The sugar dome

Original fiction extract.

The pastry chef had made the dome before I arrived. It stood over a bowl on the workbench, a lattice of amber threads which seemed to have more space than substance. The restaurant manager wanted it on the front table for the evening. I brought a tray, expecting the chef to lift it as casually as the empty bowls beside it.

Instead, she slid both hands beneath its edge and paused. A cage made of hesitation rose from the bowl. The strands trembled without breaking, their little windows changing shape as the dome passed above the bench. Every movement seemed to travel farther than her fingers intended. When a spoon fell behind us, its ordinary clatter struck the room like a thrown stone. She did not turn. The dome hovered above the tray, holding its breath in a hundred small arches. Only when its rim touched the paper did her shoulders lower.

The manager came to admire it. He bent close, then stopped when the chef held up one finger. From the doorway, the dome looked solid enough to decorate a palace. Beside it, I could see the places where a single broken thread would change the pattern. I moved the spoons to another table.

Choose three powerful words or phrases from the extract above. Analyse how the writer uses language to present the fragility of the sugar dome as it is moved.

Write about 200 to 250 words.