Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26475800-20150720015632

I had looked all my life to find one person who could do the Indian Rope Trick, and it wasn’t long ago that I saw the real thing. There have always been a few who have claimed to be able to do it, they never did it fully, but they claimed that they could do the trick. It was because of this that I traveled to Egypt.

When I had first heard that a magician by the name of Kafta would be performing the trick I was giddy. Every time someone even mentions the trick I get my hopes up, mostly to be let down, that I will see the real thing. So when the news arrived in Rhode Island that he was going to try and do the legendary trick I was sure to be on a plane to see it.

Luckily, I wasn’t alone, one of the people in the magic group I am part of, Josh, decided he would like to see it too. I never take my wife, Barb, or son. Sam, to these places; the stress would be too great on Barb to watch a kid who wanders, in a distant land. But Josh was a good fit to go with me.

It’s strange, this kid is only in his early twenties, had been in magic for a total of fifteen months, and is willing to go all the way across the world to see a trick he knows little about. But I decided it would be better to have someone with me than to go by myself. Besides I like the kid, we really seemed to click when he joined the club three months earlier.

On the plane we talked about what we were going to see, or at least what I hoped we were going to see. Josh had heard a little about it. He saw a few videos on Youtube, read a couple of articles on the subject, but he didn’t really seem to know what it was we were going to see.

“The person who can do this trick will become more famous then David Copperfield, hell, he will be more famous than Harry Houdini,” I tell Josh. “His name will be jotted down in the history books as the best magician who ever lived. Which is why I don’t believe this trick has ever been done. Sure, you hear people talking about it, some even claim to know someone who had seen it. But I haven’t seen it yet and no one I know has. Although, there is a good version by Ishamuddin, but the trick isn’t completed.”

“Wait,” Josh said, “what else is there besides the kid climbing up the rope?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. That was the easy part of the trick, I could figure that out, but the rest is what I wanted to see, what I wanted to know.

“Yes, there’s much more. First the magician makes the rope climb into the sky and the child climbs it only to vanish at the top of the rope. Afterwards, and this is where the story and patter change, but they both claim the same basic thing, his bloody body parts rain from the sky. The magician puts them into a bag or basket and the boy is whole again.”

Josh’s eyes grew wide with wonder, but he frowned and grimaced with disgust at the same time.

“That would be one hell of a trick. But, from what you just said I don’t think anyone could ever do that,” He said.

Seeing as the trick wasn’t going to be performed until the following day, and the day was still rather young, we had some time to get used to Egypt. So we did what any visiting tourist would do, we went to the pyramids.

Once we had gotten into the Great Pyramid I saw something which took me by surprise. I had no knowledge of hieroglyphics but the picture was just so perfect. Carved into the limestone was what I thought the trick we have come here to see would look like.

The picture was of a man standing at the base of what appeared to be a long rope or vine, above him another person was being ripped apart by creatures. Part of this person was falling down to where the man was standing.

I pointed it out to Josh and he agreed that it looked like what we were here to see. My hopes sored and thoughts flooded my mind. Was it possible that we may see the trick in its entirety tomorrow? That I may witness a murder and a resurrection, which is something that no one had seen since the days of Christ, if not before, or ever.

When I got to my room I tried to work on a new trick, but I just couldn’t focus. The picture craved into the chamber wall kept popping into my mind’s eye every few minutes. The detail that had been put into the smaller person being cut into pieces was just as precise as the gods that mutilated him. Whoever had done that carving was putting passion into what he was doing.

We made it in time to still get a rather good view of the trick. It was strange, I was thinking that there would only be a few hundred people, but there was already a few hundred people and the show didn’t start for another two hours. By the time it had, the banks of the Nile were flooded with people. There must have been at least five thousand people and all to see a man that is rather unknown in the magic community, at least in the states he is.

The show wasn’t much of a show. In fact, he didn’t do any other trick than the one we had all come to see. Although, I guess after seeing it, there was nothing else needed. He also lacked the showmanship of any other magician I saw who had used this ploy to get recognition in the past. Most of them would be enthusiastic, this man seemed to be apathetic, bored even. It was all very strange, but then he started and thing had gotten even stranger.

