At Best, Not Marvelous

At Best Not Marvelous

Michael Melnish sat on a hard chair in the agent’s waiting room. He wished he’d never started. But he had, and that meant there was no turning back until he’d tried.

“Mr. Melnish? Lanark Starmaker will see you now,” bellowed the receptionist with her ratty beehive and snapping gum.

Michael stood, brushed down his clothes and walked past her, saying thank you as he did. He opened the frosted glass door and walked in with feigned confidence.

“Michael Melnish?” the dapper man read from a slip of paper.

When he heard no reply, he looked up inquiringly.

“This better be good.” he muttered.

“You any relation to my ex-client Marvelous Melnish?” he asked

“He was my uncle.”

“Do you do magic too? You any good?”

The gangly man blushed to the roots of his hair.

“Actually, I’m known as Mediocre Melnish in the trade.”

Lanark raised his eyebrows.

“Are you?” he said.

“Sometimes, but I believe it just means I’m not as practiced as my uncle.”

“Give me a look at your best trick.”

Michael pulled a wand from inside his sleeve. He did a quick twirl around his head. instantly it disappeared. Doing a reverse of the move, his head returned.

Lanark clapped with a greedy glow in his eyes.

“I see you’ve remedied the problem your uncle had with making himself disappear. What else can you do?”

Michael did several more tricks that he’d developed.

“Gimme your business card, if you have one. I might be able to find something for you at 30% commission on your net, paid monthly. Call me! I love yah, babe!”

After Michael handed the man his card, he walked past him to leave the office. He did a surreptitious motion with his wand. The agent disappeared. Michael smiled.