my magical mini commute

two of hearts
Originally uploaded by lesley barnes

Yesterday I was in a bad grump before I left for work and stomped all the way to the underground feeling very down in the dumps. As I was sitting on the train reading my book, I noticed that the young man next to me was practising shuffling a pack of cards. I sneakily watched him in the reflection in the window and it was all very impressive until we got to Govan and he dropped the whole pack of cards all over the floor and my feet. Everyone else was getting off the train at this point and we ended up chatting as he picked the cards up. He asked me if I would like to see a trick and I said yes. He gave the cards a high-speed shuffle and in the blink of an eye, spread them into a perfect fan and asked me to choose a card. I chose a card and put it back in the pack. He gave the cards another high speed shuffle, tapped them and said that if he'd done it right, my card should be at the top of the pack. He picked up the top card, the seven of diamonds, and I had to confess it wasn't my card. "Hold that a second," he said and passed me the seven of diamonds. He tapped the pack again. Still not my card. He tried again, beginning to look a bit sheepish. Still not my card. After two more failed attempts, I was beginning to feel very awkward - this man clearly could not do magic. "OK, I give up. Tell me what your card was," he said. I told him it was the three of hearts. "But you said that wasn't your card!" he exclaimed, pointing at the card in my hand. I looked at the card I was holding and it had turned from the seven of diamonds into my card, the three of hearts. I was amazed! The train pulled into Ibrox and the magician said goodbye and got off the train. By the time I got to work, I had a big smile on my face. Hooray for the good kind of random strangers :)

ps The picture I've used is one of (bookmark maker extraordinaire) Lesley Barnes' cards. She's been making a whole pack and you can see them here.