Chapter twelve
Realm of possibility
"Behold!"
Onstage, the magician raised his wand with a dramatic flourish. A thunderclap emanated from speakers around the auditorium, loud enough to make a few members of the audience jump. The man onstage rolled up his sleeves, lengthening the pause before his introduction.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome one and all," he intoned in his uniquely deep voice. "I am Sid the Magnificent, and today you shall bear witness to feats of astounding magic and prestidigitation."
He produced a card from one of his long sleeves, and Elsa had to suppress a groan. Sid seemed to predict this reaction from the crowd, however, as a wry grin now blossomed upon his face.
"Fear not, no mere sleight of hand shall I perform for your eyes," he said. "Such parlor tricks are known to one and all. They…overflow."
He turned the card sideways and bent it from the middle. Suddenly he seemed to be holding a whole deck, as they fluttered out from his hand and drifted into the front row. Despite his prior declaration, even this trick earned some oohs and aahs from the crowd. Anna seemed quite impressed, as well she should've been. It seemed he had learned some new tricks since the last time the two had seen him.
"Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen," Sid continued. "What I wish to show you today strains the realm of possibility, nudges at the very fabric of reality. Therefore, I now must cast a seal upon this very room, to loosen the barriers between the real and unreal."
He thrust his wand forward, and at the back of the auditorium, a purple light shot up from the floor. He slowly turned his wand clockwise around the room, and alternating lights of green and purple lit up one by one, forming a ring around performer and audience alike. Anna gasped audibly, and Elsa had to give the man some credit. Back at Anna's eleventh birthday party, at this point in his show he had merely spun his wand in a circle, and then declared the magical seal had been conjured. He'd stepped his game up since then.
Once the circle was complete, Sid lowered the wand, gripping it with two hands as if it had taken some effort to bring it to a halt. "Now, my friends, the threshold for that which is and that which may be has expanded," he said. "In this room, you shall see things you know to be impossible with your own two eyes, and know them to be true. Once you depart from this place, you may scoff, you may doubt. It will offend me not, for such things could not exist in the world you come from. But so long as you remain within these very walls, the truth you will never question for a second, for within my seal, all is knowable, and all is possible."
What if I leave to go to the bathroom? Elsa thought. She wouldn't dream of even whispering this, though, as the crowd seemed to be getting into the show, none moreso than Anna.
Finding the ad for Sid in the newspaper had been a stroke of great fortune. She hadn't gotten around to cancelling their subscription, so she made the most of it, scouring through the local stories for ideas about something, anything to do – slim pickings in Ohio, it turned out. Yet today she had found him, glowering out of the page with the same mystical gaze he'd intimidated them with all those years ago, his beard only more magnificent for the time between.
Now Sid produced three colorful handkerchiefs, holding one between thumb and forefinger. Elsa guessed where this one was going, but was swiftly proven wrong.
"In here, that which is light as a feather may become lighter than air," he said. He waved the fabric up and down for a moment, then released it. It fluttered, fell a short distance, then stopped. Before their very eyes, the handkerchief rose high above the stage, flapping up and down like a bird. The crowd oohed and aahed, giving Sid time to do the same with the other two.
Anna's eyes were wide as dinner plates now. Elsa felt envious of her sister's emotions. Even back as a kid, she'd studied the video her dad had made of the party, hunting down every last wire and illusion and analyzing Sid's every trick and sleight of hand. By the end, she'd become utterly convinced of the nonexistence of magic – if she'd even believed in it to start with. Yet here was Anna, still wide-eyed and incredulous. What a wonderful world it must be, through her eyes.
The handkerchiefs flew around the room, looping in a wide circle around the audience. One of them began to swoop lower and lower, until it seemed to be dive-bombing the crowd. Elsa swore she could hear bird screeches.
"Oh dear, they're becoming quite unruly," Sid said. "Fear not, for no harm will come to you so long as I keep watch."
He raised his arm, pointing his wand at the deviant handkerchief like a pistol.
BANG!
The whole crowd jumped at what sounded like a shotgun blast from a cartoon. Sid's arm bucked, and a great flash emerged from the business end of the wand. The feisty fabric fluttered to the ground.
Anna hugged Elsa's arm reflexively. Elsa turned to look at her. Anna let out an embarrassed chuckle, but didn't let go of her.