He started by playing a flute and saying something in a language I didn’t understand, which is the same as the magicians I’ve seen in the past do. The rope rose, as I knew it would. There is something else to be said about this part of the trick that was intriguing, he didn’t use a basket; he started by laying the rope on the ground and never moved it from that point forward. He had an older boy, almost a man, climb the rope; this too was different from any version I’ve seen. It was always a young boy, not a man, and this one was in his early twenties or late teens. And that is the last of the similarities of anything I had ever witnessed.

The young man climbed the rope and vanished. For the first time I witnessed a vanishing act, outside, in the air, with no cover. It was disturbing. One minute he was there, the next he wasn’t. At first I thought he had fallen, I just couldn’t see if he had, but there was no screaming from the crowd. He was about twenty feet up so there would have been a lot of screaming for the mangled body at the bottom of the rope. My jaw dropped, Josh was dumbfounded, wide eyes and mouth opened just like me.

It wasn’t long before the screams did start, but I was able to see what caused this. Bloody body parts were raining from the sky near the top of the rope. This was the real deal, the first time, possible ever, someone was doing the real Indian Rope Trick. I started to push my way to the front of the crowd.

Once I got close enough to see what was happening on the sand, the last of the body part fell. It was the man’s head and it bounced off the sand with a sickening thud. The thing looked real enough to me, the way the jaw flew open and slammed shut as it bounced on the ground looked very realistic.

Sure enough he put the parts into a burlap bag, shortly after blood started to seep out the bottom, and in a few minutes the young man scrambled out into the sunlight. He looked dazed, frightened. His breathing was rapid, his eyes were larger than anyone’s should be able to get and once they locked onto the magician he scrambled backwards as quickly as he could, until he gained some footing and ran into the crowd screaming.

The lack of showmanship from the Kafta was made up in spades by his assistant.

A thunderous applause began and the magician turn and tried to get through the crowd. He was unsuccessful, a wall of people stopped him from getting far and the mob quickly surrounded him. He was famous beyond his wildest dreams. This was the man I needed to talk to; one way or another I wasn’t going to leave this land without knowing how he did that trick.

I tried to talk to him, but everyone was talking at once. I can only assume that they were all asking the same question that I had come to ask. There must not have been a person there that didn’t want to know how he had done that trick. The little I could hear him saying over the cacophony always sounded the same, although I couldn’t make it out because of the language barrier.

I fallowed him until he was away from most of the people, which took some time, but I was able to get him to talk to me.

“You have to tell me how you did that,” I said pointblank. “That was the most amazing trick I had ever seen. Tell me how you did it and I will pay you more than you could dream of making here.”

This was a lie, there were plenty of people who could afford to pay him better than I could, but the currency exchange was working in my favor. His response was what I thought it would be.

“You do not want know,” he said in his broken English.

I pushed harder.

“I can not tell you. You ask I say no. No, too dangerous.”

I didn’t let him push me away because he didn’t want to let his secret go so I produced a wad of Egyptian pounds and shoved it at him. “Teach me how you did that.”

“You do not want know.”

“Do you need more cash? I’ll give you more, just teach me.”

At that there was a gleam in his eye. I had him, he would teach me everything I wanted to know if I just kept pushing him.

“I will teach, but do not do trick.”

My heart was a flutter by this news. It didn’t matter how bad his English was, I could learn from watching what he was doing.

However, he didn’t take me to somewhere quiet and tell me the secret, he simply pulled a rolled up piece of paper out of his tunic and placed it in my hand. “This is way,” He said with a smile as he started to walk away once more.

I wanted to chase him down, but he was already gone, lost to the sea of people once more. It didn’t matter, I had what I needed and was happy to see that it was, surprisingly, written in English; well for the most part. There was once section that was written in some other language, which would make since because before that it said to “recite the prayer.” It all seemed very strange, but it was also the first time anyone had done this trick. Maybe it was, in fact, not a trick at all.

I couldn’t wait to tell Josh. I knew it was good that he came, we could do this trick together, and he could be the one that climbs the rope. That would make us known around the world, we would both be rich and famous.

Once I had gotten back to the hotel I found Josh working on his Elmsley count, he was starting to get good at it.

“What the hell man,” he shouted. “Why did you leave me alone out there? I didn’t know where I was or how to get back, it took me hours.”

I know I should have felt bad for what I had done, but I couldn’t. A smile was plastered on my face and it didn’t seem like anything would take it away for a long time.

“Sorry, Josh. But I got it,” I said pulling the rolled up paper out of my jacket pocket.

