Yesteryear Fiction

Mancala Magic
By John Ogden


I’ve seen the way Kaity plays mancala. She cheats, but its amazing, because she uses magic to do it. The illusions she spins into the little stones mesmerize, fill the mind with visions of things and places that are not, that do not exist. They say that a strong mind can overcome it, but I think that the truth is that it’s not a weak mind that succumbs, but a trusting mind. Kaity is so small, so sweet and innocent looking that one would never guess from looking at her the true enormity of the intellect, the experience and cunning that lurks within. Every move she makes is calculated, powerful, unshakable, and in the end, even a game like mancala is won so utterly, so completely that she always ends it with all the pieces on her side.


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John Ogden was conceived of a government form and a passing mailbox. He lives somewhere out in the woods of a rural land more akin to the fantasy realms of literature than real life, and his favorite dirt bikes will always be the broken ones.