=Out of the Question=

He said, "I'm tired of using words to describe what I'm feeling." As a firefighter, she didn't understand what he was talking about. He was a magician, after all, and good at making things disappear. Everybody said their relationship wouldn't work out, and, for once, everybody was right. She never saw it coming. All good magic depends on your attention being drawn in the wrong direction. His was no different. She took up pottery, making a lot of lopsided jugs. A few years later, she saw him on television. He had a special on HBO. He made an entire herd of elephants disappear. She dreamed of rushing headlong into a collapsing living room to save a cat. Would she emerge or not from the radiant cinders swirling around her like a tornado? This was the part of the trick that always stumped her. She had no name for the cat yet either. All she knew was that she couldn't call it Smoky; she just couldn't, not under any circumstances, it was entirely of the question.