(no subject)
When I was a kid, I tried to convince my dad to turn a lady into a tiger. I'd seen one of my dad's (considerably more successful) magician friends do it in a show, and afterward we'd gone backstage and he'd let me pet the tiger. I was really young; this was before I found out about real magic, and it was the coolest thing to me. Not because of the trick (I'd been hanging around magic shows enough to figure that out pretty quickly), but because of the tiger.
So I begged. To which my dad's response was, of course, "Where do you think I'm going to get a tiger?" Plus he didn't usually keep an assistant on the payroll. But I begged long enough that we came up with a compromise, and that was how I got my first dog, and also how I got to be an assistant in his shows sometimes. I'd pretend to be just some kid in the crowd, and then he'd pick me out seemingly at random and I'd go into the vanishing cage only to be replaced by our mutt, Houdini. He'd used our traveling as a reason for not having a dog before, but once the dog was part of the show, my dad figured he pulled his weight. Plus kids love dogs.
Of course, once I started having real magical abilities, my dad wouldn't let me be in the show anymore. And after he died and I went to live with Justin I had to give Houdini away.
So imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning, walked outside, and found a cloth-covered cube sitting there with a notecard on top that read, TO HARRY. I picked up the card and pocketed it. The cloth covering whatever was underneath was a thick red velvet, like a curtain. I tugged at one end and it dropped off, revealing a cage underneath.
"Hell's bells!" I blurted, jumping back, because for a split second I actually thought that there was a lion inside. But then I realized that it wasn't a lion, but a dog--one exactly like Mouse (a temple dog?) except in color. My eyes flicked down, and I realized that it wasn't just an ordinary cage, but what appeared to be an extremely well-constructed vanishing cage.
The dog barked at me, and I just gaped.
So I begged. To which my dad's response was, of course, "Where do you think I'm going to get a tiger?" Plus he didn't usually keep an assistant on the payroll. But I begged long enough that we came up with a compromise, and that was how I got my first dog, and also how I got to be an assistant in his shows sometimes. I'd pretend to be just some kid in the crowd, and then he'd pick me out seemingly at random and I'd go into the vanishing cage only to be replaced by our mutt, Houdini. He'd used our traveling as a reason for not having a dog before, but once the dog was part of the show, my dad figured he pulled his weight. Plus kids love dogs.
Of course, once I started having real magical abilities, my dad wouldn't let me be in the show anymore. And after he died and I went to live with Justin I had to give Houdini away.
So imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning, walked outside, and found a cloth-covered cube sitting there with a notecard on top that read, TO HARRY. I picked up the card and pocketed it. The cloth covering whatever was underneath was a thick red velvet, like a curtain. I tugged at one end and it dropped off, revealing a cage underneath.
"Hell's bells!" I blurted, jumping back, because for a split second I actually thought that there was a lion inside. But then I realized that it wasn't a lion, but a dog--one exactly like Mouse (a temple dog?) except in color. My eyes flicked down, and I realized that it wasn't just an ordinary cage, but what appeared to be an extremely well-constructed vanishing cage.
The dog barked at me, and I just gaped.