Page 43 - Unlikely Stories 4

The Magic Clown

From Fantastic Transactions, volume 3 (2006)

“Mr. Riga? I’m Ann O’Malley, from Now You See It. We had an
appointment this morning at ten o’clock.”
The man in the spangled dressing gown standing on his apartment’s
threshold blinked and grimaced.
“Okay. Now I remember. Come in. I’ll go put on some trousers.
Don’t mind the boxes. I’m packing. Moving soon: did I mention that
to you? I assume we’ve met before, perhaps on the telephone. Well,
that’s disconnected now, same as me.”
He cackled softly and shuffled into the bedroom. Then he froze,
whirled around and closed the door swiftly. His guest left the front
door ajar, checked her cell phone and tape recorder battery life, and
navigated a small maze of half-filled cardboard boxes to the only
visible seating at a built-in table in the kitchen alcove. The smell of gas
prompted her to rise immediately and shut off an unlit stove burner
on which a dented kettle remained at room temperature. Noting the
sash window over the sink propped open with a beer bottle, she
returned to the narrow bench and set up the recorder with a fresh
cassette.
Her host re-emerged in a stained undershirt under a frayed tuxedo.
“I can’t find my old costume. Maybe it went to the rummage. Do
you have any publicity photos from my glory days as The Magic
Clown?”
“Yes, we do. Lots of clippings, too. Don’t worry about that: I’m
here to interview you for our ‘Profiles in Prestidigitation’ column. If
you have any memorabilia or paraphernalia you want to donate to a
magic museum, I can make some recommendations.”
“No,” he said sadly, sitting down heavily on the other side of the
table. “There’s nothing. Nobody would believe it, but I haven’t got a
thing. Not a trick cabinet, not a marked deck, not an aviary of white
pigeons. Nothing.”

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