Now You See It by Richard Matheson Read Free Book Online

said. “The Great Delacorte has been a star for almost twenty years—as his father was before him. The Great Delacorte springs from a half-centurytradition of art and craft. Like his father, The Great Delacorte has been honored before crowned heads of Europe.
    “Yet you ask him now to entertain a herd of sheep. A gathering of dolts whose greatest passion lies in feeding coins to slot machines. The Great Delacorte has been acclaimed. Respected. Celebrated. World renowned.”
    The voice of the head was venomous now, charged with hatred.
    “Did you really think,” it said, “that The Great Delacorte would display his wonders
on the bottom of an ornamented garbage can?”
    It may have been my most frustrating moment in those fourteen years—a desperate yearning to applaud with hands that lay like sides of beef on my lap.
    Harry had been stunned into silence; even anger was unavailable to him, he was so shocked.
    Then anger started rising.
    “Did you ask—” He broke off, furious; he had begun to ask a question of the head.
    Turning sharply to Max, he demanded, “Did you ask me all the way up here to have this
goddam gizmo
tell me off?”
    “In part,” said Max.
    The answer drifted over Harry’s head as he stormed on. “You knew before I came that you were going to say no, didn’t you?”
    Max didn’t answer. He depressed a button on the remote control and the outer layer of the globe glided back into place. Max returned the box to his pocket.
    Harry was in a rage now. “You had no intention of taking the Vegas job!” he railed. “Of letting Cassandra even try to help you, much less share co-billing! Or of improving your goddam act one goddam little bit!”
    With a grimace of disgust, he turned abruptly for the table by the chair. “Thanks to you, I’ve got a nice long, time-wasting ride back to Boston now,” he snarled.
    “What you, euphemistically, refer to as ‘the Vegas job’ consists of second billing in a downtown burlesque show,” said Max.
    “We take what we can get, babe,” Harry muttered, starting to return the contracts to his attaché case.
    “Like
Magic Max
, the half-wit host on the TV kiddie show?” Max asked. (That would have made me groan if I could have; I’d never heard about it.)
    “It was good money,” Harry snapped. “If you had any brains, you’d have grabbed it.”
    “Like ‘Delacorte’s Dandy Magic Kit’ for preschool toddlers?” Max responded.
    “It was good money, pal.” (Dear God
, hit
him, Max!
my brain cried.)
    Harry slammed shut his attaché case, then tossed it on the chair, turning to confront Max.
    “I’ve got news for you,” he said. (The man actually
sneered
as he spoke.) “Maybe you haven’t figured it out yet, but The Great Delacorte has
had
it. In touch with the fucking mysterious has had it. People wanna
laugh
today. Have fun. Be entertained.”
    “Yucks?”
asked Max.
    “You got it.”
    “Shtick?”
    “Right on.”
    “Razzmatazz?”
    “Now you’re talking.” Harry was still sneering.
    “How about changing the name of the act to
Necromancy and Knockers?”
Max suggested.
“Bewitchment and Boobs? In Touch with the Mammaries?”
    “Right!”
Harry shouted.
    “Wrong!” Max shouted back.
    “Well, set me straight, O Great and Glorious Delacorte,” Harry derided.
    Max had to smile at Harry’s words. “That, I fear, would take an act of God,” he said.
    Harry made a contemptuous sound and started for the desk. Max moved to block his way—with an energy unexpected by me as well as by Harry. “Listen to me!” he said.
    Harry looked at him suspiciously but wouldn’t stop to listen; he started to move by Max, who clamped a hand on his arm with a grip so strong it made Harry wince.
“Listen to me, I said,”
Max told him.
    “I thought you were sick,”
Harry said.
    “That is the effect I have created, yes,” Max responded. (My attention, now, was
really
caught.)
    Harry’s eyes had narrowed.
“What?”
he said.
    “Here is the