Merlin the Magician

An experience that deserves to be shared, as concise as my abilities allow, I hope you find this story worth the 3 minutes of your life it will take to read it.

A selling trip to Florida got started one day early so we could take Dani and our 3 year old son to Disney World for a day before getting down to business.

Things were going great and around 4 pm we saw a crowd gathered by the Sword in the Stone and stopped to watch Merlin the Magician do his thing; a cute little skit wherein a young man of college age from the audience attempted to pull Excalibur from the stone. He, of course, failed, so Merlin enlisted him as the “bodyguard” for whoever might raise the sword and thus be Queen or King for the Day. That honor fell to a young lady of no more than 5 who got a few magic words from Merlin and was quite successful. Merlin crowned her Queen for the Day, had the young man walk behind holding her cape, and she paraded around the stone before her subjects.

The crown and cape came off. The young lady was given a souvenir crown to keep. End of show.

Merlin asked as he was departing, “We will have another show here at 5. Is there anyone else who would like to be Queen for the Day? ”

Dani, standing up close, raised her hand excitedly. Merlin looked at Dani and got a twinkle in his eye. He called back the audience, he called back the bodyguard, he called out, “Oh Wait! There’s something else to do before we go.”

Dani was brought up front and center. I think he read the concern on my face and breaking into a big warm smile, he said quite confidently, “Don’t worry about a thing young lady, we’ll walk you right through it.”

In that instant, I realized two things. One, this is not Merlin’s first day on the job, and two, we were about to witness something memorable.

Dani was giddy with excitement when Excalibur mysteriously rose up into her hands. She had just watched the “bodyguard” fail to budge it. She alternates between laughter and tears when she’s very happy and this was such a time. The crown went on and she paraded around the stone with the young man holding her queenly cape.

Merlin thanked everyone, announced his next show again, and turning to us and “the bodyguard” requested that we stay until he returned.

He dashed across the street into the gift shop and returned a few minutes later with a new Cinderella crown for Dani to keep. I thanked him profusely for creating such a special moment for her. I explained that it would be forgotten before we left the Disney parking lot that night; that spectacular moments are the best we can hope for. Merlin then asked if she had an autograph book and I said we hadn’t bought one. He again told us to wait for him, and dashed into the gift shop for a second time.

While waiting for his return, I began to chat with the young man who now had about 20 minutes experience as Merlin’s volunteer “bodyguard”. He and his friends were college students from various schools around the country. I told them Dani was a U. of I. senior in computer engineering when her heart stopped and left her with her current brain injury. I thanked them all for their patience. They were most genial about it. I think they saw her with different eyes after our brief chat. The fragility of our existence had just tapped them on the shoulder.

Merlin returned and had me tear the wrapper from a new autograph book. He pulled out a fancy Mickey Mouse pen, signed an autograph for Dani, handed her the pen and was preparing to depart. After what I believe was a cleverly timed pause, in a flurry of motion from his pocket or his cape he produced a beautiful new embroidered Disney baseball cap for our hero, the bodyguard.

Random acts of kindness touch one more deeply when they are directed toward an incapacitated family member. Dani now has some nice souvenirs of an event she has long since forgotten. Of one thing I am certain. Those who witnessed Merlin’s “second act” that day will not soon forget the special moment they shared with an elated brain injury patient. A compassionate and quick thinking Wizard conjured something truly magical as Disney gloriously earned its title “The Magic Kingdom”.