Kevin excitedly ran into the magic store, enthusiasm in his eyes, as he heard his dad calling behind him, “Kevin! Don’t run so fast!” He said with a slight, out-of-breath chuckle. He slowed down somewhat, but was still eager to check out the new magic store. “Come on! Hurry up, Dad!” He yelled back, as he walked around inside, shortly followed by his equally curious little sister, Amy, and his father, John. His jerky older brother, Joe, had elected to wait outside, grumpy as he was, while his mother and two oldest sisters were at the clothing store across from them.
Kevin was an average, energetic young boy who happened liked magic tricks, even though he was sure most of his family thought they were lame, not that this deterred him any. Naturally he was thrilled when he heard this magic store was coming to the mall. He happily began looking over the shelves of magical props while he overheard his brother and dad talking. “Joe, I want you to cheer up a little, you know we’re dong this for your little siblings, right?” Only for Joe to huff, “Ugh, but Dad, Kevin and Amy are such babies! Do I really have to stay!” John shushed him, firmly, “You can wait outside, but we’re still doing this. In the meantime, you should treat them better. You are their older brother, after all.” Kevin bristled at the conversation he was overhearing, but didn’t let it show. Joe could be a dick to him sometimes. Instead he busily searched through the objects on display.
“Daddy! Can I get this one?” He heard his little sister approach their father next, no doubt carrying a princess toy she had found. “Maybe later, kiddo.” He turned her down. Amy grumbled, grumpily going back to the toys as Kevin shook his head. His sister was so spoiled. He could get why Joe found her annoying, but not himself. Then his father walked up behind him. “Seeing anything you like, bud?” Kevin took a plastic wand off the rack and shook it a few times, the flicked it towards his father, flowers popping out of the cap. “Ta-da!” He said cheerily, making John chuckle. “Good job, sport. You could be a professional someday.” Kevin beamed at his praise, “You think so, Dad?” John ruffled his hair affectionately, “Sure, just keep practicing.”
Kevin smiled brightly, his mind going through the possibility of becoming a world-famous stage magician as his dad started to walk away to look at other things in the store, “Let me know when you’re done, we’ll meet up with mom and your sisters.” He added. Kevin nodded, and was about to resume his hunt, until he noticed a flyer on the wall, “Hey, Dad, whats this?” It had a QR code on it, along with the words, “FREE DOWNLOAD: The Amazing One-Word Changing Magic App!”, which quickly captured his attention. His dad walked back up, inspecting it closer, “Uhh… I’m not sure, but I’m gonna say it’s a scam., so don’t download it.” John replied, almost apologetically, “Sorry, son.”
“But Dad, it says it’s magic!” John scoffed, “You shouldn’t believe everything you read, son. Come on, why don’t you show me more magic tricks over there?” He gestured towards another side of the room, only for Kevin to pout in disappointment, “Maybe later.” He said as he pretended to resume looking at other props hanging off the hooks. John watched him closely for a few moments, but when Amy started calling for him to show him a new toy she’d found and wanted, he finally relented, sighing, “Coming sweetie!” He said, walking back up to her. Meanwhile, Kevin had secretly snuck his phone out from his pocket, “Stupid Dad. He doesn’t know everything…” Kevin said, as he stealthily scanned the QR code on the pamphlet.
After a few short moments of waiting, a notification showed up on his phone, telling him it had downloaded. Intrigued, Kevin opened the app, seeing it utilized his phone camera along with a search bar and mini map icon at the bottom, before the lighting suddenly dimmed as a simple pop-up showed up, which Kevin soon realized was instructions on how to use it.
“1*: This app uses location data to pull up anything within 50 feet”
“2*: Select a target and the app will generate a sentence describing that target”
“3*: You may edit one word in that sentence”
“4*: Reality will shift to reflect the changes”
“5*: You can control whether you, your target, or the world at large is aware of these changes.”
His eyes lit up excitedly. “Ooooooo, no way…” He said as he closed it. It couldn’t be real, right? After all, he was old enough to understand magic was just tricks, yet some part of him was curious. He scanned the area with his phone, looking for something to test it out on, finally settling on a pink stuffed rabbit he saw seated near the corner, and generated a sentence. “The pink rabbit plush is almost too big for a child to hold.” He rubbed his chin in thought, grinning. He wasn’t sure what he expected to happen, but still changed the world ‘Child’ to ‘Adult’. Suddenly he felt a strange tingling sensation and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was shocked to see the rabbit plush toy in the chair was now massive, having gone from maybe 4ft tall to 7ft, it looked more like a costume than a plush toy now. He hadn’t even seen it happen.
“Huh, seriously?!” He gasped, smile widening as he inspected it closer. He couldn’t imagine how this could’ve happened, but couldn’t see anything that looked fake. “Uhh… Hey, dad?” He called back to his father, who hurried over, “Yeah, son?” Kevin bit his lip, “Um, does this rabbit toy seem any… bigger to you?” John’s brow furrowed, “What do you mean?”
“Like, does it look bigger?” John still looked confused, “No? I mean it is big, I just assumed it was a novelty decorative thing. Amy was talking about wanting it when we came in, but it’s way too much.” Kevin grinned more as he talked on. He really didn’t notice anything had changed. Quietly, Kevin took out his phone and generated another sentence, this time reading, “The giant rabbit plush is sitting in the chair”. Kevin selected ‘Rabbit’ and changed it into ‘Cow’. “So, do you remember the rabbit doll sitting there?” He asked him.
“What rabbit doll? I only saw the giant cow plush when we came in.” John sounded no less confused, and when Kevin looked up, he saw a massive pink-and-red stuffed cow seated where the rabbit had been, “Cool!” Kevin cheered, prompting another strange look from John, “What’s this all about, son?” Kevin chuckled, shaking his head, “Uhh, nothing Dad. I was just thinking about something else, that’s all.” He replied to his father, who did seem perplexed, but shrugged, “I mean, a rabbit would’ve made more sense, but I guess they were making a joke about ‘Moooo-gic’.” He grinned at his dad joke while Kevin giggled, returning to look at his phone. His father walked back to Amy while Kevin’s mind raced with all the possibilities he could use this thing for, it seemed it could change anything. The only question was what should he test it out on next?