Part 1

"Look! See! It's magic!"

David Vern repeated the trick while peering up at his mother's face. His own eyes were so full of innocent pride and wonder that his mother couldn't remain stern for very long. Rietta glanced out the kitchen window and then back at her son, who repeated the trick for the third time. The teaspoon was obviously appearing and disappearing into the boy's tattered shirtsleeve, but with a little more speed and practice the 'trick' might actually pass for an honest illusion.

This, of course, had absolutely nothing to do with the REAL magic that had captured all of David's considerable imagination lately, but for a seven year old boy it was quite close enough. And less likely to burn down the house.

"See!" David made the spoon disappear for a forth time.

Finally, his mother smiled. It was a weak, skittish thing that graced her bruised lips only briefly before vanishing faster than the 'magic' spoon.

It was his eyes.

David's eyes were so young and happy... she couldn't look into them and, in the very next sentence, crush the source of that happiness.

So she looked away and did it.

"Now stop it," she said, reaching for the half-empty plate in front of her son. "You know how your father feels about such things."

Indeed he did. They BOTH knew how Lowell Vern felt about magic and a great many other things as well. David's father made no secret of his opinions, often punctuating them with blows and bruises... especially when David was concerned. The skin around David's left eye still bore a hint of purple puffiness... the fading traces of the 'No Magic In MY Goddamn House" lecture from just last week.

"Hey, I wasn't finished!" David objected when the half-empty plate passed before his face.

"Yes you are," Rietta snapped. "You're playing with the spoons; that means you're finished."

She dumped the boy's half-eaten breakfast into the hog-bucket. The hogs would eat well that morning.

"But..." David's lower lip trembled. "...but I'm still hungry..."

"Then remember that next time you feel the need to play with the dishes. Besides, you've eaten enough. Or do you WANT to end up like your uncle Derris?"

"I like uncle Derris!" David protested. "He plays with me and he's funny!"

"He's fat and stupid. YOU need to eat less and work more or you'll end up like him and your grandfather. And no more magic tricks."

"You don't like the magic spoon? I know another one! LOOK!"

David reached for the fork-

"Here comes your father."

David's hand snatched back from the table as if it had tried to bite him.

It was still early. Lowell Vern wasn't due back from the fields until later that morning. But sometimes Lowell liked to make unexpected trips back to the farmhouse just to make sure no one was up to anything they weren't supposed to be. For David, that would be magic, playing games, talking to the animals, or anything else that might even be remotely fun. For Rietta that meant anything that was not cooking, cleaning, or giving David the severe discipline that the boy so desperately needed. Lowell's tall outline flashed before the kitchen window... vanished... and then appeared in the open doorway.

David's father glared at him.

David swallowed and unconsciously drew his legs up onto the chair, assuming a near-fetal position at the breakfast table.

"It's after dawn and the hogs ain't fed," said father. "And here you sit, fat and lazy."

"I-I-I was just-"

"Just what? Just what... what were you just doing?"

"Just finishing his breakfast," Rietta said calmly, as if stepping between David and his father was a daily event. It was. "I was about to send him-"

"Go make yourself gone," Lowell gestured at David with a wave of dismissal. "Me and your mama need to talk."

Now it was Rietta's turn to look nervous. This was unexpected. Something must be wrong. Her stomach sank.

"Huh?" David said stupidly. Father's focus had been so fully fixed on him a second ago that the sudden shift left the boy confused... but relieved. Whatever had brought Lowell back to the house in a more-intense-than-normal mood had nothing to do with HIM for a change.

"OUT!"

David was away from the table and out the door so fast that it was almost magic. Once out in the fresh air, his thoughts turned from the brief exchange in the kitchen and toward more pleasant things.

Like the old barn. And MAGIC!

Ignoring the fact that his chores were still undone, David trotted down the hill and sprinted jollily past the unfed hogs. He heard none of the conversation that passed between his parents in the kitchen. And if he HAD heard it... if he had lingered unseen by the door or hidden under the kitchen window to listen, he would have understood almost none of what was said.

It would have made absolutely no difference in the end.

So perhaps it was best that he went on to have his fun while he still could.