Chapter 5: Home for Good

Moses was awake but still in bed when he heard the doorbell ring. A glance at the clock told him it was a quarter to five.

“It can only be Tyler and his family.” Moses said aloud to himself.

He actually smiled. It had been a long time since he had what he would call company, other than the carers imposed on him by the social services. Moses threw on a robe and made his way down the stairs to open the front door.

There stood Ty and his family, wife and two children, the older girl standing holding Ty’s hand, the other straddling his mother’s hip.

“Well, good morning Ty, and good morning Jenny-Clare, it’s lovely to meet you and your two lovely girls. I assume you are Jessie and Mickey’s the youngest one?”

“That’s right, Moses,” Jenny-Clare answered, “we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for this opportunity you have given us.”

“Oh please call me Mo. Right, are we all looking for a fun day out?”

“We are,” Ty added, “Are you ready or do you need to get changed?”

“One moment,” Moses said, clicking his fingers and instantly changing into a loud and colourful tee shirt and khaki shorts, with a pair of sandals on his feet. “Well, I’m ready, so Ty, are you doing the honours?”

“Oh, so you know the magic is in me now?”

“I felt different the morning after we got back. I tried to perform some magic but nothing happened. In fact I feel happier that I can’t do it anymore. I feel safer somehow. Seeing you in the shopping centre was the best thing that has happened to me for a decade or more.”

“Oh, I hope we can change that, Mo,” Ty grinned, “I’ve been busy since that morning. Just wait until we get there.”

“Can’t wait.”

“No need to.”

A wave of Ty’s hand and they were standing on the sand, Moses facing the lagoon and the bright blue sea and sky beyond.

“Oh look, Daddy,” said Jessica, pointing behind Moses, “They’ve got the new tent up.”

Moses turned around and between the shore and the tree line, there were two large tents, like marquees, one larger than the other.

“Mo, I have a number of confessions to make to you,” Ty spoke as he drew level with Moses, while Jessica ran ahead towards the larger tent, where a man in the waiter’s livery of one of the hotels in the next bay was laying a table with two jugs, one hot one cold. Already in place, Moses could see, were glasses, plates and covered trays of food, breakfast. A lady wearing a sun dress under a large straw hat, to keep the hot sun off her face and bare shoulders, was lying out cutlery.

“Well, this is more convenient than having to magic something up every time, Ty.” Moses said. “It’s your magic power now, you can do with it as you think fit. I have no objection to what you’ve done.”

“Well, we done a bit more than just tents and breakfast, Mo,” Jenny-Clare said as she drew next to him, the child in her arms squirming to be put down on the sand. Once she was put down the baby toddled quite uncertainly up the firm white sand to follow her older sister. Jessica turned back and took her hand and the two girls made their way slowly up the beach.

“Yes, Mo,” continued Ty, “as soon as I realised I had the magic power the moment I woke up, I set about building up that manual which should have been passed to you, so I could understand what I could and couldn’t do.”

“We did a lot of that experimenting here, Mo,” Jenny-Clare said, “the kids absolutely love it here.”

“Once I was confident in using the magic, I used it to forge a Power of Attorney,” Ty said, handing over a piece of legal paperwork, “Here it is, I have no further use for it, but I will tell you exactly what I did with it, OK.”

“Ty, you know I’ve done worse things with the magic, if you’ve robbed me blindly, well, I guess twelve years ago I robbed a lot of people blind without even realising it.”

“Nobody got robbed, Mo, least of all you. I visited the Majestic Hotel, which I found out from Companies House that you own jointly with your wife Mavis as company secretary through a holding company registered in London. And that the various leisure companies are separate companies, wholly or partially owned subsidiaries with partners, some of whom were the chief and leaders of the local community. You bought out the destructive developers and gave shares to your friends who had vested interest in this land. The businesses are all successful and your dividends have been accrued, all taxes paid, in an account for you that your management management company you set up has been investing in even more local projects as well as spreading the investments across a wide range of funds and securities. All of that is untouched and waiting for you to —”

“Ty, you and your family could move here, have a house built here —”

“That’s what we were coming around to, Mo,” Ty interrupted, “as soon as we got to the Majestic and spoke to the manager, showed him your fake POA, he had the group chairman come meet us. In the meantime they put us up in the penthouse suite, all gratis. When the chairman turned up he told us he was the Old Chief’s son and he grew up with your tricks and how generous and kind you and Mavis were to his family. Mo, they love you here, he dug out and showed me the plans of the house you and Mavis were going to build before her illness struck. And he tells me, even though the island belongs to you, the Island Council will approve whatever you plan to do here. He beefed up the security along the fence, because people had been getting in, and he erected these two marquees to use until you are ready to build. Oh, the Island Council will allow driftwood, but the hotel’s building contractor will source the materials and construct it. They are already digging channels to bring in utilities connected to the island grid.

“I’ve seen that YouTube of your guest appearance many times, I grew up with it. You were a class act. You walk on silently wearing an evening dinner suit, top hat, red cummerbund, white silk scarf, white gloves and a cane, carrying a small glass aquarium. When you reach centre stage, your glamorous assistant brings out a small folding table which she unfolds and covers the top and about twelve inches all around in a shiny silk cloth. You smile at her in thanks and place the aquarium on one end of the table and open the hinged lid.”

“That aquarium was bloody heavy.”

“You carried it on and off well. You place your cane on the table lengthwise in front of you as the assistant walks off. You bow silently to the audience who had clapped you on set and now await your tricks. You remove the hat and place it top side down on the table. You wave a hand over the hat and a pair of white bunny ears appears at the top followed by an inquisitive rabbit face. You pick up the rabbit by the ears and pop him into the aquarium. It is a very white and very active bunny who hops and explores the aquarium while you wave a hand over the hat and pull out another bunny and pop him into the aquarium. Soon you have six crowded rabbits but still waving hands over the hat expecting more but no more come. Your assistant returns with a cardboard box and, as you perform other tricks, like pulling a dozen ping pong balls from your mouth, or packs of playing cards, Rubic cubes, tennis balls, etc, from behind your ear, or an enormous silk bunting ribbon from your top pocket and throwing everything into the hat, your lovely assistant is smiling at the audience and curtsying as she picks up rabbits one by one from the aquarium. The audience don’t know where to look, at the girl, the rabbits or you. She waits until you pull a rugby ball from behind your head and place it on the hat; sideways on it won’t go in, and you look confused. Then your assistant, balancing the closed cardboard box on one hand, turns the rugby ball until it is pointy end down and pushes it down into the hat as if meeting some resistance. So good. This raises the laugh of the night. Then you peer into the hat, you pick it up, showing the top of your hat before putting it on. Your face registers discomfort, so you take it off again and a seventh rabbit poke his head up, to, laughter from the audience. Your assistant takes the hat, places it and the curious bunny on the cardboard box and exits stage left to loud applause. You pick up the cane, rap it hard on the floor and suddenly you are holding Gerald the Snake by the head and you drop him spitting and snapping into the aquarium and close the lid. You lift up the aquarium, balanced on one hand, pull up the silk tablecloth from the centre and stuff a few inches into your top pocket, thus exposing the cross section of the folding table, containing none of the objects you placed in the hat, then pick up the table, which immediately folds up flat and you walk off to thunderous applause, with viewers wondering how you did it.”