City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations and Theses City College of New York 2012 One Hundred Top Hats Sharae Allen CUNY City College of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/517 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] 1 ONE HUNDRED TOP HATS by Sharae Allen Pamela Laskin, Advisor A Novel Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at The City College of New York May 7 2012 Allen/Top Hats /2 Table of Contents Prologue: Monroe Magician Rules ..................................................................................................4 Good Teeth.......................................................................................................................................5 The New Kid ..................................................................................................................................13 Don’t Bother to Remember ............................................................................................................21 History Lessons .............................................................................................................................28 Wishes ..........................................................................................................................................37 How to Win At Carnival Games ....................................................................................................48 Mouse and Toad .............................................................................................................................54 There Has Always Been Monroe Castle ........................................................................................61 Escape Secrets ................................................................................................................................73 Partners ..........................................................................................................................................86 Crystal Ball ....................................................................................................................................94 A Few Minutes More ...................................................................................................................102 Sale of White Elephants ...............................................................................................................111 Birthday Redemption ...................................................................................................................120 Borrowed Magic ..........................................................................................................................129 The Family Monroe .....................................................................................................................133 The Legend of L.E. Monroe ........................................................................................................141 Sweetness of Marzipan Ladybugs ...............................................................................................145 The Audition ................................................................................................................................151 Awkward Valentines ....................................................................................................................156 Shark River ..................................................................................................................................166 Rumors and Ruminations .............................................................................................................172 Behind The Looking Glass ..........................................................................................................177 Dream ...........................................................................................................................................186 Invading the Castle ......................................................................................................................191 Seagulls and French Fries ............................................................................................................196 Allen/Top Hats /3 Backstage Broken Hearts .............................................................................................................198 Invisible .......................................................................................................................................203 Winners ........................................................................................................................................207 The Hooves of Carousel Horses ..................................................................................................212 Allen/Top Hats /4 Prologue: The Monroe Magician Rules There are seven illusions that a Monroe magician must master in order to be successful. There are other rules and effects that other magicians have to master but to become a Monroe magician, a skilled professional, a man or woman, must be able master these seven effects. One, a magician must make items vanish at will. Not only you must make an item vanish, you must conjure it back. Keep in mind that the reward is not in the disappearance but the return. Two, a magician must produce something from nothing-rabbits from empty top hats and playing cards from empty hands. Three, a Monroe magician must transform themselves or another thing from one state of being to the other. You can turn your assistant into a goldfish even into an elephant but make sure to return them back into their true self before the night is through. Four, a magician must learn to move one object- a ball or a hat from one place to another without touching it. Five, the magician must destroy an item and restore it to back to its original state it was found in. Six, the magician must be placed in a dangerous trap and escape to safety. Allen/Top Hats /5 Finally, a magician must be able to defy gravity. This, the ability to levitate, of course is one of the most amazing and breath- taking of all these illusions. -L.E. Monroe Allen/Top Hats /6 Chapter One: Good Teeth No performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth. -Harry Houdini My Grandfather once told me the city of Asbury Park is a gift from the ocean. He also swore my great-great uncle Louis once shook the hand of Harry Houdini after a show, and Grandma Winnie was related to Cleopatra’s favorite astrologist. When he told me about Asbury, this time, I believed him. The city rose from the bottom of the sea, rolled from the waves like seaweed until it settled here on land. Asbury was delivered as is, with everything, from the green iron coated carousel decorated with hissing Medusa heads, to the Paramount Theatre painted with seahorses and schooner ships that pointed towards the horizon. Mermaids and mermen hand crafted every inch of the boardwalk and for just a glimpse of our town, people traveled by buses, trains even luxury ships, to parade the wooden planks in their Sunday best. Now all signs of the town’s Atlantis ancestry have faded into half-filled luxury apartments and half empty homes. Sometimes, you can feel it, when you’re on the boardwalk, the slow pulse of the sea goddess’ magic that willed our town into existence. The magic pulses underneath the wooden planks like a hidden heartbeat that keeps the town alive for a moment. Allen/Top Hats /7 Asbury is divided evenly by train tracks that run north and south. The North Side has fancy homes with wide porches decorated with seashell chimes. The South Side, where my family has lived for the last one hundred years, isn’t as glamorous. Early in the morning, a train horn blares through deserted streets. The slick silver train sweeps past the techno-color graffiti walls and shuttered buildings closed for winter season. Five more minutes, I just need five more minutes. I press my face against the cold glass and try to remember how everything looks but I cannot. The echo of the train horn wakes me from my dream of being on that train, of heading out someplace up North. My friend’s voice, light and sweet like candy, pulls me off the dream train. I pull my head off the bus window. When I look outside, brick and steel buildings streak by the window until the bus breaks at the corner Springwood and Memorial Drive. Fellow students fumble on the bus with a blast of talking and music. I wipe drool from my mouth. “Did you hear me, Eddie? We’re getting a new kid in class.” I raise a brow at Gwendolyn McGregor. Wendy, everyone calls her, is sitting next to me. Her white polo shirt is pressed within an inch of its life and her khakis are so sharp you could cut yourself on them. With her black flats and school pin, she looks like a model student until you see her hair. Discarded ribbons and craft supplies are woven into her thick brown hair that has been twisted into twin buns. She is the image of a cartoon character come to life with her almond colored eyes and candy colored lips painted with discount lipstick. The red lips bring out the tan shade of her skin. The next issue of her Allen/Top Hats /8 Shojo Beat magazine is poking out her messenger bag.