"It won't, but you could be thrown forward if Tut stops suddenly," Maddy warned.
"This is dangerous business," Dimitri said. "I feel safer in a burning box."
"Tut's a laidback horse," Maddy replied. "If you're that worried, wear a sport's cup."
Catching Dimitri's smile, Maddy realized she was so used to talking straight with her brothers he probably took her comment as flirting, which he verified by saying with a gleam in his eyes, "I'll keep that in mind."
"You might also keep in mind that I have six brothers, so guy talk comes natural for me, so don't read anything into it."
"That you have six big brothers, I won't need a reminder," Dimitri said, "but I reserve the right to read anything I want into anything you say."
Maddy wasn't sure how to take his comment. His short sweet kiss in the cabin the day before still puzzled her because nothing prompted it, but just thinking about it sent a ripple of pleasure through her. Deciding to play safe by changing the subject, she said, "Okay, if you're ready, you can take Tut around the perimeter of the corral at a walk to get your balance, and after that you can press him into a lope."
Within a few minutes, Dimitri had Tut loping around the corral while looking completely at ease. That alone was as mystifying as the escapes and illusions he performed, like the man was filled with magic. He was also picking up riding much faster than she'd expected. But after being blown away by his performance the evening before, just as she'd been in Las Vegas, she came to the conclusion that riding came easy to him because he was unusually coordinated—as shown by his card flourishes and sleight of hand—while also constantly keeping himself in top physical condition, so to him, riding a horse was like kid's stuff.
After a few more rounds, Dimitri said, as he continued circling the corral, "It's getting pretty dusty in here. How about we quit and I'll spend some time with Homer, and maybe talk to your dad about letting me use the shop. I still want to build a donkey stable while I'm here."
"That's fine," Maddy replied. "Go ahead and let yourself out."
Dimitri turned Tut toward the corral gate, then leaned over and released the latch as if he'd been raised on a ranch. After slipping to the ground, he said, "I'm thinking that my water tank will feel pretty good tonight. I ache in places I didn't know existed."
"That happens the first few times a person starts riding, but you can go sit in Whispering Springs. It's like a giant hot tub. I assume you've heard about it," Maddy said.
"Genie mentioned it, and maybe I'll take you up on it. Meanwhile, I saw Adam teaching Jesse how to throw a rope, so I figure, if you taught me how to do that, one night a week could be western night and we'd start the show with you standing off to the side and me lassoing you and pulling you on stage where I'd introduce you as my assistant."
"You can't learn roping overnight," Maddy said. "It takes months to be able to consistently drop a lasso over an object."
"It couldn't be any harder than doing armspreads with cards," Dimitri replied.
"Are you serious about making one night a week western night?"
Dimitri responded by pulling his billfold out of his pocket, peeling off a couple of one-hundred-dollar bills, and saying, "This should get you something western and showy." He peeled off another one-hundred-dollar bill, and added, "Get some boots too."
Maddy looked at the bills, thinking he was giving her a lot of money for clothes, which had a negative ring, though she wasn't sure why. But she also visualized the perfect western outfit for the Saturday show when her parents would be there, an outfit she'd seen at the farm and ranch store. The shirt was white with silver threads running through it and the jeans were also white, with just enough silver studs at the bottom of each leg to add a little sparkle without being glitzy.
Deciding it was okay to accept the money since it was Dimitri's show and he was her boss, she took the bills, and said, "I saw something on a manikin at the farm and ranch store that should work. I'll wear it the night my parents come so they'll have nothing to complain about."
It was definitely conservative enough to please her parents, and if the subject came up as to where she got the outfit, she'd tell them she bought it to wear during the St. Paul Rodeo the following summer when she'd be riding in the 4th of July parade...
