got caught. The last time he got caught snooping around in the middle of the night he lost his Nintendo for a week.
Silently, but quickly, the wraithlike form of Jimmy swept up the stairs and into his bedroom. He knew that someday he would be the world’s most incredible magician even surpassing his parents. As he snuggled back under the blankets thoughts of conjuring spirits and ethereal entities filled his head. The images of his mother reviving the dead flowers passed through his mind as sleep overtook him. “Mom can command the life force,” Jimmy thought as he drifted off, “I will too”.
Becky sat at the kitchen table across from “The Great Tex Arcanum” (known to his friends as Ralph). “I finally got that damn flower thing to work well, I think I had been trying to hurry it along too much before,” she said. Ralph smiled appreciatively, “I’d like to see it sometime before you use it in a show”. Ralph knew that Becky had quick hands, and was extremely good at timing. He was sure that whatever she had would really wow the audience. “My fire dragon is coming along well too,” Ralph said, “as long as I don’t burn down the house getting it right. I think tonight I’ll have to move some of my stuff to the garage and work on it out there. I’m afraid I’m going to screw up the ceiling tiles in the basement”. Becky nodded approvingly; she smiled and said, “I’m glad we haven’t seen our little “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” sneaking around in the middle of the night lately”.
Ralph and Becky knew Jimmy had a real fascination for their magic, and they feared that he might try to follow in their footsteps. Long nights, extensive travel, starvation wages for a long period as a journeyman magician working small shows and clubs, it was a tough life. Becky appreciated that she had met Ralph when they were both fairly well along in their careers. Good money, well known, a large fan base, they had each reached the point of comfort and success. After they met at a convention in Vegas, a whirlwind courtship followed a marriage soon after that, and soon, an unexpected pregnancy. They were not kids anymore but felt blessed that a child would soon be theirs. They talked and decided that their child should be an Attorney, a Doctor, an Engineer, anything but a magician. They felt their child should have a better life; their child had other ideas though.
Jimmy sat in history class, not really that interested in the adventures of Ponce De Leon discovering Puerto Rico or wherever. He was a bit of a loner, not caring to field the questions about his parents, or what they did, or what he did with his spare time. Most of the boys his age seemed like goofs and jerks, and girls his age were just downright scary, except his next door neighbor Lisa. Jimmy relished the company of his own thoughts. He did well enough in school, not at the top of his class, but not at the bottom either. His thoughts that morning kept drifting to what he knew of his father’s latest effort.
Although his parents were not extremely secretive about their work, they did not share it much either. A couple days earlier Jimmy had taken some sneakers to the laundry room to clean them, and made a detour through his Dad’s basement workshop. The door was not locked, but his Dad was never eager to share the contents with Jimmy. On a workbench was a fire grate about three feet square. A bag of kindling wood and a can of charcoal lighter were on the floor. A very ornate box sat on his Dad’s desk. Dark stained wood and polished brass hardware, it was very impressive. Jimmy knew he should not mess with it, but he had to see what was inside. After reflexively looking over his shoulder, he opened the latches and lifted the lid. “What in the HECK,” Jimmy thought. In the box was what looked like someone’s iguana. Someone’s iguana that had been in the oven at 450 for about five or six hours. Black and shriveled, it looked like it would crumble if Jimmy touched it. Jimmy carefully lowered the lid and secured the latches. Whatever his Dad was working on, it was beyond his understanding.
After supper, when Jimmy was done loading the dishwasher, his mom reminded him that it would be a good night to get his book report done, along with any other school work that was going to be due soon. Jimmy knew that was code for “Stay in your room and keep busy”. It actually sounded like a good idea to Jimmy, as he had some other plans for the evening working also. Jimmy knew some of the usual explanations for “Magic”. Distraction, misdirection, sleight-of-hand, mechanical devices, all were part of the stage magicians stock-in-trade. Jimmy had seen the magician that did a show at the church carnival one year. Jimmy felt sorry for the poor rabbit the magician used. He was handled rather roughly, and did not look very well fed. Jimmy knew “Real Magic” was something entirely different. He knew real magic was the result of the will of the magician. He knew a real magician, like his mother or father, could direct the energy of the universe where he wanted it. He had found a book in his father’s collection; Magick, by Aleister Crowley. It was very hard to read, and harder to understand, but Jimmy learned that true magick came from the work and the will of the magician, not from tricks or gimmicks. He had tried to practice some of what he had learned, but it was very difficult.
