Remarkulous
Prompt: Parents look on in horror as a magician’s trick goes horribly awry during a child’s birthday party.
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Charles hurriedly grabbed any clothes he could find and stuffed the suitcase with as much as it could bear, not paying attention to the contents that went in. He was more worried about the mob outside that was coming for him. They’d catch up to him eventually. He wanted to be on the road long before that happened. The bitch of it was, he was completely innocent. That’s the way he felt at least.
Charles, otherwise known as Charlie Remarkable, and his girlfriend and lovely assistant, Diamond Darla were booked for a party over the weekend. He wasn’t the best magician, but it was a small town, kids were easy to please and parents were just happy that their kids were out of their hair for a half hour. He went through his usual routine of card tricks and handkerchief illusions. He even pulled a bunny out of a hat. His time was running out so he walked over to the cabinet. It was his brand new black lacquered cabinet with intricate scrolls painted in gold along the edges. He and Darla had practiced the disappearing act countless times. It had to be timed just right so that no one would know where Charles was hiding within the walls of the cabinet. The birthday party was the perfect place to take it for a test run. He recruited the family’s teenage son to be part of the act.
“All you have to do is stand inside the cabinet for about a minute. I’ll open the door after we say the magic word,” Charles instructed.
“Got it,” Philip replied.
Of course, the kid wouldn’t disappear and Charles would step in the cabinet to see what was wrong. Darla would rebelliously close the door, and have the kids say the magic word. Charles would disappear and reappear a little agitated. He’d forgive Darla in a few seconds, they would take a bow, and then they’d pack up and go home. When the time came for the finale, Charles asked the birthday boy, “Want me to make your brother disappear?”
The birthday boy blushed. “Yes,” he managed to squeak out through his giggle.
As discussed beforehand, Philip stepped in the cabinet, hamming it up for the younger kids. Charles closed the door. “Now on the count of three, I’m going to need you all to say the magic word with me. One, two, three…REMARKULOUS!” Charles opened the door, but paused when he saw that Philip was no longer there. Thinking perhaps he had found the hidden chamber of the cabinet, Charles shut the door again and tried to go along with it. “And NOW let’s bring him back. On the count of three, kids. One, two, three…REMARKULOUS!” Charles opened the door again, expecting to see Philip there. To his surprise, the cabinet remained empty. He made eye contact with Darla in a serious way, wondering if she knew what was happening. She made a slight shrug and a little shake of the head. “HAHAHA! Remarkable, I say. You kids are so magical, the lad is stuck in the alternate realm. Darla, why don’t you go in there and fetch him out?” Darla, stepped inside and Charles closed the door. He waited a few seconds because he knew she just had to check behind the secret door. When he opened it again, fully expecting to see two people in the doorway, it was just Darla with a nervous smile on her face.
“Find him?”
“No,” Darla said, shoulders tensed and lips tucked in.
The parents started getting looks of annoyance and concern on their faces. The kids were getting antsy because nothing was happening. To Charles’ relief, one of the party goers shouted from behind, “OKAY! Who wants cake and ice cream?” The smiles returned to the kids’ faces and they all got up to wash their hands.
The mother confronted Charles. “What’s going on?”, she asked.
“Quite frankly, I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” The worry lines on her face got deeper as she asked these questions.
“Honestly, I don’t know.”
“Where is my son?”
“Ma’am, there’s only two different places he could have gone. Outside the box or in this hidden space. Nobody saw him leave and he’s not behind this door. I don’t know what happened to him. I know that sounds crazy, but that’s the truth.”
“No no no. You need to produce my son right now.”
“I would. I WOULD if I knew where he was, but I don’t.”
She looked at Charles with an unbelieving face for a moment before walking over to the cabinet herself. She opened it up and looked inside. She found the opening to the secret compartment and looked inside. Nothing. No one was in that cabinet.
“You have to know where my son is.”
“Honestly, I don’t even know what to tell you. This has never happened before.”
“I’m going to go look in the house. If he’s not there, I’m calling the police.”
Charles and Darla packed up their equipment and went home quickly before the other parents could catch on to what was happening. Later on, Charles was questioned by officers, but was never arrested. Even so, Charles was given disapproving looks by the townsfolk anywhere he had gone that week. People that had been friendly with him all his life were now cold and eyed him with suspicion.
It wasn’t until tonight that anyone had gotten confrontational with him. Charles was hesitant to go out at all with such a heavy atmosphere, but he felt that staying away from the public eye would imply guilt. He walked down to the local bar. If no one would talk to him, he would at least have some alcohol in his system. As he stared into his scotch on the rocks, he noticed that someone had taken the seat next to him. When he looked over, Philip’s father was sitting there, staring ahead. He was sweaty and his eyes drooped. Still, after a moment, he looked over at Charles. “You fucked with the wrong family,” he said in a tone that sent chills down Charles’ spine. Not knowing what to say and not wanting any trouble, Charles paid for his drink and left. He was happy to be able to breathe again.
When he got home, the car was gone. Darla had taken it over to a friend’s house. She wasn’t as bold as Charles. The stares bothered her. He grabbed a beer for himself and started to settle into the couch. Before he could find a channel he liked, his phone started ringing. A frantic Darla was on the other end.
“Charles, pack up everything you can. I’m going to be there in five minutes. We have to leave right now.”
“What’s going on?” he asked. He had never heard Darla talk this way before.
“I was with April right now. Bill just called her and told her a bunch of people were on their way over. They want to hurt us.” She was sobbing into the phone now.
“Okay, Darla. Calm down. It’s going to be okay. We’ll go away for a while. Call me back when you’re outside.”
It took him a while to find the suitcase. They didn’t travel very often. He started grabbing the clothes from the floor, from the hamper, from the drawers. He kept checking outside the window every few seconds to see if he could see the headlights of the Honda. After the 10th time of looking out of the window, he did see headlights. Lots of headlights. They all lined the street in front of his house. He didn’t know how many people were outside, but he soon found that they were encircling his house. There was no way out.
One of them yelled out, “We wanna talk to you, Charles.”
Charles dared not answer them back. He didn’t want to give up, but he felt completely helpless. He knew the worst case scenario here was inevitable, but he wanted to stave it off for as long as possible. There was more shouting outside and pounding on the door. All he could do was look for a place to hide. He looked to the corner of the room and eyed his magic cabinet curiously. He walked toward it, resigned now that he wasn’t going to get away even if he hadn’t done anything wrong. He opened the door and stepped inside. “Where could that boy have gone?” Charles thought to himself. The pounding on the door was getting worse. They were trying to break it down. “Remarkulous,” he whispered into the darkness.
The door gave way and the people outside started filing in. They looked all over the house but couldn’t find Charles anywhere. When Philip’s father came to the room with the mysterious cabinet in it, he took out all of his rage upon it. The cabinet was completely demolished by the time he was done with it. Satisfied that they wouldn’t find Charles there, the crowd left the house.
By this time, Darla was on the highway heading towards the city where her parents lived. Tears streamed down her face. She had left the man she loved to a pack of wolves. She was too scared to stop when she finally arrived at the house so she just kept on going down the street. The decision would always haunt her for the rest of her life. She never knew what happened to Charles that night or what he was doing now. In fact, he was never heard from again.