Mandraki Bay

I was happy with the magician, the gypsy dancing, the magic wagon and my pet monkey. It was a life of magic and love. But then the alchemist arrived.

I hated his long tragic face, his strange intellectual aura. He wanted to know the magician's secret. What was the key to his power? The alchemist longed to know the secret, for this man possessed what he himself lacked despite all his endeavors to find out the meaning of life.

“Perhaps the secret belongs in your woman. Will you let me have your woman?” he asked.

I was horrified. My life had been one of sunshine, love and magic tricks. I knew nothing else, only the love I shared with my husband and my pet monkey. How could this man, who really frightened me, suggest such an offensive thing?

The magician thought for a while. “ It is true,” he said, “that I have found the riches in life, and that my magic is very powerful. I can command all of life's gifts. My secret does not depend on my woman. To prove this, I will give her to you. For too long her life has been too easy, too comfortable. Here, take her to-day.”

This was the day my husband gave me away to the alchemist, not, I may add, because he didn't love me, but because of his arrogant pride, for he truly believed that his magical powers came from him alone and did not include me. He was ruining both our lives in order to prove what a great magician he was. To prove that his success with magic was his concern only and had nothing to do with me, his female partner of so many years.

I was heart broken. How could he do such a thing? But in order to prove his point and that he meant what he said, he began bringing home loose women, and humiliating me, by pawing them in my presence, and laughing at my stare of disbelief. He did not relent and the humiliation continued, until I had no choice but to leave with the alchemist. There was nowhere else for me to go, for my magician husband had arranged his experiment, by leaving me penniless.

The alchemist was kind to me, but there was no colour in his long white face, nor indeed, in his clothes or surroundings. He was an earnest seeker, made cadaver-like by too much intense seeking of the mysteries of the universe. I was leaving behind a home of vibrant colour, of music, laughter and fun, in exchange for a living corpse, who although kind, frightened me to death.

I was desperately unhappy with this situation and cried continuously. I refused any

idea of a sexual relationship with this man. The very idea made me want to vomit, that is how abhorrent he was to me. My thoughts were always filled with the sun filled happiness and warm embracing atmosphere of the magician's kisses. His lovely face was always in my thoughts. He was all I could think of, for none of his taunts and recent humiliations spoilt my feelings for my partner in magic.

Reluctantly, I agreed to help the alchemist with some of his experiments. I had never seen distilling equipment before and all the paraphernalia of a scientific seeker. It was all out of my experience, and really didn't interest me one little bit. My life had been magical tricks and reading the future with my special cards, so beautifully designed with images and symbols. That was my world not this grey, intellectual room of distillation and conical flasks. I was desperately unhappy. My whole heart was back in my sunny home, and making love by candle light with the magician; warm and mysterious. It was cold in this new place. My heart was frozen here with this man.

Whenever I could, I would slip out and follow at a distance, the man who had stolen my heart an