“What did you get,” he asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

“This is how the trick is done, and I would like you to be my assistant.”

Both of us were so enthusiastic at that moment, Josh agreed quickly and we knew that we would make a lot of money doing this trick. Our dreams have become reality, but these dreams would turn into the darkest nightmares of my life.

I couldn’t stop studying the scroll, the more times I read it the more I tried to understand what it meant. It read:

“To give the gods a worthy subject you will need: 1 30 meter rope, 1 wooden reed flute, and one subject. Play this song (The song was written out in music notes.) Once song is played recite these words: ‘Maiṁ tumhēṁ karanē kē li'ē isa viṣaya, śēvā dē. Apanē upayōga kē li'ē usē svīkāra karatē haiṁ aura mērī vaphādārī svīkāra karēṁ’ (this I had no idea what it said or meant, I had to figure out how to even pronounce it.) If all is done correctly the rope will rise. At that point have your subject climb the rope and he will vanish. When body parts rain down it is advised to put them in a basket and find a different subject.”

When I got home I was so happy to see my wife and son, but I was even happier to show them I was given a scroll that explained how to do the trick, even though at that time I subconsciously knew it wasn’t merely a trick any more.

I started to look for someone would tell me how to pronounce the writing on the notes, but I didn’t even know where to start. I tried at mosques, thinking that it would be some kind of Arabic, but that was a big letdown, same with the Jewish temples. It wasn’t until I thought that it could be Hindu, which I should have thought of before, knowing the name of the trick, that I had gotten my answer.

It was strange, not the Ashram but the monk I had talked to said he would tell me how to pronounce the words but not what they meant. He also advised me not to do what the paper said. He said it was something dark and should be destroyed before anyone had made the mistake of fallowing the instructions. I thought he was just being some strange kind of pious monk who thought magic was evil or work of the devil or whatever the Hindu’s think.

Still, I was starting to have doubts about doing this trick now. Everything seemed to be more than a trick, it was real. The monk was the last thing I needed to push me into knowing that the real secret was that this was not magic, but some kind of prayer. Although, I cannot say I didn’t know subconsciously, but still the allure to be famous throughout the world was far too strong for me to resist trying, at least once.

I got the rope, the flute, and Josh. We were in a field at night so no one would see what we were doing before we were ready to show the world our trick. And everything worked just like I had seen in Egypt. The rope went up to the heavens, Josh climbed up it then vanished, even though I saw this in Egypt it still took me by surprise. Nothing can prepare you to watch someone just blink out of sight with nothing around them. If there was anything else around it could be easy to explain how he had disappeared, but nothing was near him, nothing was able to conceal his whereabouts. It was even more disturbing when his severed bloody body parts started falling from the sky, like a grotesque hail storm.

This, however, was where I had not listened to the scroll and put the parts in a basket. What followed was the most horrendous thing I’ve ever seen. Josh’s mutilated body parts were scattered on the ground, blood soaking into the grass. It was about a minute before his limbs started to move, it started with a finger twitch, then a leg kicked. Until his arms pulled their way back to his torso, reconnecting with wet sucking and popping sounds, his legs came next, then his headless body had gotten on its hands and knees and started groping from the head. Once it found it, it placed it where is should be with that same awful noise.

I had to choke down vomit three times during this process, and once I knew I would be able to control my bodily functions I stood watching without being able to draw a single breath. Tears filled my wide eyes, and I am still uncertain if that was because of what I was seeing or because I was unable to blink.

Once Josh was fully intact he acted just as the other assistant had. Fearful of me and running away screaming. I was so dumbstruck that the only thing I could do was stand in awe. I was amazed that this was real magic and horrified at what I had just done. But it is like a car wreck, you don’t want to see anyone hurt, but you slow down and look all the same. I didn’t want to see anyone hurt, but I had to do this trick one more time, at least once more, just so I could solidify reputation.

I tried to call him the next day but he never answered. It was like that for some time, so I waited till the next time our club had a meeting to talk to him. He wasn’t there. This was becoming worrisome, we only meet once a month and he had never missed a meeting since joining. I drove to his house to talk to him, luckily he was home.

He didn’t want to talk to me at first, but I pushed my way into his house and he finally understood I wouldn’t go away until he would talk to me.

“How are you feeling,” I felt too bad to say anything else. Not for him, but because I had the best trick in the world and no one to help me with it.

