Mark was left devastated and wondered but how could Mary-Anne do such a thing? He sat on the steps of the trailer and buried his face in his palms. He thought of his future without Lindiwe and how lonesome it would be.

Who would he laugh with after-school, who would he play games with, who would he kiss? And this bracelet? What about it now? A surge of rage rippled through him. He threw the bracelet far away on the ground.

He heaved himself up and looked around to where the bracelet had landed. He saw a heap of stones stacked like a small cairn far beyond the trucks parked near the exit. He slowly walked towards it and his scouting instincts kicked in.

He thought they had to have been assembled by a person. It looked as if it had been recently assembled. He removed the stones and uncovered some hay. He moved the hay aside and found that the soil was soft. He started digging the dirt with his bare hands.

He felt something hard and dug with even more vigour. He uncovered a book. Its cover was hard, black. He wiped the dust away to find it was written in gold letters: The Great Book of Magic. Mark looked around and darted towards the carnival.

“Hey, look what I found!” He could be heard screaming as he sprinted towards Siphiwe, standing with Mary-Anne.

Brother Boswell’s lapels’ were between Lindiwe’s father hands after the supposed main act was over.

“Perform your magic again, I want my daughter!”

Lindiwe’s mother had been pleading for some calm and patience.

“I really think we should be pressing –”

While Brother Boswell was pleading for some patience, Mark came and held the book up over his head. They all saw it and stood rooted to the ground.

“Aha! Eureka!” brother Boswell yelled. “Get your filthy hands off me.”

He grabbed the book from Mark’s grip and darted towards the magician. Lindiwe’s mother exhaled deeply, while Mark’s mother cheered. The audience calmed and all eyes were fixed on the stage.

Brother Boswell cleared his throat and spoke, “as promised, people of Sunrise Avenue, now for one final act . . . I’ll leave it to my magician.”