Paul, aka "Two Scoop" as he was nicknamed, (a reference to his shape, think Ice Cream Cone), a giant, 300 lbs of redheaded medieval fury, but in disposition docile, calm, 30 years old and like many of his generation living contentedly in his parent's basement.
In the olden days he would have been a blacksmith, capable of ridiculous feats of strength, hauling two gas filled heaters singlehandedly up a frozen mud path, one in each hand, these were jobs that required 4 or 6 temps pushing and pulling together, Paul, he could do it on his own.
At lunch he would devour his Tim Hortons sandwich, watch his phone, laughing to himself at funny videos you could only guess the content of, with his constant companion Joe, you could bust them blowing snow off the decks, leafblowers on their backs, know by their sheepish expressions that they were both caught playing "Ghostbusters"...
He denies it, adamantly, but he looks very much like someone that would spend a lot of time playing dungeons and dragons...
Paul didn't like Magic. Or, he as he claimed, he liked magic, just not my magic, which, to be fair, is more like wizarding than magic, but as wizarding is a somewhat obsolete term I use the more vernacular phrases like "prestidigitation", "illusions", "legerdemain" and "conjurer"...He still disagrees.
"Think of any number between 1 and 100..." I tell him. "Don't write it down.". I make a secretive little note on a pad, shopping list for when I finish work. "What's the number you were thinking of?" I ask him..."71" he replies, I nod knowingly and tap my nose "Exactly the same number I was thinking of ..." I tell him. "You're just agreeing with me" he argues. Joseph, he gets it, acknowledges that I'm a wizard of the first order, doesn't doubt that I knew Dumbledore and Gandalf, Paul, he's not convinced...
"Another one. Think of any number between one and five" I'm holding my hand behind my back...."Four" replies Paul...I remove my hand and show him 4 fingers extended. "Again?" I prompt him, but he's not playing anymore...
***
From my perspective hanging off the towers, 100 feet in the air, I can see the entire pit, waiting for the pour to finish so we can tarp, spot Paul, usually with Joe, they're talking or bumblefuckedly standing about. This is the one perk to this job in construction, you're privy to the big picture, can see what everyone above-decks is doing, Paul, Joe, invariably they're doing nothing, leaning on shovels or wandering about the site...
The Sky-Crane is flying in forms, panels, Paul is standing about watching, I find him, and with grand flourishes and gestures set about trying to convince him that I'm moving them with the force, "Like Yoda Taught Me", the men waiting for the panels, they see me, "Don't stop...left...bring it in...Use the Force", Paul merely shakes his head, walks away in disgust.
***
I've told Paul that I'm also a hypnotist, and when I find him next tending his heaters I make a few passes in front of his face, assure him he's been hypnotized, tell him that he will no longer feel the urge to smoke, that he won't remember a thing, that he'll wake up refreshed...he tells me he can't be hypnotized, I tell him he already has, that he's awake and refreshed, I leave him ...
Over lunch, in the trailer with the other men I boast about having hypnotized Paul to quit smoking. Paul glowers in the corner ... "I never smoked! Ever! Never a cigarette in my life...!". I merely nod in a self-satisfied sort of way..."You didn't Paul, and you won't again..."...The guys, they're impressed that he gave it up, nasty habit, a couple of them ask me later if I'd hypnotize them...
***
I've been given an assistant, Luke, shorter, good looking young lad from Nova Scotia. Classic small town boy, charming, good natured, he's to learn and master the art of Tarpentry so he can take over when I go off prospecting. There's more to learn than this, however, and so I take him off to find Paul, picking up an old discarded work glove, block of wood, pack of katsup saved from lunch, find Paul beneath the tarps, setting up heaters in the labrynthine depths of the parkade...
"I am going to show you a new Illusion...for Easter...I call it "Crucifixio"..."
And I set about laying my hand on on block while Luke hammers a nail through it and I scream and writhe as if in agony...Katsup spurting out...Paul's not buying it, grabs me, tries to grab my hand, we wrestle (and at 300 pounds what are my chances?), Luke, my assistant, grabs the prop glove and escapes while I pop my hand out of my sleeve "Ta-Da!"... He's worse than any five-year old hellion at a birthday party, but I like the challenge...
***
Late at night, a dozen men waiting for the concrete to dry enough that we can tarp, I've packed along a couple of fortune cookies. I hold them out to Paul: "Pick one, either one..." He refuses. The other men insist, eventually he gives in. "Open it" I tell him, "Read your fortune aloud...". He grudgingly complies..."You will meet an influential friend for dinner...". I nod knowingly, "You see?" I tell him, the foreman wants to know how I did it, what my fortune reads, I merely pocket it and smile...
Sometimes it's just conversation, there's no desire to illuminate or elevate him, just the days shit, news, catching up. "I had a friend" I tell him "Who visited Chernobyl and got bit by a spider...afterwards he got real sick but then when he got better he could shoot spider webs from his wrists...". He doesn't believe me, I shrug, it's true, they made a movie kinda-about it if he doesn't believe me...
***
"Have you ever seen the documentary Harry Potter?" I enquire...he just looks at me. Some conversations are shorter than others.
