IT WAS an average day in Western Washington, where average people went about their average lives. These averagefolks went to work and school, got stuck in traf?c, and opened businesses for another day. School kids played in oversizedraincoats while mud spat- tered around their ankles and large droplets of rain ran the length of their Scotch-guardedclothing. Parents moved slowly through water- covered streets as they navigated the early morning of one of the wettestdays of the year.

  Ironically enough, it is these average days that so often become more than just an average day. Why, might you ask, didthis day that started like all the rest become more than average? Well, it started with the dream of a man and a boy, a wholelot of studying, and a little bit of luck.

  An important-looking man stood on a stage in an event center in downtown Seattle. He was very well dressed, as if hewere hosting a black-tie event. His brown hair was groomed to perfection, and the glare of stage lights re?ected off hiswhite teeth. He spoke to a huge crowd of people in a smooth, almost silky voice.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, in my ?ve years of hosting this competition, I have never seen anything like this. Our Challenger and Cham- pion are neck and neck as they go into the ?nalquestions of the afternoon.”

  Cheers erupted all around as the huge crowd bellowed its approval at the man's words. This crowd was a spectacularone, composed of all kinds of people. Every age, sex, race, and ethnicity was present because, for the ?rst time in ?fteenyears, the Coren University Acad- emic Scholarship Competition had come down to its last round, to its last question. Thiswas a great day for those who believed in and cheered for the underdog, as they believed this particular one had a realchance to upset. An upset that, for more than one secretive and unfair reason, should not be happening—should nothappen now, or ever.

  This underdog looked the part, but he was not playing his assigned role well at all. Although clearly from humbleorigins, he spoke eloquently, neither abashed nor intimidated, blending in well among an unfamiliar crowd. He washandsome, with thick hair of the darkest black, extraordinary blue-gray eyes, and a kind face. He gave off an air of bothimportance and conviction that was infectious. In truth, every time he stood to answer a question, a portion of the crowdwould break into raucous applause. They wanted him to win, and they wanted him to feel that they wanted him to win . .. and feel it he did. The young man, being the humble sort, merely smiled in reaction to the crowd, showing his gratitudewith the slightest of gestures. An occasional, almost embarrassed wave and a simple smile made the mothers anddaughters sway and the fathers wonder what they needed to do to raise a young man like that.

  This competition was an uphill battle for this young man, an unknown in all circles from the political to the popular.He swept onto the scene with blaring intelligence, decimating contestants more than three years his senior. Slowly, thehearts of those who witnessed his struggle melted as, over and over again, he ?red off answers to history's mysteries. Things went so well that by the time the ?nals came around, the underdog was not so “under” anymore.

  The man hosting the event put up a hand as the crowd, in the spirit of competition, let out another thunderous roundof applause. He showed them a toothy smile.

  "Now it has all come down to this, ladies and gentlemen, our chal- lenger still holding strong right behind ourchampion as we go into the ?nal round."

  More applause and catcalls split the air.

  "Let me remind our audience of the scoring scale. Each question is worth ?ve points, with the ability to pass to theiropponent up to three questions, in addition to a 'doubler' in each round. Depending on how quickly you answer, thedoubler can become a ten-point question."

  The crowd was not paying attention to this part. This was just a wannabe game show host doing his wannabe gameshow thing. They had heard all this explained before, but wait—

  "I know what you are thinking," the man said, his coy smile becoming more mischievous by the second. "We know all this. Why are you repeating it? Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’ll tell you why I’m repeating myself: This round is going to be alittle different."

  The crowd went silent at his words. Something different, they asked collectively. What could they possibly dodifferently? No, they couldn’t change it now. Do not mess with the status quo; there is too much at stake.

  "I would remind you," he said, gaining momentum now that he knew he had their attention, "that you will all ?nd outas we go into this last round." He turned and looked at a large television camera. "I will let you know all this and more—right after this."

  People groaned at his pronouncement. It was given that an enter- tainer would cut to a commercial right when theshow was getting exciting. For those in the audience, however, it was downright annoying.

