Imperfect Magic (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 11)

by Patricia Watters

  Maddy stared at the slinky thing, while imagining her family's reaction if they saw her in it, although it did have long legs and sleeves. "It's going to fit like a second skin."

  "I know. Put it on and we'll get started."

  Maddy took the costume and went into the bathroom and shed everything except her underwear, and stepped into the body suit, which had no zippers or snaps, only a scooped neck that gave access to the arms and legs, from which she wiggled and tugged while the full-length leotard made its way up. When she looked in the mirror, she called through the bathroom door, "My parents would have apoplexy if they saw me in this."

  "It's a dancer's leotard," Dimitri called back. "If you were a ballerina your folks would be proudly taking pictures."

  "I suppose. At least the neckline's cut high on my chest."

  When she stepped out of the bathroom, Dimitri slowly scanned the length or her, pausing mid-chest, before focusing on her face, and saying, "I can think of a lot better use of our time than locking you in a trunk right now."

  "Maybe so," Maddy said, "but I've waited four months to learn the secret to Metamorphosis, so whatever you have in mind will have to wait until we're in the limo." Returning her attention to the trunk, she again scrutinized the inside for any sign of an opening and saw nothing.

  When she still didn't climb in, Dimitri said, "If you want to learn the secret, you have to get in the trunk so we can see how you do in the dark."

  Determined to suppress what she knew to be an irrational fear, Maddy climbed into the trunk and curled on her side. Dimitri shut the lid, and as darkness closed in around her, and she imagined trunk securely bound in chains, ropes and padlocks, she also envisioned the walls of the trunk moving inward, like they were trying to squeeze her. She closed her eyes and pretended to be sleeping, but while she was breathing deeply, trying to hold that thought, the air inside seemed suddenly gone.

  Feeling a rush of panic, she pushed the lid open and stood straight up while taking in great gulps of air, and after filling her lungs and exhaling several times, she said, "This is ridiculous. I was in the trunk no more than a few seconds and it was totally creepy. I don't know if I can do this. What if they can't get the locks off because they're stuck and I run out of air?"

  Maddy had just about closed her mind to carrying out the escape, which ended any dream of being Dimitri's assistant, when Dimitri placed his hands on her shoulders, looked steadily at her, and said, "The feeling you're having of being chained and bound in a trunk that will be locked tightly, and the thought that you could be trapped and run out of air, is what we want the audience to feel."

  "The problem is, I can't get past that feeling," Maddy said. "I don't think I can do this."

  She had just climbed out of the trunk when Dimitri took her by the arms, and said, "Okay, honey, I've dragged this out long enough. Magic's about ten percent mechanics and ninety percent showmanship. The reason Metamorphosis stuns the audience is because the switch appears to take place instantly. In the minds of the audience I don't have time to free myself from cuffs and chains, get out of a postal bag, and escape from a trunk that's chained, padlocked and bound with ropes, but the audience fails to realize I'm already free before my stage crew has even finished securing the trunk, and by the time my assistant is raising and lowering the curtain on the hoop, I'm out of the trunk and crouched on top. So this is how it works."

  Dimitri dragged the prop container over near the trunk and pulled out two pairs of handcuffs, a metal neck collar, some chains, and several padlocks, and set them on the floor. Lifting the metal collar, he moved in front of Maddy and said, "Here's comes your dog collar." He clamped it around her neck. "Now hold out your hands for the cuffs."

  Maddy raised her hands, while telling herself she could do this. It was a case of mind over matter. "Are you sure I'll be able to free myself?" she asked.

  "Trust me. You'll be free in less than five seconds." Dimitri clamped the cuffs around her wrists. "You're tense and breathing heavily."

  "I've never been collared and cuffed before."

  "It's all stage effects." Dimitri crouched in front of her and clamped a pair of cuffs onto her ankles. "You have nice legs," he commented.

  "Are you using misdirection to take my mind off being in bondage?" Maddy asked.

