The hat trick 🎩
He smiled, "It's now deep red," he said pointing at the sky.
Riya was taken aback for a moment - How did I not notice this? It was a beautiful view of the sun painting the sky red. She just laid her head on his shoulders and enjoyed what was before her eyes - unbelievable, yet just absolutely adorable at the same time. It wasn't a question of whether it was real anymore. It's whether she chose to enjoy the moment for what it was - And she certainly was enjoying it.
“So you’re not gonna ask about it?” He initiated.
“Why? So you can boast?” she smirked. She knew what he was hinting at.
Fred smiled. “You think you know me that well huh?”
“Well, that and more. For instance, that you’ll pretty much be distracted by the fact that I didn’t ask about it”
Ferdinand was now just staring at her. Already planning counter-measures. You keep me challenged, sweetie!
“But hey, I’m going to make it easier for you — ” Riya smiled, aware of how anxious he already was, “What’s with those posts?”
Ferdinand grinned ear-to-ear. You also know me well enough to not discourage my quirks. “Well, here’s food for your thought then. Why do you think people love magic tricks?”
Riya rolled her eyes. Here we go. “Because we don’t know how they do a trick?”
“Not really, no. If you know that the magician is going to take a rabbit out of a hat, nothing is exciting about it. You've seen it multiple times, it's almost as if it's a classic act of opening. You still may not know how he does it, but you know what he will do. But what if… What if this trick is different? What if he takes something out of the hat? What if — ”
“Of course yes, it’ll be interesting if he changes the trick”
“But what if, he does something out of the ordinary? What if he does something different? Something far from logical? Far from plausible? Far from sane? Like him unable to take his hand out. But instead, he slowly gets pulled into the hat? The hat gulping him down. Blood spattering on the floor. and the hat melting down into just a sheet of cloth?”
Riya was silent. Looking at his enthusiasm in trying to justify his benign attempt at an unreasonable explanation.
“So you’re a magician now? Nice. Good to know” she smiled, her eye-brows burrowing.
“Haha maybe. Maybe not. But that’s the thing” he said, “You don’t expect to be surprised by a physician or a chemist explaining the unexplained, right? But what makes this different? Because we yearn for the unknown”
“Oookay” she dragged it.
He knew he had a lot to convey. He was thinking — to describe his attempt at a futile social experiment he had devised.
“But I expect to get surprised when I go for a magic show. I know something is going to make me feel better. Just not what” Riya asked, “similarly, what am I supposed to expect from your show?” She was mildly mocking.
“Many. But you still won’t expect the magician to reveal how he did it after the end of every trick, do you?”
“What? So you’re telling me, you’re not going to tell me anything at all?” her shocked face revealed that she was expecting him to say what it was that he was doing. Even though she never asked about it to him, her face said it all - She was expecting a reveal!
“No, I’ll tell you what the trick is supposed to be. You find out what it is” Fred smiled.