Scott Sapphire and the Emerald Orchid by Knight Geoffrey

Author:Knight, Geoffrey [Knight, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781937058906
Publisher: Storm Moon Press LLC
Published: 2013-02-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter VIII

Covent Garden, London

In between the stall of an elderly Asian couple frying up noodles and a cantankerous old Scottish woman selling knitted scarves and mitts, a seven-year-old boy with wild black hair and piercing blue eyes stood behind a wooden crate, boldly shouting in his cockney accent, "Roll up! Roll up! Keep your eye on the ball and the money in your pocket!"

Suddenly, the Scottish woman shouted, "Oh, shut yer trap, boy!" She was glaring down at him over a small red kiddie cart with a white pull handle stacked with boxes of knitwear. It was the grumpy old woman's way of carting her goods back and forth. "Why don't you move on? I don't like ya! You ain't nothin' but a little thief. Nobody wants to play yer stupid game."

"I do," said a man walking past the stalls.

He stepped over to the boy's makeshift table as the kid bellowed theatrically, "Step right up and sit right down, sir." The kid turned a bucket upside-down for the man to sit on before setting himself up behind the crate, placing three upturned plastic cups in a row in front of his customer. "Behold, three plastic cups, sir! Nothing underneath."

The boy lifted each cup to reveal, as he said, nothing underneath.

He then pulled a small marble out of his pocket.

"Please watch as I place a marble under the cup in the middle before I start moving the cups around, like so."

The boy moved the cups around, weaving the cups around each other. After a few seconds he stopped.

"For ten quid, I wager you, sir, please choose the cup with the marble underneath."

The man smiled and reached into his pocket to produce his money. "It seems a little too easy," he admitted, putting his cash on the table. "I kept my eyes on it the entire time. It's this one."

The man lifted up the cup on the left.

His confident smile dropped.

There was nothing underneath.

"Oh," he said, disappointed. "I must have blinked. Where was it?"

The boy picked up the cup on the right and the marble rolled out from underneath.

"Well done, lad," the man said, a little resigned. "You won fair and square."

With that, he stood from the bucket and continued on his way.

The boy was eagerly pocketing his winnings when a meek little voice asked, "May I play?"

The boy looked up to see a girl a year or so younger than himself.

Her clothes were frayed, like his.

Her face was smeared with dirt, like his.

And her eyes were blue, just like his.

But unlike him, her legs were twisted. She had two sticks under her arms to keep her upright. He could see she was about to fall from those sticks, so he rushed to help her to the upside-down bucket.

"Of course you can play," he said as he helped her onto the seat. "Do you have ten quid?"

"No," the girl said. "But I can play for more than money."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if you win, I'll give you a kiss. And if I

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