Stacey

The first time I saw him was at Pizza Hut in October of3. I’d taken my kids for the buffet, just the three of us again, as their dad was off playing with his friends. It was a Friday night. We ordered, and then a man came up to our table and asked if he could do some magic for us. He was kinda goofy looking - tall, big guy, huge shoulders, balding on , brown curly hair around the sides, soft green eyes, one of those beard-mustache combos that just surround the mouth, nice smile, sharp tuxedo, and hideous Hawaiian print canvas slip on shoes.

The kids excitedly said yes! You can do the magic, and I jokingly warned him that my kids were magic veterans so he better be good at it! He asked how they became veterans and I explained that their step grandfather was a big magician and that the kids had traveled all over the country with him to see some of the best in the world.

He was unimpressed.

I’m a big kid at heart so I think I enjoyed him more that night than the kids did. It was really amazing, to be so close to someone’s hands and not see how the magic was done. And his hands! I thought he had the most wonderful hands - big and strong. He was engaging and charming, with me and the kids. I remember thinking, “I wish their dad could make them smile like that.” It was thoroughly enjoyable. Then our food came, he thanked us for letting him do some magic, and went on to the next table.

We would see him whenever we went to Pizza. Tuesdays he was there for Kid’s night, doing balloons in a loud tie-dye t-shirt, and Fridays it was magic. We went maybe once or twice a month, always just the three of us. And he always came to our table, just like he did to all the other tables. Over the years I began to anticipate seeing him, with little butterflies in my chest. We never talked about personal stuff, except if the kids had something they wanted to tell him. He was always so nice and funny and liked to imagine that he spent more time at our table than the others. He did more magic for us and the balloons he made were more elaborate. I so looked forward to the kids saying, “Hey, let’s go to Pizza Hut tonight!”

In May of6, the kids and I “ran away from home”, as we like to put it. Living in the same house with my husband had become intolerable as he was very volatile and unpredictable. The night he said, “One of us isn’t going to survive to the end of this summer, Stacey,” was the night I started making plans. We finally left on a weekend he wasn’t home and began our lives alone together. It was a struggle - full time job, part-time school, full time single mom of two. It was hard but it was wonderful. And through it all, I had my occasional night at Pizza Hut where a strange man my kids called “the magic dude” would make me smile.

On Valentines Day8, the kids treated me to dinner at the local Chinese restaurant. The three of us always have so much fun together, cutting and laughing, talking. I enjoy their company. After we were seated and had our food, something happened, I don’t quite remember what it was, that caused the three of use to laugh hysterically. Devon, my daughter, shot Sprite through her nose and across the table and I lost it! I had a mouth full of food and was laughing so hard my sides hurt and I had tears running down my face. In the middle of this, I glanced to my side and saw The Magic Man walking toward our table with his family. I was thrilled and totally mortified that I was laughing to hard to swallow my food and my kids were bent over the table in fits. He smiled at me and I tried to smile back but I was afraid I’d drool food all over the place so I just gave a little wave, keeping my hand over my mouth.

The waitress sat them at a table to our right and kind of behind us. I could see him, out of the corner of my eye, facing me. We all calmed downed, as much as is possible when we’re in a restaurant, and started eating again. I was so self-conscious to be eating next to The Magic Dude and his family! I remember being surprised by his wife. She looked so unhappy and colorless, such a contrast to him and his outgoing charm. The kids and I continued to crack up all through dinner and I never sped being aware that The Magic Dude was sitting one table over.

Three weeks later, while at Pizza Hut with the kids, my friend Kim, who is a waitress there, came up to me and asked what I thought of Steve, The Magic Dude. I said I like him he was fun. She said, “You know he’s married, right?” I said yes. Then she said would you like to get together with him, maybe go to lunch or something? I told her I would have to think about it. And then the next day, I gave her my phone number to give to him. I thought that she was just joking around, that she had initiated this or something. Then, Pizza Hut burned down and I kinda forgot about it all.

On Sunday March 22, he called. The answering machine picked up and I was so shocked and nervous, I just let him leave a message. But I called him Monday morning and we had lunch together. I really didn’t have any expectations about it. I didn’t see myself starting an affair with a married man. I just wanted to have lunch with a nice man. I didn’t see anything happening after that. We had a great lunch and he asked me,”What are we doing?” I told him I didn’t have a clue! But we agreed to have lunch again on Friday.

He called Friday morning and asked me to meet him at the park for lunch. We said hello and then he reached into the back of his car and pulled out....two old fashioned metal lunch boxes, a Scooby Doo and a Partridge Family. He gave me an embarrassed smile and said he made lunch. That’s when I knew I was in big trouble. He had made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and rice crispy treats. And it was the best lunch I’ve ever had.

That’s how it began. He’s charming, smart, funny, compassionate, romantic, everything. Perfect. Well, practically perfect. And he loves me, respects me, admires me, and sincerely likes who I am as a person.

There’s so much more to this story but I think it’s too long as it is. I will say this though. When I met him, I was shy, reserved and had no self-esteem. I was not a sexual being at all, and had never had an orgasm with anyone but myself. I was the best lover I had ever had. Having grown up with physical and sexual abuse and then having married into the same thing, I had no trust in myself, in others, in God, nothing.

What ever happens between us, if I never saw him again, I cannot regret this year we’ve been together. No matter the pain it’s caused, and will cause when it ends, he has taught me so much about the capacity of people to love and to trust. And even more importantly, he introduced me to myself, and helped me to discover what an intelligent, funny, sensual loving and lovable person I am, and I can’t ever be sorry for that.

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