Jimmy very dutifully went to his room and knocked out the reports and other things he had to do. Nine o’clock came and like clockwork his mom hollered up to him, “Jimmy, brush your teeth and go to bed”. Jimmy felt like a secret agent. He would sleep a few hours, and get up in the middle of the night as he had done before. While working on his schoolwork he heard his dad taking stuff out to the garage. Tonight he hoped to see what his dad was working on. He set his alarm and tried to sleep.
Ralph had dragged all his stuff to the garage and sat down to take a break and catch his breath. This illusion was coming together well. One of the trickiest parts had been getting the correct amount of fire in the grate. He tried a propane burner but the flame lacked any character. He found some regular old wood worked best. He would light the fire, give a few minutes of patter while the flames grew, and then get into the heart of the illusion. When this all came together, it would be a truly great show. He figured a couple more nights of work and it would be ready. He just needed to work on the patter, make it more of a narration than just the usual nonsense.
Becky had stretched out on the couch, and promptly dozed off. Her flower illusion had really come together and she felt she could take a break for a while. Ralph was in the garage doing his thing, and they had found that separate, individual efforts worked better for them than trying to collaborate on things. Becky was pleased with life. Jimmy was a good kid and seemed to be headed in the right direction. Ralph was still at the peak of his career, and her career was doing well also. Life was good. She rolled over on the couch and covered up with the blanket. Sleep came easily that night.
From under the pillow Jimmy had placed upon it his clock started chirping. It was loud enough to wake Jimmy, but not loud enough to be heard outside his room. Jimmy slipped on his black sweat pants and his black hoodie. He was going to have to be extra careful tonight. He knew his mom would not be in the sunroom, but he had no idea where she would be. From the top of the stairs he tried to listen for any sound of mom. The darn refrigerator in the kitchen was running, making a heavy background noise. In a couple minutes it kicked off, and Jimmy heard the soft rhythmic sound of his mom snoring on the couch. Perfect. Jimmy glided down the steps and out the back door. He saw the garage door was open and the lights were all on. This was going to be easy. Since his dad was working in the garage, both vehicles were in the driveway. Jimmy got down on all fours and slid under his dad’s pickup. A ringside seat, even if was on the concrete. Jimmy settled in for the show.
Ralph had done this illusion many times before, but this was the wrap up session and last practice before including it in the show. The fire grate was setup and the wood was wet with lighter fluid. The ornate box was on his workbench with a spot light shining on it. Jimmy knew this was going to be great. Ralph turned as to address the audience. He started in to his monologue, taking his audience back to ancient China, the land of dragons. He wove a tale of a particularly fierce dragon that terrorized the countryside. The people had to destroy the dragon before it destroyed them. They consulted an old wizard and were given a plan. At this point in his spiel Ralph reached under the fire grate and kicked a switch that ignited the fire. As the fire began to crackle he continued. The wizard told the villagers that a dragon’s scales will protect them from fire, but only for a short time. A fire hot enough, for a long enough time could change the dragon into an inanimate cinder. The villagers knew what to do. Ralph grew more animated as the story went on. The fire in the grate was burning brightly. Ralph continued; the villagers went to a nearby cave, filled it with straw, wood, anything they could find that would burn. They baited their trap with a beautiful maiden from the village. When the villagers lured the dragon into the cave they set it on fire. The fire burned for two days. (Ralph knew this version of his story had a few too many plot holes, and still needed some work). And when the fire had died down, the villagers went in and found the scorched, burnt remains of the dragon. At this stage of his presentation Ralph was really getting animated. He reached for the ornate box and flipped the lid open.
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“Tonight we release the dragon from the hell he has lived in for a thousand years! Tonight the dragon returns! The fires sent him away! The fire will bring him back!” With this Ralph lifted the burnt iguana and presented it to the crowd. “TONIGHT WE WITNESS MAGIC” He shouted. He stepped to the fire and shouted, “Ràng huǒ shǐ nǐ xǔxǔrúshēng” (let the fire bring you to life). Casting the dragon carcass into the fire, he ducked down to avoid the explosion. The dragon burst into a thousand colors, it grew, and grew, and grew, it unfolded it’s wings and swept out from the garage. In an incredible flash of light it flew off into the night sky.
