“If I were to discover the meaning of life, it’s quite possible that I would hate it, and if I were given any destiny, I might as well just throw it back out of curiosity; and, if I was told how to live forever, I’d probably achieve it, and then I’d probably spend forever wondering on about whether it was worth it. So, perhaps it’s best that the great elixir of life is far more elusive than I am clever. I dare say, nothing worth achieving is ever achievable anyway.”

That’s how the mind of a magician works. That’s how the gears turn and the knobs whiz and the panels grow razor hot in overheat. Magicians aren’t the most ambitious of sorts, and hardly do they ever excel. A magician doesn’t much care for success, and perhaps cares even a smudge less about money. They are the gypsy woman standing in the old stone doorway, the beggar rattling a cup on the corner of Whitterby, the young madam who owns the bookshop on S. Westbrook, that mysteriously you only stumble across at night, and that gentleman who attends late evening clean up to only gaze out the 100th story window, smoking a cigarette that has long fallen out of style. Magicians don’t bother in pleasantries, and are neglectful of their appearance and not the least bit concerned of your opinions. They have glazed gazes, wild hair, and often carry or wear a watch that has long stopped working. They are masters in forgetting time.

But magicians do have some talents, though not many that are sought after in the modern world. For starters, magicians are quite good at disappearing. Not vanishing exactly, but slipping away slowly, day by day, as all memory of their existence goes quietly into the repetition of schedule and nine-to-five workdays. Magicians are also very good at magic, naturally, but what is magic to you and what is magic to a magician is up for debate. You could ask them, of course, but magicians are also renown for their ability to avoid conversation. Some have surely escaped with murder without so much of a single court date.

Magicians are around, I believe it safe to say. Though where they are I haven’t the slightest. After all, if there is anything a magician hates more than four walls and a boring lecture, it’s other magicians. And we just haven’t the time for any mischief other than our own. And, if you ever want to meet a magician, don’t bother.

We’ll find you soon enough.