Read Online Real Magic by Stuart Jaffe - Free Book Online Page B

"You go ahead and deal out as many cards as you want. Stop when you're ready and flip over the next card. That's your card. Remember it and place it face down on the pile you dealt."
    Duncan took the deck and held it in a dealer's grip — the natural way a person holds a deck with the index finger at the upper side, the other three fingers on the right side, and the thumb resting on the left side. If Vincent had palmed a card or two, Duncan couldn't tell. Not that I could tell, he thought. Five or six cards missing, Duncan would feel the difference. But only one or two — Pappy could do it, but I've never been that good.
    "Just to be completely amazing, I'll turn my back for this," Vincent said and turned around.
    Duncan dealt out a bunch of cards, then made a bunch of dealing noises by re-dealing the same card back into place — just in case Vincent was trying to count the number of dealt cards. After a little of this, Duncan stopped and flipped over the Five of Spades. As instructed, he placed this card face down on the pile.
    "All done," he said.
    Vincent turned back. "Great. Now put the rest of the deck on top of the dealt pile. Good. Now you can give the deck as many cuts as you want. Nothing fancy, just normal cuts."
    Duncan cut the deck a few times but figured if he was being allowed to do this, it couldn't really matter that much to the trick. When he finished, Vincent picked up the full deck, shored up the cards, and began dealing two alternating piles.
    "You can watch my hands as close as you want, but trust me here, I'm just dealing out the deck. Nothing very exciting."
    Duncan watched carefully. At one point, he saw the face-up Seven of Hearts go by, but otherwise noticed nothing unusual.
    "Okay," Vincent said when he dealt the last card. He picked up the left deck. "So far, we found a Magic Card, and you dealt out your own card. You then cut the deck as much as you wanted, and I've dealt out the entire deck. Your card could be anywhere. In fact, let's see what we have on top." He lifted off a few cards — King of Clubs, Nine of Diamonds, Three of Diamonds. "Those your card?"
    "No."
    He lifted off another card — Four of Clubs. "How about that one?"
    "No."
    Vincent put those four cards on the bottom of the packet he held. He placed this on the road next to the other packet of cards. "That's okay. Watch this." He then lifted one card from each pile and placed it face down in front of the pile. He kept doing this over and over — his left hand lifting from the left pile, his right hand from the right pile. Duncan had to admit that Vincent's hands moved with grace and presence like the best magicians. "We'll keep doing this until we reach the Magic Card," he said, and a few cards later, that face-up Seven of Hearts sat on the left pile. "Moment of truth time. Tell me, Duncan my new friend, what was your card."
    "Five of Spades."
    Vincent lifted the card on the right pile and turned it over. It was the Five of Spades. "There you are. All you have to do is figure it out, come by the Magic Emporium and show us. Do that, and you're in. Do that, and we can share all the card cheats and effects and illusions that we know."
    Duncan played out the trick in his head a few times, going over all the basic maneuvers Pappy had taught him. He had never seen this one before and it had a lot of steps to it, any one of which could be the key to the whole thing. Or it could be the type of trick in which none of the steps matter, all of it is nothing more than misdirection, because the trick is essentially set up from the very start.
    Vincent patted Duncan's shoulder and headed down the road. "You think on that, pal. And I'll tell you what — you come on by the Emporium tomorrow, even if you haven't got the answer yet. I want to introduce you to the gang."
    "Wait," Duncan said. "Where are you going?"
    "Home. Gotta sleep a little. Goodnight." Vincent hummed a roaming melody as he walked off, leaving Duncan