  "No, I'm telling the truth. The rest of you is shaped nice too." He picked up a chain and padlocked it to a metal loop on the collar, then draped the chain over her shoulder and padlocked the opposite end to the cuff on her left hand. Picking up another chain, he padlocked it to the cuff on her right hand, draped the chain around her waist, and padlocked it to one of her ankle cuffs.

  As Dimitri was picking up the last chain, Maddy said, "You do realize if my father or brothers happened to walk in right now, you'd be a dead man."

  Dimitri laughed. "Do you feel threatened?"

  "Should I?" Maddy asked.

  "Not unless you don't trust me." While clamping the last padlock to connect the chain to the remaining ankle cuff, Dimitri said, "What I'm doing means nothing. I'm walking you through this so you'll know exactly how we do it. But before you learn the secret, I want you to kiss me the way you did when we were lying together up on the mountain. I want to know you trust me completely because trust is the basis of any relationship."

  Maddy raised her chained and cuffed hands. "Kissing you like I did on the mountain will be a little difficult right now."

  "Then do the best you can." Dimitri took her face between his hands and kissed her the way Maddy had seen her father kiss her mother over the years, a long sweet kiss of love, tenderness, affection, and other emotions that seemed to radiate from the kiss, then afterwards, more often than not, her dad would kiss her mother on the forehead, like he still had some love inside that needed to be expressed.

  To Maddy's delight, when their lips parted, Dimitri kissed her on the forehead, then on the tip of her nose, and again on her lips, and said, "That was nice but I'm ready for you to get out of bondage so we can do it the right way. Meanwhile, hold up your hands."

  After Maddy raised her hands, Dimitri took her thumb and moved it around until it rested on a small metal bump on the cuff on the opposite hand, and said, "Press." When Maddy pressed, the cuff sprang opened. "You'll find release buttons on the collar and each cuff, so go ahead."

  Maddy found the metal bumps and released the cuffs and collar, sending chains dropping with a metallic clink to the carpet.

  While staring at the mess of metal at her feet, she said, "That's all there is to it?"

  "Basically, yes," Dimitri replied.

  "Okay then, I understand how you get out of the chains when you're in the water tank, but not how you get out of the tank, and I'm going a little crazy trying to figure it out, so if I marry you, you'll never know if it was because I truly love you, or because I wanted to learn the secret."

  "Do you truly love me?" Dimitri asked.

  "Yes," Maddy replied, "but that doesn't mean I'll marry you. Trying to conduct a marriage while living a thousand miles apart would be frustrating, and I don't remember telling you that I'd follow you to Las Vegas."

  "You didn't, but the universe is working out the details," Dimitri said.

  "If your universe expects us to spend our married life dematerializing and materializing so we can tele-transport between the Dancing Moon Ranch and Las Vegas, that won't work for me because I don't like tight spaces, and once out of my body, I'd probably freak out at the thought of being confined in it again. So, getting back to Metamorphosis, how is the postal bag rigged?"

  Dimitri lifted the canvas bag from the box and turned it around, revealing a slit up the back. "Members of the audience come on stage to check the trunk then go back to their seats and accept without question that the cuffs and collar are real because the padlocks are certified. And in their minds the postal bag is secure because they see a bar being run through loops along the top of the bag, with padlocks clamped to each end. Meanwhile, I'm standing with the back gapi
ng open like a hospital gown, and no one knows."

  "And to get out of the trunk?" Maddy asked.

  "Simple." Dimitri grabbed the top back corners of the trunk below the lid, and giving a little jerk, lowered the back from its metal framework that held the hinges to the lid, while using the leather strapping at the bottom as a hinge. The metal corner brackets also came away with the panel, so when the back was closed, the brackets looked as if they were fastened to the trunk. It was masterful, but as Maddy stared at the panel resting against the floor, all her months of speculation and wonder slipped away, leaving her feeling let down.

  "It really is like learning Santa doesn't exist all over again," she said.

  Dimitri gave a kind of pessimistic shrug. "I figured that's the way you'd feel. Take away the magic and what you have is just an ordinary man."

