A couple of days ago, I was waiting at a SEPTA train station. Two SEPTA workers walked past me, wearing their reflective orange vests. They looked tired, but chatted with each other in a friendly way. Elsewhere on the dock was a woman and her young girl, maybe 9 years old.
When one of the workers noticed the girl, he approached her and said "hey, wanna see a magic trick?" The girl, with the clarity of mind and certainty of action that typifies most kids under 14 years old, said yes - and a few other people on the dock craned their necks in order to see.
What followed surprised us all, including the girl. The guy pulled out a handkerchief, stuffed it into his fist, blew on his fist, opened his fist - and the hanky was gone. Gone!
It was magic.
The little girl was the first to recover from her shock, and demanded "do it again!" He laughed, and said he only shows a trick once. But then he showed another trick, this time with a coin. Similar storyline. Equally amazing. The guy was really good. AND he pulled the coin out of the girl's ear.
We were all happy: We got to see a good unexpected show, the girl got to experience some magic, the guy got to show off. But I couldn't help but thing: I bet he would not have approached me and said "Hey, wanna see a magic trick?"
And, if he had, would I have said "YES!" or would I have worried that he would've wanted something from me later on?
No comments:
Post a Comment