The Magician
2021-04-06
Slowly, by degrees, the audience in the old theatre hushed. As the voices, shuffling, fidgeting and stamping quieted, the rich velour curtains pulled back to reveal... nothing.
It was a kind of blankness that drew the eye to it, but gave it nothing to latch onto. Like the blind spot from a migraine headache. There were some stirrings and mumblings from the audience. These changed quickly to gasps of surprise when the Magician appeared.
No fire or powder, smoke or mirrors. She was there between one eyeblink and the next. Severely dressed in top hat and tails, with a formal waistcoat and shirtfront. Her high black boots looked like they must go up to her neck, but once one's eye sorted itself out they turned into slightly more reasonable thigh highs.
She bowed from the waist, languidly and elaborately. Applause rang the rafters. She raised a hand and just as suddenly, there was silence. It might almost be the first trick.
She turned her upraised hand smoothly, to reveal a blinding point of light. It was brilliant in absolute terms, like an arc welder had punched a hole in reality itself. Her shadow stretched out starkly behind her, resting on nothing.
With a pass of her hands, the point of light turned into a sphere the size of a baseball, then a softball. As it enlarged it dimmed orangely, the surface a boiling mass of fire.
She held it gently as she made a circuit of the empty stage. Then seemed to come to a decision and released it at about the centre, slightly above her head.
It hung there, burning brightly, turning slightly, faint wisps of prominences boiling away every so often.
With wider motions of her immaculately gloved hands, she swept at the air around the boiling Sun. She gathered up the darkness with smooth, elegant gestures, like a gentle-lady folding up lace. Then with a twist and a snap, she released it behind the Sun.
Gentle black darkness swallowed the emptiness of the stage. The viewer's eyes relaxed in relief to be spared from the awful nothingness. She stepped here and there, touching, tucking and tightening. Everywhere her index finger rested, a faint new light burned. The Sun among the Stars.
Despite the blackness of her outfit, somehow she was held distinct from the new space. Lit, but not illuminated by the Sun.
Now she swept her left hand through the darkness of space to cup it into her right. She opened her hands to reveal a shivering liquid sphere. A ball of churning water.
She lifted it, and as she did, it enlarged, much like the Sun had, except more. Perhaps the size of a basketball. The water was blue green, and dark shapes moved in the turbulent depths. She brought it to her lips, and gently blew over it while sweeping her hand down.
It floated now of its own accord, turning gently on a slightly tilted axis. As it turned, land rose out of the endless ocean. It curled and sculpted itself into islands and continents. Blue, ochre and green slid across the land like the film of a soap bubble.
The turning Earth filled the stage. Of the Magician there was no sign. She had dissappeared as unobtrusively as she had arrived. There was a click and a pop from the disused PA system, and a breathy female voice proclaimed:
"In the Beginning..."
The curtain dropped to thunderous applause.
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