  Despite the relatively short break, most of the people in the audience grumbled as the stagehands made the necessarychanges for the final round of the competition. Each person in the audience took little notice of those around them. Many,after all, were rich and important. Of course, with the success of this no-name challenger, the commoners seemed to comeout of the woodwork. Well, the rich and important did not have time for mingling with commoners. Keep your distance—itwas an unspoken rule. However, every rule has an exception, and this one was no different.

  A young girl, no older than ?ve, sat in the back row in the last seat of the hall. She was beautifully dressed—withperfectly arranged hair courtesy of her personal stylist. Her family typically spent the day shopping at the most expensivestores, eating at the very best restau- rants, and whiling away the hours on the streets of Seattle. Now they sat in a stuffyhall watching some sort of game show. In truth, she was too far back to really see what was happening and a little tooyoung to even appreciate it. To her credit, she tried to act interested; she really did. Mommy and Daddy were acting likethis was important, but she just couldn't get her heart into it, no matter how hard she tried.

  What was the big deal anyway? There were so many people here, and they were all paying close attention, especially tothe pretty boy at the front. Actually, she wasn't even sure he was a boy. He kind of looked like a girl. There was a noisebehind the girl, startling her. She turned her little frame to peer over her shoulder. There was a man. She blinked inconfusion. Was he there before? She thought back to when she entered the hall. She didn't remember anyone being there,but she hadn't been paying close attention. She pondered a moment more. No, he couldn't have been there before. She wasin the last row in the last seat. He must have moved his chair to that corner, but she would have heard him; she wouldhave noticed. Wouldn't she?

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  The girl pivoted again in her seat to look at him, trying to move so he wouldn't notice. He was a funny man, wasn't he?He sat completely stationary, not moving at all. She wondered why he wasn't moving. Maybe he was sleeping? Thisseemed like an odd place to sleep. She put his lack of movement aside for a moment as she noticed something else.

  You really are a funny man, aren't you? Why are you wearing such a big overcoat and hood? She laughed. His coat wasfunny, too. It didn't have any place for the arms. She giggled a bit more. Isn't that weird? Why make a coat withoutarmholes? Oh, wait. Maybe he was one of those people she saw on the road from time to time, the ones with the signs. Asad feeling crept into her heart. He had a funny coat because he couldn't afford another one. And . . . and she had laughedat him. How mean! That's not something you should do. She had to apologize. That's what you do, right? When you makea mistake, you say I'm sorry. But it looked like he was still sleeping. Should she wake him? If she did, she would have toapologize for waking him, too! What should she do?

  Oddly enough, as if he had been listening to her thoughts, the man sat up, one eye visible under the hood of the coat. Itwas a minute or so before she noticed.

  She gave a start as she saw the dark eye of the man. Could eyes really even be that dark? It looked almost black. Thegirl continued to feel confused. Why did he pick black when something like pink is so much nicer? Grownups sure didfunny things sometimes.

  She knew better than to talk to strangers, but her childish curiosity got the better of her; she lifted up a hand andwaved.

  The man smiled back.

  Oh, what a nice smile. You should really smile more often; you wouldn't be so scary. Hey, what are you doing?

  The man sat up a little straighter and leaned toward the little girl. Despite the fact that she had decided he was a niceman, she shrank back. OK, he was still a little scary.

  The man lifted a hand out from underneath his funny coat, showing her there was nothing in it.

  Oh, I see, you are about to do magic, aren't you? There was some- thing like this at her birthday party last year. Thisman, however, was a bit different than the clown she had seen so many months ago. When the clown did magic, he showed her and her friendshis hands. At ?rst, nothing was in them; then, poof, there were ?owers! It was amazing. Her brother had said it wasn't real,that the ?owers were fake and had just been hidden. She, however, knew that was crazy. Flowers don't just appear, andmagic really existed—she had seen it. The little girl wondered if this man really was going to do magic.

  She was not disappointed.

  He was performing magic, though his way was much different than the clown's. She thought that he was praying orsomething as he did some weird movement with his ?rst two ?ngers while they pointed in the air.

  Many questions bobbled around her head as she tried her best to comprehend what the man was doing. She receivedanother shock as a funny light gathered around the man's hand. Was she seeing this right? This new light didn't last long,as suddenly, a lollipop appeared!

