The Most Magic Eraser The magician was moaning one day to the witch about the dreadful weather - they bashed their heads together about possible solutions and came up with a spectacular idea - a magic eraser - that would blank the sky of it's greyness and rub out all the rain. They dreamed of a cloudless sky, with a bright sunny sun with green, leafy trees. It took three weeks to devise a special spell - the ingredients included mud and caterpillars, boiled in a bubbling cauldron of beetle juice, with a frogs' leg or two, an eye of a bat and a handful of hazelnuts. As soon as the solution cooled, they mashed the mixture all together and moulded the magic eraser into a rubbery mound - perfect ! The magician went on to extinguish everything horrible and terrible in sight - every sight sore and nuisance in the neighbourhood. The magician, with his eraser, demolished an entire estate, signposts disintegrated and two bridges collapsed - whcih created mass confusion on the roads and two weeks of traffic congestion. After a week of rubbing, the magician had annihilated three mountains of litter, four wallfuls of graffiti and a field full of dead sheep. But his hand accidentally slipped and the magician in error, removed an entire rain forest and dried up two dozen river rapids (which did cause quite a stir, even though there wasn't much water left to stir). In the magician's home town, he visited a park - any minute, crowds dispersed where once there had been lots of people milling around. The magician's eraser left unsightly white patches on the lawn, which previously had been luscious green, and one branch and a thorn were the only remains of four rosebushes left in the garden. He stamped out all the swings and roundabouts in the park and three litter bins. In the cafe, ice - creams melted away, a whole bowl of sugar dissolved and three cups of tea completely evaporated - they weren't even drunk by either the magician nor the witch. Once the sky was bright blue again, the magician, who was quite familiar with vanishing acts, tried his hand at changing the colour of the moon - which was full of smudges and holes, leaving it a perfectly white shade of white. As well as obliterating the craters, the magic eraser accidentally eradicated the North Star (luckily the magician had a bright yellow pencil to be able to etch it back in again). Before long, the magic eraser had enlarged the hole in the ozone and rubbed out most of the stars in the Milky Way - which caused utter chaos among the astonauts - so much so that they disappeared into the universe and couldn't find their way home again. The magician, however, started to get a little bit carried away - before he knew it, he had deleted three of the planets in the Solar system. Of course, this would cause a great deal of disturbance in the British Library, whose encyclopaedias clearly documented there ought to be in total nine planets orbiting the sun not to mention every atlas (which the magician feared would soon go out of print). The night sky was completely wiped clean. Star formations like the plough also disappeared - leaving astrologists perplexed at what feat was underway in the universe. Had it perhaps been a miracle, an act of God, suggested some religious leaders. NASA Space centre was put on red alert after the brief sighting of the eraser - the latest unidentified flying object - fearing the loss of one of their most important satellites in the flurry of fading objects (one rocket had already been rocketed away). As various animal species likewise passed into oblivion, zoo keepers were called in to solve the crisis - the only idea they came up with was that perhaps a rather nasty epidemic of a new diseases, floods or earthquakes had caused some of the world's favourite animals to cease to exist. Altogether, the magicians erasing spree cost him an absolute fortune - not only did he manage to rub out his wallet, but two purses and a credit card, too. Fortunately, the magician was also a dab hand with a paintbrush and quite artistic - quickly colouring in the gaps in the universe left in his wave of destruction. He quickly inked back all the good things - but everyone agreed that the magic eraser was most useful and made the world a much better place. Magic.
Recipe Bonbon Erasers
Ingredients 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 1/4 cup butter 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 60 milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a heavy saucepan over low heat, stir chocolate chips and butter until melted and smooth. Stir in condensed milk, flour and vanilla until well blended. Shape one level teaspoon of chocolate chip dough around each candy kiss. Arrange bonbons one inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6 minutes. Bonbons will be soft and shiny, but will firm up as they cool.
Activity What would you rub out in the world and why ?
© Jacqueline Richards 2005
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