  Maddy looked at Dimitri, whose face was downcast. Walking around the trunk, she curved her arms around his neck, and said, "Ordinary men can't send cards flying between their hands, or pull objects out of thin air, or materialize in front of people's eyes, no matter how it's done." She kissed him. "Nor do ordinary men make magicians out of sick little girls or risk their lives rescuing a boy from a river." She pressed her lips to his again. "And I do like the way you kiss."

  "Good, because we'll be doing a lot of that on the way home in the limo after the show. Meanwhile, you'd better practice crawling inside the trunk and chaining up because we'll be performing Metamorphosis tonight."

  Maddy looked at him with a start. "You can't be serious. I haven't done it once yet."

  "There's nothing to it," Dimitri said. "Once inside the trunk, all you have to do is clamp the collar around your neck and the cuffs on your wrists. The chains will already be attached."

  "What about the ankle cuffs?" Maddy asked.

  "They're irrelevant. After one of my crew opens the locks on your collar and handcuffs he'll pretend to open those on your ankles, then I'll help you out. By then the audience will be too stunned to think beyond the fact that we made the switch in less than five seconds."

  Maddy knew the feeling of being stunned. She and her roommates had been speechless when they saw the switch, and after the audience broke into loud, enthusiastic applause, they couldn't stop talking. Even while she made her way toward Dimitri's dressing room she was still stunned, but she was also a little star struck…

  Dimitri went into the dressing room and returned carrying the hoop with the curtain, and handing it to Maddy, he said, "We'll spend the next half hour with you standing on top of the trunk while raising and lowing the hoop, and me taking it from you while you crawl inside and cuff up. After several times through you'll have the hang of it, then I'll call Ray and Johnny and we'll rehearse the entire thing a few times."

  "It was a bigger stage in Las Vegas so the trunk was well back from the audience there," Maddy said. "Here, the audience won't be more than ten feet from us."

  "Which makes performing here more challenging," Dimitri replied. "It's also why Copperfield performs on a stage the size of a football field. His audience can't see his props and all the wires he uses for his levitations."

  "I suppose that's a reason to want to perform in Las Vegas instead of at the Coyote," Maddy said in a glum voice. She also understood more clearly why Dimitri had to go back, because if he didn't, he'd end up being a vagabond magician, traveling from nightclub to nightclub, like her father said. But as she considered that thought, another idea took form. "How about, we divide our time between both places, 75% in Las Vegas, and 25% here? The 25% could be during the summer when I'd hold my horse camp. We could have houses in both places."

  "Honey, that's brilliant," Dimitri said, "and since I'm a seasoned cowboy who likes driving cattle and riding in the mountains and sleeping under the stars with my buckle bunny, after I'm established we'll switch to 75% here and 25% in Vegas because there aren't any starry skies there since the night sky's filled with the glow from hundreds of neon signs and the Luxor Pyramid's 42-billion candle power light."

  Although Dimitri said the words in jest, Maddy also sensed he was serious, yet she'd made the suggestion without giving it critical thought.

  Now, she wondered if it was an option. She hated the idea of living in Las Vegas for any length of time and she loved everything about living on the ranch, but she loved Dimitri more, and if he left without her he'd find another assistant, someone beautiful and sexy, and he'd marry her because he was heading in that direction, and before long he'd forget she existed, except for those times when she'd be visiting Genie and Josh, and Dimitri might be there. He'd treat her with fondness and affection instead of the deep, abiding love he'd have for his wife, while she couldn't imagine any man filling the void she knew would be there after he left.

  CHAPTER 16

  While riding in the limo on the way home from the performance in which they introduced Metamorphosis to an enormously enthusiastic audience, Maddy was so pumped up from having carried out the illusion without a glitch that she cuddled against Dimitri, and kissed him on the jaw, and he kissed her on the neck, and before long they were reclined on the seat, entangled in each other's arms, their lips clinging in long, passionate kisses.

  Maddy was the one to finally gain control by sitting up and pulling Dimitri up with her, and saying, "Before we get completely carried away, we need to do some serious talking, maybe take a sunrise ride to the cabin tomorrow morning."

