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Identify a short story involving a blond that makes a fire poker sag


I found a box of books in the attic of a new house at age 12, the summer of 1963. It contained 2 sf anthologies. One was Damon Knight stories.


The other one was a hard bound collection of multiple stories by multiple authors with many different themes. The (not Damon Knight) story I recently remembered involved a pathetic guy (with blond roots) who has been trying to seduce a beautiful non-stereotypical blond. She demonstrates, in the last paragraph, a "trick" that causes a fire poker to suddenly sag.


I didn't get at age 12, but when something reminded me of the scene a while back I did and started laughing out loud.


It probably would have been funniest when I was a high school sophomore, but I would like to see if I can locate the story and maybe even the anthology.


Ah, retirement. I think the was yellow.




Answer



That's "A Trick or Two", a short story by John Novotny; first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1957, available at the Internet Archive. The ending:



Jesse walked wonderingly to the fireplace, picked up the poker, and held it out. Laura raised a long slender forefinger and pointed at the brass tool; and in Jesse's hand the poker became pliable, soft, and wilted like wax before a flame. He stared at it in horror.

"Jesse," Laura said, "I discovered my trick long ago."



The anthology was probably A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Robert P. Mills, ed.); maybe the contents or cover will ring a bell.


The Damon Knight collection, if it was published before 1963, was probably his 1961 collection Far Out; his second collection, In Deep, published in May of 1963; seems less likely to be found in a box in an attic in the summer of 1963.


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