Mr.Liu, the Magician

Everyone in childhood, are rich in time, squandered indiscriminately also can not make the end. Sometimes I was bored at home, or my father thought I was too rowdy, and sent me out to play, I couldn't help but go to the street corner close to home, to see Quick Hand Liu perform a trick.

The fast-handed Liu is a big fat man who sells candy from a stall on the ground. He has a small wooden box painted green on his back, where the stall will be placed on the wooden box there. The box on the top of a horizontal wooden board full of holes, the holes inserted a row of cheap and ruddy yellow lollipops. His trick is to attract children to buy candy, the trick is very simple, commonly known as "small bowl buckle ball". A piece of silk-like yellow cloth laid on the ground, two small white porcelain tea bowls, four large red glass balls dripping children, this is no ordinary three props, but he became a ghost. He held a tea bowl in each hand, you clearly see two red balls buckled under each bowl, you did not even blink, hey! Four balls actually all run to a tea bowl under the side, did the ball from the ground to the past? He thus turned the two bowls over and over, while shouting, pointing to the east hand, west blowing a breath, as if there is really some invisible gods to do his helpers, the four little balls come and go, it is impossible to guess where they are. This trick is more difficult than the magic on the stage, the stage only one side to the audience, the street magic, front and back around a circle of people, people's eyes from all directions, easy to see the flaw. Once, I saw with my own eyes that he moved his fingers quickly and put a ball under the bowl to hold it, so I couldn't help but shout: "Under the bowl on the right, I saw it!" "You saw it?" Racer Liu's big bright eyes flashed at me in surprise, followed by a serious tone to me, "No way! You have to say it correctly. Guess wrong and you have to buy my candy." "Okay! I'm right!" I saw it with my own eyes, so I was sure. Confidence made my voice very loud.

Who knew that Quick Liu laughed and suddenly turned the right side of the tea bowl over: "See, where is it?" Huh, how there is nothing under the bowl? Only the mouth of the bowl pressed on the yellow cloth a rounded imprint.

Did the ball from the ground into the left side of the bowl underneath it. Racer Liu seems to know how I guessed, reached out and lifted the left side of the tea bowl, the same nothing! Balls are flying? I saw him put two empty bowls together, raised above his head, mouth: "Come!" Hands a shake the tea bowl, inside a surprising clatter, open the bowl to see, four balls actually appeared again in the bowl. Strange, strange, strange!

The four sides of the people around to watch a cry of surprise.

"Well, you lost, right? But in my loss will not be punished, buy a piece of candy to eat. This sugar is pure sugar boiled, eating sugar alone is not a loss." I was ashamed of my face hot, in the crowd's laughter bought a piece of candy, standing in the back of the circle of people to go. From now on I only stand at the back to watch, and no longer dare to squeeze to the front to talk too much. His tricks, in my eyes is really amazing. This man is also one of my childhood really admire.

He was just over 40 years old, it was just strong, full of spirit, heavy meat, heavy muscle, white teeth and red lips, black eyebrows like painted with a brush. He squatted there like a standing white elephant. While juggling, while selling candy, shiny and protruding eyes look around, to take care of eight; full of mouth can not stop telling amusing jokes; a pair of fat hands, finger belly round, but the rotation of flexible, the four small balls in these hands flicker. I had a strange thought at the time: his hands seemed to be double-layered, and the little balls were hidden in the sandwich at times. Alas, the thoughts of childhood will not be repeated now.

This unusually agile hand is probably the origin of his nickname "Fast Hand Liu". He also called himself that, so that no one in the area where we lived did not know his name. I spent many hours of my childhood in the most simple and never-ending earth tricks, in the mystery that has never been solved, and in his unpredictable and fascinating pair of quick hands. How much curious pleasure he gave me!

The people and things that accompanied my childhood always fade away with it. I didn't often see Racer Liu after I went to middle school. I just occasionally bumped into him when I passed by the street corner. He is still the same impulsive change "small bowl buckle", beside a small green wooden box full of lollipops. At this point I am already an educated middle school student, no longer imagine his hands as a double, but still can not see the half of the flaw, can not help but stand there, watching with interest for a while. I dare say that the best plays in the world, even Ibsen and Shakespeare, could not make me watch them hundreds of times.

