The Young Magician

‘Samuel!’ an angry woman’s voice called out from afar, piercing the market din. The village folk were familiar with the cry, for it was often heard carrying across the noise of the markets on such days as this, full of frustration and wrath. Today, however, the woman sounded especially fearsome and Samuel’s only solace was that her hollering still sounded from far away. He still had a little time to make good of his misfortune before his mother found out.

He examined the last recovered apple with a frown and he flicked the dirt from its skin with his finger. Juices oozed from an angry bruise. He pushed at the discolouration with his thumb, hoping it was some trick of his imagination, but more juices fizzed into view with each prod. Alternatives scurried about in his mind: perhaps he could keep the apple and risk a scolding, or-much more appealingly-he could tuck it away into some dark corner and dispose of the evidence altogether.

He began to eye various crannies and hiding spots around the marketplace, but then he remembered: Mother always had some way of knowing about such things and was sure to find out sooner or later, perhaps even producing the offensive apple itself as evidence and scowling at him darkly.

So, disappointed, Samuel replaced the bruised apple back with the others. He did, at least, place the most finger-poked side down. Perhaps that would postpone its discovery until much later, when he could be far from Mother and punishment. That thought brought him a brief moment of consolation-but it was cut short by another furious shout.

‘Samuel!’ his mother called out again, much louder, much nearer and far more impatiently than before.

Samuel had become something of a legend for his exploits and many of the other boys envied his adventures, right up until the point when his mother caught hold of him. Then, they would not have filled his shoes for anything. Perhaps that explained why his friends were all now nowhere to be seen.

Across the street, visible between the legs of all the village folk, Tom peeped out from behind a barrel and waved his arms in warning, pointing back into the depths of the market crowd. Samuel’s mother was coming-and she could slap a boy’s backside before a boy could even begin to squeal with fright.

‘Samuel!’ a fearsome voice bellowed, and Mother was there, glaring directly towards him.

Like a squirrel spying a scrub-hawk, Samuel bolted into action and scurried from the path of danger. He zigged and zagged through the crowd and dragged his apple basket behind him, ignorant to the indignant cries and gasps of protest as he made his desperate way, leaving a trail of bruised knees and scratched legs in his wake.

Pausing from his flight, he thought he may actually have escaped (if only for the time being at least), but the notion turned out to be substantially ill-conceived. As he sat huddled amidst the busy market folk, thinking himself quite clever and safe, the people beside him-being the treacherous lot they are-moved apart like the curtains of some theatrical performance and his mother was revealed in all her furious glory, not half a step away from him.

‘Samuel!’ she growled, looming above and she pinned him by the shoulder with her iron grip. He tried to escape, but his legs flailed around uselessly beneath him. Unsubtle hands turned him about and brought him face to face with a frown and a pointed finger. She did not look at all impressed, by any measure. ‘If I have to call you one more time, I shall be telling your father!’ she scolded. ‘And don’t come crying to me when you get a sore backside!’

That was that. The final ultimatum had been given. Samuel went limp in her grip as all his resolve fell right out of him and onto the gritty street. She let him back onto his feet and he waved goodbye to his friends, who were each only now emerging from their hiding places. He trudged after his mother, apple basket still in tow, but markedly reduced in its contents. There would be no more fun this day.

The weight suddenly vanished from his hands as Mother lifted the basket up onto a bench top and she began talking excitedly with the Fish Lady.

All the children knew her as the Fish Lady. She sold fish, she smelled like fish and she even looked like a fish with her enormous, bulging eyes. Samuel looked at her and had to hold back a giggle, despite his sullen mood. Of course, he would never call her the Fish Lady. Not alone, that is-not without moral support. The Fish Lady could slap his behind as fast as look at him-perhaps nearly as quickly as his mother. He had learned that painful lesson long ago. The Fish Lady and his mother would then talk even longer about how naughty he was and what could be done with him and Samuel certainly did not want that today.

Still, despite his good behaviour, Mother and the Fish Lady set into a long discussion. To keep him from straying from her side, Mother’s hand kept a firm grip of Samuel’s shirt and it kept hold no matter how hard he squirmed or how long she talked. Time seemed to pass so slowly after that and Samuel wondered if such torture was even allowed.

He peered between the passing people and carts and loaded wagons for any sight of his friends. There was no sign of them now, but their songs and cheers of excitement rose intermittently above the monotonous chatter around him. Several other women had joined Mother’s side at the stall and were crowding around-pushing into Samuel and bumping him with their handfuls of shopping-to add their various pieces to the discourse.

‘Oh, he’s terrible,’ one lady was saying, shaking her head. ‘Someone should set that man straight.’

‘I know, dear,’ Samuel’s mother said and the others also chorused their agreement. They continued on in that vein, but the sound quickly lost meaning to Samuel and it joined with the drone of the market hubbub.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity of boredom, his mother took a few strung fish in hand and they moved on to the next stall, where-almost beyond belief-she began talking all over again. It continued on like that for the remainder of the morning, so that Samuel had nothing but regret for coming to the village today. He kept looking to the rooftops, wishing he could vault up there and spring away to find all manner of adventures instead of being stuck down here with his dreadful, boring mother.

He had no one to play with at home. His brothers were too old and too serious, always working and busy helping Father. Tom lived not too far away, but he was usually in the village helping his mother and father in their stall and rarely home to visit. Playing with his friends on market day was all Samuel looked forward to, but today Mother was in no mood for games and she had ruined everything.

‘I’m in no mood for games,’ she said bluntly as they returned to their cart. She hoisted Samuel up onto the seat and then walked around and untethered old Aaron from the hitching post. After climbing up beside her son, she looked at him with unveiled disappointment, then sighed and shook her head. Picking up the reins, she gave them a sharp flick and clicked with her tongue. The cart groaned as Aaron started forward and they began their bouncing, bumpy journey back home with the slapping of Aaron’s hooves sounding all along the dusty road.

Samuel looked back with disappointment as the village disappeared between the trees that lined the road and the chanting of ‘Fish Lady! Fish Lady! Fish Lady!’ could be heard rising above the background noise and chatter. There was, after all, safety in numbers.

Their house stood at the end of a long, curving track, overhung with apple trees, each drooping with ripening fruit. The orchards further west invariably matured first, but theirs, Samuel was always proud to note, were famous for their quality. Father, too, beamed with pride when people made comment on his fruit. The merchants often paid a good deal more for the fruit of his labours than for that of any other orchard. When Father was asked how it was that all his fruit was so good, he always replied ‘hard work and good land’, which seemed sensible enough to Samuel.

Their farm was quite near to the village, but still far enough into the hills so that he could roam freely in the endless woods without fear of coming across anyone else, and this was what he liked to do most of all. He could wander for hours and hours on the rising hillside, playing all sorts of games and having all sorts of adventures. Sometimes, he would take Tom up there and they would hunt each other, playing ‘soldiers’ or ‘gut the bandit’. Samuel had no idea why it was called ‘gut the bandit’ and not ‘get the bandit’, but his mother always made an unpleasant face when he mentioned its name, so that was reason enough to make it a game worthwhile.

The narrow front door of their house swung open as Mother brought the wagon to a lurching halt. Lee came out and walked down to meet them, rubbing old Aaron affectionately on his sweat-sheened neck. He was the tallest in the family and nearly as strong as Father, although much leaner. He was also the quietest, seeing to his chores methodically and efficiently, while Jason and James wasted a portion of each morning joking or quibbling before Father would have to clear his throat or cough and the pair would quickly get back to work. Father rarely lost his