i was the magic man, known for my disappearance acts. i thought i was the best to ever do it. my greatest trick is one that i don’t perform often. i call it, the vanishing woman. although it’s rarely performed, this trick is the reason i was world renowned. my magic has taken me around the globe and back again. i haven’t performed the trick since I made my last assistant disappear. actually, she was more than my assistant. she was my partner. before she ever assisted with a trick, she was the love of my life. for now, lets call her “stacey.”

i never believed in fate, but i believed in magic. ever since i was a child, i’ve been obsessed with bringing my imagination to reality. my father always told me i wasn’t built for this world. he was the one who taught me how to warp reality into one that suited me. magic. it was also the force that brought stacey and i together. a serendipitous meet-cute turned into a loving relationship built on love and trust. we talked about everything. i showed her my tricks and how to perform them, all except one. truthfully, she was a better performer than me.

unfortunately, for me, all good things come to an end. the world stopped caring about magic so they stopped caring about me. money was tight and i was running out of excuses. how i wish i could snap my fingers and change our reality. there wasn’t a trick in the book that i could use to get her that dream house or even those red pumps she wanted. when we were kids, all i needed was the flower pulled from my cuff. those days were gone. she was sad and i was sad because i no longer made her happy.

one day, she inquired about my vanishing woman act. she wanted one last show together. the dangers didn’t scare her but they scared me. i’ll do anything for my love. our last show together would be our greatest. we both get what we want: a fresh start. we performed the vanishing woman act for our final display of magic. this trick was the only secret that i withheld from stacey. she knew that she would disappear but i never told her where she would go. did she care? the trick begins with stacey stepping into a specially crafted box that held two exits…i’ll take the rest to my grave. standing on that stage alone for the first time in years, all i could hear was my breathing. with a *tap tap* and my magic words, she vanished.

that was years ago but i still see her face in the clouds and the stars. i see her on billboards on the way to my coffee shop. her beautiful face always pops up when i watch television. she’s the biggest magician in the world right now and i’m just a fan. sometimes i slip into the back row of her shows and marvel at the woman she’s become. i’m happy for her, truly. she has the magic now. i thought i was the best to ever do it.