WITF ??? Jimmy seldom swore, even in his thoughts, but this was a special occasion. He had seen his dad perform some incredible things, but this was far beyond anything he had ever seen. He had watched some old videos on YouTube of David Copperfield, Penn & Teller, David Blaine, and all the other great magicians, but he had never seen anything like this. Had dad used lasers? Was it some sort of hologram? Jimmy had no idea what had actually happened. Ralph closed the lid on the box, grabbed a hook and dragged the grate out onto the driveway to let the fire die out. Jimmy knew he needed to get back into the house quickly.
As Ralph switched off the garage lights Jimmy slipped into the backdoor. Mom was still peacefully sleeping, blissfully unaware of what had happened right outside her house. Jimmy made it to his room silently and slipped under the blankets. Jimmy knew that dragons were assumed to be nothing more than fables and fairy tales, yet almost all civilizations had stories of their existence in ancient times. What did he really see that night? How could his dad have gotten a dragon carcass? The mysteries just kept piling up. Jimmy knew things were not as they seemed, but what was really going on?
Saturday morning greeted Jimmy with a cold, driving rain beating on his windows. “Great”, he thought, ”gonna be stuck inside all day”. Well, it would be a good day to catch up on his reading. He had snuck another book from his father’s collection; The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order by Israel Regardie. Another book on magic, it was a little easier to read than the book by Crowley, but still difficult to understand. Jimmy was trying to learn some of the basics of magick, but it was hard doing it all by himself. His parents did not seem interested in helping him pursue his interests, so he did the best he could on his own.
Jimmy had read of many sorts of magic. He was familiar with most of the illusions performed by stage magicians. He had studied to understand some of the intricate mechanical devises used to present illusions. He understood misdirection, distraction and the other techniques used to perform tricks. He had also read of other forms of magic. Ceremonial Magick was a little bit out of his reach. The elaborate rituals, the drawing of magical circles on the floor, conjuring of spirits and demons, all seemed things to be left to another time. One of the more esoteric forms of Magick that caught his imagination was the use of mirrors or crystal balls to see other places, other times, other worlds. The technique was known as Scrying.
His efforts at Scrying were somewhat encouraging. His attempts to use this technique produced some interesting results. He chose a moonless night to begin. A mirror from the basement, two candles from the kitchen, and a quiet night set the stage. Setting the mirror on the floor and leaning it against the bed gave him a good angle to see into it, and yet not cast much of his own reflection onto the mirror. Turning off his bedroom lights, he lit a candle on each side of him. He gazed into the mirror and let his mind go quiet. The gentle flickering of the candles helped quiet the static in his head. Time seemed to slow down. He looked deeper into the mirror. He could not quite see anything, but rather, he felt something. He tried to clear his mind and look deeper into the mirror, but he was really experiencing that strange feeling one gets when someone unseen is watching you. Jimmy began to get the feeling someone was coming. Someone was getting closer. Slowly an image began to coalesce in the mirror. An image of an old man. A kindly, grandfatherly looking man. He seemed to looks beyond Jimmy, as if Jimmy wasn’t there. Jimmy didn’t recognize him, yet he did not feel alarmed or threatened by this image. The room had grown extremely quiet. Jimmy almost spoke to the image, but he felt the silence should not be broken. As Jimmy sat staring into the mirror, the old man’s gaze turned to Jimmy and he looked straight into Jimmy’s eyes. A sudden feeling came over Jimmy as if he had known this old man all his life. Jimmy had never known his grandparents; they had passed long before he was born. This person looked like everyone’s grandfather. The old man smiled a very subtle little smile at Jimmy and nodded his head as if to reassure Jimmy that everything was OK. The image began to fade. Jimmy’s candles were beginning to sputter. Jimmy glanced at the clock and saw three hours had passed. Three hours? It seemed like twenty minutes. Jimmy turned on his lights and blew out the candles. Who was the old man? Where was he? Where was he from? Why did he come to Jimmy? What was he trying to communicate? Jimmy decided that he would pursue this technique of divination further at some other time.
Jimmy studied more books he “borrowed” from his father’s library. The concept of Magick being an expression of the magician’s will stuck with him. The will of the magician, if strong enough, could shape reality. If strong enough, it could affect the future. If strong enough, it could affect the forces of life. His mother had changed the flowers. Was that by her will alone? How had his father accomplished what did on that incredible night in the garage?
