The audience remained speechless at the Madame’s dramatic departure and her ominous parting words.
Without much fanfare Stephan walked silently through the dissipating smoke left from his mother’s sudden exit and reached the edge of the stage.
“I will be at the back of the tent next to the entrance. I will be collecting your kind donations on your way out after which each member of the audience will be receiving a small token charm, regardless of the amount, if any, donated...”
And with those words a smirk formed on Stephan’s face as he paused. He then continued “You may now exit the tent.”
He then swooped silently down from the stage and darted along the central aisle to reach the only exit at the end of the tent.
There he produced a small black velvet cloth bag with a white drawstring that appeared to be full, and another much larger red velvet cloth bag with a large aperture and a yellow drawstring that appeared to be empty.
Stephan opened the empty bag and placed it on the ground. He undid the string on the mysterious black bag and held it in his arm.
The people at the back of the tent slowly started making their way towards the exit and as they reached Stephan they started dropping their donations in the red cloth bag. As promised Stephan was fishing in the black cloth bag and tying around the right wrist of each person who passed by him a fabric friendship bracelet, regardless of whether donated. The bracelets came in different colours, with white, black and brown being the most common ones given out.
As Albert slowly made his way in the crowd towards the exit, he observed that peculiarly Stephan seemed to be consciously selecting the colour of bracelets that he gave out. As he studied the operation further, Albert realised that the colour of bracelet given out seemed to be related to the amount donated in the red bag. Those who had just tried to leave without leaving any donations were handed out a white bracelet while those who actually donated were given a coloured one depending on the amount donated.
Slowly but surely Albert, Ryan and their buddies reached Stephan next to the exit.