Chapter 3

Friday Rebecca was up early so we went to the Wow museum, to experience its optical illusions. A nice lunch at a cafe, then we did the tour of the Zurich observatory. Rebecca and Nora got along well, so I sent them off shopping along the Bahnhofstrasse, while I ambled along the sidewalk to find a seat in the park.

I was watching the children play, but one little one seemed to be watching me, so I decided to perform a little magic to entertain. I began by pulling a piece of bread from my pocket that I had stolen with my power, then stored in a conjuring slot when it touched my bare ankle.

I conjured it in my pocket, and pulled it out, and began feeding the birds. One of the kids ran up and asked something in German, but seemed to want to feed the birds too. I reached into my pocket, conjured a piece of bread, and handed it to him. Others came over, putting a hand out, so I simply reached over, and conjured a piece in each one’s hands, after showing my hand was empty.

They were delighted. But soon they were tearing up and throwing bread in every direction. This gathered a large group of birds. Seeing the bread almost gone, I clapped my hands to get the children’s attention, and put a piece on my hand, and raised it in the sky. Using my power, I gained control of a small bird, and had it fly to my hand.

I held it in place, and showed it to all the kids, and parents who were now watching as well. Then I placed my other hand over it, and vanished it into storage. Holding my hands wide to show it was missing, I then brought them together and conjured the bird back. There was a small smattering of applause. I reappeared and disappeared the bird twice each time placing the bird in a free storage slot.

I gave a half seated bow, raised one finger, then pointed at the bread, and mimed eating. Then I pointed at the bird, and quickly stuck it into my mouth, vanishing it back. I pretended to chew to delighted laughs from the boys and ewws from the girls, and concerned looks from the parents.

Suddenly, I coughed. Then I held a hand to my mouth and conjured the bird, letting it go as I coughed again. There was laughter from the parents this time as I smiled. Then I frowned, and coughed again, and produced another bird. I did this three times, each time coughing a bird that flew away.

I paused to smile, and wiped my face with a hanky. Then just as I started to drop the hanky from my face, I conjured 4 birds at once, having stored the bird each time in a new empty slot, and gave the biggest sneeze as they all flew off.

That got a big round of applause, so I pretended I was going to sneeze again, but didn’t. I did this several times, but didn’t sneeze. Finally I stood up, and opened up my jacket to release the 16 birds I had conjured there, and had held in place with my power.

I took a bow at the applause, and then sat back down. A young man who had been filming me with his phone came up and asked me something, but I didn’t know what, so I replied, “I’m sorry I’m an American tourist, and ashamed to say I only speak one language.”

He replied in accented, but understandable English, “English is a very hard language.” which made me laugh.

I put out my hand, ‘I’m Adam, what’s your name?”

“I’m Elias. That was amazing, are you a magician?”

“I’m a retired business man, but I enjoy putting on a show for kids.” I explained.

We talked a bit, and he asked if I was here alone. I pointed back over my shoulder with a thumb, “My ladies are shopping, so I might as well be.” I joked, which he laughed at.

He asked a few questions about my tricks, and I asked him about his schooling. It was funny, neither of us wanted to answer for different reasons. I sensed an older woman coming, she called out to Elias who stood up, I offered him a hand, which he shook. As he took his hand away another bird shot from between our hands. He jumped, then laughed, and ran to show his mother the video.

I was ready to settle back and enjoy my park bench, when I got a call from my buyer telling me she was a half hour away. I waved to my discreet security shadow, and told him I needed to go back to the hotel, he was concerned, but I told him I had a guest coming who I needed to greet.

He called and the vehicle arrived moments later. We departed and I texted Nora where I was going, and said I was working on the presents Rebecca was taking back for me.

I got back in time to clean up, and my buyer, Amelia, arrived. She placed the original box on the table before me like a conquering hero. She had managed to acquire the watch for 356,000 CHF. I thanked her, signed her paperwork, and appended a tip to her 10% fee. I then showed her a photo of my necklace and earrings, explained that they had been stolen, and offered her a finders fee if she located them at an auction. We shook hands, and she left a happy woman.

I carefully opened the box, and stared at the beautiful watch. I looked through the other items, documentation, authenticity record, instructions, everything was here. I divided it up into 32 gram piles, popped them into storage, and conjured 3 copies of each.

The box itself I would have to wait until Sunday, as it was too heavy. The bands I removed and then stored and conjured. The watch was 146 grams without the band, more than the 64 grams I would have available on Sunday, and while I could disassemble it into pieces I could conjure, that didn’t guarantee that I could reassemble the pieces.

I used my bracelet of stored elements to conjure the required mass for two replicas. Then holding the watch in my hand, and concentrating deeply on every atom in it, I formed the mass I had conjured into an atomic replica. It took thirty minutes to get everything exactly right on the first, but I did the second in fifteen.

On the back of the two replicas I inscribed, “May you never run out of time to enjoy life to its fullest.” Then I carefully inscribed inside the watch where it was marked as #24 the letter A, and then the letter B. A would go to Paul, B to Michael, Rebecca’s father.

I locked everything up in the big new safe in the boardroom, and relaxed in a recliner to read the news on my tablet. There had still been no mention of the Sweiss home, their deaths, or the hijacking in the news.