Jimmy started trying to be very mindful of when he might be able to exert his will. Clearing his mind and concentrating on a particular thing was empowering. Were his improved grades or better treatment by his school mates the result of his will? Jimmy thought of ways to try exerting his will on the physical world, but results were hard to see. Even though he did not see immediate results manifest in the physical world, he did feel a bit more connected, a bit more at one with everything around him. Jimmy could not see how this would take him in the direction he had originally wanted to go, magic such as his parents practiced, but he felt he was being taken somewhere he was meant to go.
The spring day greeted Jimmy with bright sunshine streaming through his window. Spring break from school meant he could sleep in, but he had things to do, places to go, people to see. Mom had breakfast ready when he got downstairs, and as a rare occasion the whole family enjoyed breakfast together. “Jimmy, could you go get the newspaper from the mailbox please,” Mom asked. Jimmy said sure, and headed down the drive. At the mailbox Jimmy met his neighbor Lisa, a girl about Jimmy’s age, as she was getting her family’s newspaper. “You look kinda sad today,” Jimmy said to Lisa. Jimmy and Lisa were not close friends, but Jimmy liked her and Lisa thought Jimmy a good guy. “Mr. Toms, my cat is really sick,” Lisa said, “we took him to the vet, but the vet said there isn’t much they can do for him. I’m really worried”. Jimmy told Lisa how he hoped Mr. Toms got better and he wanted her to not worry. They headed back to their houses.
Jimmy was in his driveway that afternoon working on his bike. Lisa’s garage door was open as her Mom had just left to go to the store and Lisa was in the garage working on some of her stuff. Jimmy was concentrating on getting his bike lights working. The neighborhood was quiet that day, Jimmy didn’t have his radio on in the garage, it was peaceful. Jimmy heard a muffled shout from Lisa’s garage. A sudden “OH NO!!” followed by crying. Jimmy feared that Lisa had fallen or cut herself or something and he headed to Lisa’s garage at a run. As he entered the garage he saw Lisa kneeling before a cardboard box on the floor. Jimmy knew what had happened. He knelt next to Lisa and looked in the box. Mr. Toms was lying on his side, eyes closed, very still. Lisa reached into the box and softly petted his head. “I really hoped you would make it,” she whispered.
A strange feeling came over Jimmy. He wasn’t sure if it was in his head, or in his stomach, or just all over him. It seemed as if the whole world was getting quiet. He no longer heard Lisa sobbing next to him. The traffic noise from the street disappeared. He could hear his own heart beating. A memory of watching his mother transform the flowers flitted through his mind. The spectacle of the dragon leaping from the fire came before him. He had witnessed Magick. He had seen the manifestation of will. All his readings came to mind. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”. The will of the Magician was supreme. We influence reality.
Jimmy reached into the box and Lisa withdrew her hand. Jimmy placed his hand gently on Mr. Toms’ head. As he touched Mr. Toms visions of cat things entered his head. Slinking through the grass crouched down in pursuit of sparrows. Lying in the sun on the porch. Chasing other tomcats who dared to enter his turf.
Jimmy reached down inside himself to a place he had never reached into before. The words that formed in his mind were not in English, nor any other tongue of man. His heart and his mind united to shout, “I WILL YOU TO LIVE”. The words did not leave his lips, but they reverberated throughout reality.
Jimmy stroked Mr. Toms’ head once more and withdrew his hand. Lisa was still sobbing gently as she looked at Jimmy, and then into the box. A back leg twitched. His chest rose slightly and subsided. Then he took a deep breath. An eye opened, and he took another breath. Eyes open and breathing regularly, the old cat gathered himself together and sat up.
“I think perhaps he had just fainted,” Jimmy said to Lisa. Lisa’s tears of sorrow turned to tears of joy. Her old cat was sitting in the box licking a paw. “Oh Jimmy, I’m so happy! This old guy means a lot to me. He’s been my kitty since I was a little girl”.
“Well, I’m glad he’s not really dead,” Jimmy said. Lisa was busy petting Mr. Toms. “I’m gonna head home now Lisa, see you later,” Jimmy started walking towards his house. Strange feelings filled his head and his heart. Had he really done it? Was he really able to do a Magick thing?
Jimmy thought to himself, “I’m not sure what changed, but now, everything has changed”.