PRAHA THE CAHA

Praha the Caha met Sidney Blitz in a senior-living facility. They were in the lobby, standing in front of the check-in desk where a pleasant young woman sat, and Sidney Blitz turned toward the tall man with the hat and cane and asked whether he was visiting a spouse, as Sidney was, or perhaps a parent. “I am visiting,” the man said, “an audience!” His voice leapt into the last word and carried it higher. Sidney Blitz wrinkled his brow. “An audience?” he repeated. The man turned toward him, and Sidney noticed the jeweled bat pin on the man’s lapel. “I am,” the man said, his voice at the same altitude it had been when he had left off with “audience,” “Praha the Caha! Perhaps you have heard of me.” Sidney did not unwrinkle his brow. “Prestidigitation and mystery and the wonders of the ages!” Praha the Caha snapped his fingers, and a flame rose from them. When it receded, a business card floated just off the tip of his index finger. Sidney Blitz reached out and took it. It said exactly what Praha the Caha had said: Prestidigitation and mystery and the wonders of the ages! There was no phone number, only a picture of an upside-down top hat that resembled the one that the tall man was wearing. Sidney Blitz put the card in his pocket, glancing down briefly, and when he looked back up, the tall man was gone. “Did you see that?” Sidney Blitz said to the pleasant young woman at the check-in desk. Now it was her brow that wrinkled. “That guy was here and then he vanished,” Sidney Banes said. “Maybe he was  a magician.” Her brow unwrinkled. “Mr. Blitz,” she said, “it’s time to go back to your room.” A man appeared and took Sidney Blitz by the arm. “Let’s do this,” the man said. “You have to take your medicine and then we can watch boxing and sit in the garden. Pills and thrills and daffodils, man. Pills and thrills and daffodils.”

©2020 Ben Greenman/Stupid Ideas