Twin Pebble Magic

When I was about 4 years old, I found out my dad had magical powers.
I knew that he was the biggest and strongest man in the world but I was shocked to find out he was magical!
We lived in this funny little brick house that had 3 doors. A front door, a back door and a side door.
The side door was higher than the rest of the house and it had several steps that led up to it.
The "porch" was a tall, gigantic hunk of concrete (it seemed gigantic to a 4 yr old) and I often sat there with my legs dangling over the side watching my dad work on his various trucks, boats, cars, etc.
One day, he sat with me and we played a game.
He collected a bunch of small pebbles and laid them on the porch between us. He would hand me one pebble at a time and have me throw it across the driveway.
Then we would both say "abracadabra!" while he twisted his fist this way and that. He would open his hand and sitting in his huge palm would be that same pebble I just threw.
I was amazed!
How did that pebble get into his hand? My daddy was magic!

Do you know I never questioned him about it for years? Not until a few months before he died, did I wonder how he did it. I was 31 yrs old. I didn't believe in magic anymore.

"Dad, do you remember that game we used to play where I'd throw the pebble and you would pretend to do magic and it would end up in your hand? How did you really do that?"

I wasn't expecting him to remember, his memory had been slipping lately but he laughed a little and said, "I would always look for two pebbles that looked similar and save them. I kept them in my pocket and would separate them when it was time to play the game."

It makes me cry now, to think of this big man, searching the ground for twin pebbles for his chubby little daughter's entertainment.

Ok, so it wasn't magic but he had me believing in it for nearly 30 years.