What I do on stage isn't lying. It's asking the audience for a suspension of disbelief…
So in effect, what she'd be telling her parents wouldn't be a lie, it would be a stage untruth. And what could they say? She was already under contract with Dimitri and she could hardly show up on stage dressed in worn jeans, a faded shirt, and scuffed boots while looking like she'd just stepped out of the barn. Besides, the conventional white outfit would give her father no cause for the lecture she'd be assured of receiving if she wore a black gown that dipped lower in front than she had intended, while also trying to walk on heels she had not yet conquered.
***
Early the following evening, as the limo crept along the gravel road from the ranch to the highway, Maddy fidgeted nervously with the crystal-edged cuffs of her hot-pink shirt, and smoothed her hands over the black swirl patterns that trailed over her shoulders and ran halfway down the front, swirls highlighted with glittery studs and hot-pink crystals.
It wasn't the outfit she'd set out to buy, but when she spotted it, she found herself justifying why she should wear something that looked a little showy, like Dimitri requested, and fit more like a glove than a shirt. The stretchy black pants also fit like a glove, but at least she had the wherewithal to buy plain boots. Almost. There was a pattern of swirling sparkly studs that ran across the front near the toe, but they were plain up the sides, except the sides, like rest of the boots, were also hot pink. But now she knew she'd made a big mistake.
"I never should have bought this outfit," she said, while pulling the front of the shirt away from herself so she could look down at all the glitter. "My parents are going to croak."
"Why should they? You look very nice," Dimitri replied.
"Maybe nice by Sin City standards, but it has buckle bunny written all over it."
"What's a buckle bunny?" Dimitri asked.
"They're the bunnies that hang out around rodeo cowboys, pretty much akin to zone bunnies, puck bunnies, basket bunnies, and top-hat bunnies, or whatever kind of bunnies go after magicians," Maddy replied.
Dimitri covered Maddy's hand with his and pulled it over to rest on his knee, and said, while stroking her palm with his thumb, "No one's going to mistake you for a bunny because the only bunnies that hang around magicians are the soft furry kind we pull out of hats."
He raised her hand so he could look at her fingernails, which were painted the same hot pink as her shirt, another foolish last-minute decision she now regretted. "I don't usually wear fingernail polish," she said, as if in apology.
"I just figured that out." Dimitri continued examining her fingers, one at a time, which was sending tingles through Maddy while making her heart skitter and her breath quicken.
Not certain what Dimitri was trying to do, she pulled her hand from his, and said, while stretching out her fingers and looking at her nails, "It's my cuticles. They look like they've been through a shredder."
Dimitri laughed. "No, it's the polish. It's not very even." He took her hand again and raised it next to the hot-pink pearl snap on one of the pockets of her shirt, and tucking his little finger beneath the flap, lifted it so her fingernails and the snap were aligned, and said, "The colors match." He moved her hand up, and added, "They match the crystals on your collar too. Crystals are significant, which is why they're widely used by both magicians and psychics."
While Dimitri went on to talk about a giant crystal used by the Atlanteans prior to the submergence of Atlantis, Maddy became distracted by the heel of his hand resting on her breast as he held her fingers up to her collar again, and she wondered if the intimate connection was incidental or intended. It could be incidental, because Dimitri seemed occupied with what he was saying.
On the other hand, he could be working up to something more.
Pulling her hand away, she said, "That's all very interesting, but we're getting off track, and there's still the issue of that swimsuit you wear. Between the two of us, my parents will see a Chippendale and a buckle bunny."
Dimitri laughed. "I don't know about the buckle bunny, but I picked up something in town to put your mind at ease." He stood and began unfastening his pants.
"What are you doing?" Maddy asked, alarmed.
"Showing you what I'm wearing for the water cell escape." Dimitri lowered his pants, revealing a black spandex suit that stretched from his waist to his knees.
Maddy stared at the very prominent male bulge in her line of vision, and said, "That's better, but it's also very close-fitting. My parents will still see a Chippendale."
Dimitri pulled his pants up and fastened them again, while saying, "I won't be having that problem when I'm ready to get in the tank because my mind will be on trying to keep from drowning instead of what it was on a minute ago."
