The Last Magic Trick

Stupefied, the little girl sat in her chair while her grandfather repeated the same card trick again and again. She watched him shuffle the pack. “Pick a card. Look. Don’t tell me. Put it back and here, I shuffle it again. The card is gone, right?”, he wore a mischievous know-all smile and took out the same card from his pocket. “How do you do it? You have to tell me.”, Samantha insisted. “I will teach you. Now go, help your mother with the dishes.”, he would grin.

Samantha always believed her Grandfather to be a magician. “Grandpa is the greatest of them all.”, she would tell her friends. Her grandfather’s trickery never failed to amuse Samantha to the fullest. He made a coin disappear and pulled it out of her hair, put a piece of cloth in his coat and brought out a bunch of roses. Samantha would clap and laugh.

Samantha-7 years old, pale yet beautiful and fair haired- lived with her mother and grandpa in a summer house. Her father was always travelling for work. Johnson came home once in a blue moon. “Why don’t you stay? It will make me happy.”, Samantha would tell him. “I will, darling. Someday.”, he replied.

Samantha was a much loved kid. While her father stayed away, he wrote a number to letters to her. Her mother, Julia, would read Samantha a letter everyday before putting her to sleep. “Daddy is working very hard for his little girl. He wants you to grow up into a beautiful and kind lady. Be nice to everyone, will you?”, Julia would tell her. She always replied with a nod- nod of agreement.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Samantha Linhares, Warden calls. You’ve got a visitor.”

Samantha walked down the stairs to find her Dad waiting. She has grown into a fine lady. Her hair is a mess but she is still beautiful and adorable. “Hello?”, she greeted her father as coldly as it could be. “Hey sweetie, How are you?”, her father tried to make a conversation. He examined his daughter head to toe. All this while, Samantha only wondered if she was dressed appropriately to be seen by her father. Her ways had changed since last time they met. “I see you have dyed your hair red. Looked better before. You had beautiful hair.”, Johnson soon realized that he might have hurt sentiments of his daughter. “This. It looks fine too. It does.”, he approved.

Ten long years had passed, since Samantha saw her family last. She was 18 now and with each year passing, she only got angrier with her Dad for being away all the time. Johnson did return for his daughter but too late. Samantha had joined college and stayed as far from home as she could.

“Grandpa is not well. He wants to see you.”, Johnson said. “I don’t plan to see him any sooner.”, Samantha replied. “Sam, it is bad. Please come see him once.”, Johnson said helplessly.

“It is bad.”, these words kept ringing in her ears. Samantha had hated her grandpa all these years for a reason. But all of a sudden all the reasons seemed stupid to her and she realized that she had known it for a long time. She just never was strong enough to face her grandfather again or to justify her behavior.

Samantha left with her father to see Grandpa one last time. She recalled her time with Grandpa and cried all the way to the hospital. As soon as they reached, she was taken to her Grandfather. She found the old man lying in his bed with a number of machines synchronized to his system.

Samantha had seen similar machines long time ago. That was when Julia fell ill. Samantha, in her thoughts went back to that time. The beeping of the machines got louder and she could see Julia and everyone there. She saw herself younger again. “What are you doing, darling?”, Grandpa asked. “I am writing a letter to daddy. I will tell him that mommy is ill and he needs to come back to her.”, Samantha replied.

“Her condition is deteriorating. I am worried that we won’t be able to help her any further.”, Samantha was there when doctor told them this. That was the first time when she was angry with her father for not being beside her.

“Help her. Why don’t you help her? You are a magician. Use your magic tricks and bring her back to life.”, Samantha had expected a lot too much from his magician grandfather. “She died because you did not save her. You killed her.”, those were her last words to the oldie. After that there was just hatred and anger. 

A pat on her head pulled Samantha out of her thoughts. “Grandpa, you are awake. I wanted to apologize for my behavior.”, Samantha held his hand. “He can not talk. He wrote this for you.”, the nurse took a diary from the trolley and gave it to Samantha. Samantha opened the diary.

On the first page was a roughly written note:

 ‘Dear Sam, Grandpa loves you. I am sorry my magic did not work when you wanted it to. Please do not hate me anymore. I had promised that I will teach you a magic trick. Here is a step by step instruction that you need to follow.’

Second page:

‘Raise you hand and hold your fingers together.’

Third Page:

‘Now place your hand on my chest. Feel the heartbeat.”

Samantha did as instructed. She felt the heart- Once, twice and a flat line showed on the heart monitor.

Next page:

‘Hey Magician, you just made my heart stop.’