The clip shows Dad in his red vest, smiling as he runs a hand through his slicked-back blond hair. He stands beside a small golden table with a top hat on it, and he’s watching Mom wave her hands underneath the table and then tip the hat up, shaking it out to prove there’s nothing there. This is my favorite part, not the trick—the way Dad looks at Mom like she’s the magic, like nothing that comes next will compare to her. It makes my chest ache to know that Mom had someone look at her like that, and it got taken from her. I understand why she didn’t talk about Dad that much.

Mom puts the hat back on the table, and Dad steps up behind it, but before anything can happen, a white-haired kid runs onto the stage. Mom and Dad both move to catch me as I reach the hat and nudge it with my hand. Butterflies explode from behind the rim in a burst of color that drifts upward and then spreads as the audience goes wild. It’s a basic trick except for the amount of butterflies, just like Xander’s trick would be basic except he floated more cards than should be possible. But the part of the video that I always rewind to watch again and again is the expression on my parents’ faces: shock. And then something that doesn’t make sense: fear. It’d make more sense if they were performing an ax-throwing act or something, but it was only butterflies. Mom rushes me offstage. Dad stands there for a moment and scans the audience like there’s some type of threat, and then he gives them a dazzling smile and bows before striding off the stage. I’m not the only one who’s noticed how oddly they reacted. I know the comments below the video by heart.

• magicianX: am I the only one who noticed their expressions?
• Debby B: Clearly they didn’t expect the butterflies.
• Ryan464: The kid obviously just tripped the release switch early.
• georgeblack: they looked afraid.
• magicfreak: That’s Joseph Perry. He died like a week later.
• georgeblack: how’d he die?
• magicfreak: They say it was a mugging.
• georgeblack: they say?
• magicfreak: It was all really weird. This is the only video of him in a four-year span before he died. People wondered if someone was after him—money or rivalry or something.
• georgeblack: weird
• Vampire Biter: I recognize the woman. She died right before vampires came out. They said it was an animal attack, but she was only wounded on the neck.
• magicfreak: You’re kidding me.
• Vampire Biter: Nope. Did you see the way he looked out at the audience? Maybe they were afraid of something else.