| The cruise ship magician has been doing his routines every night for two years. The audiences appreciate him, and they change over often enough that he doesn’t have to worry about new tricks. However, there is a parrot who sits in the back row and watches him night after night. Finally the parrot figures out how the tricks are done and starts giving them away for the audience. When the magician makes a bouquet of flowers disappear, the parrot squawks, "Behind his back! It’s behind his back!" This infuriates the magician, but he can't just kill the parrot because it belongs to the captain. One day, the ship springs a leak and sinks. The magician manages to swim to a plank of wood floating by and grabs on. Low and behold, the parrot is sitting on the other end. They just stare at each other as they drift and drift. They drift for three days and still don’t speak. On the morning of the fourth day, the parrot looks over at the magician and says: "OK, I give up. Where did you hide the ship?" |
| The Magician and The Parrot |