“You’re right. It’s not. It’s actually called sleight of hand, whichcansometimes be the magic you’re thinking of, or just a trick like this that looks cool.”
Inez giggled, then flinched.
“Owww,” she yelped.
“Numbing agent going in, Inez,” the technician said in a soothing voice. “In a second, you won’t feel anything. I promise.”
“Inez. Look at me,” Vince cajoled.
The little girl blinked back tears and focused on him.
“Do you want to know about the word I mentioned?”
“Uh, huh.” She sniffed.
The tech guy gave Lace a thumbs up.
It looked like the worst was over.
Lace couldn’t believe that Inez had been left alone for this procedure before. It would be tough even for an adult to endure without a comforting hand to hold, and Lace immediatelydisliked whoever had been dropping the girl off like she was Door-Dash.
Vince, true to form, didn’t miss a bit of his focus. “The word islegerdemain,” he stated before repeating it. “Legerdemain.”
“Ledge-er-da-main,” Inez mimicked slowly.
“That’s it,” Vince grinned. “Can you guess what it means?”
Inez actually gave him a savvy look, settling into her treatment now that the worst was over. “Well, you did that…sleight-of-hand thing before, so it’s gotta be that. Right?” she guessed, somewhat smugly.
“You got it,” Vince exalted. “You’re too smart for me.” He chuckled, then went on to offer up an additional teaching moment.
“How about this? Do you know where France is?” he asked.
Inez puckered her face in concentration. “Somewhere that’s not here,” she said. “I think it’s…across the ocean? I learned…” she struggled to remember. “…compass stuff in school. Across the ocean is east,” she stated more confidently.
Lace thought that was pretty damned good for a six-year-old.
“That’s right,” Vince praised. “France is across the Atlantic Ocean to the east. I’ll show you on a map.”
He pulled out his phone and quickly pointed to the US, then dragged his finger across the ocean to pinpoint France.
“It’s over three thousand miles away,” he told her.
“That’s a lot of miles,” Inez replied with wonder in her voice.
“It is. And the wordlegerdemaincomes from the language they speak there, which is French.”
Inez was paying close attention, as was Lace. This was all new to her.
Vince went on. “Sometimes we Americans take words from other languages and make them our own. Often, just the way they are, but occasionally by changing them a little.”
Inez was clearly no longer thinking about her spinal infusion.
Vince really knows how to weave his magic.
“Is this one a changed word?” Inez probed.
“It is. I looked it up,” Vince responded. “Leger, the first part of the word, means light or sleight in French. ‘De’ means of, and ‘main’ is hand.”