There was once a magician in a far land. He was one of the best in the world. Every weekend he used to perform in the king’s court. The king liked magic a lot and the magician as well. The magician’s name was David. As a child David was just like any other but with gifted eyes. His eyes could see what others did not. He would spend all day in the farms and the forests looking at the budding flowers, the trees, the monkeys swinging from one branch to the other, the animal sounds, feel the cool breeze on his skin. Nature to him was the biggest magician and he wanted to be as good as nature. It caught his eyes every time a bird would wrap her children in her wings or when the tiger’s cub fell off his back or when the bee would buzz around the flower and then finally rest on it. The sounds of the chirping birds, wind on leaves, animals walking, flying and crawling in the forest, it was all magic and David would come there every day to watch it, feel it and take it in.
One day he thought to himself, “Maybe I can do magic as well, I will become as good as Mother Nature one day.”
He would carry coins, handkerchiefs, flowers, his hat, a cape and his magic stick. He would practice the tricks each day for hours with all the animals sitting near him. They would gather around him everyday and would look at him practicing. He would make the coin disappear one day and then make the colour of the handkerchief change the other. The animals would be amazed by what this kid could do. They would stay around him for as long as he was there in the jungle .
David grew up and his tricks just got better. Each day he would practice something new, he also mastered the art of levitation. One day while he was practicing in the woods a butcher boy happened to pass by. He saw what David was doing and he couldn’t believe his eyes. His eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw him levitate a rabbit about six feet above the ground and how all the animals and the birds sat around him watching as if he were God himself. He ran to the castle and told the guards. The guards told the commander, the commander told the high priest and the high priest told the hand of the king.
The hand of the king was shocked , “Magic!! In our land? How is that possible ? Who is this lad?”
“He is a pheasant my lord but the people say he is an act of the Gods.”, replied the high priest.
“Well, if he is an act of God we shall test him in the court.”, the hand said to himself and he grinned as he did.
The word went out. A guard went and told David that he was summoned to the court. David was very happy to very happy to hear it. To perform in the king’s court before the king himself was an honour which only presented itself to the most deserving.
That night David couldn’t sleep, he was up all night practicing his acts. When the sun rose David knew that today was a great day. His mother laid out the best clothes she could afford. David arrived at the gate of the castle and looked at the huge castle whose walls were high like the neck of a dragon. He went to the court and waited while the king arrived.
The king arrived and everyone stood up and bowed. David was filled with happiness and excitement. The king asked David to start and so it all began. David started with vanishing a coin in air and making it appear behind the king’s ears. A smile grew on the king’s faces. With each act the king seemed to like David even more. The levitation, sawing the high priest in two and bringing him back, changing a red cloth to yellow, David never seemed to stop amazing the audience. The hand of the king saw all this and was filled with jealousy.
When he couldn’t take it he shouted out with anger, “Stop! You come in here and perform these tricks which are deceptive to the eye and think you can amaze us? If you are really a magician show me something that has never been done. ”
David was still, the words hit him like thorns. “Okay, I will.”
He pulled out a knife and stabbed it in his chest with great force. Blood spilled out all over the place. He groggily walked over to the door and went out. Everyone in the court stood silenced. The boy just killed himself there. Just when the king was standing up David appeared from behind his throne.
People were shocked and so was the hand. How could it be? The boy had just died in front of them and now he is alive and well?
“Thank you your majesty.That would be all.” , David took a bow and walked out.
Maybe magic is real after all.