Ball 1 nestled into his left hand and the pattern sped up. Ball 2 hit his right palm while ball 3 replaced the first that he had unconsciously thrown from his left. Quickly and gracefully the cascade formed above him. The juggler began to strain with the effort, but found his vision unearthly. He saw the molecules, the actual atoms of each ball. His felt his arms pumping exactly eight times faster than his heart.

As the twenty-third ball began its third orbit the juggler heard the crowd screaming, stomping and clapping in amazement. He had done it! He counted his catches, 93,94,95.. he knew he could continue indefinitely!

But the notion to finish came to his mind all at once. Deftly, he threw a ball twice as high as the others, collected the twenty-two, pirouetted twice and, at the last possible moment, trapped the twenty-third ball on the back of his neck in a deep bow.

The applause was deafening! The juggler stood and faced it like the cool breeze of a fan, basking in it and beginning to smile even as the shock of what just happened caused him to tremble inside.

He saw at the back of the auditorium a man, surrounded by others in dark glasses,

push toward the stage. The audience hushed as the man passed. The juggler recognized him then. The President of the United States had been there, too!

As the towering man stepped up to a microphone the juggler was delirious with joy. Perhaps he was going to receive a special Congressional medal! Losing all juggling abilities was a small price to pay for this moment. Nothing had gone wrong. Nothing could possibly ruin this moment.

The President stepped to the mi­crophone, then held it close to his lips as he turne~ to look directly at the juggler. The President spoke just once, the words passing his blood-red lips and yellowing teeth. "Can you do twenty-four?"

A resounding chant then rose from the crowd, "Twenty-four, twenty-four, twenty-four..."

S. W Labounty is a member of Klowns on Ice, the comedy troupe from San Francisco . He is currently writing a solo theatrical presentation that includes a heap of  juggling. S. W is in favor of more fiction and less poetry in future "Juggler's World" editions and eats vegetarians.)