Suddenly, a broad beam of sunshine lit the edge of the lot where the Magnificent van was parked. The sun had punched through the clouds, which were dissipating without having released a drop of rain. A collective sigh of relief went up as the daylight spread and blue skies returned.
Mattie squinted at the trailer. The wind had buffeted it hard, and it looked like one of the lampposts was tilted. Then, beyond that, she spotted something else. “Oh, no!” When the waitress set her plate in front of her, Mattie scooted past her with an apologetic “I’ll be right back.”
A tall, white-haired man with skinny arms was rocking one of the lampposts on the edge of the trailer. The plastic wrap that had protected the post for the last thousand kilometres waved like a banner, smacking the guy in the face. While it was thoughtful that he was trying to prevent the decoration from falling off the trailer, Mattie was horrified at the possibility that it could fall over and crush him. “Stop! Hey, mister, stop!”
He looked up in surprise, like he didn’t expect her to see him. “It’s okay,” Mattie continued. “My friend and I will move it. Thanks for trying to get it back in place, but these suckers weigh a ton. I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” she called as she approached.
The man jumped back, hands out in front of him. Then he ran to a light blue mini truck that had been parked one space over, jumped in, and raced out of the parking lot. Mattie turned her head to avoid the dust and gravel that the spinning tires spat in her face.
She felt a warm hand on her back. “What was that?” Dave asked.
“Somebody noticed that one of my lampposts was sliding off the trailer. He was trying to push it back on all by himself. When I told him to stop, he ran away.”
“That’s weird.”
Mattie walked to the lamppost in question. It overhung the trailer bed by a few inches. She looked at the flapping plastic wrap. The only reason it hadn’t blown away was because one end was caught under the base. She squished it into a ball. “We can rewrap it after lunch. You need to get back to your fans and make some business cards appear in people’s pockets.”
Dave took her hand and gave it a supportive squeeze. “Let’s get washed up and have those BLTs. My fans were also asking about your trailer, wondering if it was some kind of Christmas float. They wanted to know if there was a parade they were missing.”
She laughed, squeezing his hand in return. “They’re about four months early for the Christmas parade. I’m just glad they didn’t recognize it from Virginia’s podcast.”
Chapter 6
Dave
“To the left.” Mattie shouted directions with confidence, a huge change from the timid way she’d handled the Santa’s Village pieces only two days ago. Dave liked the confidence. Then he shoved as instructed, and the heavy lamppost base slid between the two others that had been rearranged on the trailer to keep them from shifting again in the future. “Perfect. That’s the last one.”
Dave thought they’d done a decent job of checking the trailer before they left the campground, but a morning of starts and stops had jolted everything out of position. With this last adjustment, Dave was certain it would all stay in position for the last leg of their trip.
He tightened the straps on one side while Mattie worked her way down the other. “You didn’t say—did you get any more party bookings from anybody in the restaurant?” she asked.
He grinned. “Only a baseball banquet the last weekend of October after fall ball ends.”
“Terrific!” she cheered. “Now all you need to do is fill in a couple gaps on your calendar, and you’ll be booked for the next three months. You’re going to be on the road a lot, though.”
“Most magicians are. That’s what the Magnificent van is for.” The new bookings were a mixed blessing for him. All work was good. Still, Dave wasn’t sure if these new jobs would be enough to support himself, or if he was setting himself up to starve slowly.
They met at the rear of the trailer. Mattie’s Christmastown banner was kinked and folded. She quickly untwisted it and tied it flat. “You’ll never know unless you try.”
Her encouragement reinforced the momentum he was feeling. Dave had already booked himself shows in September and October, and he hadn’t even made it to his biggest gig yet. He couldn’t quit now.
The next four hours of their trip went by in a blink. Mattie took one of his earlier comments to heart and investigated his social media situation. All Dave had done so far was set up a one-page website with an email and a lonely Insta page with four posts. She was so horrified that she decided to give his online advertising a jumpstart from the passenger seat.
Mattie claimed his phone, opened his Notes app, and together they’d spent three hundred kilometres compiling lists of anybody who would hire a magician. Dave considered most of the options to be less likely than winning the lottery, but his cautious attempts to rein Mattie in went unnoticed.
“I don’t think retirement homes are my target market,” he protested.
“They hire entertainment all the time. A lot of places have weekly events. If you get in with one company, you’ll have an in for all their properties. All it’ll cost you is time and an email,” Mattie insisted, adding it to her list.
Dave gave her the side eye when she said, “Since you’re already doing one baseball banquet, you can add all the other local baseball teams. You can contact football and hockey clubs too for their fundraisers and banquets.”
“Mattie—”
“But hold off until after your shows in Hopewell. I’m going to take some videos so you have some good online content for people to watch. We should probably make an introductory video too.”
“Mattie, you don’t have to do all of that.”
“I don’t mind. I want to. I like this stuff. I’m doing it on my time, so it’s not like it’s interfering with work.”
