TEMPERANCE | jack wilder

part one: the eye

the magician

"For my next trick!" announced the magician, while waving her hand in the air as a dramatic gesture. "I will read your mind, well more like go into the depths of your mind. You see I can tell you exactly, where you've been yesterday and exactly what you're planning on doing later today. I can see the looks on some of your faces, and you don't believe me. I'm hurt, I really am," the girl said grinning. "Since that's the case, why don't I have some volunteers!"

Her almond eyes darted across the crowd searching. She was on a small stage so the height helped her look for a victim. The only people who raised their hands were small children. Of course, she can use them but they were too obvious. Not good for convincing the non-believers at all, she needed someone who is one of the non-believers. "Hmm, this is a bit of a toughie. Let's see," she tapped her finger against her chin as if thinking, while she looked some more. Suddenly, she pointed and exclaimed. "You ma'am! Right there in the trench coat, with the red hair."

The missus, looked around to see if the girl really did call on her and indeed she did. The random woman in the crowd pointed at herself, "Me?" she asked.

"Yes, of course, you. Would you mind being my volunteer?" the girl said with a smile.

"No, not at all," the miss walked up to the small stage that the girl was standing on. 

"Please, by all means, stand up here with me," The magician gestured with a smile helping the woman up. "May I ask for your name?"

"It's Sharon." she now spoke in a shy tone. 

"Well, Miss Sharon. May I have a look inside your mind?"

"I suppose."

"I would also like you to confirm to the audience that we do not have any relation to each other and that this is, in fact, the first time that we have ever spoken to each other. In other words, I know nothing about you. Well, not for long anyways."

Miss Sharon nodded to the girls claimed, "This is the first time that I've ever talked to her."

"Now, I would like you to close your eyes and focus on what you were doing yesterday. Do you have it in your mind?" Miss Sharon nodded. While everyone was focused on the volunteer, the magician discreetly analyzed the woman from head to toe, every tiny detail to the tee. 

"I believe I have it!" the magician shouted as she closed her eyes and pressed her two fingers against her temple. Her faced was scrunched in concentration. "Let me see. In the morning you would normally have breakfast at your place and feed your cats but you went out to eat. You were late, so you had to buy a quick breakfast on your way to work. You worked during the morning but you finished work early so by afternoon you met up with your significant other. It's an anniversary, so you went to a fancy restaurant and spent the rest of the day together. Today, you woke up late. You're actually running late if I'm not mistaken. But for some reason you stopped to see a street performer do a bit of magic, later today you plan on working of course. You are a business woman after all. You're going to meet up with a close friend of your, who you haven't seen in quite a while. Then, you'll head home and do whatever it is you do at home late at night. Was I accurate?"

"Y-yes, how, how did you do that?" wide-eyed woman stuttered out.

"A magician never reveals their secrets." the girl said with a smirk, scanning the audience to see their awed faces.

"Well! Who's our next volunteer?" announced the magician. "How about you?" she pointed at a small child that looked ecstatic.

In the crowd, there was a figure. Male, in a dark blue hoodie jacket, just standing there. He was observing the female magician and waiting. After quite a while he left, with no one noticing, he was even there at all. 

As night was arriving, the magician felt the toll of performing all day affect her. She started packing up her stage. As she was collecting here equipment she noticed a card that was quite out of place. Once she noticed it was a tarot card, she started grinning like a maniac. She saw it was the card of Temperance, on the back showed an eye and an address. 

This is going to be interesting, thought the magician as she went back to packing her things.