  The little girl's eyes brightened as she looked at the lollipop. It was multicolored and as big as her head. Maybe he wouldshare.

  Oh, that's not how you hold a lollipop! You're going to drop it.

  The man had taken the sucker and placed it stick down on the palm of his hand. He was balancing it on the palm of hishand. It sat there completely still. Frozen.

  She looked on in awe, trans?xed at the sight before her. This was unfortunate because if she had been less distracted bythe lollipop, she would have noticed his rather suspicious behavior.

  "Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen!" rang out the voice of the man on stage, effectively catching the attention of allthose in the audi- ence. "Now, allow me to explain our exciting change of…"

  The girl stopped listening again. She didn't understand what the silly man at the front was talking about anyway.Besides, the man with the lollipop was much more—Hey, where did it go?

  The lollipop was gone! He'd eaten it all? No way! He didn't even

  share! And she had thought he was a nice man. The girl sat back in her seat, feeling sad. Suddenly, there was a tap on hershoulder.

  It was the man, and he was giving her a weird look. He was awfully hard to understand, this man with the funny coat.His two ?ngers were up again and moving quickly through the air, much faster than they had before. Are you prayingagain? But then why did you tap me on the shoulder?

  Out of nowhere, he spoke. "Look in your pocket."

  His voice was soft, almost musical. It had an inde?nable effect on the girl. She felt lighter, though she didn't understandwhy. She did what she was told. Slowly, she reached her hand into her pocket.

  She felt something. What did she feel? It was small, long, round, and hard. What . . . what could it be?

  She started to pull at the object in her pocket when the lollipop came out with a small jerk. No, wait, that's impossible.It's too big. There is no way! Should . . . ?

  A voice interrupted her.

  "Well, it's about time to go to work."

  The man. He had spoken. Softly, yet with brilliance. Almost forget- ting the sucker in her hand, the girl once againturned.

  He was praying again.

  Two ?ngers pointed upward and again moved with curious gestures. Up, down, left, right, half circle. They were toofast. She couldn't keep track.

  More light? It was coming from his sleeve again. What was happening?

  The young girl jumped as the crowd let out a collective moan. The loud man at the front was talking fast. The girlturned back toward the stage in time to see the pretty boy standing with an arm raised in triumph. He appeared to bescanning the back of the hall, looking, searching.

  Before the girl could ?gure out what was going on, she was distracted again, this time by the loud man with themicrophone.

  "I don't believe it!" he almost screamed, "I don't believe it! For the ?rst time in the history of Coren University, aFRESHMAN has won!"

  What? It's over? And the boy who looks like a girl won? Wait, isn't this all pretend? He wasn't supposed to win.Mommy and Daddy had said the winner had already been decided.

  She heard a small snicker.

  The man. The man behind her. The boy, the boy up front. He had been searching. Who had he been searching for? Thegirl turned back around to the man.

  Only there was nothing there. No man, no funny coat, not even a chair. But she still had the lollipop. He had beenthere.

  "Are you enjoying your sucker, honey?" asked the girl's mother in a sweet voice. “Try to save some for later. We’regoing to eat soon."

  What? How did she know about the lollipop? She hadn't shown Mommy, Daddy, or anyone.

  "Remember, if you're a good girl, we'll go back to the Fun Factory and get you another sometime."

  "Mommy," the girl replied, unsure of herself. She noticed a funny, almost glazed look in her mother's eyes, like she wasdreaming. "What do you mean?"

  "Silly girl," her mother answered, "you must be tired. Had a bit too much excitement for one day? Your father boughtthat sucker this afternoon at the Fun Factory, remember? It's your favorite candy store."

  "Oh," the girl said. "But Mommy, I didn't—"

  The girl cut herself short. Her mother was no longer paying atten- tion, and the dreamy look was gone from her eyes.Her brother had just walked up to their row from the stage, and he looked disap- pointed.

  Fun Factory? She didn't go to the Fun Factory today, did she? There was a man. He had a funny coat. He gave her alollipop. He had been here. The girl turned again, looking for the man she now wasn't sure existed.