Sergio Bizzio - Magic!

Consider the following premise: by an idyllic river bank, a boy sits idly watching the water flow by. Another boy approaches, this one clearly friendless, perhaps new to the area; his clothes seem put together by his mother, and his hair appears stroked by his mother. No, the boy, Julian, responds to Ronnie's thought - my mother had nothing to do with my hair. It's not like that. Ronnie is struck - the boy can read his mind!

As a premise, it's intriguing and it allows for the author to take the story in a number of interesting directions. What we want, perhaps, is for the boys to become friends, particularly when Ronnie reveals that he possesses a power of his own. The language of Sergio Bizzio's story suggests those youthful summer days when friends really could be made by the side of a river, when the day stretched longer than one could imagine, and anything was possible, even magic. Even magic!

Again, consider - the word magic!, when finished with an exclamation mark, brings about a kind of youthful optimism: it immediately brings to mind a ridiculously attired man pulling rabbits from a hat and grinning idiotically at the children screaming and giggling below. Magic! is a childhood word, it's a fun word, and Bizzio does his best to achieve the implicit promise attached to such a term, and he does in fact succeed.

We have, then, Julian, who can read minds, and wishes to make a friend. He is trying to impress Ronnie, the way a normal child might impress another boy with his toy car, or a particular impressive stick. Ronnie is skeptical, but he's willing to be convinced, he's willing to believe. Why shouldn't this new boy have a magic power? Why shouldn't everyone? Bizzio creates a marvelously innocent first half, one that shows the earnestness of a hopeful child alongside the curious addition of mind reading.

All of which makes the last half of the story so sickening.

Ronnie, we discover, also has a power. He can make people disappear, and he loves to do so. What's more, he likes to taunt them with it, just a little, because he enjoys the feeling of fear he can produce. Ronnie is not a nice person, and Julian's shattered to discover it.

“It’s true. I have a terrible power and I was considering using it against myself. But what I’ve now decided to do is use it against you. I’m about to make you disappear.”

“You really make people disappear!?” squealed Julian.

Ronnie raised his hand and opened it like a claw over Julian’s face, as the boy began to sweat. His eyelids were trembling, as were his lips; even his ears wiggled.

“No, no . . . please . . .” he said. “Wait a minute . . . let’s think about this . . .”

“I don’t have anything to think about where you’re concerned, you fat nerd. Just give me a moment, and you’ll see what happens to you . . .”

“No, wait! You think you can just make me vanish like that in a second? My mum will kill me!”

“Your mum isn’t going to kill you, because she’s never going to see you again,” said Ronnie, and his claw drew closer to Julian’s face. Julian fell to his knees.

"Get up,” Ronnie ordered him.

Julian shook his head, crying. His nose was running.

“Forgive me, forgive me,” he was saying. “I’m new around here, and I don’t know anyone, I was just bored, and I thought meeting you was going to be great: I didn’t think this was going to happen.”

It's heartbreaking to read Julian's shock and disappointment. He's upset, rightfully so, and the sudden shift of tone sends us, the reader, reeling as well. Bizzio has built up the tranquility with the exact purpose of destroying it, and in this he is quite successful. The story ends on a far more sour note than which it began, and we feel sorry for Julian.

Magic! is a successful short story. It works at first by being intriguing, throwing magic into an ordinary boy-meets-boy story, and then Bizzio subverts our expectations by dramatically shifting the tone of the story, taking it from the curious, friendly magic! of Julian to the dark, powerful, sadistic magic of Ronnie. Even their names successfully subvert our expectations - Ronnie is the name of a freckled redhead, not a cruel "vanisher"; Julian is the name of a sophisticated intellectual, and not a snotty-nosed boy who merely wished to impress.

Sergio Bizzio is an astonishingly prolific author who has been mostly ignored in English. This is one of the few works available in our language; it's quality makes one wonder why there is so little else on offer. A discovery.

Magic! by Sergio Bizzio is a short story from Words Without Borders' October 2010 edition, Beyond Borges: Argentina Now issue. All of the work reviewed is freely available online.

See Also

Other stories from the Words Without Borders October 2010 edition, Beyond Borges: Argentina Now issue include:
---Bettencourt, Lúcia - Borges's Secretary
---Brau, Edgar - The Key
---Delaney, Juan José - The Two Coins
---Giardinelli, Mempo - God's Punishment
---Martínez, Guillermo - The “I Ching” and the Man of Papers
---Schewblin, Samanta - Preserves
---Shua, Ana María - Octavio the Invader

Also of interest: Index of short stories under review