The Visibility Trick

Mr. Doberman has established a niche for himself at Oswald Academy, School of Magic. While his Handed skills are lacking (he can't juggle more than fifty balls at once!) he's gifted in The Mindful Arts. He boasts a unique mastery of the finicky, notorious, "Invisibility Trick."

Disappearing is risky. To vanish, Mr. Doberman uses an "Object of Invention" to initiate a "Creation Event," a process few misters understand. To return unadulterated, said Event should be uncomfortable. One mustn't linger.

Most recently, Mr. Doberman used a "Wrist-Watch" to become a homebody in Paris, North Dakota. A dangerous, impractical place, with two genders to navigate (instead of the usual one) and extreme non-magical limitations. Here are giant metal death contraptions and uncouth porcelain chairs. Strange physical urges plague the alien bipeds, known as "Men."

Mr. Doberman likes to jitterbug to the banging of his own tambourine. A "wife?" "Children?" No thank you very much.

Trick completed, Mr. Doberman takes a bow. But memories of long, tangly hair begin to bleed into his mind. Of a little mister, whose diaper was never dry. These were noisy chores and messy obligations to him. An incarceration of his own design.

But the bleeding of memories worsens, and Mr. Doberman is forced to seek professional help. Unfortunately, share-all Mr. Psychologist resembles his paramour from Paris, North Dakota. What's more, (s)he rejects his "Lucid Dream Hypothesis," claiming that misters don't imagine during a Creation Event, they remember. If that's true, Mr. Doberman's family is just out of reach. He could have. He could hold. He could touch. Would Mr. Doberman risk magic ... perhaps expiration ... to become a husband and a father again?