The Wizard

Written by:  Larry Pitman

Someone told me that there are lots of witches and wizards in Peru.


Where I come from we are skeptical of these sorts of things. In fact, I have never been a believer, even if I do enjoy the Harry Potter stories.

It is a little hard for me to admit this, but I think I might just have met a wizard. I was not sure. So, before I laid the label on him, I went to the dictionary and here is what it said:

“Wizard: someone having magical influence or power”.

Certainly, it appeared to me at the time that this person I met does have extraordinary powers.

Here is what happened.

I didn’t recognize him, but he knew me.

Frequently, I have to take a taxi late at night after my class. Several months ago, and only once, he had taken me home and now, after what must have been thousands of passengers, he remembered all the details of our previous journey. I didn’t need to tell him where I lived, he knew exactly.

“I remember everything,” he said.

“It is a gift” he added

He then went on to tell me about numerous occasions when he remembered the exact details of an event or a person.

“I have a photographic memory.”

“Also I have dreams with great detail, and then they become true.”

He told about how he foresaw the death of his father.

“I knew exactly when and where he would die,” he said.

“I can tell a bad guy with 98% accuracy. That is very useful in my work. I know just by looking whether I want to have this person in my taxi or not.”

He then described his intuitive powers which warn him about a coming event. He told me about a bank where he had his life savings. One day when he went in to make a deposit and, even though everything appeared to be normal, he had a strong feeling that he must take all his money out of this bank immediately. He then tried to make the withdrawal, but they said that he must wait a week. The next day he heard on the radio that the bank had been closed by government inspectors.

Then he told about how he has foreseen his own death.

“I had a dream with all the details. I know that I will die when I am 55 years old, and I have seen the hospital where I will die. I’m 53 now, and I feel my body beginning to deteriorate. My daughter, who has the same gifts as I do, has also dreamed that I will die in that year. “

I was shocked by how casual and matter of fact he seemed about this announcement.

He reassured me, “It doesn’t matter. I have no fear of death. I am a Catholic.”

By this time, we had arrived at my house. It wasn’t until later that it occurred to me.

Should I have asked him to tell me my future?