The Magician's Man

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Short story under 1700 words - 10 to 15 minute reading time.

The sun beamed over the horizon and onto the face of a man. He beamed a smile right back. The Magician, the creator of all things, put him there an instant before. He was a ridiculous fellow dressed in red with yellow diamond patches from his head to his toes. His hat sprouted three red tubes that had all the appearance of an elephant's nose. On the end of the noses, just like his toes, a bell hung jingling whenever he moved. Cross legged, he sat on the edge of a tall building, watching over the city people called the Big Apple.

From nowhere or somewhere only The Magician knew, he plucked a deck of cards and bent them between forefinger and thumb. Springing into the air the cards danced and spun until they settled around him like children eager for a story. But he was not the teller - it was the cards that told a story. A story he read while nodding his head. With a snap of his fingers the cards leapt back into the air and came to rest in his hand held right there.

He jumped up and then jumped off the rooftop and fell two floors to land in a crouch on a window cleaner's platform with a grin. Standing straight, he prodded the controls and while descending whispered to the motor to go ever faster. With a bump the ground arrived and he vaulted the platform rails onto the sidewalk where bleary eyed, coffee carrying folk turned to stare. Flashing them a grin he ran into the street weaving between taxis' that honked in alarm. Stooping in his run he scooped up a bag that lay in the road tossing it to a high heeled woman emerging from between parked buses. The taxis swept by and the fellow ran on into the park and hid in a bush.

Cross legged and closed eyed he sat as the sun rose in the sky. So still he was, a tiny spider dropped onto his hat and span a web of fates between the elephant's noses.
Eyes popping open at a tickling sensation he looked down at a small dog's whiskers as it sniffed at his hand. Scooping the dog up under its belly he stood, the trio of prongs on his hat jingling as he hopped from the bush.
'Priestess... Priestess!' came a distant call and The Magician's man ran through Central Park dodging the skaters that spilled round him like lost lotto balls.
She had a desperate look in her eye - the woman with brown hair showing a clear inch of grey at the roots. He tossed her the dog that landed in her arms with a yap and he continued to sprint toward far away trees.

Beyond the park, he saw a bent man, flashlight in hand, stooped on a cane and standing on the sidewalk. The old man lived alone but for the company of God. A veteran of old wars in distant jungles where half-forgotten comrades still lay. He glared at the river of tarmac infested with yellow crocodiles for hire. The Magician's man stopped beneath a tree watching the bent man and held out his arms ready to receive.
'Ooomph!' exclaimed a boy fallen from a branch and landing in The Magician's man's arms.
'I was hanging. My legs slipped!' said the boy wide-eyed and breathless. The man shook his head with a jingle, set the boy down and ran on out the park. The bent man? Well he passed him by with a wink and a nod leaving him to his fate as he sped down the sidewalk.

Grinned a satisfied grin the bent man switched on his flashlight and shone it into the windshield of an approaching yellow crocodile. The driver hit the brakes screeching the taxi to a halt as the bent man stepped onto the street waving his flashlight back and forth. He muttered to himself, and to God 'If I can make it through the jungle with Charlie on my back, I can sure as hell make it across this street.'

The Magician's man ran and came upon a candy seller's cart on a street corner. Sprouting sugary treats in all directions it appeared as a comical porcupine done up as a clown. A bucket of candy wands lay by the cart, and that he snatched up yelling 'I need their magic'. The candy seller shouted back and a cop gave chase. Across the street, the Magician's Man ran, between taxis and buses then reached the sidewalk for his next task. Beneath a shelter by a school bus, excited children babbled while teacher and bus driver held private conference. Bounding up to the children and he gifted eager hands with candy wands on which to chew. 'Puppies and Kittens!' He declared and the wands made their magic. Like the Piper of Hamlin, he led fourteen children all skipping to the park's green fields. The teacher and bus driver called out in alarm and joined the passing cop in the chase. The Magicians Man stopped, grinned, and glanced to the sky where a construction crane's load of scaffolding poles broke free. Down they toppled, like fourteen swords of an army sent to vanquish their school bus foe. The cop, the teacher and the bus driver turned and stared in awe, and when they looked back the Magician's Man was no more.

in a coffee shop, the one with the star, he sat sipping latte. People came. People stared. The Magician's man grinned. People left. The sun sank in the sky. A man in black came, and then he left, but not before he left something behind in the place where the empty coffee cups go. The Magicians man watched the TV in the corner. The screen showed the end of a day's legal proceedings in the matter of the state versus the mafia boss Pablo 'Little Bear' Bardo. From an airborne view the cameras showed the honourable judge departing the courthouse in his chauffer driven black Buick. From nowhere or somewhere only The Magician knew, the man plucked stink bombs by the score and hurled them round the coffee shop before he fled for the door. Outside cops stood by the dozen, sentinels guarding the way for the judge to pass. The Magician's Man was ahead of the throng to leave the coffee shop. He snatched a cop's gun right from its holster as the chaos ensued, fired three shots into the air then dropped the gun and ran. People scattered from the scene like ants fleeing boiling water while the cops gave chase.

The man ran on, bells jingling, dodging bullets down a dark alley to the next street. There he paused briefly to grin as he watched the judge's Buick corralled by cops, flashing lights illuminating the twilight in flickering blue. Overhead helicopters hovered with spotlights and cameras for a million TV viewers watching the scene.
The Magician's Man ran with the cops at his heels and span through the revolving doors of an office building. He leapt into the elevator as the doors sealed behind him and punched a button for the top floor. He stood admiring his reflection in the elevator mirrors preening his hat tubes as the recorded narrator spoke 'Welcome to the tower, you have selected floor... thirty two.'
He stepped out of the elevator and sauntered a short way down the hall where he stopped and looked at a picture on the wall. Painted in pinks and grays, there were puppies and kittens at play.
The next elevator arrived and the cops stumbled out, looking right then left and yelling as they caught sight of him. The Magician's man flashed them a grin then sped round the corner and on down a hall. The janitor stood by as he slammed through the fire exit and onto a stair. He took the steps up two at a time, bullets zinging round his ears. He paused a moment inspecting the roof access door, dented, bent and broken at the lock. He kicked it open with jingle and leapt out into the twilight. Keen eyed reporters directed their helicopter pilots, spotlight beams sliced the gloom and hit The Magician's man all dressed in red with the yellow diamond patches. The cops emerged onto the roof top like hibernating bears facing their first dawn. Guns and TV camera's all faced his way and the man peered over the buildings edge at the coffee shop's now deserted street.

There was a boom and a shudder with a spray of glass and a billowing cloud of fire boiled up from the coffee shop. The Magician's man looked back at the cops and gave them a frowning quizzical look. The cops looked at the fire where the spotlights and cameras turned.
And the sun slipped below the horizon.
The cops turned back to find their man in red, but who they saw was crouched on the roof top behind an air-conditioning vent bomb detonator still in hand. A man dressed in black with a balaclava showing only his eyes. He glared back at the cops through those eyes as if the devil himself lay within.
The cop sergeant stood scratching his head 'Where'd the guy in red go?' he asked the air.
To nowhere or somewhere only The Magician knew, but in his place a single card flew. The sergeant snatched it from the air and looked at its face. There on the card he saw the man dressed in red with yellow diamond patches. The hat he wore sprouted three red tubes that possessed the appearance of an elephant's nose. On the end of the noses just like his toes, a small bell hung.
At the foot of the card two words were scrawled.
It simply said 'The Fool'.