Dames and Gents: Puppets and Puppeteers

“Where is the coin!?” he yells to the audience that surrounds him. He smiles as he sees the small group of children in front of their parents; they giggle as they anticipate where the coin may be at. A magician is giving the crowd his usual routine of the “Disappearing Coin”, at a busy sidewalk in New York City. He puts his hand behind a little boy’s ear and makes a coin appear from thin air. “Is this your coin?” he asks the little boy. The boy is in shock and nods his head excitedly. Indeed, it is his coin. The crowd applauds him, and throw their money into his bucket. “Thank you, everybody. My name is Yenzi. Please tell you friends about me.” He waves and then bows as the crowd begins to disperse. “Good trick, but that is child’s play!” a man yells from the crowd. “I wanna see actual magic,” he demands. “Sir, what you see is what you get,” Yenzi says. “I will drop a one hundred dollar bill, for a better magic trick,” the man says as he holds up the bill. The crowd gasps. Yenzi stays still for a second. He wipes his nose and then begins. “Ladies and gents! If you can gather around once again! Here with me, is a yellow chip. Now, I will make this yellow chip disappear from my hand and make it appear six feet away from me,” he yells. * * * * * * Four hours later, Yenzi is arriving home with one hundred dollars in his pocket and some Vietnamese take out in his hand. As he stand in front of his apartment door, digging in his pockets for his keys, he feels that he is being watched by someone. He looks around his surroundings, but sees no one; he only sees the tenant in the building next to his, through the hallway window. The tenant is a woman with brown hair and pale skin, opening the door to welcome home her husband and little girl from a long day. For most people the sight is lovely, but for Yenzi, the sight is a bit nauseating. It reminds him of his crappy days with his terrible father who saw him as a mistake. He brushes that thought away and turns towards his door. He finds his keys, unlocks the door, and goes inside. He puts his keys and dinner on his coffee table, sits on his couch and turns on the television. As he skims through the channels, he decides to eat his dinner. Nothing good is on. Just the usual celebrity gossip; however, when he goes to the news channel, there is interesting talk about the country and how the economy is decent. Yenzi laughs at this: last time he remembers, the economy is such a disaster that he couldn’t land a job that involved computer science. Then again, it’s not like he wanted a job in that boring field. The art of conning has always been his love and passion. He continues to eat when he hears about a Mexican diplomat talking about his country’s alliance with the United States. Yenzi recognizes the man: 3 years ago, he was a part of a rumor that claimed that he was having an affair with some mystery woman. The woman never showed her face nor did she ever make a statement, in regards to the affair. Most people would assume that she must be laying low, to avoid embarrassment and scrutiny, but Yenzi believes she must have been hired to createa diversion. Most people didn't realize that gossip had overshadowed the deficit that Mexico had undergone at that time. “In other news, police are still looking for a woman that mysteriously disappeared a year ago. The woman’s name is Rebecca Maldin, she was last seen at a club around SoHo,” said the news anchor. Yenzi checks his watch. It’s a quarter past seven. “f*****g s**t! I’m going to be late!” He exclaims. He gets up and he rushes to get ready for work. After a quick shower, as he gets ready, he can’t decide how to dress his hair tonight. He grabs his favorite coin from his night stand, and flips it. “Heads for slick hair. Tails for wild hair,” he looks at his results and smiles.