  "Are you actually planning on talking—" Dimitri nibbled on the side of Maddy's neck "—or did you want to go to the cabin for other reasons?"

  Maddy let out a little moan of pleasure when Dimitri teased the inner swirl of her ear, then said, with a chuckle, "You can do more magic tricks if you want, but I was thinking more along the lines of planning our future and figuring out how to break the news to our families."

  Dimitri stopped what he was doing and drew in a long breath. "You're right," he said, in a serious voice. "We already know how your family feels, and my father has serious misgivings about me marrying you because you're a ranch girl."

  "Wait!" Maddy said. "You've already talked to him about marrying me?"

  "Indirectly," Dimitri replied. "We had a discussion of sorts when he figured out you were more than just another assistant. I wish he could have seen you tonight though. He would have left the show knowing you're my perfect mate."

  "Until he'd see me mucking out stalls and conclude I'm your imperfect mate," Maddy said. "But even if he accepted me, it will be an uphill battle convincing my parents that ours is a match made in heaven, especially since they think Las Vegas is analogous to Sodom and Gomorrah."

  "Then we'll convince them that the places where I'd be working are above reproach."

  "That wouldn't make a difference," Maddy said. "You'd still be taking me away from here, unless you're serious about later spending less time in Las Vegas and more time here."

  "I'm serious about marrying you," Dimitri said. "But that's what we need to work out, so when we approach your family they'll give us their blessing."

  Maddy knew for a fact that Dimitri would not get her family's blessing as long as he intended to sweep her away with him to Sin City. But maybe it was time to stand up to them and let them know how she felt about Dimitri. She'd been avoiding any physical contact with him whenever anyone was around, so to suddenly dump wedding plans in their laps would create a firestorm. But then, she was a grown woman, free to make her own decisions.

  Holding that thought, she said, "I agree we need to start working out the logistics of things, but realistically, we need to work out a lot more than that, since we come from very different upbringings. We need to talk about how we want to raise our kids so we'll be together in the way we handle them, and we need to discuss our philosophical and religious views and make sure they'll blend because that's the kind of thing that divides families, one parent thinking their beliefs are the only way, and the other having different beliefs. And we should discuss what kind of house we want. I don't even k
now what kind of house you live in."

  "It's an upscale house belonging to my dad," Dimitri replied. "It has a daylight basement that's been converted into a woodshop. But when it comes to houses, all I need is a woodshop, so you can have any kind of house you want. As for religious beliefs, if you want us to go to church that's fine with me. I'm for keeping the kids on the straight and narrow."

  "That's all well and good, but we should still wait a little longer before springing marriage plans on my parents," Maddy said. "They don't even know we're an item. At least I don't think they do, except for Tyler, but since no one's said anything he probably forgot about seeing us, since that was the day Claire was born."

  "Then since we both acknowledge we won't have the blessing of either of our parents, I vote we spend what time we I have here planning the rest of our lives, then go to Las Vegas and get married and tell our families afterwards."

  "Are you serious?"

  "About marrying you, yes. About running off to do it, no. If your father didn't get to walk his only daughter down the aisle I'd be about as welcome around here as a snake-oil salesman."

  "Some couples are engaged for a year before they marry," Maddy said.

  Dimitri eyed her with concern. "Is that what you want?"

  "I don't know what I want," Maddy said. "Well I do and I don't. I want to marry you, and I want you to realize your dream of becoming the illusionist you want to be. It's just that, everything's so sudden. A month ago there wasn't even a man in my life, and now I'm planning on spending the rest of my life with you."

  "That's because when it's right, it's right," Dimitri said. "I have no doubts about my feelings for you. It's that 'I-need-to-be-with-you' impulse kind of chemistry I was talking about, when my only goal every day is to be with you, and I hope by now you feel the same about me."

  "I do," Maddy said. "I've never had feelings like this before, but I've never been in love with a magician either. Actually, I've never been in love with anyone. I had a few crushes, but the feelings I have for you are new. And yes, I do spend all day counting the hours until I'll have you to myself, even though I end up sharing you with a lounge full of people."