James Daniel Atlas was 13 the first time he saw him. Walking through Central Park on a holiday with his parents, he was anxious to find the Lionel Shrike tree. He wanted to be a magician and had been learning magic since he got his first deck of cards for his birthday that year. He wanted to be an illusionist. A showman. One of the greatest magicians the world had ever seen. When the Shrike tree was in sight, James didn't wait for his parents, he raced ahead to the landmark. He stopped a few feet before it and stared in awe at the card encased in glass. His full attention was on the tree, until something in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

A young boy sat alone on the grass just a little way from the Shrike tree. He was small and young, 5 at the most. Dressed in a thin shirt and a small pair of shorts with a worn blanket tossed around his shoulders, his brown-haired head was bent to the ground. The boy was playing with the grass in front of his crossed leg and no one paid him any attention as they just walked past him. No one except James. Almost as though he felt the stare, the boy looked up and James couldn't hold back his gasp. The boy's face was covered in bruises, dried blood and cuts. His brown eyes were sad and tired, but turned to panic as he noticed someone observing him. And observe him James did. He looked at the boy's bruised face, the way the t-shirt seemed to hang off him as he dropped the blanket in shock, the spattering of injuries along his arms and legs and the despondent nature with which he sat on the grass. But in full view of the hundreds of people walking in Central Park, no one stopped to pay any attention to him. No one offered him money or a trip to the hospital and it was in moments like that that James Daniel Atlas saw how cruel the world really was.

"Are you ready to go James?" his mother asked him as they finally caught up to him at the base of the Shrike tree. James fingered the packet of cards he had in his pocket, the ones he never let out of his sight.

"Yeah," James slowly replied, pulling his stare away from the boy and watching as the boy looked almost saddened and relieved at the removal of attention on him. "Let's go this way," James suggested as he gestured to the right of the tree in the direction of the boy. His parents walked ahead of him, holding each other's hands and James watched in disbelief as his loving, wonderful parents walked right past the young boy that they obviously saw, without giving him a second glance. James again saw how cruel the world could be.

He followed after his parents and walked past the boy with the brown hair and the sad eyes. The boy looked up as James passed because as he did so, two things occurred. The first, a hand was gently and tenderly ran through his hair, causing the boy to gasp at the contact. The second was a weight falling into his lap. Chubby 5-year old hands scurried to pick up the object. A pack of cards rested in his hands. The boy squealed in the way young children do and he rushed to open the pack of cards. He dare not pull them out in case he dropped them. He knew what happened to bad boys who dropped cards. But there was something in the pack that wasn't a card. A folded sheet of paper rest in the pack and the boy pulled it out careful not to disturb the cards. Once the paper was removed, he un-folded it. He slowly read the words on the top of the page, whispering them out loud. "A... Guide… To… Magic," he read in his small voice, making sure he read the words carefully. "The... Closer… You… Look… The… Less… You… See… Li-Li-Lionel… Shrike."

And that day in Central Park, James Daniel Atlas witnessed something truly magical from where he had convinced his parents to sit and watch the world go by while he played in the grass. A smile gracing the face of a 5-year old boy for the first time in 5 years.