Page 388 - Brion Toss - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

flying out of my hands. When I’m through, it’ll look bly, and slowly stretch the string taut once more.
just like this”—and after threading it through, you Another pause, you let go, and . . . it collapses again.
grab the end and pull it taut, so it looks like Figure Consternation. Then your face brightens—
11-14B. you have remembered the secret. You repeat your
The scene set, you take the end back out of the actions and mantra again and then you let go again.
eye, grasp it once more near its end, and commence With your bottom hand.
a squinty-eyed, ludicrously intense warmup-and- “Heh, heh, heh.”
taking-aim ritual. Then in a Bruce Lee-like blur
of motion (Bruce Lee-like sound effects are a nice THE LOVERS
touch, too) you shoot your right hand forward.
And sure enough, you’ve threaded the eye at After that last one, you’d be well-advised to go out
impossible speed. with a kinder, gentler trick. This can be a sweet one.
Or so it appears. What has actually happened
is that as the line came taut, the first turn automat- Once upon a time there was a sailor, and a
ically undid itself and was yanked up into the eye. woman who loved him, and he her, and they knew
Play with it, and you’ll see what I mean. No digital their love would stay. But her father only wished he
dexterity required. But you don’t tell that to your would stay away. Couldn’t see his daughter paired
audience. And you don’t do this trick anywhere near up with someone who couldn’t keep his feet on solid
a sewing machine. ground. The haberdasher’s clerk down to the village
was the father’s sensible choice for a spouse-to-be.
The clerk was dull, bony, and his nose tended to
THE GOOD OLD ACTUAL drip, but he was steady, moderate, and agreed with
INDIAN ROPE TRICK the father’s political views.
Neither father nor clerk was particularly bright,
“But enough of puzzles and deceptions,” you say, but synergy plays no favorites, and between them
“it’s time for some real magic. During one of my they came up with a clever plan to remove the sailor
trips to India” (pause to glare at scoffers, unless you from the scene: A contest would be held to win the
happen to have been to India, in which case they woman’s hand. The winner would be the one who
actually might believe what you’re about to say), could tie the most Overhand Knots while the father
“high up in the Himalayas. . . .” And you go on to counted to 60. The sailor, who like all sailors prided
some unlikely meeting with a swami who taught you himself to vain excess on proficiency in ropework,
the famous Indian Rope Trick, wherein “an ordinary would surely accept. But the clerk, whose pack-
piece of cordage can be made to stand vertically.” age-wrapping duties involved a very few simple
Pick up your much-used big piece of string, knots, had been motivated by brisk business and
hold one end with one hand, and slide your other impatient customers to learn to tie those knots very,
hand up to the other end, stretching the string out very fast, and in string, which sailors rarely touch.
vertically. You do this after having entered a deep Sure enough, the sailor promptly accepted the chal-
trance, of course, and you accompany your moves lenge, and the woman, confident in her Jack’s abil-
with a semi-intelligible mantra. ity, agreed to abide by the results.
You pause a moment in silence, string held taut, The day of the contest came, half the town it
intense concentration etching your features. Then seemed turned out to watch, the two contestants
you let go with your upper hand, and the string col- were each given a length of string, and the father
lapses. began to count.
Hmmm. After a moment’s puzzlement, you The clerk began tying Overhand Knot after
resume your chant, louder and even less intelligi- Overhand Knot with such celerity that it was

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