I nodded, enthralled by the illusion, actually seeing the boy climb, as impressed as the unseen audiences.

“And then-” he said dramatically, “-the boy reaches the top of the rope. The music ends with a mighty crash of the brasses, and I wave my hand. As I do this the boy is gone, vanished, and the rope falls limply back into the basket. I turn the basket over and the rope falls out. Nothing more. I bow and the curtain closes.”

“Marvelous,” Angelina said.

“How does it work?” I asked.

“Since you won’t be doing it, you don’t have to know.”

And no amount of cajoling would get him to change his mind.

“I will not tell you. However I will reveal to you the il-. lusion of the levitating lady. The apparatus arrived this morning and I will go to install it.” He rose, then turned to Angelina. “Did you purchase the black dress I mentioned?”

“1 did.”

“Capital! If you would be so kind as to don it now, we will proceed.”

I was left alone. Grissini was working, Angelina was dressing, I was drinking. Just enough to mellow me after Kaia’s grim financial machinations. I had really begun to enjoy my morning calls to the bank.

“Do you like it?” Angelina said.

“Divine!” And it was-floor-length, black and velvety, fascinatingly low-cut above, flaring out when she turned.

“It will do,” the Great Grissini said from the doorway. “Let us begin. I must instruct Angelina in her role.” He looked at his watch. “Jim, you will join us in exactly a half an hour.”

“Good as done,” I said, looking at my own watch, then at the bottle. Well, maybe a small one while I marked the passage of time.

I was feeling remarkably mellow when I entered our home theater and took my seat. Dark curtains were drawn at the back of the stage. Which was empty save for three large cubes. Music welled up at Grissini’s entrance and the maestro himself came on stage. He bowed to the audience and I clapped like fury.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. You must now prepare yourself for a magical thrill that will amaze, entrance and mystify you. Let us begin.”

He walked over to the white cubes and tapped them with his wand; good, solid wood. Then he ran his fingers along his wand-and it vanished. Reaching down he turned the cubes, one by one, to face the audience, showing that they were foursided and open at both ends. Black outside, white inside and on the edges. His wand reappeared in his hand and he ran it through the opening of each one.

“Empty as you see. Simple, four-sided constructions, empty as you can see. I will now place them-so.”

The wand vanished again to free his hands. He picked up the first box and walked over and placed it in the center of the stage. Then placed the others on each side of the first to make a platform. The wand reappeared to be tapped on their solid surfaces, passed through their open ends. This done he turned and bowed.

“Now, ladies and gentlemen and honored guests, I ask you to welcome my assistant, the lovely Angelina, who will assist me in this display of magic.”

I clapped as loudly as I could, as any audience certainly would as my Angelina made her entrance. Slowly and seductively, smiling warmly and waving to the enthusiastic crowd of one.

Soft music welled up as Grissini took her hand and led her forward to bow. Then back to the row of cubes. Slowly and carefully, she sat down on the center cube, then swung her legs up and lay down on the cubes. She smiled at the audience, her right hand supporting her chin, her fill black skirt draped over the white edge of the cubes. Grissini was making magical passes over her in time with the music and his wand vanished yet again.

Then he bent over and pulled the center cube out from under her.

I gasped in awe, as any good audience would gasp, because she still lay there, unbending and straight as a die even though the center of her body was no longer supported.

Then I gasped even louder as he slowly pulled the supporting cube out from under her elbow so that she was floating in midair.

Floating totally in midair when he pulled away the third and last support.

She smiled and waved at me when Grissini looked away. I applauded until my hands hurt. The music crescendoed as he held up a large metal hoop, bounced it on the floor to prove its solidity—then slowly slipped it over her head. Moved it down the entire length of her body. Even around her feet to show that that she was truly suspended invisibly in midair. My hands were numb with unceasing applause.

The ring moved back the length of her body and was thrown, clanging, into the wings. Now the sprightly music accompanied the magician as, one by one, he slipped the white cubes back under her floating body. Then helped her down to join him in a bow. She came forward: I jumped to my feet to embrace her.

“My magical wife!” I cried aloud. “Didn’t the wires hurt?”

“No wires. You saw the ring go the entire length of my body.”

“I did-and I didn’t understand it. Real magic?”

“Let us rather say real illusion.”

Grissim exited-towards the atrium I noticed; magic can be exhausting. Or perhaps he did not want to be there when his magic secrets were revealed.

“I still don’t understand how it is done. Something about the cubes maybe?”

“No. They are exactly what they seem to be. Solid wood. Placed in a row you will remember. Then I made my entrance, you will remember.”

“Unforgettable!”

“But distracting. Grissini walked across the stage to greet me and the spot stayed on him as he moved. Distraction. That is when the magic happened-not later when he took the boxes away.”

“Of course! Many magic tricks occur well before the trick is seen to be happening. The audience was looking at you and him. And not looking at the boxes. That was when the illusion occurred.”

I went to look at the spot where the boxes had been placed close to the black curtains at the rear of the stage. The illusion was so good that I was a foot away before I saw it.

A thin black platform, floating in midair, that had supported Angelina.

“But that is magic as well! That can’t just float there.”

I looked closely at it, under it, then ran my hands along it.

To find the strong black steel beam that protruded from the curtains. Undoubtedly supported by a strong frame hidden by the curtains. Understanding struck.

“Of course! That platform wasn’t there when he walked around the stage, then put the boxes into place. Only when he went to greet you and the spotlight followed him. In the darkness, radio-controlled undoubtedly, the beam came forward and slid the platform into place atop the boxes. Invisible from the audience because it was black like the tops of the boxes. But the ring-it went the length of your body, even past your shoes-”

“And back,” she reminded. “The loop was big enough for the back of the loop to stop when it reached the supporting bar. Big enough for the front of the ring to go past my feet and even behind me.”

“Of course! It had to come back the way it came on because the bar was stopping it from going all the way. What a wondrous effect!”

We went to join Grissini and to congratulate him. He shrugged it off as his accepted due. And shook an admonitory finger.

“You have little time left and very much more to learn.”

He was right, of course. I had only a week to go.

I worked even harder. Drank nothing and slept only a few hours a night. And I practiced. By this time I was adroit at producing large birds from apparent thin air, and could draw hundreds of flags from an empty tube. I practiced with the floating apparatus, which Angelina greatly enjoyed, until I had the illusion under perfect control.

I could even read written questions from the audience by pressing the papers with their questions to my forehead.

I was most happy when I learned to do this. It had always impressed me on stage. And the illusion was so simple. I read the name of the first questioner and he responded from the audience. After answering his written question, I opened it and read his name aloud again. Discarded the paper and took another one. Which I read aloud as the audience gasped.