Just Like Magic

The Vanishing Glass...err Card

School finally let out a week ago and since no one could agree on one state to visit my mother took it upon herself to come up with what she thought was a perfect solution.

"A Map?" Trent asked as our mother walked into the dining room.

She laid the map onto the floor right next to the table, it was a large map of The United States of America.

"Yes." She said as she began to climb onto the table.

"Honey be careful." My father said cautiously.

My mother while over protective is quite the eccentric.

"Krystal dear, would you please go and grab one fruit loop?" My mother instructed.

I did as I was told.

I handed her the single fruit loop and stood next to my brother as we watched our dream summer vacation fade away with each passing minute.

"I will drop this piece of cereal and where ever it stops is where we will go. No re-do's, no questions." She decided.

"What if the fruit loop lands in the ocean?" Trent asked.

"Yeah...or in between two states?" I added.

My mom filed her eyes and shook her head, "if it falls in the ocean we will redo, if it falls in between two states then we'll write them both down and flip a coin."

We all nodded then she lifted her hand and let the cereal fall.

I knew I wasn't going to go to Florida, and Trent knew he wasn't going to Ohio.

From the way mom dropped the fruit loop it fell straight down, our only hope was if it fell and rolled.

And just like that the cereal landed on the edge of Nebraska and Wyoming and rolled into Idaho.

Three days later we stepped off of the plane and started our two week vacation in the curious state of Idaho.

We went to Silverwood Theme Park since mom thought the whole reason I wanted to go to Florida was for amusement parks, and the following day our family went to Broncos Stadium to make Trent happy.

Which obviously didn't work out so well considering Dad and Trent are die-hard Dallas Cowboys fans.

As the days dragged on I found myself praying that the two weeks would end soon and at least I would be leaving for California immediately after.

Today our parents were dragging us to one of the many national parks. While they are beautiful they are all somewhat the same.

To no ones surprise my mom had signed us up with a touring group.

The group consisted of a tall thin man who is the group leader and park expert, a confused looking single dad and his twin sons who I'm sure are evil, my family, and a trio of middle aged cougars donning big floppy hats and oversized glasses and a few standing people who were probably only trying to go for a weekend hike.

"The only cubs they'll attract are actual animals." Trent whispered.

We laughed in silence as Trent continued to make snide comments about the guests in our party.

The hike was long and when we finally reached the top of the mountain we all sat down for lunch.

"Do you young folks like magic?" The old man asked, he and his wife were kind and anyone could see they were still very much in love.

I nodded enthusiastically as did the twins.

The man pulled out a deck of cards then he shuffled them before reciting the all too familiar line.

"Pick a card, any card and place it back into the deck." He said as he fanned the cards out.

I let one of the twins pick the card.

"Memorize it, keep it in your head, now place it back into the deck face down."

The boys were identical, they looked to be seven or eight, gangly, light brown hair and a crop of freckles dusted their cheeks and nose. Their hazel eyes gleamed with mischief and wonder. The boy with card showed it to me so I'd get to join in on the card trick.

After the card was placed back into the deck and the man had shuffled the cards and cut the deck he pulled a card.

"Is this your card?" He said with a slight smile playing on his lips.

The boys snickered "no."

So the old man flipped the deck over and fanned the cards out once more.

"He sucks" one of the twins said.

"Well would you please show me which card IS yours." The elderly man said.

His round face was wrinkled and weathered from age. His hair was wispy and grey as was his thick lumberjack beard. That same slight smile was still on his face and his eyes were alight with knowledge and life.

The boys searched through the fanned out cards, even deciding to go through them one by one.

"It's not here." The boy who drew the card said slightly baffled.

"But I saw him put it in there, we all did." His brother chimed as he pointed at the deck in his twins hands.

The old man took the deck from the boys hands and looked them over before he thumbed through them. Like a flipbook.

Once the last card touched his thumb he pointed to a tree behind the boys and I.

"Is that your card?" He asked smiling.

There stuck to the tree was the King of Spades.

"How did you do that?" The boys asked astonished.

"Magic." The old man said happily before he and his wife looked over at Trent and I, smiled and got up to leave.

"Dude...I might be crazy," Trent said as he picked up his drink and looked at me, "I don't remember that old couple even being part of our group."

I watched as he got up and joined our parents and realized he was right, and now as I looked at the group they were no where to be found.