Magic in the Air

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. Pink candy swirls in the air at sunset turning purple in the moonlight, hovering around the moon, and shrouding it in delicious flavors.

Whenever I see the fluffy, purple-pink clouds scuttling across the sky it reminds me of the afternoon a friend of mine and I worked at a cotton candy charity booth. The booth was humming with activity. I, being too short to reach into the cavernous tub of sticky, whirling cotton candy, had to hand that delightful chore over to my taller friend, Marcy.

Marcy, sweet as the fluffy, pink candy she was carefully wrapping around the paper cones, was one of the most genuine Christians I had ever met. Having come from a hard background, I found my new acquaintances in the Christian world a bit harsh for my liking. Sincere in their beliefs, but scary to me as humans. I never felt as though I measured up. Never quite overcame my reputation from previous years with them.

Marcy was unique, in that she herself could live in a sinless world, keeping close to the Word of God every day. She did not, though, expect others around her to do the same. She loved unapologetically, without regard to a person's place in society or their past and present choices. She could wipe away tears with a page torn out of a Bible and hug a person's jagged pieces back together with warm arms.

The line at the cotton candy booth was long and seemed to never end. It absolutely thrilled me to watch children jump and clap for the amazing process of magical cotton candy strings being whirled from sugar. To me, there is nothing more beautiful than watching the glee in children's eyes as they reach out for that sugary cone of puffy crystals and air.

The first time I made cotton candy at a church picnic I was hooked. Being a chocolatier, I loved making candy anyway. But cotton candy was a step above chocolate truffles or even hard candy lollipops. It was in a class all its own. Pure science and sugar turned into a wisp of cloudy tastiness. Enchantment on a paper cone.

If there was a cotton candy booth at an event, I would be there, bells on. Although I was disappointed that my 4'10" frame was unable to do the spinning that day, I was happy to hand it over to Marcy, who seemed to be getting more out of the activity than even the children who were lined up watching the magician spin her magic into delight.

Marcy, a tall, slim blonde, with a pretty face was made even more beautiful that day. I remember it like it was yesterday. Wearing a halo of pink sugary crystals around her short, stylish haircut she looked strikingly like Glinda, the Good Witch on the Wizard of Oz. Her eyelashes were coated in sugar dust and her face shined in the glow of pink vanilla-flavored powder. How I wished someone had taken a picture of her that day. That is how I will always remember my dear friend, Marcy.

Not that I was a close friend. Marcy just had this way of making everyone feel as though they were her friend. The way she swept lonely people under her wings touched everyone she came into contact with. When she became ill several years after our cotton candy-making adventure, the entire town where she lived prayed for her and her family. When she passed away, her sweet soul left a sugar-coated memory for everyone she knew, and it seemed like the tears would never stop.

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky and I think of Marcy magically spinning irresistibly sweet dreams for children.