Hampton & Rabbit: Mind Tricks

Amanda and Hamish stand in the stillness of a cobbled sea of stones on a wide street in SoHo, New York.

Storefront windows reflect their figures beneath a sharp sky, framed by arctic-white clouds that stream continuously from window to window, like ticker tape stretched between two vanishing points up the linear plane of the street.

Amanda is wrapped in a cashmere cardigan, knotted at the waist. Each time they kiss, another version of her appears. Soon, they’re surrounded by a scattering of Amandas, each one lucid, polite, and smiling at the others.

She turns Hamish’s cheek away from scanning them, back toward her. Then she snaps her fingers, and the others vanish.

When he leans in to kiss her again, she lifts a hand to his chest to stop him. Her eyes tell him: Don’t try that trick again.

Just as Hamish is thinking he will choose the tricks, Amanda’s arms circle his neck, her head tilts, and she draws him into a kiss, effortless, certain, and entirely her own.

Hamish woke thinking how her tricks are so much better than his.