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"You should know Because they’re pains in the neck!" His voice was jubilant, and that’s when I realized he was telling a joke, ai it at Bernadette With her hair dyed black and her pale skin, she looked more like a stereotypical vampire than I did

"What’s a vampire’s--excuse me, what’s your favorite mode of transportation?"

"Shut up, Richard"

"A blood vessel!"

Bernadette and I didn’t laugh once, but the girl sitting next to Richard giggled incessantly

"Where do vas? In blood banks!"

"Shut up, Richard"

I was delighted when a boy fro on a large African drued to annoy us He wanted attention, any way he could get it Bernadette shot me a look of disdain and shook her head

Walker took the stage, accompanied by a drum roll He wore jeans and a flannel shirt--no cape or sequined suit His hair and skin glowed in the stage lights "Welcome," he said, "to the art of misdirection"

The first few tricks involved eggs and impressed me more than soic was, in a sense, real On a table in the center of the stage, a Bunsen burner was lit, and Walker, using tongs, passed an egg through its fla in a bowl of water, and it turned iridescent, almost silver

I knew some kind of chee But what ical was the story Walker told while he did it

"For thousands of years, ," he said "It’s another word for crystal-gazing--for seeing the future in a reflective surface Crystals link ourbeyond it In the aze into the crystal, tirows cal us clear and pure

"Poor icians like me can’t afford to buy a crystal ball, so we s"

After the transformation was coe to look into the bowl of water Richard volunteered

"Anybody else?" Walker asked

"I’ll do it" Bernadette was on her feet in a second

"That’s not fair," Richard said, and she said, "Shut up," as she passed him

"Relax and breathe deeply," Walker told Bernadette "Look deep into the silver ball, and tell me what you see"

"I see the reflection of the candle flame"

The theater was so quiet that I heard the sounds of people breathing on either side of me

"Try to unfocus your eyes," Walker said His voice was soft, with a twinge of North Carolina in its inflections "Try to see the ," Richard said, but people shushed him

"I see it," Bernadette said "It’s like srow until it’s all you can see" Walker signaled the druan to play a slow, rhythmic beat

"It’s all I can see" In her black shirt and jeans, her long hair hanging on either side of the bowl as she bent over it, Bernadette looked like a creature from another time, another world

"Now let your eyes focus" Walker’s face, intent and serious, was almost too handsome to watch "As the smoke clears, tell us what you see"

"I see…" Bernadette paused "It looks like--it’s a skull"

"Of course it is," Richard said "She’s a va to him, except me

"I really saw it," Bernadette whispered She’d resuic shoent on

Walker did several tricks using scarves and coins thatall the while about ancient India and Tibet and the tradition of ic He used thin black threads (was I the only one to see them?) to move earthenware bowls across the table; he called the that they were placed in the corners of ancient houses to catch demons I later learned that his story was true, and that the boere also used to gather demons to visit upon one’s enemy

I wondered what Walker would say if I told hiht, he looked up from a trick and winked at me Then he turned a lus and sleights of hand and lettheinvisible when the trick required it, letting the ician take the credit But hoould Walker react to knohat I was capable of--no, knohat I was? He’d probably be terrified

His final trick required an oversized trunk and the assistance of Jacey, a student notable for being the shortest person on ca ni her