He couldn’t sit still. He kept playing with the marble, rolling it between his fingers, changing its color every time it reappeared. Blue, green, yellow, orange, black, then blue again...

It made her nervous, the way he was acting. Something was wrong, something was going to happen. Still, she kept her patient appearance and waited for her son to speak.

The marble went through nine more colors, then, “Mother,” his voice was quiet and serious, “Mother, there’s something you need to know.” He looked up and waited for a response. She nodded once in encouragement, “Mother,” he said a little louder, “Mother, I’m in love.”

She blinked in surprise and opened her mouth as if to speak, but no words came out.

“And,” he continued, “Her family wants her to marry someone else. She doesn’t want to, of course.” He paused and gazed at the floor. His marble turned a soft red, “She loves me, too.”

“Thomas,” his mother started.

“Mother, please let me finish.” He looked up and waited a moment for her to nod again. “She, that is Emma, and I have talked this over a thousand times. We want to run away and marry, but I can’t leave you alone. I don’t know what to do.”

So, yeah. This was inspired by the movie The Illusionist. It was mainly the "casual magic" part, hence the casual-ness of the color changing of the marble. Then it turned into more of the The Illusionist where he runs away with his lover. That is one amazing movie, though. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest seeing it.

And it's short and undetailed on purpose. I wrote this when I was In The Moment, and I didn't want to force anything out. And this is what came out of me. I'm quite proud of it. Its lack of detail, I think, stimulates the imagination. It leaves you wondering "What will he do? Does his magic play some important part? What's Emma like? Why does her family want her to marry someone else?" and so on and so forth. I kind of like that.

Anyways. There's my explanation. I hope it was at least relatively enjoyable.