His name was Alister Spade, and he was 17. His black, ashy hair was long and wavy, and his eyes were a vivid shade of viridian. He wore a pair of raggedy jeans, and a black button-up shirt, with blue suspenders. It was a bog-standard appearance for a boy living in the no-nonsense, no-news, no-future town of Vale. Yet Alister did have one extraordinary trait– he was a quite fantastical stage magician. As a matter of fact, he was the only one of any note in Vale. In particular, he was a real whiz-kid when it came to cardistry. He would collect a considerable sum of donations from passersby who saw him perform. Though perhaps in any city, his skills would still hold attention.

It was Tuesday, March seventeenth, nineteen-fifty-two. It was fifty-eight degrees outside, and Alister was sitting at his usual spot, the corner of Prism and Second Street. The bench he sat on was usually in front of a decent passing crowd, but today was quiet. It had been about an hour, and only three people had passed by, not one of which taking interest in Alister’s usual performance. Alister didn’t want to go home yet, as doing so meant he was to be subjected to menial house chores. The repetitive, dull tasks which he despised intensely, and kept him out of the house. Alister’s payment to his parents as compensation for lacking a real job was a share of his earnings. And he wasn’t about to come home empty handed.

After a few more minutes of waiting, Alister decided he had enough. He started wandering around the other streets, looking for a new crowd. Either that or whoever was sapping him of his usual audience. He later found himself in the middle of Stout Street. He managed to catch the eye of a few strangers heading out of the florist’s shop beside him. Alister smirked.

“Showtime.” He thought. From his back pocket, he pulled out a small, brown leather box. Flipping the lid open, he pulled out his deck of cards. Looking down at the deck, Alister observed a smattering of translucent golden threads that flowed from each card. Each string extended up towards the sky, with no end in sight.

“Excuse me ma’am, but would you name a card, please?” Alister said to a woman in the crowd. The woman abruptly stopped, looking over at Alister. She was wearing a red dress and had curly brown hair.

“Uh– er– 5 of Clubs.” She said. With that, Alister made some dazzling hand movements, flourishing his fingertips. Grasping the thread that connected to the card in question, he twirled it, sending the card out of the deck. It flew in a circle around Alister, before showing its face to the woman, who was seemingly unaware of the strings.

“Wait, is that card floating?”

“It might be, grab it and see.” The woman took the card as prompted, she waved her hands all around it, looking for some sort of thread. Her hands passed through the strand that Alister held. From inside the flower shop, another boy watched Alister continue his performance. He bolted out of the store to join in the small crowd that Alister amassed. Alister continued for a few minutes, wowing more people that came to the florist’s. After he collected the donations from the audience, Alister started to make his way back home.

He didn’t get too far before he heard a bright, cheery voice behind him.

“Those were some really neat tricks!” Alister turned around to see the boy from the florist’s. He had short, tousled hair, which was a peculiar shade of chartreuse, and his eyes were a brilliant blue. He looked a year or two younger than Alister.  

“Oh! Thanks, I’ve been working on them for a while now.”

“I can tell, but where did you get the strings?”