Turns out when a homeless man approaches you on the street and asks what you want, the answer “surprise me” will end up with him gifting you a jumbo Sharpie marker.

I turned the giant marker over and over in my hands as I continued down the street. Why did he even need this? Well, obviously he didn’t if he decided to give it away. Why did I need it? I didn’t.

I was about to chuck it in the trash when I looked up and saw a vandalized street sign. I gasped.

“Your a piece of garbage” it said. Wow. Creative.

I turned the Sharpie over in my hands once more. Huh.

With a smirk I uncapped the marker and added the most vital piece to the gorgeous art on the sign.

“Haha, nice.” I capped the marker and pocketed it. Maybe I’d keep it around a bit longer.

“You’re a piece of garbage” the sign spelled out. As it should.

This was going to take forever. I placed my hands on my hips and let out a deep sigh. I never realized that I actually owned this much stuff. But here it all was, haphazardly stuffed into the back of a Uhaul truck.

I was 26 and I finally moved out of Mom and Dad’s basement. I had wanted to do it for years now but I was never financially stable enough to. Well, Grandma’s life insurance money came through and they basically used it to shove me out of the house. I appreciated the push, but I didn’t know if I wanted it to happen this way.

I scanned the neighborhood. It was nice! Airing a little on the side of basic white suburban, but that didn’t concern me.

I saw a man, well, a saw a man’s legs in the driveway next door. He was waist deep in the trunk of his car. Upon further inspection I realized that he was bringing his groceries inside.

He emerged from the trunk with bags hanging from his arms. And I recognized him.

“Oh my gosh!” I gasped “is that-? Jamie Rothman?” I said it loud enough for him to hear me.

It was definitely him! He had aged, of course, he was taller, had deeper smile lines and his hair was more dull, but he was still Jamie Rothman. My first middle school crush. I could not believe the coincidence! I moved next door to Jamie Rothman! My heart pounded still.

He locked eyes with me for a second before his groceries spilled onto the driveway.

I shouted and ran over to help him as he bent down to pick them up.

He backpedalled as I drew closer. Ouch. “I’m sorry, who are you?” He looked at me with... fear?

“It’s me! Lillian Baxter! We went to middle school together in-“

“No no no,” he pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes. “You can’t be Lillian Baxter.” He said in disbelief.

“Jamie,” I scoffed. “Of course it’s me! We had English class together! I sat next to-“

“No!” He shouted again. “Lillian Baxter died in a car crash 13 years ago.”

I’m sorry, what? “I did not!” I shot back.

“Yes she did, yes she did! I would know because I was at her funeral! Stay away from me you sick creep!” He shouted as he scrambled into his house, leaving the groceries scattered on the driveway and the trunk of his car hanging open.

I stood in his driveway, simply shocked at the interaction. What did he mean?!

Slight of hand magic. That was my solution. I would do little card tricks and illusions in order to convince them that I was like them. They were all magical beings with the ability to fly, or shape shift, or pick up cars like they were toys. They had no reason to study dumb little magic tricks. They usually ate these tricks out of the palm of my hand, until it didn’t work one day.

“Is this your card?” I asked, flipping the seven of hearts out of the deck. Wait, what?

Kathy eyed me for a second. “Uh, no.” She responded. This trick had never failed me. I didn’t know what to do.

“It’s not?” I asked. My face flushed, my cheeks and ears were hot. I REALLY didn’t know what to do.

“No,” she giggled slightly. “But you knew that, right?”

“Of course!” I laughed with her. Her card was supposed to be the Queen of Spades. I had looked at it after she picked it out and palmed it so that it could “magically” resurface just when I needed it at the end of my trick. “This is all part of the magic!” I laughed. A bead of sweat rolled down my back.

“You always find a way to spice it up, Georgie. I love that!” She beamed at me.

Kathy had the ability to read minds. “Everyone but yours!” She always said, and that was why she liked me so much. She’d never heard me think anything bad about her.

She was a really good person! She just... couldn’t stay out of other people’s business. But it wasn’t her fault! She literally couldn’t help it. Their thoughts just popped into her head and all she ever wanted to do was help. It was rarely appreciated.

Every Sunday we sat across the table from each other in this little coffee shop. She would update me on the town gossip, and I would show her my new magic tricks.

I was thankful for Kathy. Everyone else in town seemed skeptical of me. With good reason. I didn’t actually have any supernatural powers like they did. But Kathy thought otherwise.

“I read this one romance book once, and the main character had this magical ability to stop other people from using their powers, that must be what you have!” I’m pretty sure she was talking about Twilight.

So that was what I had, a fake power blocking ability and slight of hand magic.

“Georgie,” she snapped. I jumped in my seat. My hands had grown clammy and my mouth dry.

“What?” I asked her.

“So are you going to make my card appear or not?” She was still beaming at me.

“Absolutely!” I stated. Except I didn’t have a single clue where the Queen of spades had ended up.

I looked down at my lap, on the floor around my chair, I felt around for the card in my sweatshirt sleeves. I had no idea where it was. I flipped the deck of cards over and started shuffling through them one by one.

“Now that’s just cheating!” Kathy clicked her tongue at me. Her tone was less cheerful than it was before.

There was no Queen of spades in the deck. “Just trust the process!” I told her with fake enthusiasm.

I was fully panicking now. If I didn’t produce that card soon, Kathy would realize that my magic was fraud. She’d expose me in front of the whole town and I’d be exiled, or worse, killed.

I began hyperventilating when John, the town strongman, bent over behind Kathy and picked up a playing card off of the floor.

“Is this your card?” He asked Kathy, and tossed the Queen onto the middle of the small table.

“Oh my gosh!” She exclaimed. “How did you do that?! And you got John involved?! That is so crazy!” She was delighted.

So I had dropped the card. I looked up at John. I wanted to thank him. I couldn’t though, as it would be much too obvious and lead to exposing my secret.

He didn’t seem to need my thanks though. He was standing in line, waiting to order himself a coffee when he turned to look at me, and quickly he winked.

Why did he wink?