And the moment halted right there.

“Oh, dear God …”

Where was that guard he thought he dropped? She got around it the first time and now there was no guard at all to protect him. He couldn’t look away even as he fled to safe thoughts: She’s just making eye contact, working the crowd, she doesn’t really know me.

But the showbiz went out of her eyes for that tiny instant and it was herlooking, the girl who usedto be the Gypsy… .

And then she smiled a smile he didn’t just recognize but knew from somewhere else, before this place.

She has no idea, he reminded himself. It’s not her fault. She’s just a sweet kid doing her act, making a living. It’s my problem, I’ll work it out.

He thought he should smile back but his emotions were so mixed up he couldn’t get a smile together.

Too late. The showbiz returned to her eyes and she stumbled back on track, looking at others. “Well, so now … did I give you your five?”

Dane wilted a little and let go a breath. He felt he’d just been released from a choke hold.

Eloise was stumbling inside and trying not to show it.

It’s the guy! That man I met on the street! He’s here with that Mr. Harrington, so he must be a pro. Well, sure he is. The stuff he showed me, how he knew everything … just like Daddy.

Just like Daddy.

She could just look at everybody else, but she couldn’t just lookat him without getting stuck there, pulled through a window to … somewhere she’d been.

Focus, girl, focus! What’s next?

He’s not smiling and I know he can smile. He doesn’t like my act.

Oh, bummer, where am I? I changed the five for the silvers. Oh! I still have to get Burt back.

She patted her pockets, looking perplexed. “Burt? Where are you, buddy?”

She’d planted Burt’s double in Winifred the college prof’s handbag. She reached with the part of her that nobody, not even she, could see, and found him in the bag with Winifred’s cell phone, makeup, car keys, checkbook, grocery list, and a paperback edition of The Grapes of Wrath.She tugged, he jumped, the bag wiggled, everybody freaked, and she got Burt back with a nice flourish and a great ta-da!

She had ’em back! Great applause. Final bow …

But he still wasn’t smiling! He was staring!

Oh, man. Encore? What?Her mind was an empty box, and she was groping around in it. They were applauding, but it wouldn’t last forever.

Now or never, kid!

Well, what can I do that’s going to impress this guy?

One more thing. Maybe.

Ohhhh, doom. Certain doom and destruction. Don’t do it.

She looked in his direction— oh, let’s try not to be so obvious! What’s he staring at? What, I’ve got a horn growing out of my head?

The applause died, and she was still standing there. They were waiting, ready for magical dessert. A little girl stood on her chair, eyes hungry, hands ready to clap again should Eloise do anything.

Uhhh … well …

Without a word, she stepped to the center of the floor, feelingher way into her final stunt. All this stuff was so much a matter of feeling, working her way deep into her crazy world, stepping off little cliffs and learning new rules every day. She’d been working on this stunt in her apartment. Sometimes she could get it to work, and sometimes she couldn’t. Whatever she’d tried there, she’d have to repeat here in front of all these people.

Which could be a big mistake. Maybe.

The tension in the place could have powered the lights. She slipped out of her shoes and set them aside. People were leaning forward. A child spoke, and her mother shushed her. Eloise stood with her feet together, arms outstretched. She met the eyes of the people seated all around her, and then looked one more time at the guy.

He was not just watching her. He was reallywatching, and his gaze came through that window to somewhere she’d been.

And Daddy was there.

Oh, dear Lord, don’t let me flop.

She closed her eyes to shut everything out. With hands she didn’t have and with senses outside herself, she groped for what she’d come to know as folds and ripples in space, and it came easily this time. She could feel them like veins of thickness in water, moving and shifting like the Northern Lights, here, then there, close, far, thin, wide, sharp, shallow, but always within reach. With hands that were not here in the room, she grabbed hold. She was connected, in sync. She should be okay.

She opened her eyes. She’d made it. Everybody was still watching, sitting in the same room, and she was still in the center of the floor, with one key difference: she was also somewhere else. That was as near as she could explain it.

Come on, girl. Do well. Don’t look at me, look at them. Focus.

Arnie whispered, “Is she gonna do a levitation?”

Dane could see it coming, but how could she do a levitation with people on all sides? He and Arnie rose to their feet as one, watching her feet, sizing up her pant legs. She’d be doing this without shoes. How?

The room was silent. The serving staff became a tableau behind the counter, Myron with a pitcher in his hand but not pouring, Megan with a towel in her hands but not drying, the owner and his wife transfixed as if watching a moon launch at T minus five seconds.

The magician stood still, waiting, eyes full of wonder as if watching something no one else could see. Her hands were extended as if reaching for something, trying to grab hold.

She’s building the tension, Dane thought. She’s driving us all nuts.

A lady at a front-row table gasped, and on cue everyone leaned forward, craned, stared at the girl’s feet. The heels were lifting from the floor millimeter by millimeter, smoothly, with no visible muscle strain or quiver. A full inch. Two inches.

Dane was impressed by how impressed he was. This girl got a gasp just for lifting her heels off the floor. Come on, girl, pay it off. Finish well.

Now every eye was on those toes, which was a good clue for Dane to look elsewhere. He searched the ceiling and walls for an apparatus, perhaps a glint of a thread or cable. Nothing.

He returned his attention to the girl’s feet.

Another gasp.

“Whoa!”

“Is she off the floor?”

Folks in front were bending way down, marveling at the gap appearing between her feet and the hardwood. Some were leaning right and left, trying to see wires.

She was off the floor by two or three inches, still rising, and seemed as astonished as anyone, her eyes wide, her whole face sparkling like that of a child just learning to ride a bike. She squealed with nervousness, with delight—a sound Dane could have recognized across a huge room full of partying people.

Ten inches. A foot. Two feet. She bent her knees, pulled her feet up, and hovered there, laughing and hooting along with the crowd, as amazed as they were. About three feet above the floor she began to rotate, eyes passing over the crowd as they cheered and she waved at them. It was becoming a real party.

“She didn’t do this yesterday,” said Arnie, eyes locked on her.

“Maybe she’s never done it,” said Dane.

I can’t believe this! I’m doing it! I’m really doing it! I’m crazy!“Hi, down there!”

She waved and hollered at them and they waved and hollered back. As easily as climbing a step she rose higher, then kicked her feet and did a somersault. The audience wasn’t having half the fun she was. Such an incredible sensation, like moving through some kind of stuffthat held her up while she, and herself, and lots of other Eloises pressed and pushed and bore her weight from … well, from somewhere outside. Toe-Tall-Lee Freaky!