*Cough* *cough*

  “Aw shit, not again” Zelig like always, had managed to get himself into unwanted situations like walking into a soot area.

  “Marie’s gonna kill me!” Zelig was in a deep panic, he knew that she would ask for notes in return, Zelig was dead broke.

  But just in case, like checking an ice cabinet for food, Zelig looked for notes in his pocket anyways.

  He spots a woman with a purse, and decides to at least pay back Marie for the shirt.

  “Good morning ma’am”

  “Good day to you young man”

  Zelig pulls a makeshift wand out of his pocket.

  “Would you like to see a magic trick? Only two notes!”

  The lady seems to contemplate on whether this is some street gig or a scam. Her eyes seem to drift off before abruptly snapping back to Zelig.

  “Alright, show me this trick young man.” The lady says with an intrigued voice.

  “Look at my hand, you see the handkerchief? Now you don’t” Zelig flips the handkerchief to the back of his hand making it disappear from the line of sight of the lady, all the while his hand digs in her purse for some notes.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Oh, quite the trick young man, thank you.” She reaches into her bag and give two notes to Zelig.

  “Quite the score” He mutters to himself, while looking at two one mark notes, and five ten mark notes that he swiped from the bag during the trick.

  Zelig manages to make it to the Row after a tiring walk, and looks up.

  “Some day… I’ll make it up there, I’ll live in the shining city and Marie wont have to slave away at laundry anymore.”

  Zelig, with a boost of energy dashes home, towards 37 Arbor street.

  Zelig makes it to the road, but suddenly the wind rushed towards his face, and the ground seems to get closer.

  “Get out of the way young man!”

  Zelig manages to bounce out of the street just in time.

  “Who pushed me! Show yourself coward!”

  No one seems to look at Zelig, but after a bit of sitting on the bench he finally calms down.

  “If I had magic, I could have blasted away the guy who pushed me.” Zelig muttered angrily.

  Zelig hops back on his feet and walks home, drained of energy.

  “Hey Marie…”

  “Don’ t you know how long it took me to clean your damn shirt the last time you got it full of soot! I keep telling you to not walk near the burning rings!”

  Zelig walks towards Marie and gives her thirty-two of the fifty-two mark notes that he had in his pocket as an apology.

  “Did you steal this money?”

  “No, I did a magic trick.”

  Marie looks at Zelig with an angry scrunched face.

  “You could get us imprisoned you idiot! Don’t lie to me! Especially me! I’m your sister! I’ve raised you since!… Since…” Marie pauses to ruminate. “I can’t talk about this right now, just… go to your bed and sleep, you need I need to work.”

  “I’m sorry sis’” Zelig goes to hug Marie, and goes upstairs, and falls asleep as soon as he hits the makeshift bed.

  “Zelig… Zelig wake up.”

  “Wake up Zelig.”

  Zelig couldn’t move, he was too tired, and couldn’t see who was beckoning to him from across the room.

  When he looked at the corner of the room rays of light shone, bright strobes illuminating down to the cones that perceive colors in the eyes, stinging his optic nerve.

  He looked up, and the sky was purple, beneath him was purple sand.

  “…Where… Am I?”