Do you like stories with mystery and suspense? Strange and “wyrd” ones? Well, if you do, keep reading and enjoy Eggcentricsagas. If you are just joining Eggcentricsagas, you might want to start from the beginning: A La Mano: Part 1-The Treasure
Charlotte watched while Rajiv moved to hold his treasure in the shaft of light streaming through the tent’s open flap. She looked at the watch. Its gilded surface glinted in the sunlight. Returning her gaze to the boy, she noted he was smiling and waiting.
I do not believe in hypnotism, she thought, but what is the harm? It will make him happy if I play along with this game. Charlotte returned his smile. “Okay. What do you want me to do?”
“Just keep your eyes on the watch and listen to what I am saying,” Rajiv told her. She looked from his searching eyes and solemn face to that of his monkey’s face. Kapi had perched on Rajiv’s shoulder after consuming his peanuts. He also seemed to be scrutinizing her.
Charlotte nodded and fixed her gaze on the polished metal finish. Watching it swing back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.
Rajiv spoke with a gentle intonation. “You are relaxed. Very relaxed. Relaxed and feeling good. Feeling good. Feeling good and drowsy. Feeling drowsy. Feeling drowsy and sleepy. Feeling sleepy. You are floating into sleep. Floating. Floating. Floating down like a feather.”
Back and forth, the shiny watch swung. Back and forth. “Just like a feather. Like a feather.” Back and forth. “A feather. A feather.”
Back and forth. The voice becoming distant. “Feather. Feather. Farther.”
Back and forth. Whispering. “Farther…”
Bright light. All there is. A big, bright light in her vision. Shining down on her, it grows smaller, and she finds herself in a hallway. The ball of light begins to bob away. It beckons her down the long, white hallway. She floats along, following the sphere of light. Where is Betsy? There are too many doorways with light shining out of them. She can’t see in because of the radiance. Too bright. Too many. Which one? Which one did Betsy choose? The circle of light continues to bob down the hallway. The never-ending hallway. So very long. So many doors. There. The orb disappears into one. She glides up to the doorway. Beyond is a dark tunnel. The glowing ball is there. Faraway. She needs to go forward. Fearing the darkness but knowing that she must go, she decides to follow the light. Inside, the blackness is oppressive, crushing out her consciousness. She falls.
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Edward contemplated Charlotte’s fantastic story. He wanted to believe her, but it was hard. Most people would say that she was crazy. Supposedly, she had sustained a neck injury in the tornado and then had collapsed. Maybe she had brain damage. But how and why would she make up such a tale? And she had known his nickname. Magic Man. Yesterday, she said that the soothsayer had told her. When he questioned her further this morning, she had changed her story. Charlotte stated she had said the phrase, a magic man, to Betsy. The old woman had said something different in her reading. Something about an initiate. Edward recalled what Charlotte said next. “I assumed she was talking about an initiate of magic. It was regarding one card, the King of Spades.”
Edward’s mind turned to the other person who seemed to be at the heart of the matter: Betsy Holt. How could Charlotte have come up with the same name? Another carnival? Was it possible? A rent in the fabric of time and space? Having heard of it, he didn’t think it was possible. He imagined this idea to be just a myth. A wondrous fairytale, propagated over time by luminaries or strange yogis that lived in the mountains of Tibet. Geniuses and mystics, people that nobody understood.
But here was Charlotte, someone that challenged his belief system. Something that proved him wrong. Unable to wrap his mind around the mystery, the illusionist focused on what he thought was the solution. Finding Elizabeth Holt or Madame Glass as she was also known.
Edward shifted Charlotte’s new clothes to his other arm and continued walking. He thought about the blonde girl that he had just interviewed. From behind, Charlotte and her were indistinguishable; their long, wavy hair the same. But their faces were different. And their eyes. The Clan girl had hazel ones and Charlotte’s eyes were blue. Beautiful, crystalline blue. A piercing blue. So inviting. One could get lost in those eyes…
Putting a halt to his thinking, Edward stopped walking. Pulling out his handkerchief, he mopped his brow. The day was already warming up, and there was no time for that type of daydreaming. He must focus on the problem at hand. The blonde girl had supplied an interesting tidbit. After hearing that George was in jail, she told Edward that she had seen the fortune-teller and the strong man together. They had been walking along the train tracks back into the forested area, returning the way that the carnival had passed through to their current stop.
Earlier, Edward had examined the remains of the tent of Madame Glass. He had turned the crumpled red and white striped material over and rummaged through it, looking for anything unusual. Satisfied that it held nothing, now he would pursue this clue. But first, Big Boss.
Edward replaced his handkerchief and directed his steps to the business car of Big Boss. When he got there, he informed his employer of his findings and his intentions. Then the illusionist returned to the tent of Rajiv and Charlotte to enlist their help in his search.
He was surprised when he pulled the tent flap aside and found it empty. Now, where did they go? he thought. Climbing the steps of his sleeping car, he found Dandy inside.
The small man was alone and playing solitaire. “Snake Eyes,” he acknowledged and went back to his game.
“Do you know where Rajiv and Charlotte are?” the magic man asked him.
Dandy flipped a card and turned up the King of Spades. “Last I saw, those two and the monkey were following the train tracks back into the woods. The way we came.”
Next: The Magician’s Hat No. 2: Part 4-Following the Tracks