I went to high school in a foreign country. When people leave, the childhood and youth left behind in my hometown is like a closed book. The beautiful stories, intimate characters, and sweet and intoxicating scenes of the past are like fresh flower petals caught in the pages of a book, and then turned into dried up memories. Who can bring back everything from the past? That deceased grandmother, the best friend who did not know where to go, mom's dark curly hair, long lost those beautiful books, that ran lost blue-eyed little white cat ...... and fast Liu.

In the summer of my sophomore year of high school, I went home for vacation. One day in the street not far from home to see more than ten children around what shouting and screaming. When I got closer, my heart pounded, and it was Racer Liu! He was still selling candy and juggling, but he had changed a lot. 10 years had passed since I saw him, and he seemed to have spent 20 years. The appearance is close to the old man. The wooden box beside him alone, with some forlorn look. It is broken, black, sticky, can not see a little of the previous pleasant green. The hole on the horizontal board to insert the sugar, over the years to the stick of bamboo stabbed large, inserted in the upper side of the stick of sugar east and west. Look at him, the shoulders, back, stomach, arms where the meat has gone, the full curve is gone, under the clothes everywhere protruding sharp bone shape; face plate seems to be a small circle, eyes no light, more than when the left and right, the spirit of the flow of light. I was particularly moved by the hands - he clearly had a new pair of hands!

The back of the hands are sinewy, black fingers around a circle of wrinkles, as if spitting out the silk and crumpled down the old silkworm ...... So, all the mysterious atmosphere and the great skills of the year are gone from these hands. He grabbed the two bowls have been touched the ragged tea bowl, clumsily turned around; the four little red balls, a moment headless bump on the edge of the bowl, a moment to fall from the hands. His hands are not working! The children called out, "There are the balls!" "In his hand!" "It's in your hand!" "It's between your fingers!" In this shout, he panicked, his hand became more and more incompetent, shaking so much that he himself did not know where the balls were. No wonder there were only a few children around to watch.

"In his hand, yes! Never under the bowl!" A fat kid with a bald head shouted.

I also clearly see, in the fast hands Liu buckle over the tea bowl, the ball on the ground to take in the hands.

This movement is slow and sluggish, the mistake is very obvious. The kids were clamoring for Racer Liu to open his hands, but Racer Liu's hands were touching tightly, and he smiled awkwardly at the kids. This smile, full of wrinkles are squeezed together, as if a crumpled paper ball. He almost said in a pleading tone: "It's in the bowl! I don't have anything in my hand. ......" Where would the godlike Racer Liu speak in such a tone? These childish and serious children did not relent, and had to ask Racer Liu to open his hand. He can not open his hand, hand an open, everything is finished. I really don't want to see this wretched, confused, helpless dilemma of Racer Liu. How I hope he is like the time when I made a smart move and exposed him, forcing him to show an elusive trick, the ball suddenly disappeared and came. If he makes that trick again, these kids who don't know any better will appreciate the real fast hands Liu, jaw dropping how good! But he is old, no longer will have that flowery years and years.

I walked into the middle of the children and pointed my hand at the wooden box beside Racer Liu and said, "You are all wrong, the ball is on this box!" The children were baffled by my sudden words. They all looked at the wooden box, and at that moment, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Racer Liu tucking the ball in his hand under the bowl with as much speed as possible.

"Where's the ball?" The kids asked me.

Racer Liu smilingly turned over the tea bowl on the floor and said, "Look, it's right here! How about, you are wrong, buy a piece of sugar, this sugar is pure sugar boiled, eat sugar alone is not a loss." The children were fooled and stopped shouting. One or two children paid for the candy, and the rest dispersed.

Then only I was left with Racer Liu, who had emerged from the predicament. He certainly did not know me. He frowned at the white, weathered face and gray eyes full of questions, he obviously did not understand why I, a strange young man to help him a little.