12 MAGIC WORDS the old coin was gone."24 Now you see it, now you don't is especially associated with the ancient game of shells or cups and balls. Variations and Incantations: • Abracadabra, Now you see it, now you don't -- Jodi Picoult, Keeping the Faith (1999) • First you see it, then you don't -- Phrases.org.uk (200 ) • Helter Skelter now you see it, now you don't -- Jack Sarfatti, quoted in The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav (1979) • Here one moment, gone the next -- Paul Levinson, The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution (1997) • Hey presto! Now you see it, now you don't -- Frederick Beuchner, Lion Country (1971) • Hocus Pocus, Now you see it, now you don't -- Peter R. Breggin, Talking Back to Ritalin (2001) • Now you see 'em, now you don't -- Scott Flansburg, Math Magic for Your Kids (1998) • Now-you-see-me now-you-don't -- Carl Sandburg, "Timesweep," Honey and Salt (196 ) • Now you think you see it, now you don't -- Derek Smethurst, Soccer Technique for Winning (2000) • Vê, não vê -- Candace Slater, Entangled Edens: Visions of the Amazon (2002) In Literature: • Pedro Juan Gutierrez, Dirty Havana Trilogy: A Novel in Stories (2002) • "[N]ow you see it, now you don't, the trick of a supreme magician who could -- with cunning legerdermain under a silk handkerchief -- transform a few seconds of tranquility into an eternity of chaos." -- Judith Viorst, Necessary Losses (1986) • "I was always suspicious of people, especially boys. Their smiles and words were like little balls in the hands of a magician: now you see them, now you don't." -- V.C. Andrews, Cinnamon (2001) 24 Annie Bryant, Out of Bounds (2005) 25 Winthrop D. Jordan, White Over Black (1995). Consider also: "Pea under the shell -- Now you see it now you don't." -- William S. Burroughs, Nova Express (1964). Additionally: "[P]roducing the effect of an elaborate shell game. Now you see it and now you don't." -- Peter Wiggins, Donne, Castiglione and the Poetry of Courtliness (2000) 26 Clive Barker, The Damnation Game (1985)