Max and the Magician

By William L. Bowman, Jr

Ever since seeing a magician at a friend's birthday party, Max knew what he wanted to be. He begins learning and practicing magic tricks, he begins performing for friends and family. One day, Max sees a mysterious man watching him perform. This man turns out to be the world famous Marvello, the Magician. Marvello takes Max under his wing and begins teaching him the secrets of magic. Upon the death of Marvello's magical bunny, the two embark upon a journey into one of the lands of magic to obtain another. While there Max meets Marvello's friend who is a shape-shifter, Marvello's teacher, and a cast of unforgettable characters, all while learning the rules of magic, thwarts an evil bunny's plans and learns more about himself than he does about magic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William L. Bowman, Jr
• Release date: Nov 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463280546

William L. Bowman, Jr

I have been writing since I was a child, and have had poetry, magazine articles in Dragon, Martial Arts Training and The linking Ring. I have also had original magic effects I created published in magic journals, and have had three plays published. Besides writing, I am a professional magician, have studied and taught martial arts, and have been working in the healthcare field for 35 years. There are 2 people to whom I owe the bulk of my success. The first is my father, who stopped writing when he received his first rejection, but never stopped being a writer and was always there to give me help, suggestions and advice. The second, and by far the most important, is my wife, Sally Sharp. Besides being the most supportive, loving wife anyone could hope for, she is my in house editor and, when needed, an honest critic. Every writer needs one of those.

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Max and the Magician

Copyright 2016 William L. Bowman Jr.

Published by William L. Bowman Jr. at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

Acknowledgements:

To Erin, Erica, Meagen, Ashley, Sarah, Connor, Natalie, Chelsea, Mikayla, Brittany, Courtney, Zana, Emily, Leah, Tonni, Dylan, and, of course, The Amazing Mr. Maxwell!

PART 1

DISCOVERY OF MAGIC

Max knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. He had known since the day at Bobby Gonzalez’s birthday party when Ambrose the Amazing was there performing magic. Max had watched, astounded, as Ambrose had pulled coins out of the ears of the children. Then, he made colored balls appear and disappear right in Bobby’s hands and jump into his pockets and mouth. He had produced a seemingly endless supply of silken scarves from an empty tube. Then, finally, Ambrose pulled a big, white, fluffy bunny with long ears and a pink nose out of his top hat. However, the thing that had most captured Max’s attention had been when Ambrose had linked a series of large, solid metal rings together. Max had even been up in front of the party helping the magician do it and had no idea how he had been able to connect and disconnect the solid rings, right under his nose

Besides watching the succession of impossible feats, Max had also noticed the faces of all of the other kids at the party. They were laughing, smiling, and completely amazed. Max knew right then that he wanted to make people feel and react that way. He even decided that day what he would call himself: Maxwell the Magnificent. On the way home from the birthday party, Max had thought and thought about all of the wonderful things he had seen Ambrose do. That night, he dreamed that he was on the stage at a big theatre and he was making the impossible happen. Everyone he knew was there and his parents were in the front row and they were the most amazed and astounded people there! When he took his bow, his parents clapped longer and louder than anyone else did.

Slowly, over time, Max began learning a few pieces of magic. His Uncle Ralph taught him some card tricks. He practiced them over and over again until he could do them smoothly. Then, he added to them, making them just different enough from the original that he even fooled Uncle Ralph. The man who sold tickets at the theatre downtown showed him how to pull a quarter out of someone’s ear. So for weeks, Max’s family and friends were bewildered by the seemingly endless supply of quarters appearing from everywhere when Max was around. He began to make up his own tricks as well, and some of them worked better than others did. It had cost him three weeks’ allowance to replace Heather Brown’s doll after he sawed it in half and couldn't put the halves back together.

One day as he was performing in the park for some of his friends, a strange thing happened. Max noticed a tall, thin man wearing a dark suit and carrying a walking stick with a silver top shaped like a rabbit’s head. He was standing in the back of the crowd of children and watching him closely. After the show, the stranger approached Max’s table as he was putting his things away and spoke to him.

You were moving too quickly when you were making the balls appear. It looked jerky. Your movements need to be smoother. Then he walked away without saying another word. Max was too stunned to reply, but he went home that night and watched himself in the mirror as he practiced the multiplying balls. Sure enough, he could see exactly what the tall stranger had been talking about. He slowed down just a little as he performed the up and down motion of the routine. The tall stranger was right! The trick looked much more natural and smoother.

No one he asked seemed to know who the man had been. In fact, none of the kids who had been at the park watching Max that day had even seen the man in the dark suit. After a few days, Max put the incident out of his mind. He continued to practice and perform his magic for his family and friends. Then, a couple of weeks later, he was doing the multiplying balls for some kids on the playground after school. When he looked up, he saw the stranger standing outside the fence watching him. When Max caught the man's eye, he smiled at Max and nodded. Max quickly finished the routine and started after the man with the rabbit-headed cane, but he had vanished. Once again, Max could not find anyone who had seen the man or who might have an idea who he was.

That night, Max took out a deck of cards to practice and noticed a piece of paper in the middle of the pack. When he cut the cards and pulled out the piece of paper, he saw that it was a business card, but all that was on it was a picture of a rabbit. There was no name, no address, and no phone number, nothing to tell him whose card it was. He put the card back into the card case and went on with his practice.

The next morning at breakfast, Max told his parents about the stranger. Maybe he is another magician, his dad guessed. He seems to know about magic.

His mother just shrugged and said, Eat your toast.

Max had no time to spare over the next couple of days. He was too busy to ponder the identity of the tall man in the dark suit. He had a real magic show to get ready for. Max was doing magic for the birthday party of a younger boy the next block over. The boy had seen Max at the park and asked his mother if Max could perform at his party. Max was very excited, as this was to be the first time that he had been asked to perform magic. Up until now, he had just done it for his friends and the kids at school or at the park. He was nervous, too. What if something went wrong? What if he dropped his multiplying balls or his cards? What if his scarves got caught in the tube and wouldn’t come out? He went to sleep every night tired from practicing, and dreamed of all of the terrible things that could go wrong.

Then, it was Saturday and time to go to the party. Max dressed in his nicest clothes, loaded all of the things he needed into the basket of his bike and went to the show. After he got everything set up in the family room, the birthday boy’s mother opened the door and let his first audience into the room.

Max’s hands were shaking as he started his first trick, making a glass of water disappear. A little of the water sloshed out onto the table as he was covering it with the sheet of newspaper. Fortunately, none of the kids noticed it. So when he crushed the paper to show the glass gone, they all broke into wide smiles of amazement and clapped loudly. The rest of the show went just as it was supposed to and Max was feeling very happy as he pedaled his bike home after the party. He burst through the doorway to tell his parents all about the performance and stopped suddenly, nearly tripping over his own feet in surprise. Sitting in the armchair by the window was the tall, thin man with the rabbit-headed walking stick.

Max, his mother called to him, come in and meet our guest. Walking as though in a dream, Max crossed the room to where the tall man sat smiling at him over the rim of his teacup. Max, this gentleman is... his mother began.

Marvello, the stranger interrupted, setting down his cup and turning to face Max. We’ve met, haven’t we, Max?

Um, yeah...sort of... Max stammered.

Next Saturday, at one o’clock, come to my house, and we will begin your lessons. Having said this,