Making a Scene

Tobias walked straight to the teacher’s desk and stood in front of it, where he smiled at all the students.  They stared back, silent and suspicious. For once the class was full; everyone was there as if by accident.

“Hello everyone! My name is Tobias Clark and I’m a magician.” He put his paper bag on the floor, taking no notice of the teacher who continued to stand by the open door.

“I’m looking for a young assistant for my show this summer, and, if any one of you is interested and perhaps would like to stay even after that to be a part of our small magical community, there is a good chance we can provide employment.” Tobias continued to smile at a sea of disbelieving faces.

A few students laughed, and then Shaggy spoke.

“Who the hell would join up with you?”

Tobias didn’t respond to these rude words or the sarcastic tone Shaggy delivered almost up in his face. Shaggy was sitting in the third row, in the middle of the classroom with five of his gang members sitting around him. From this position he controlled the entire class.

“Now, I would like to present my magic, and I’d like to show you something you’ve never experienced before,” Tobias continued in the same unaffected tone.

“Nobody cares!” Shaggy announced to all present.

“I need only one of you to say the word that you’re interested in me showing you my tricks.” Tobias spoke like a circus director announcing a new act to his audience, and then he then turned to look out over the class, listening for the slightest little “yes.”

“I said, nobody cares, dumb-ass!” Shaggy was keenly aware that he was being ignored by Tobias.

The rest of the class was instantly silent, and the teacher edged behind her desk. Tobias, however, was still standing there, listening for a yes with his hand to his ear as if that would help him hear better, still smiling happily.

“What the…? You idiot, no one’s interested in you. GET LOST!” Shaggy shouted.

Tobias acted as if he were paying no attention to Shaggy, and it became obvious that Shaggy had to do something to not lose face in front of all the others. He stood up aggressively, ready to throw Tobias out of the room. Then suddenly…

“I’m interested,” a small voice piped up.

Shaggy swirled around. That voice came from the far back corner of the classroom, from a place no one expected. Shaggy almost turned white from both anger and fear. He had lost respect by being challenged by another kid in his class, but there was more to it than that. Patrick Lindy had spoken, a shy black boy, not as muscular as Shaggy and perhaps a year or two younger.

If it hadn’t been for Tobias’ reaction, the situation would have gotten ugly right then.

“Right! Ladies and gentlemen! I will now present to you the basketball trick,” Tobias announced, and Shaggy had to swirl around once more because again he was taken by surprise.

Tobias bent down, and from his paper bag he took out a basketball and held it high so everybody could see.

“This is an ordinary basketball, with no strings attached,” he said and dribbled the ball a couple of times loudly.

“You, young man—I need you as a volunteer to check this out. Please come forward; don’t be afraid,” Tobias continued as he picked up the ball and placed it under his arm. With his other arm stretched out, he invited Shaggy to come forward.

Now things were really getting out of hand—the situation was close to exploding. Shaggy’s gang didn’t know what to do; they’d never seen their leader be ignored before, and Tobias being so strange made them more than confused. So they kept quiet and still in the background, waiting for someone else to make the next move.

The most bizarre element was Patrick, the child who dared to speak up.

Patrick was a loner who took no part in any gang. His parents had been drug dealers, but now they were dead, executed to end a gang war when he was still a baby. He was now living with an old aunt and uncle in a small apartment in one of the worst housing projects around. He was rarely there; he visited for food sometimes, and clothes, and no one knew how he got on by himself.

When Patrick first started at the school a certain group of older boys caught him alone and bullied him in the alleys behind the main building. Their taunting had escalated for a couple of weeks to them trying to attack him in front of everyone in the main hall. Patrick had escaped by running away, proving that he was quick even if he was small.

The next day Patrick didn’t show up at school, but one of the boys who had been bullying him was also missing, and the rest of the group had no idea what had happened to him. The day after that yet another bully went missing. And the day after that, a third boy who had harassed Patrick was found nearby, having been badly beaten. He wouldn’t say what had happened to him, but everyone knew Patrick was somehow involved.

So far the leader of the bullies had been spared, but he was the last remaining with the beaten boy. It seemed obvious that the nastiest boys who had bullied Patrick had been kept till last.

The body of the beaten-up boy was found the following day, close to home in an alley; no one admitted to having seen it happen. The police said his neck had been broken by a single, heavy strike, and that no adult hand had delivered that unusual, fatal blow.

That afternoon the leader left town with his little brother.  A week later Patrick began school again as if nothing had happened. Rumors, however, told that the leader and his brother didn’t make it to whatever safe place they’d been heading toward; they had been beaten to death, and their killer had not been found.

A year later, everyone, even Shaggy, kept their distance from Patrick, who fueled his own isolation by keeping to himself. But now Patrick had spoken.

Shaggy was being pressured from in front and behind; he was trapped. Tobias applauded him as if he were coming forward bravely from the circus stands, but Shaggy didn’t move and he didn’t look the least bit amused. Neither did anyone else, except one: Patrick.

Shaggy’s gang watched for any move from Patrick or Tobias. Patrick seemed pleased. Tobias still acted like he was having fun.

Shaggy looked like he was about to rise, but the first to move was Tobias who thrust the basketball forward suddenly, letting it hang in the air between himself and Shaggy. Nothing seemed to be attached to the ball, and Tobias moved his hands around it to show that nothing indeed was holding that ball up.

“Ladies and gentlemen! This ball is now locked in space, related to the coordinates of this room, and cannot be moved. The trick is how to lock and unlock the ball from its position.”

The class turned dead silent. Shaggy halted and stared Tobias in the eyes—he now, finally, had gotten Tobias’ full attention. But something had changed in those eyes.  They were no longer laughing.

Shaggy felt like screaming in fear and frustration, but of course he couldn’t in front of the class. What he could do was punch that stupid basketball out the air and, yes, out of this room if necessary. Assembling all his strength, Shaggy swung an arm back and hit the ball with a powerful blow.

The class heard only one arrested sound from the impact, and then a suppressed scream of pain leaking out from Shaggy. The ball didn’t move an inch, but his arm had kicked back hard in pain.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! You have now witnessed the power of the universe and that you can place anything in space like this, if you know the trick, that is,” Tobias exclaimed in a more serious tone.

He put his hands around the ball and twisted it loose from space, then moved it two feet away to his left and let it lock into space there. The ball was hanging, fixed in the air like before, and Tobias happily urged Shaggy to have another try hitting it.

Ignoring his aching arm and hand, in defiance Shaggy tried to stare Tobias down. But Tobias’ eyes now had become deeper, and they only reflected. Shaggy felt those eyes in front of him like solid rock. He backed off two steps in panic, and from in under his jacket he drew a gun.

There were screams, and most students, including the teacher, ducked under their desks for protection.

Tobias didn’t move an inch; he stood firm as Shaggy pointed his gun straight at him. Shaggy’s gang were scared too, but they didn’t hide; they had been frozen stiff by Shaggy’s panic.

Patrick back in his corner didn’t hide either, and he didn’t seem frightened by the gun. Instead he studied the situation, which made Shaggy’s gang even more uncomfortable.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Anything, guns included, can be locked into space,” Tobias proudly announced.

Then Tobias made a quick gesture with his hand, and Shaggy pulled the trigger.

…

To be continued next Friday.