Card Tricks

With cheery music thumping through the small speakers on either side of the table I had set up on the busy New York street corner, I looked over the small crowd that had gathered as I ran a deck of cards up my forearm, grinning wickedly. After allowing the cards to drop back into a pile in my palm, I fanned them into a half-circle and held them out to the nearest onlooker. "Pick a card."

The young boy glanced up at his mother, asking silent permission before he pulled a random card out of the deck. I asked his name, and he responded that it was Jimmy. "All right Jimmy," I instructed, placing the rest of the deck onto the table, "rip that in half."

He knit his eyebrows with confusion, clutching the card closer to his chest. "But aren't you going to guess what it is?"

I chuckled and bent down to rest my hands on my knees so that I could meet him at eye level, wiggling my eyebrows playfully. "I'm going to do something even cooler." He pursed his lips adorably as he considered the subjective 'coolness' of my own trick versus the one he originally thought I was going to perform before turning the card on its side and ripping it straight down the middle.

"Perfect! Wow, you're really strong, kid." I praised, which earned me a small smile and a blush that made the rest of the crowd laugh at the boy's apparent shyness. "Wait a minute... where did it go?"

Jimmy's eyebrows shot up to his hairline as he held his hands out, realizing that the moment he took his eyes off the card it had vanished into thin air. He immediately began searching his pockets and the floor around him while everyone else mumbled to each other, asking whether anyone else had seen it vanish.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, wiggling my fingers before reaching into my back pocket and producing his card- now in one piece again. "Here it is!" The crowd laughed and applauded as Jimmy snatched the card from me, pressing the card to his nose as he studied it. "Do me a favor and hold onto that, will you?" I questioned with a wink, patting the boy's shoulder. He nodded enthusiastically and I copied his movement before clapping my hands together and turning my attention back to the still growing audience. "For this next trick, I'll need yet another volunteer!"

"I'll do it." A tall brunette man in a black business suit stepped forward, tucking his sunglasses into his jacket pocket as he stood in front of me.

"Fabulous! Your name, sir?"

"Phil."

"Okie dokie, Phil." I held my hand out to the deck of cards sitting on the table. "If you'd be so kind as to select a card, any card." I waited for him to sift through the deck and pull a card out before pulling a blindfold out from one of my pockets and tying it over my eyes. "Now, show your card to the rest of the audience." Keeping my eyes covered so that I was totally blind, I counted to ten to give him time to show the card around. "All done?"

"Yep," he answered in a dull voice, and I absent-mindedly wondered why he had volunteered for the trick in the first place if he wasn't excited.

Deciding it didn't matter, I smiled brightly. "Well done, Phil! Now I want you to hold it out in front of me with the number still facing you. Tell me when you've done that, okay?"

"All right... done."

"Ah, he's a winner isn't he?" I asked, turning my head in the direction of the crowd that I couldn't see before fixing my thumb over my middle finger and pressing it to the back of the card. "Now, I really hope you're still around, Jimmy."

"I'm right here!" he said, tugging on the bottom of my shirt.

"Fantastic," I smiled. "I knew I could trust you, kid. What I need you to do is look at the card in Phil's hand. Can you do that for me, Jimmy?"

"Yep!" I heard the shuffling of his feet as he moved from my side to stand next to Phil. "Ready!"

"Is it the same card you ripped in half?"

"Umm, no... Did I do something wrong?"

I scoffed and shook my head, waving the hand I didn't have pressed against the back of the card dismissively through the air. "Of course not, Jimmy! But why don't you-" I flicked my fingers against the back of the card "-look again?" The surprised gasps and loud clapping signalled that it was in fact the same card, and I took this as my cue to pull my blindfold off and bow extravagantly. "And let's not forget to thank our two handsome assistants," I added, holding my arms out towards Phil and Jimmy before adding my own claps to the group's.

After those two did their own bows- one of which was far more reserved than the other- I turned back to the crowd with an apologetic smile. "I'm afraid that's all for today, folks. But fear not! I shall return tomorrow with all new tricks to amaze and astound."

While the crowd cleared out, dropping tips into the jar as they passed it, I worked on cleaning my small table up to move back into my house a few streets away. When everyone else was gone, however, I noticed that one man had hung around. "Phil, my main man," I grinned, shutting the music off. "How can I help you, buddy?"

Phil stood on the opposite side of the table from me with a small smile and his fingers laced together so that his hands hung loosely in front of himself. "How did you pull that trick off?"

"Ah," I chuckled, shaking my head as I picked up the deck of cards to put them back into their box. "I'm afraid I can't help you there. A magician never reveals her secrets, you know?"

"But you're no ordinary magician, are you, Alice?" I faltered slightly at the fact that I had never told him my name, dropping a few of the cards as I slid the deck into its container. While I picked up the cards I had dropped onto the table to add them into the box, Phil produced a pristine white business card from his pants pocket. "Agent Coulson with Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. And yes," he continued with a nod when I raised an eyebrow, "I know it's a mouthful."

"Yeah," I laughed lightly, finishing off my packing before leaning foward with my palms pressed against the table. "You really should start calling it by a nickname. But, I digress. What is it you want from me, Agent Coulson?"

"I'm here to speak with you about a project my superiors and I would like you to be a part of."

"And what project would that be?"

"The Avengers Initiative."