Elsa expected to flip out, but she didn't. Sure, her heart rate had accelerated – although to be fair, some of that was surely from the sound effect – but for the most part, she stayed calm. Her heart dropped as it occurred to her that the noise might've given Anna a flashback, but after a thorough examination of her body language, she saw no evidence of any emotion but awe and wonder.
Now when did I lose my sense of awe and wonder?
There were two easy answers to that question, of course, but neither one explained it fully. She'd been just ten when she sleuthed out the facts about the tooth fairy. No, it seemed she was just destined to be jaded for all her life, and past events had only solidified that.
Not for the first time, she wished she could just be like Anna. To take what life sent her way, and still have a smile ready in reserve for the next high point – it was almost a superpower. But she knew very well that it was impossible, just another pipe dream on her long, long list.
Yet sitting here, surrounded by a rapturous crowd and being held by Anna, she couldn't deny that her spirits had been lifted already.
Maybe it is impossible. But in the boundaries of Sid the Magnificent's world? She smiled. Perhaps it isn't, if only for this short while.
The green and purple lights began to flicker.
"Ah," Sid said. "It seems my seal is weakening. My time as your entertainer nears a close."
The crowd grew upset, and Elsa found herself a little sad as well. A 45 minute show had seemed interminable when she'd been looking at the ad, but now at the end of his fantastic show, she wished she could stay another half hour.
"Yes, my sincere apologies," Sid said, doing his best to look sorrowful. "Even I may only hold back the tides of reality for so long."
His voice strengthened once again. "But before my spell is broken, and all of you depart back to your world of certainties and hard truths, I have one last act of magic to perform. My most potent spell by far, as it persists even in the real world."
He certainly grabbed the audience with that one. Everyone leaned forward, intensely curious as to where he was going with this one.
"Though I deal in the mystic and the impossible, I am not the sole crusader against that which must be," Sid continued. "You have all felt the struggle, have you not? Each of you has found a wall in your path, come up against that which is not possible on your journey towards what you desire."
Not much of a cold read there, Elsa thought, but she couldn't pretend that she wasn't curious where he was going with this.
"Visualize that wall now," Sid commanded. "Whatever obstacle stands in your way, fix your mind's eye upon it."
Elsa complied; it wasn't that hard. The impassible reality of her own fucked up, unrequited desires, made manifest.
"I now shall grant you the strength to overcome it, to do that which you believe you may do not."
Elsa's eyes shot open. Hold up there, Sid, what makes you think I can be trusted with that kind of power?
Elsa quickly banished the wall from her mind. Fortunately, Sid seemed to still be building up power or whatever, giving her the chance to swap in something a little more worthy.
She'd sometimes dreamed about what would happen if the wall wasn't there. Anna, instead of being disgusted, would welcome her advances, and Elsa would finally hold her and kiss her in the ways her body had hungered for for the last decade.
And if she was lucky, the dream would end right there, before she had to deal with the consequences of what she'd done.
She shuddered. No, she knew she couldn't surmount that wall, with or without magical assistance. If it wasn't impossible, it should be.
So what else could she wish for? Window was closing fast, after all. Maybe to be a normal person, with normal desires for people who weren't her sister?
You already tried that, remember? Do you really want to do to someone else what you already did to Mariella?
She winced. The answer was quite clearly no. Even if she could've eventually found love that way, it wouldn't be worth all the people she hurt just getting there.
She glanced at Anna to see if she had noticed her consternation, but Anna was deep in thought, applying a lot of thought to her decision. Elsa had a stroke of genius.
I'll just wish for whatever she wishes for to come true. With a double dose of magic, she's sure to get it.
As she made her decision, the lights flickered off, one by one. Sid raised his wand above his head, arm trembling.
"The time is nigh," he said. "The spell…is ready. I leave the rest…to you!"
A blinding flash filled the room. When it faded, Sid had vanished. The crowd sat in stunned silence, then rose to their feet and applauded.
Anna leapt to her feet and clapped twice as hard as anyone else. Elsa joined in on the applause as well. It had been a good show, and a great use of an afternoon. Bringing such a broad smile to Anna's face was magic enough for her. Granting Anna's wish would be nice too, of course.
And if magic isn't enough, I'll be there to help you achieve whatever it is you're hoping for.
Whatever it is, I'm sure it's normal.