It was fun at first. What he did. The tricks he could perform. Kip was always doing ‘em. That’s how we met. He just came up to me in a bar and he held out a deck of cards face down and fanned out, and he said I was to pick a card, any card. I wasn’t to look at it, but was just to press it to my heart, like it was important to me. Then Kip shuffled the rest of the pack and asked me with my other hand to cut the deck in two and put one half on top of the other.
It was a neat trick and I still don’t know how he did it. Kip turned over the card on the top of the deck I had cut and it was the queen of hearts. He said some soppy stuff about that card representing me and how I was from now on the queen of his heart. The thing is, I was with someone that night. He was up at the bar getting the drinks in. It was a bit cheeky what Kip was saying and I told him so. He just laughed.
Then he said something about how it was meant to be, how it was written in the stars and there was no going ‘gainst fate. I thought he was maybe a bit too far in his drink. I know I was. I said he was a fool. He said I was his fool, and he told me to look at the card that was still pressed to my heart. It was the jack of hearts. The cards don’t lie, he said.
He didn’t believe the cards any more than I did. It was a trick. A pretty trick it was, but still a trick. He could make coins disappear into thin air and he could stop time – well, make it seem as though it was stopped, the hands of a watch or a clock held still till he commanded them to go again. And like that he could take a moment and stretch it into an hour. And like I said, it was fun at first.
The man I was with that first night Kip and I met, I forget his name. He just disappears from my story that night. Kip did that too, and that was some sort of trick also. Kip was all my story for a year after. Every place I was, he was. Sometimes he’d just turn up and it was like he’d said in the bar: we were meant to be. I didn’t know then that he was sleeping with a girl up on Highgate Street – that was a trick, too.
She’s nothing to me, Kip said when I did find out. And he clicked his fingers like he could make her vanish from the story. And he opened his wallet with all the care of a performance, and he pulled from the back of his folded money a playing card. He said it was the one from the bar a year back, the queen of hearts. I wasn’t sure if it was the same one. I couldn’t be certain that it wasn’t just another trick.
Then there was a different girl he was seen with. She was wobbly on her high heels and her hair was bottle blonde and she laughed loud as crows. And Kip was seen pulling pennies out of her ear and removing her bra without her knowing; and she didn’t mind that he did.
See, the thing is, he was sort of right, way back, when he said the cards don’t lie. But he was clever enough to get me looking the wrong way and to miss it. I was the queen of hearts but he wasn’t no king, just the jack. And another name for the jack of cards is the knave, and he was that alright. Took a while for me to understand, but then I did and I pulled a disappearing trick of my own.
Patricia Ann McNair 
It was fun at first. What he did. The tricks he could perform. Kip was always doing ‘em. That’s how we met. He just came up to me in a bar and he held out a deck of cards face down and fanned out, and he said I was to pick a card, any card. I wasn’t to look at it, but was just to press it to my heart, like it was important to me. Then Kip shuffled the rest of the pack and asked me with my other hand to cut the deck in two and put one half on top of the other.
It was a neat trick and I still don’t know how he did it. Kip turned over the card on the top of the deck I had cut and it was the queen of hearts. He said some soppy stuff about that card representing me and how I was from now on the queen of his heart. The thing is, I was with someone that night. He was up at the bar getting the drinks in. It was a bit cheeky what Kip was saying and I told him so. He just laughed.
Then he said something about how it was meant to be, how it was written in the stars and there was no going ‘gainst fate. I thought he was maybe a bit too far in his drink. I know I was. I said he was a fool. He said I was his fool, and he told me to look at the card that was still pressed to my heart. It was the jack of hearts. The cards don’t lie, he said.
He didn’t believe the cards any more than I did. It was a trick. A pretty trick it was, but still a trick. He could make coins disappear into thin air and he could stop time – well, make it seem as though it was stopped, the hands of a watch or a clock held still till he commanded them to go again. And like that he could take a moment and stretch it into an hour. And like I said, it was fun at first.
The man I was with that first night Kip and I met, I forget his name. He just disappears from my story that night. Kip did that too, and that was some sort of trick also. Kip was all my story for a year after. Every place I was, he was. Sometimes he’d just turn up and it was like he’d said in the bar: we were meant to be. I didn’t know then that he was sleeping with a girl up on Highgate Street – that was a trick, too.
She’s nothing to me, Kip said when I did find out. And he clicked his fingers like he could make her vanish from the story. And he opened his wallet with all the care of a performance, and he pulled from the back of his folded money a playing card. He said it was the one from the bar a year back, the queen of hearts. I wasn’t sure if it was the same one. I couldn’t be certain that it wasn’t just another trick.
Then there was a different girl he was seen with. She was wobbly on her high heels and her hair was bottle blonde and she laughed loud as crows. And Kip was seen pulling pennies out of her ear and removing her bra without her knowing; and she didn’t mind that he did.
See, the thing is, he was sort of right, way back, when he said the cards don’t lie. But he was clever enough to get me looking the wrong way and to miss it. I was the queen of hearts but he wasn’t no king, just the jack. And another name for the jack of cards is the knave, and he was that alright. Took a while for me to understand, but then I did and I pulled a disappearing trick of my own.