The Elephant Vanishes

The announcement in the paper states that Hector Bowen, better known as Prospero the Enchanter, entertainer and stage magician of great renown, died of heart failure in his home on the fifteenth of March. It goes on about his work and his legacy for some time. The age listed is erroneous, a detail few readers perceive. A short paragraph at the end of the obituary mentions that he is survived by a daughter of seventeen years of age, a Miss Celia Bowen. This number is more accurate. There is also…

She chuckled, “Barry’s here?” “Yeah, the short white guy with the Afro wig dancing by himself like he’s Donna Summers, babe.” She remembers the short white guy with the Afro dancing by himself, like a disco queen. “That’s Barry?” “He did some acting in college, heard they let him play Dorothy in ‘The Wiz.’ --Heard he was pretty good. -- Barry thinks being a spy is like being on Broadway, just one immense musical comedy. When you think about it, I can see that.” “Till you get captured or killed…