Prestoappearo

"Prestoappearo," I said, making a few complex passes with my hands to indicate that magical words alone were not powerful enough to do the trick of summoning the waiter to our side.

"Did you learn that method of invocation from your days—and nights—with the Gypsy woman?" she asked.

"That and many other secrets," I said, "but I'm bound by powerful oaths not to reveal them."

—Frederic Tuten, Self Portraits: Fictions