The Magician’s Evening Rachel Denham-White is still waiting for the Dune movie to be released
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The multicoloured handkerchiefs had been pulled from the sleeve, the coin discovered hiding behind the lady’s right ear, the pigeons miraculously freed from their cage. The show was over. As the chattering patrons filed out of the sawdust ring, buoyed with incredulity and candyfloss, the magician carried his props back to his tent. It was at the very back of the circus; leaning haphazardly to the side, it bore a practically uniform pattern of patches and tears. It was old. Like him. It was worndown and close to useless. Like him. But it still served its purpose.
at your face through a slightly rippling pond. The image was still there, but warped: an almost familiar stranger.
The inside of the tent was bare but for a camp bed, a chair, a primus stove, and a table, topped with a small mirror. All eyes were instantly drawn to the mirror. It was a simple disc with a backing of wood and amber, blocky, even crude from a distance. But up close, it was clear this was no ordinary mirror. It did not seem to reflect, but rather distort, its surface smooth but surreuptitiously etched with whorls and spirals. It was like looking
He set the props down in a cluttered pile beside the camp bed. Instantly, the handkerchieves unfurled, spilling out over the ground. He cursed, and bent down to collect them. They were such flimsy things, but capable of sparking so much wonder in the right person. He thought of tonight’s audience, adults pushing to the front as eagerly as children. They were so desperate to believe, that they’d look past whatever lurid
The magician smiled. The mirror had been in his life nearly as long as the loneliness, but he still remembered the time before when his nights had been barren patches of black unmarked by dreams, when the wanting had been so damn strong. But then he had found the trinket in a tiny antique shop and they had been together ever since. They completed each other.
Binary Opposition Of The Day: indoor plants and dancing to a ringtone.
