The Marble Mafia
Alby T Grace
In the summer of 1988, the Marble Craze hit Stirling East Primary School like an epidemic. Throughout the aching days of blistering heat, the children would congregate under the large oak tree and play with their prized bags of marbles for hours and hours, swapping and betting their well-loved round glass balls.
Out of this hurlyburly of colored glass, a figure rose up; inconspicuous, blonde and well mannered, to become the leader of the fear-instilling organization; the Marble Mafia.
His name was Callum.
He was in year four at the time, and until this marble craze had exploded, he had more or less been a background figure, working quietly on his maths, his creative writing, kicking the football with his four friends. It seems that it was a matter of coincidence and default that he rose to become the head of the Marble Mafia and the Man With The Most Marbles.
The Marble Mafia's structure came about naturally. It was a hot day; a Thursday. Callum, with his modest bag of twenty or thirty marbles, was sitting observing the group under the tree and conversing with his four closest friends. The conversation was amiable but forgettable, and the defining moment only happened when a cry of “MARBLE SPILL!!” rang out over the hilly school.
“Go and get the marbles,” Callum commanded, the four did, and quite suddenly, the Marble Mafia was created. Callum sat back and watched as his four went to work.
A Marble Spill was the unfortunate time when one poor child lost control of his marbles and they went careening all over the soil. All the other children would flock, like dogs to a bone, to the site of the spillage and collect as many as they could. It was all a part of the rules of the Marble Craze; once the pile was spilt, it was anybody's who could take it.
The Marble Mafia Goons casually strolled under the tree and picked up a few marble from the ground. They then proceeded to push, punch and verbally intimidate any child with marbles galvanised from the Marble Spill, and take them away. By the end of this first foray into crime, the Marble Mafia had come out with forty marbles.
The Goons took their prize gold back to their boss.
“Callum! We got forty! Here!” They passed him the marbles, and for some reason (and still Callum can not explain why) Callum became the sole owner of their profits. He divided some tips, and gave each goon two marbles each, which left him with thirty two.
Day in and day out the Marble Mafia operated in this smooth way. The five would watch and wait. Occasionally, some gappy-toothed, blocked nosed child would venture to Callum and ask him to swap marbles, which he did fairly. He was not a ruthless boss. Just a capitalist. Most of the time, however, the Marble Mafia would watch, waiting eagerly for those two words which meant more profit. Invariably, every day the call would rise out from the pit of the marble players, the Goons would do their work and return their profits to the Boss.
This system existed without a flaw through the sweltering months of summer; Callum under the shade examining his stolen marble collection, his Goons intimidating others and returning the profits. To all elder eyes, Callum seemed innocent of the whole fiasco, and it was only the children who knew that Callum was the Grand Daddy; the Head Honcho; the Godfather.
The inevitable collapse of this remarkable industry occurred, just as it had started, from a Marble Spill. It was just a regular Marble Spill save for the nature of the child losing the marbles. This kid, Timmy Robertson, was not one to accept the nature of the institutions; he was a rebel, and if he lost his marbles, well, dammit, he wanted them back.
So when his marbles spilt all over the dusty ground, and they were retrieved by the Goons with remarkable professionality, Timmy Robertson went straight to the principal.
The Principal, an upstanding, professional man, was appalled at theft of Timmy's marbles. He vowed, with assured vengeance, to Stop This Marble Theft Business Once And For All. His method was simple; approach the entire school in a special assembly and call upon these worthless criminals to admit to their wrongdoings.
It should be interjected here that Callum was by no means an evil boy. He was kind, moral, and he felt neither here nor there towards the marbles. For all he was concerned, Timmy could have them. He wasn't however, prepared to stand up and admit to his theft.
When the assembly finally approached, all the members of the Marble Mafia trembled with trepidation at facing such a gargantuan opponent. The hall was filled, the voices hushed, as the principal, with a swish of the Academic Robe, strode into the hall. “All who are members of the Marble Mafia; stand up and show yourselves! You are surrounded!”
The silence in the building was dense and excited. It went on; none of the Mafia showed themselves. The teachers surrounding bore canes and umbrellas, weapons sheathed and ready to fire. Callum, the auspicious Boss, remained glued to his blue mat.
Fat Ralph was the first to stand. In tears. “It was me, It was me,” he broke down, and swoosh, a teacher descended upon him and bore him out of the hall. Swifty thought best to show himself, and Tom Thumb and Boxer followed. The silence was broken, the assembly concluded, and Callum, the boss and sole owner of the Marble Mafia's treasures, was a free man.
That day ended the Marble Mafia forever in Stirling East primary, and began Callum “The Dog” Cooper's life of crime and punishment.
To this day, in a bedroom in Aldgate, lies a bucket full of Timmy's marbles, dusty and cobwebbed. Perhaps Timmy dreams of finding them, once more.
Alby T Grace
Alby Grace has been writing stories since he had a pen license. After graduating from an acting course in 2007, he founded a theatre company called Duende with other graduates, which went on to produce ten new Australian plays, many of them written by Alby. These include the acclaimed The Embryos, No Hello and Slicing and Dicing. In more recent years, he co-wrote the film Awoken with Daniel Phillips, and has written six plays commissioned by SAYARTS for young people. Proudly non binary, a single dad with a cool as heck partner, he regularly plays Dungeons and Dragons with a variety of groups, and is a total sci-fi obsessive.