A Study in Magic: It's Movement and Application

Part One: Wizardry
Section One: Identification and Transformation of Sorcery

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Not far away, not long ago,
just after the sun left the sky;
a woman named Donna LeMar left her home,
concealing her bright, new black eye.

The husband had gone after punching his wife
for late night delivery driving,
where he'd gather around with his friends and tell lies:
how his marriage was healthy and thriving.

Not far from Donna's, a neighborhood block,
as the moon slowly started to climb;
a young man named David McKay raced the clock
to deliver a pizza on time.

He punched at the wheel and he cursed everything,
his adjectives rather absurd.
As he sped by, our friend Donna was watching
and promptly showed David her bird.

She had mistaken young David for Alex,
her husband who drove the same car:
usually pizza in their neighborhood
was delivered by Mr. LeMar.

The lady in waiting for pizza that evening
was one Ms. Melinda Millay,
who never had once ordered food in her life
and happily cooked every day.

Now Ms. Melinda sat rocking in silence,
her eyes back and forth between crying.
Some hours before, she had learned of the violence
her son suffered as he lay dying.

When David saw Donna with finger held high,
his tender, young heart split in two:
he had been seeing his friend's wife for years
and believed her love for him was true.

Enraged and distraught, Dave squeeled to a stop
and revved the gas loud as he could,
conveying to Donna the sound of his pain
with the screaming from under the hood.

David let go the brake, leaving behind
a gust of foul smoke in his wake,
and put the scenario out of his mind
for a moment, for Ms. Millay's sake.

The screech in the street gave Melinda a start
and she jumped up and down in her joy,
convinced in the depths of her fragile, old heart
that someone brought news of her boy.

David was out of the car in a flash
with the pizza and garlic cheese dip,
and jumped up the steps to the porch in a dash
with the hopes of still earning a tip.

Melinda Millay turned on the porch light
and quickly threw open the door,
where there, at the steps, stood a ghost of her son
from only a few years before.

She beckoned him in with her arms in the air,
longing to feel his embrace,
and batted the tufts of her wispy, white hair
away from the tears on her face.

But all that young David could see in her eyes
and all he believed her to be
was a crazy, old woman deprived of her prize;
resolved that her meal should be free.

Exhausted, frustrated, annoyed and convinced
that Melinda would claim she was cheated,
David set down all the food he'd brought in
and said words that will not be repeated.

All of the hatred from all of the people
that led down this chain of events
gathered as one in a moment of evil
and spit out a virulent offense.

Then black turned to white and the dark became light
and the power of love ran it's course
when Melinda Millay played the angel that day
and a sponge for that negative force...

...as all of the memories haunting her nights
from the years that she spent with her son;
the arguments, gripes, disagreements and fights
were finally coming undone.

Melinda then realized that anger was merely
a sign of an impatient mind
as the face of her son slowly faded away
and young David's creeped in from behind.

She reached for her wallet that lay on the table
and David's eyes followed her hand,
where the Balance of Goodness showed David the truth
in a way that he could understand.

He saw in a mirror-- or was it a photo?
A boy who could pass as his twin!--
-and all in a moment, young Dave was exposed
to a glimpse of the pain she was in.

He glanced at Melinda and covered his face,
then left without taking his pay,
and hoped Ms. Millay would forgive this disgrace--
for David had nothing to say.

He ran from her house and rammed on the gas,
sped along Ms. Millay's road,
jumped from his car and up onto the grass
of his girlfriend's humble abode.

All he could say when she opened the door
was simply, "Forgive me", and then
he turned to his car and returned to the store
and never saw Donna again.

He hung up his keys, changed from his clothes
and told all his friends he was leaving;
then gave back his polo, his nametag and hat
and the money that he had been thieving.

Later that evening, when Alex went home,
he found his packed bags in the yard.
He begged and he pleaded, but Donna repeated
that splitting up wasn't so hard.

Kindly, she waved as her husband departed
and gave him a hug on the lawn,
then proudly, defiantly lifted her finger--
discreetly, though, after he'd gone.

nice time last night here at the house

Cynthia and Andrew went to visit our friend Anne in Atlanta. They left around 3 and then Steve and his new wife Sarah hung around for most of the evening. After a hamburger cookout we played some music. Sarah is really good at sight-reading for piano and played some of my old compositions. I never finished any of them, but hearing her play the beginnings so well brought them back to life for me.

Then Steve and I got guitars and Sarah got out her mandolin and we played some other songs we've written. Sarah has a great voice and I have some other folk songs I wrote years ago that I never performed in public because I thought they would sound better sung by a woman. I'll be bringing those out next time!

Sheila went to a party at one of our friends' house. About an hour passed between Steve and Sarah's departure and Sheila's return. During that time, Azalea and I played Butterfly Memory on the coffee table... and she was amazing! I used 8 pairs of 16 cards and scattered them around before lining them up in a perfect 4x4 pattern. I could tell if she was going to get one if she hesitated at all after seeing the first card. When she was successful, it was instant! She would look at the first card for just a fraction of a second and then drop her body weight onto the card with both hands.... and they were always cards she had seen within the last 2 attempts. So today we will practice more and improve those odds!