"Don't expect me to jump for the bait," Maddy said. "I'm far more concerned about my parents' reaction to how I'm dressed. I should have stuck to my original plan instead of buying something that makes me look like Pretty Woman before she found respectability."
"You'll never look like Pretty Woman at all because you're far more beautiful than Julia Roberts," Dimitri said. He reached out and turned her face toward his and kissed her on the lips, this time longer than the kiss at the cabin, long enough for Maddy put her arms around his neck and kiss him back, but when the kiss was over, Dimitri settled back and smiled, leaving Maddy wondering what happened.
Had it been a kiss because he was beginning to care about her, a kiss to get her heart racing more than it already was, or just a kiss to play around with her? He seemed to be an easy-going, playful man, someone she was beginning to enjoy being with far too much. But she still couldn't analyze the kiss because, in spite of having six big brothers whose friends practically lived at the ranch the entire time she was growing up, she was completely naïve when it came to a man like Dimitri—a conjurer, an enchanter, a charismatic man whose sphere of reality teetered on the razor's edge of magic.
"Incidentally, I'll be walking through a wall tonight," Dimitri said, while Maddy was still trying to catch her breath and settle her heartbeat after the kiss. "All you have to do is select six participants from the audience to come on stage to examine the wall."
"What will the wall be made of?" Maddy asked, thinking there must be a concealed panel that pivoted, or maybe some kind of material that would give way when he pressed against it.
"Solid wood," Dimitri replied. "Those on stage won't find any way to get through."
"So then, it's just a simple matter of you dematerializing, passing through wood, and materializing again," Maddy said, with irony.
"Actually, a more correct term is teleportation, which is the transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. Mirrors have the effect of dematerializing a wall, but they can't make it disappear."
Maddy folded her arms and sank into the soft leather seat. "And, of course, you won't trust me with the secret, even if I give you my sworn word I'll never tell."
Dimitri leaned over and cradled her chin in his hand and kissed her again, and said, "The rules haven’t changed. My assistant as my wife will learn all my secrets. My assistant for the month of June has to be satisfied with learning the secret to Metamorphosis. But if you look in your pocket maybe you'll find something that will placate you until then."
Maddy's hands went to the two pockets on her shirt and she felt something inside the pocket on the left. Reaching down, she pulled out a gold chain of a size that would fit her wrist, with two charms hanging from it—a small crystal ball on an ornate gold pedestal, and a gold snake coiled into a knot. Holding up the bracelet, she said, "I understand the crystal ball because you're a magician, and magicians are supposed to read minds, but why a snake?"
Dimitri shrugged. "It's the closest thing I could find to a rope."
"Why a rope?" Maddy asked.
"The rope trick's the first secret you managed to get out of me and reading the kid's minds was the second."
Maddy wasn't sure what his point was in giving her the bracelet, but Dimitri wasn't your typical man, so the things he did would never be typical. "How did you get the bracelet into my pocket?" she asked.
Dimitri angled her a smile. "Misdirection."
Several miles down the road, Maddy was still puzzling over the significance of the charm bracelet, which she'd put on her wrist but intended to hide beneath her cuff before going on stage. The snake was beautifully crafted, with red eyes, maybe rubies, and the small crystal ball sat on a tiny ornate pedestal. The chain holding the charms was also gold, which would have been expensive, except money didn't seem to be of any concern to Dimitri.
Her speculation was cut short when they turned into the parking lot, where an even larger crowd than before had gathered at the entrance to the lounge. "I can't believe this," she said. "There are twice as many people as before."
"That's because once a crowd gathers, others come to see what's happening."
A few moments later the door opened. As Maddy took Chris's gloved hand to exit the limo, she glanced around and was relieved no one from her family was among the curious onlookers. Dimitri immediately took her arm, and while escorting her inside, he said, "I might have to make that bunch of cowboys vanish at the end of the show to keep them away from you."
