more magician

Alright, Cheryl called it, and I have to agree--this guy is not for real. We Googled various things in his email (his name, the convention that he mentions), and found no evidence that they exist. Lorin hasn't responded to his second email, but his latest (unprompted) email included this paragraph:

I am anxious to hear back from you! I am nervous I won't have a place to live come January since everyone else is turning me down. I worry that I might have said too much in my last email. I don't want you to think I would turn your home into some kind of "nightmare carnival"--I'm quite good at respecting other people's pace!

The weird thing is, when Lorin forwarded the first two emails to the rest of us, I replied to all saying that just reading his emails made me feel like I was living in a nightmare carnival. I can't believe that it's coincidence that he would use the exact same phrasing... so it must be one of the five of us. No one has fessed up though, despite intense grilling. One suggestion has been to email back that we have a no pets policy! but he sounds like fun! and we'd like to meet him at a bar in the neighborhood! and he should bring his snakes! Presumably no one would show up, but if he did... it would be kind of awesome.

Whatever the source of these emails, I've spent more time laughing today than I have in weeks. So thank you, fictitious magician!