MAKING PROGRESS… of sorts (Part 172h)
On the short trip to the
house I found out the magician’s name was Marcus and his ‘stage’ name
was Magic Marcus. The woman's name was Melody and was his assistant but, for his act was known
as “Goldie”. I thought it was because of her blond hair but I was to
find out a short time later it wasn’t. I can tell you this… I knew Elle
would be in total shock when she saw her. Elle and I had decided to
surprise Jean and hadn’t told her about the magician coming so as soon as I
pulled into the driveway Elle herded the kids upstairs to Jean’s room.
Jean had won a prize for one of her projects and we’d had it framed as a present and
the ruse was to give it to her and to pick a place to hang it.
I’d cleaned off the ping pong table in the basement figuring the
magician could use it to get his props in order. We had a couple of old
chairs for Elle and I to use when supervising the kids so at least they
had someplace to sit while waiting. As I led them down the stairs I
explained the situation and apologized for the awkwardness of it. Marcus
was gracious but did ask if we could provide them with a bite to eat
while waiting. I don’t think “Goldie” said anything until I went to go
back upstairs when she asked about a bathroom. I’d not given any thought
to that when deciding to ‘hide’ them in the basement. I thought a quick
trip to the second floor to tell Elle to stall the kids for a few more
minutes would take care of that but upon my return she said she’d need
the bathroom to get ready for the performance. All I could think of was
“what next?” After they both availed themselves of the facilities I
called them together to come up with an operating plan. I prevailed upon
them to do all their preparation while still in the basement explaining
how important the surprise aspect of their appearance was. Marcus was
very understanding but “Goldie” was definitely a “prima donna”. When I
had to go upstairs Marcus assured me he’d take care of “Goldie”
The
guests started to arrive a little before 1pm. Just picture about a
dozen nine to eleven year old girls together. Elle had decided to have
Jean open her gifts before anything else which served to keep the group
fairly occupied. While that was going on I brought the props Marcus
wanted to use up into the dining room. Marcus didn’t have to do anything
more as far as dressing than to put on what I’d call a two tail formal
jacket and a top hat. “Goldie” was making a bit of a scene about needing
privacy to get ready. Being an old farm house there was a section of
the basement partitioned off that had been a root cellar with a dirt
floor to keep vegetables both cool and damp. I’d not used it at all and
the dirt was hard and dry. I told her I would put an old piece of carpet
down and that seemed to calm her down. However, I had no idea what her
costume would look like as I headed back to see how the party was going.
I
could see Elle was fading and called me over to say she needed a break
and that it would be a good time for the show. I’d put up a rope across
the opening into the den with the idea being to have it hold a couple of
blankets to act as a curtain. While Elle was building up the ’suspense’
as to what would be coming I moved the props into the den and then put
up the blankets. When I was ready Elle told all the girls to cover their
eyes and I opened the door to the basement. Marcus was right there
waiting for me but there was no sign of “Goldie”. Marcus had some props
as he pushed his way through the blankets. I asked about “Goldie” and I
remember him looking at me with a bit of a smile. He gave me a card to
read as his introduction and I then opened up the blankets and told the kids
to open their eyes.. As expected, some already had. I started reading
the card and glanced up to see this… I really don’t know how to describe
it… “thing” making its way through the kids on the floor. Everyone
turned to look and I knew it was “Goldie” but had no idea what she was
supposed to represent. She never said a word as she made her way to
where Marcus and I were located. I wanted to ask what she represented
but Marcus was already playing to the kids. I stood there looking at her
draped in this gold material and wearing on her head what best looked
like a an enlarged caterpillar’s head and a gold body suit. I took a look at her feet and saw
gold slippers. That prompted me to take a look at Elle who was standing
towards the back of the room and the look on her face was priceless.
The kids faces ranged from disbelief to laughing. With an entrance like
that I wasn’t sure I wanted to see any more.
If I were to rate
the skill of Magic Marcus it would be about a C+… for the kids. For
adults… a D, at best. What he was good at was keeping the kids engaged. A
couple of the kids who’d seen a magician before made a couple of
requests and Marcus asked me to go to the basement to find the props
needed to do them. As I said, he’d laid out all his things on the ping pong
table and told me where to find them. Approaching the table I saw the
clothes that “Goldie” had been wearing draped over some of the props.
Not seeing what Marcus had described I picked the clothes up and lying
there was a black bra and a pair of strange colored panties. I
definitely wanted to look at the panties but had my hands full with her
coat and dress. I also had to find the props I’d been sent to find. Talk
about a challenge!
I spied one of the needed props and put the
clothes down and grabbed it figuring to take it to Marcus and then
returning to get the other and… well, you know where this is going. The
panties were by Vanity Fair and were bikinis. The color, as I found out
much much later, was mauve. I’d never seen it before and, until I saw a
tag on a pair in a lingerie department years later, had never heard of
it. In any case, it was a bright spot in a long, tedious day. Earlier, I’d wondered
about how Marcus was to get back to the city after he finished up with
us since the last train headed West towards the city was around 2pm.
While Elle was serving the cake and ice cream I got around to asking
about it. When Marcus told me he thought trains ran all day I just shook
my head.
About the last thing I wanted to do that day was to
drive Marcus and “Goldie” to the nearest train station that had trains
running to the city until 7pm, about 40 miles and an hour away… but I did. He’d been a big success with
the kids and Jean was in all her glory since it had been her party. Elle
was a walking zombie, she was so tired. When I left the house with
Marcus and “Goldie” I told Jean and Anne that they had to take care of
Elle while I was gone explaining that with her carrying the baby it made
her really tired. To make my point I pointed out that Magic Marcus had
been her idea and the best way to say “thank you” was to do any and
everything she asked them to do. I got a very serious positive nod from
them both… and then I was off. It was a quiet trip to the train station
and by the time we got there I was glad that Elle had arranged for
Marcus. Jean had loved the attention and her guests were absolutely
’taken’ with the magic. For $100, it was well worth it. It was certainly
a birthday to remember.
To be continued…
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