Maddy felt a shot of adrenaline with Dimitri's offhand compliment. It had the ring of possessiveness, but in a nice way. She too had been aware of the cowboys, because when she walked past she heard the words, 'really hot chick.' "That's fine with me but after tonight I'm going back to wearing the black gown, so you can forget about western night."
Dimitri eyed her with wry amusement. "Will you still teach me how to throw a rope?"
Maddy looked askance at him. "Are you serious?"
"Sure. I can use it to lasso a really hot chick. See you on stage." He gave Maddy's arm an affectionate squeeze and headed for the stage to check the setup and props.
A little over an hour later, Maddy walked on stage to take her place for the opening. As she scanned the faces for her parents, while waiting for the performance to begin, she was mortified to see them sitting at a table close to the stage. Also with them were her Aunt Jayne and Uncle Sam, her grandmother and Howard, and Emily and Kit. She suspected Emily and Kit were there as spies, sent by Adam and Marc to evaluate things and report back, but from the looks of amusement on their faces Maddy figured they were okay with the outfit. Her aunt and uncle, and her grandmother and Howard, seemed more curious than shocked, but her mother looked as if she were about to be sick, and her father sat with his arms folded, and his face stony.
The room darkened, and as in previous shows, the dove flew in and Dimitri materialized on stage. After the shock and applause died, Maddy noticed that her father's arms were no longer crossed, and he had a perplexed look on his face, while her mother was talking and gesturing toward the stage like she was trying to verbalize what just happened, which was to see a man appear out of thin air.
Dimitri followed with his usual routine of sending levitated objects floating around the stage on command, which Maddy intended to watch carefully for the key to the illusion, but found herself watching her folks instead, and they were clearly captivated by what they were seeing. After the levitations, Dimitri executed a series of intricate card flourishes, followed that with the rope-tying escape, after which stage assistants rolled out what was clearly a solid wood section of wall and positioned it in the center of the stage, perpendicular to the audience, so it could be seen on both sides.
At that point Dimitri stepped to the front of the stage, and said, "When Harry Houdini walked through a wall, spiritualists believed he was using supernatural powers. But was he? Or was it just an illus
ion? Many were convinced of Houdini's powers, including one of the leading spiritualists in the world, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I'll leave it for you to decide. Now, if I can have some volunteers to examine the wall and standby while I walk through it." He turned to Maddy, and added, "If you will, Madeleine, select six people to come up here."
Hands went up, including Kit's hand, Maddy noticed, so she left the stage and meandered between tables while selecting six audience members that also included Kit. After they were assembled on stage, Dimitri said to them, "Examine the wall thoroughly. Rap on it. Pass your hands over it. Check for hidden openings or trap doors. Be satisfied that it is a solid wood wall."
Voices murmured as the people walked around the wall, some tapping on it, others running their hands over it while searching for trap doors, but soon, everyone agreed it was a solid wood wall. Dimitri then had the group stand at the front of the stage, three people on each side of center, and he positioned himself beside the wall. From there, he gave a discourse about human teleportation by way of quantum entanglement, while numerous assistants walked on stage and began assembling a three-section screen, with fabric panels, in front of Dimitri.
After the screen was up and Dimitri was hidden from view, to make certain the audience knew he was still there, he waved his hands above the screen while saying, "I'm beginning to dematerialize." The hands remained for a little longer then came down, and a dim light, coming from behind, disclosed a shadow moving toward the wall and fading away, accompanied by the words, though somewhat muffled, "I'm gone."
Assistants swarmed on stage again, several of them pivoting the wall slightly to the left, then to the right, to show the audience that no one could go over or around it, others disassembling the screen, while revealing that Dimitri was gone.
Moving around front, several assistants re-assembled the screen on the other side of the wall. The screen was barely assembled when, through the fabric of the panels, Dimitri's shadow appeared as if coming through the wall, and a moment later, he stepped around the screen and announced, "Here I am."
Imperfect Magic (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 11) Page 8
