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The Magnificent Matarsi

John Ragusa

    Bela Matarsi was a carnival mesmerizer, locally known as “The Magnificent Matarsi.” He could exercise mind control like nobody’s business. He’d shine a light in a subject’s eyes, put him in a trance, and tell him to do his bidding, which he did without protest or hesitation. Once folks were under his spell, they would follow his orders down to the last detail. Matarsi was a mesmerizer in the truest sense of the word.
    People would flock to his tent to see him perform his hypnotism. They paid huge sums to witness his demonstrations. He often made his subjects do humiliating things, such as barking like a dog, or dancing like a fool. He enjoyed his activities as much as the folks who gave money to see them.
    Matarsi began to wonder if he could expand his talent to new heights. Could he use it to make sick persons become healthy? If he could accomplish that, he would surely become the most acclaimed mesmerizer in history! How wonderful, how utterly grand, that would be!
    Matarsi decided to try his hypnosis on his elderly landlord, Griffen Stiles, who suffered from arthritis. The poor man would cry out daily in excruciating pain, the victim of advanced age. When Matarsi offered his services, Stiles gladly accepted it.
    As if by magic, Stiiles’s arthritis stopped once he was hypnotized by Matarsi! The mesmerizer’s dream had become reality. He achieved what many men covet, but do not succeed at.
    Realizing he had a unique ability, Matarsi made a career out of using hypnotism to cure the ill. Suddenly, he made more money than ever before, and his name became a household word. Matarsi was now sitting on top of the world, by golly!
    One day, a man in a wheelchair came to Matarsi to be healed.
    “I’ve been handicapped for a painfully long time now,” he told Matarsi. “I will pay you any amount of money for you to make me walk again.”
    “Suffer no more, for it shall be done!” Matarsi exclaimed.
    After getting hypnotized, the guy actually got up and walked!
    He paid Matarsi handsomely for the work he’d done. Then he said, “You don’t recognize me, Matarsi, but I remember you very well.”
    “Who are you?”
    “I’m Greg Leacock, the man you ran over in your car while intoxicated nearly 40 years ago. I was left a cripple. I will now get the revenge I’ve been wanting for decades.”
    Matarsi watched in horror as Leacock came forward and choked the life out of him.

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