“Okay, I been having some wicked nightmares, but besides that I’m okay.”

“Josh, what did you see when you vanished?”

He was quiet for a long time. I didn’t think he was going to answer and was about to ask again when he started to speak.

“I saw God…or Gods. There are more than one out there and they are nothing like what I was taught in church. These things were evil.”

His eyes drifted off again. I didn’t want to break his silence, but I also needed to know more. I needed to know if it was safe to do it again.

“We weren’t created in their image,” He continued. “Some of them looked human, but others don’t resemble anything like humans. Some of them had multiple heads, others were blue and some had multiple arms. I can’t stop dreaming about them. They keep telling me they want you to do the trick again.”

“Would you do it again,” I couldn’t stop from asking.

“No, I can’t. They won’t let me. But you should try again,” his voice was monotone as his gaze locked onto the wall. That look of someone that is looking through something, looking at something which isn’t really there.

“Did any of it hurt?”

His spell broke and he looked at me with a smile.

“I was cut into little pieces, watched it all happen, but somehow…somehow I didn’t feel a thing.”

I left feeling reassured that Josh was just shaken up but he was still alive and healthy. After a few weeks maybe a month or so he will be back to normal. But that was still far too long for me to wait. The world needed to see this trick done well, done with a showmanship which Kafta never had.

The next time I did this trick, I am not proud of what I had done, I used my son. He was ten at the time and a good climber so I figured he would like to be part of my show. Not only that, I didn’t want to pay someone to be part of the show, I wanted all the proceeds to come to my family, and my family to be the only stars of the show.

I set the stage, told the media I would be doing the Indian Rope Trick for the first time ever in America. The magic community had gone crazy, those who have seen others do the trick were hoping to learn what method I would be using, others just wanted to see a good show. It was my pride and lust for stardom that created the monster that I became.

It wasn’t anything special at first. I did some normal illusions, which the crowd seemed to love, sawing a woman in half, making some things float, and other normal illusions you would expect to see. But the real kicker was, of course, the Indian Rope Trick.

I called my son on stage and introduced him. This time I remembered to bring a basket, if anyone else saw the horror I saw from not having the body covered it would ruin me. I played the flute said the words and the rope rose into the sky. My son climbed up and vanished.

I waited for the body parts to start raining down, nothing happened. The crowd was amazed but beginning to grow impatient, I was worrying about my son. I decided to climb up the rope to find him, and I too had left the world I was just in.

When I had gotten to this new plane I saw it was nothing like Heaven was in my mind. I was in a field, surrounded by forest on all four sides. There was no sky, just total darkness, darker than the any storm clouds or night sky we have ever seen on earth. The monsters that Josh had told me about were there as well, giants with faces that covered what would be their enormous head, a woman with four arms and skulls around her neck like a string of pearls, a man with six stood stomping on a human who was crying in agony. And a blue man with green eyes wearing a crown was sitting on a throne, my son was in front of him.

“Thank you, this one will work just fine,” the blue man said without moving his lips. “So much better than the last you sent up.”

“What are you talking about,” I said as I started running towards my son.

The two beings with more arms than normal had stepped in my way, arms extended like tentacles of an octopus.

“You gave me a new slave,” the booming voice of the blue man said. “Do you wish to take him back? I figured you did, you humans always do. So I will make a deal with you, same deal as the ones who have come before you, he will stay with me until you have someone else send me a replacement.”

Once he said that the woman with the skulls came rushing at me. All four of her arms wrapped around my body, keeping me from moving an inch. Her strength crushed my ribs, I could hear them popping inside and feel them giving under the force of her enormous arms.

“If you come back here,” that booming voice said again, “I will kill your son and you will have to watch his torment for the rest of time.”

After that was said the woman threw me down. The last thing I remember seeing before my head smashed into the ground was the rope, which was still standing, start to fall. When I awoke, everyone was gone, the rope was wrapped around me like a boa about to have a meal.

My wife was sobbing when I had gotten home. I tried to comfort her but Josh had already told her what he had been through, she kicked me out and filed for a divorce.

Now I will perform the Indian Rope Trick on rare occasions, and when I do I am as lifeless as the man who taught me how to do it. I only want someone to take this curse away and give me back my son. Waiting for someone like me to beg to be taught the trick. Someone who cares more about the impression they make then what is really important. 