"A magician?" she repeats.
"Uh-huh."
"You mean, like David Copperfield?"
"Well, not nearly as rich or famous, but you've got the point."
"Woah. Sounds like a cool thing to do for a living."
He shrugs. "It has its pluses and minuses, like everything else. But I can't complain. It's what I wanted to do since I was a kid, that time when my aunt took me to the fair and a magician cut her head off."
"Ouch. Poor thing."
He leans his head back against the headrest, watching the car's hood swallow the dashes of the highway one after another. "You wouldn't believe just how real it looked. Her head actually flew off her body, dropped into a basket. It was mind-blowing. I became obsessed with finding out how he'd done that. And thirty years down the line here I am, traumatizing kids in my turn."
She smiles. "So, now you've figured how it was done?"
"I guess so. I've learned a couple ways. But I will never know for sure: aunt Amy always refused to say anything about it, and now she's gone."
"Oh. I'm sorry about that."
"Thank you. She had a long and happy life, anyway. It was just her time."
He goes silent after that. Before the silence stretches too long, she says: "You know what? I have a similar story, too. Something that's been bugging me in the back of my mind for ages. Maybe you can finally help me with that."
"What is it?"
"A trick I watched when I was about eight or nine, at my bestie's birthday bash. They'd hired one of those small-time clown-magicians. Nelle - my friend - she was into this kind of things back then. The guy was nothing special anyway, his tricks were old and uninspired, even as a little girl I could tell as much. But the finale was something else. He had Nelle's mother sit on a chair, while us kids formed a circle around it. Then he covered her with a large piece of cloth. You could still make out her form pretty well, though. She never seemed to move. Then he just yanked the cloth away and - voilà - the chair was empty! Nelle's mom was absolutely nowhere to be seen, it was as if she'd just vanished into thin air."
"Come on, that's an easy one."
"Is it? I almost fought with my friend over that trick."
"The chair is rigged. There's some kind of a pop-up helmet thing that simulates a person's head. Your friend's mother had vanished through a trapdoor long before the magician unveiled the chair."
"A trapdoor? In Nelle's garden? Nah, I don't think so."
"There are variations, but the principles remain the same. I can do much better. I don't even need to cover my assistant beforehand, I just snap my fingers and she disappears right before your eyes."
"Woah, seriously? I'd love to see that."
"I can do it right here and now, if you want."
"Erm... thanks a lot, but, I'd rather you watched the road."
"My eyes won't leave the road. Just a snap of my fingers, and you'll be vanished."
"What? Me?"
"Of course. Who else? Surely I can't vanish myself."
"But..." She frowns. "I don't understand. If I'm the one to vanish, how am I supposed to see it happen?"
"You won't. Here's what we'll do: I'm going to wait, let's say, ten minutes before I bring you back. From your perspective, those ten minutes will pass in the blink of an eye. So if you look at the time, you'll know the trick will have worked. How's that sound?"
She shakes her head, slowly. "Weird. Totally weird. But, whatever, I'm in."
"Great. Tell me then: what time is it?"
She checks the dashboard. "Four sixteen."
He snaps his fingers. She - every visible, unclothed part of her - disappears abruptly, almost like a bad video edit. Her clothes don't. For a split second they remain suspended mid-air, retaining the forms of her body. Then they collapse, empty, on the seat.
Exactly ten minutes later, he snaps his fingers again. She reappears, completely naked, her position and expression unchanged from before.
He side-glances at her, and smirks. "What time is it now?"
Her eyes are still on the dashboard's clock, which says it's four twenty-six. She blinks repeatedly, then snorts. "That's it? Well, I'm sorry, but... that's not very impressive. You obviously just changed the time by pressing a hidden button or something."
"Really? Why don't you check your own watch, then?"
She looks down at her wrist, only to find it bare. That's when she realizes the rest of her is bare, too.
"Wait - what the hell happened to my clothes?"
"You're sitting on them."
"Huh?" She twists and shifts in her seat, reaching under her butt. "Hey... you're right. But, how come? What the hell's going on here?"
"My bad: I omitted to tell you that my magic only works on people's bodies. In the strict sense. So when I vanished you, your clothes were left behind. That's what happened."
He gets no immediate reply: she's found her wristwatch and is staring at it. "Dammit. You're not lying... you really vanished me."
"Mm-hmm."
"How did you do that? You're a wizard or something?"
"Something."
"Damn. That's the most amazing thing ever happened to me."
"Glad you liked it."
"I can't say I like losing my clothes, though."
"Why? You have a flawless body. Besides, when a girl gives me head I want to see all of her."
She raises a brow. "Excuse me? What makes you think I'll give you head?"
"I don't know. I guess I'm a bit of a mind reader, too."
She studies his face, trying to decide whether he is serious or not. Her eyes then travel down to his visibly bulging crotch. "A man of many talents, are you?" she asks with a half smile.
He says nothing.
Biting her lip, she leans over him and reaches between his legs. "Alright, Mr. Wizard." His cock is in her grip, and she speaks into it, like a microphone. "You showed me your magic. Now let me show you a bit of my own."