Pablo and the Sugar Cloud

By: Dotti Dahlia

Pablo reached the elephant stables just after midnight, it was his eighth birthday and Pablo’s father had just nodded off to sleep. Pablo’s father was a magician, widely respected across all the land and Pablo was his assistant. A magician’s assistant, just like his father, his grandfather and his great, great grandfather had started out.

Quickly tying his shoes and grabbing his birthday present from off the foot of his bed, Pablo managed to evade his father and his dog Lou in total silence. The moon was high and the summer sky was clear and velvety. It was a perfect night to turn eight.

Near he and his father’s trailer were the elephant stables, Pablo spent many hours in there reading on evenings like these when the weather was warm. Across the stable floors a fresh layer of golden straw had been scattered, the elephants though standing on their tired and enormous legs, slept head to tail in a line of five. A single hole in the roof allowed a single beam of moonlight to shine so that a hazy glow of amber straw, dust and light radiated beneath Pablo’s own tired legs. Gold bells dangled from the elephant’s blankets, twinkling in the moonlight, throwing reflections across the stable walls.

Spreading his coat across the fresh floor, Pablo produced a present his father had given him for his birthday. It was wrapped in shiny green paper and had a perfect yellow bow. Pablo carefully unwrapped the package, not tearing the paper and salvaging the bow. Pablo’s dark brown eyes grew large as the last of the paper was finally put to one side. It was an old book with golden pages and a red leather cover, the most fascinating book Pablo had ever seen! The metallic letters across the cover lit up in the glow of the moon, HANDBOOK OF SIMPLE MAGIC. Pablo opened the book, the book smelled like his father’s magic studio: sage, pipe tobacco, dirt and hot candle wax rose off the page. Positioning himself so that he was now on his stomach and elbows, he silently began to thumb through the pages.

The first chapter was instructions and general etiquette of a magician’s assistant, something in which Pablo was already well trained. There were even illustrations on examples of attire, cape tying and how to keep your hat clean. The second however was a new subject. SIMPLE MAGIC: choosing your wand.

As though the sun were about to come at any moment and force him to get back to work, Pablo read as fast as he could – of all the tools of a magician, the wand was the most precious. This was, in fact, the only tool of his father’s he was not allowed to touch. His father kept his wand locked in an elegantly carved, cedar box, inside the box it is wrapped in a silk square cloth his great, great grandmother made; a white rabbit embroidered on one of the corners. The book gave very distinct instructions, listing all the desirable qualities of a wand and even the various types of wands that have existed. Pablo could hardly contain his excitement in trying out a spell or two; he especially wanted to show his father how well he learned in just one night. Pablo set out to find something, ANYTHING that could serve as a temporary wand.

Nearby, Pablo heard the candy makers cleaning out their stands for tomorrow’s patrons. He could smell burnt sugar, cinnamon and chocolate – even over the dung piles just outside the stable. Suddenly wanting a sweet snack, Pablo left the company of the sleeping elephants and followed the scent of sugar and the sound of fellow circus men. Reaching their stand, Pablo peered over the counter and cleared his throat.

“Ahem!”

“Your up late! Does your father know you are out this late? “

Scrunching his nose, he looked innocently up at Earl. He was a rather plump man with long, curly hair and a mad, toothless smile, evidence of just how good his candies were. Earl always wore a red shirt with a missing top button and black cowboy boots and a black cowboy hat. He was always neat and tidy and smelled of chocolate. It was obvious that Pablo’s father was not awake, the trailer lights were off and their dog Lou was snoring in the dirt just below the front door. Too tired to bother with anything else this evening, Earl dismissed his question and looked Pablo squarely in the face.

“And how may I be of service this fine moonlit evening?”

Pablo scanned the shelves of various candies wrapped in blue and yellow foil paper and red cellophane. Just then, Earl snapped his long brown fingers – “I have just the thing for you tonight!” He then spun around and bent over what appeared to be a cauldron.

Earl had reached far down into the cauldron where he stood for quite some time with his entire arm, all the way to the top of his shoulder, churning something deep inside. Finally, Earl produced what appeared to be a cloud of fine, white cotton. The cloud seemed to sparkle in the moonlight. Earl handed the fluffy orb to Pablo who appeared most excited! Having seen Pablo’s smile spread across his entire face, Earl exclaimed: “It is my newest creation! Cotton Candy!”

Without any hesitation, Pablo pinched off a giant wisp of his sugar cloud. To his astonishment it quickly dissolved into tiny sugar crystals within his mouth – a sensation he was sure to never forget. Again, Pablo pinched off a piece even larger than the first and again it dissolved, and again he pinched, and again it dissolved. Having never experiencing anything quite like this Pablo had finished the entire cloud; a sticky residue on his fingers and around his mouth was the only evidence of its lovely existence.

After saying goodbye to Earl and in total aw of this new delectable treat, Pablo sauntered back to the stable in spite of his sugar high, his mind fresh and alert. There lay his book blanketed in the dew colored light. Lifting his fingers to his mouth to lick them clean of the sugar, Pablo’s eyes widened in disbelief! There, entangled in the sugar cloud the entire time was a wand! The sleek black straw, about a foot in length and as hard as wood was precisely what Pablo needed. With wand and book in hand, Pablo ran as fast as he could to wake his father, excited to learn of the new spells he had read of, and to learn the magic behind the sugary cloud – certain that Earl was a fellow magician.