Enlightenment- Digital Collage 3" x 5"

Every day on our way home from school my friends and I would pass by a high rusted corrugated metal fence. The occassional rusted out hole offered little more than glimpses of barren earth and the fence on the opposite side.

One October afternoon we were passing through the alley and noticed a stack of cardboard boxes almost as tall as the fence. Imprinted on the side of each one in blue letters were the words, Edward's Emulsified Marshallows. Tucker walked to the base of the stack, kicked the bottom box and yelled "Timber!" The stack swayed and then cartons crashed to the ground. We cheered and in a frenzy tore them open. When we discovered the boxes to be empty, we took to kicking and jumping on them. In the melee none of us heard the gate open. Out stepped a man, not much taller than us, wearing a black suit and hat. "Run!" shouted Tucker.

I hadn't gone more than a few steps when I tripped and fell down. The next thing I knew the man collared me. In heavily accented english told me to clean up the mess. He said this in a matter-of-fact way showing not the least sign of anger. When I had restacked the boxes he said, "Come. Look at this." Even though I was easily as big as the man I had no intention of following him into the yard. "No way." I said. "Suit yourself," he answer opening both doors wide.

My curiosity got the better of me and so I passed by the doors, taking care to keep to the middle of the alley. Inside I saw a model of an exotic looking white building sitting on a plywood sheet that laid on top of two saw horses. "What is that?" I called out. The man turned to face me. "It is a marshmallow model of the Taj Mahal," he shouted.
"Are you a baker or something?" I asked.
"No," he replied.
"Then, what's it for?" I asked.
"For the Ages," he laughed and resumed his work.
"Hey!" I called, "How do you get the marshmallows to stick?"
He turned to me and popping a marshmallow into his mouth then reached in and extracted the glistening globule. "Like this!"
"That's disgusting!" I yelled and ran from there as fast as my legs could carry me.