HT13: Entertainment Thingymacallits #3

“Ladies! Ladies!”

The two girls spun around, to see a familiar figure trotting up to their little table in front of Tele-traan 1.

The lanky Hispanic man was hard to miss.

Though, frankly, the two girls were still a bit too young to be called ladies.


Raoul, flanked to the right by Tracks in alt mode, carried a demure smile on his face.

“May I interest you in some afternoon entertainment?”


Carly and Mabel rolled their eyes.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Oh… just a few tricks that will never fail to amaze, especially to lucky ladies like you.”


Carly glanced over to her companion, then to Tracks.

“Please rein him in.”

Tracks transformed, and sat down beside the girls with a laugh.

“Not tonight. This young lad wants to charm a few women at the bar, and all he had were a stack of card sheets.”

“Nu-uh, it’s magic cards.”

From a pocket in his jacket, Raoul pulled out a deck of playing cards (with flair). The girls watched on.

“Now that I have your undivided attention,” he cleared his throat, “Watch.”


He took out a number of cards from the deck, and promptly arranged them down on the table in three columns, five cards a column.

“You two can pick a card. Any card.”

“Ace of hearts?” Mabel asked aloud.

“No-uh, you’re not supposed to tell me.”

“There’s no ‘ace of hearts’ on the table.”

“He did say it was any card - ”, and Carly got Mabel’s hint.


“Don’t be a spoilsport. I’ve picked a card.”

“Now point to me which column has the card.”

Carly pointed to the middle row.

Raoul took the cards back into hand, shuffled them dexterously, and replaced them on the table – but in a different manner than his first deal.

He repeated his instruction, and Carly pointed to the left row.

The cards were taken back, and this time he dealt them out into two rows.

“Now things will get a little tricky. Left, or right?”

Carly picked left, and Raoul handed her the cards on the left deck. The remaining cards were taken back, reshuffled and dealt.

Mabel picked right, and Raoul handed her the right deck.

This strange activity continued till there was only one card in Raoul’s hand, the other card in Mabel’s hand.

“OK, I have your card, and it’s a six of hearts.”

He flipped the card around, and it was a six of hearts.

Carly looked a bit stunned, but she nodded. It was indeed the card she had chosen.


Unconvinced, Mabel gave it a go, and her jack of spades was weeded out easily by Raoul.


All this while, Tracks was watching the proceedings with a bemused smile. How humans amused themselves with simple numerical equations was, without doubt, amusing to the Autobot too; but as a way to get attention – now that was a trick he could pull one day.

The girls were not very happy with ‘being fooled at’. They tugged Tracks by his limbs.

“C’mon, Tracks! Prove him wrong!”

Tracks looked up at Raoul. Raoul looked back at him.


“All right, all right,” Tracks smirked, “You, my friend, will get a tougher time with me for bullying women.”

Raoul reacted with a mock shrug of indifference, and merely dealt the cards back.


Tracks announced that he had chosen not one but three cards – one for Carly, one for Mabel and one for himself. Raoul would have to guess the three cards in one round.

And Raoul took up the challenge.

Carly and Mabel agreed readily, and they whispered their choices into Track’s audio plates.

“Ready?” Tracks challenged.

“Almost. We ought to place a bet in this, right ladies?”


Now happily involved and ignoring the comment, the girls agreed to the question. A bet was made: If Tracks fooled Raoul, Tracks was getting a waxing job from Raoul himself. If Raoul got it right, the girls will give Tracks that waxing. And Tracks was more than happy to agree with the arrangements.

Raoul launched straight into it. The cards were shuffled and dealt, and when Raoul asked his last query, he did look a bit puzzled.

Carly snickered, “I’ll go ask Wheeljack for the buffer for you.”

Mabel chided her, “Not yet. Let’s see if Tracks really gets it.”


Raoul started separating the cards, but he changed tactics – he did them card by card. Each card laid face-down on the table, and he did the picking of the cards, passing each blackjack-style to the spectators.

Finally, three cards lay on the table face-down.

“Don’t forget, my squishy friend. Identify the right card with the right person.”


Raoul smirked, “I think I got it. Tracks chose the king of hearts. Mabel had the nine of spades. Carly chose the ace of hearts.”

“But there’s no ace of hearts in the deck!”

Ignoring Carly’s exclamation, the man flipped the cards over.

To the girls’ surprise, Raoul was right. Tracks had indeed chosen the king of hearts. Mabel had the nine of spades. Carly had initially spied a seven of diamonds, but the card was missing.

Everyone checked their decks – and even the untouched deck of remaining cards. They found the seven of diamonds in the untouched deck.

In its place, on the table face up and directed at Carly, was the ace of hearts.

But… but clearly, there was no ace of hearts with Raoul in the first place!


“Whoa…”

Raoul grinned.

“And that means I’m all set for the ladies at the bar. Let’s go, bud.”


As Tracks and Raoul headed out of the room, Raoul tapped at the little audio receiver in his ear, “Thanks for the gift.”

“You’re most welcome. And, if the girls ever did catch you for your trick - ”

“It’s pure mathematics and hiding a card up the sleeve, Tracks, I assure you! But, of course,” he tapped the ear piece, “A little bit of help never hurt, eh?”

Tracks couldn’t agree more – he was still getting a waxing.