***
I've found him, am showing him my ventriloquist routine, skeptical as always he bears it while I hold a grimace in the shape of a smile and throw my voice.."Hey Paul...over here...behind this pillar..." and "Hey Paul, look down here, it's me, you're hammer talking, we gotta talk buddy". Paul just looks at me, swears he can see my lips move, tells me I'm without a doubt the worst ventriloquist he's ever seen.
I'm not gonna take this lying down. From high above the site, hanging off the forms, I can see him, standing around the heaters, warm, bastard. I pull up his number on my phone and give him a ring..."Hey Paul...it's me, Rod...I'm throwing my voice into your phone right now..."
He looks around, spots me..."No you're not, I heard it ring..."
I reply "Yes I am. I made that ringing sound with my voice because I'm just that good a ventriloquist..."
And hang up. Sometimes you quit when your ahead...
...but idea leads onto idea, and before long I've talked Luke into being my Ventriloquist dummy...we find Paul, I do my grimace and pretend to work Lukes back while he looks side to side and says "Hi Paul...it's me Rod...I'm throwing my voice into Luke's mouth...see, my lips aren't moving at all...", but this fails, Luke can't keep his shit together, Paul starts laughing too, laughter, it's death to Wizards and Sorcery in general, I escape...
***
Paul's removing the heaters from the columns, I'm charged with detarping them, before I begin unwrapping them I tell Paul: "Imagine...whatever you want it to be...it will become. Tell me...my greatest illusion yet. What do you want? An Elephant? A Car?"
Paul just looks at me. "It's a column" he says. "As you wish..." and I begin. Like so many he's the victim of his own lack of imagination.
He's not around for the "Ta-Da".
***
Luke's invented an illusion of his own, magnet in Glove, finds nail, throws it into the distance, miraculously reappears it on the tip of his finger. He's got Paul stumped for a minute or two while he figures it out. So it goes, the pupil becomes the master...
***
Pocket Ninja
We're picking up loose bits of rebar from the site, stray pieces, when I have an idea. Paul's standing near...I've got a 6 and an 8 inch piece...
"Paul, would you be interested in purchasing a Pocket Ninja personal defense device? Me and Luke have been making them...39.95$ for the base model, $59.95 for the Pocket Ninja and Pocket Ninja Pro..."
Paul is unimpressed, so we quote to him the company mantra "Safety first Paul".
He's still not convinced, I explain the benefits, he's trying to argue that these are just a couple of loose pieces of rebar we found on the site...
"Under decks, guy like you alone here in the dark, all these Columbians and Filopinos around Paul, it's not safe, you could be raped..."
He spies his counter arguement, a pile of rebar lying just beyond the reach of the floodlights, finds his own pocket ninja...
"Beware of Cheap Imitations, Paul..." I warn...
We continue like this for a good 20 minutes, I show him all the ninja defense moves he could do, offer lessons, he's not having any of it. Paul, Paul, Paul...
***
We're all waiting in the trailer for the concrete to cure so we can tarp, a cold winter night, they're up there, polishing, scrubbing, we can sit and be warm until we're needed.
I tell Luke that I'm going to show him how to hypnotize Paul, loudly, Paul's sitting across from us, I tell Luke I'm going to make Paul cluck like a chicken and behave ridiculously, Paul, he won't catch my eye, I'm puzzled, and I figure it out...he's genuinely afraid of being hypnotized, and for a brief moment I feel for him...
***
When I left construction they threw me a party. I think in their fucked up way they thought they'd miss me. The foreman made attendance mandatory. From Paul I got a child's magic kit, full of illusions he felt that I could master. From Joe, a rubber inflateable sex doll to keep me company on the lonely roads ahead - "Mylie: Daddy's little stoner just can't wait for you to bone her..." (That astonished open-mouthed gaze peering through the cellophane...). From the others, gold pans, samples of gold, a rubber fist (and my mind immediately thought of the illusions I could do with this, an extra hand?), various other trifles, I'd never in my life had a party this good. But these guys could drink, could they ever drink, and before the night was over astonished Mylie was blown up and raped with a pool cue in front of an astonished bar full of non-constructions workers.
That was when the bar owners asked us all to leave.
Ever-after my constant companion, and ever after uninflateable, I was denied my conjugal priviledge. Didn't matter, it was time to go, pack up, find the happier trails...
***
I've often thought of Paul since then, thought of sending him post-hypnotic suggestions to keep him non-smoking, or videos of the new tricks I could do with a rubber fist, with Mylie my assistant (levitating an inflatable assistant is far easier to do than with the more solid flesh and blood counterparts), waving hula-hoops over her gossamer clad form, her perpetual astonished look at my every illusion, but she was deflated, unwilling to cooperate, punctured, the rape had left her breathless, I thought of inventing flyers to promote my travelling conjuring show, performances across BC, tagline "What Unholy Pact with the Devil has given Him these Powers? One Night Only, No refund on souls", but all these plans remained sadly unformed, I wasn't going back to construction, and I wasn't going to get Pauls' hopes up...