Chapter One - The Letter

CHAPTER ONE
The Letter
“This one is for you.”
“What?” Alice put down her coffee mug and stared at the cream coloured envelope her mother was holding out to her. She didn’t recognize the loopy cursive writing on the front. “Ms. Alice Jane Cunningham.”
Her mother shrugged. “Junk mail?”
“There’s no return address.” Alice slipped her finger under the edge of the flap and tore it open. She pulled out a white slip of paper, catching an unusual fragrance as she did so. Was that cinnamon? The white paper unfolded into a letter written in the same loopy handwriting.


March 9th Thursday, 2012
Dear Alice,
If you are reading this it means I have passed on. I have taken all my worldly possessions with me - don’t let anyone tell you you can’t - save one thing. I leave you my beloved shop at 877 Douglas Street, Victoria BC.
You will find a Ms. Azura Grey there. She will teach you the ins and outs of the business. I have left the shop to YOU and no one else.
Enclosed you will find the deed to the shop and a key.
I hope this letter finds you well or at least healthier then I.
Sincerely,
Great Aunt Ruby Cox


“Mom, is this a joke? Who’s Ruby Cox?”
“Crazy Aunt Ruby? Let me see that.” Her mother seized the letter.
“I have a great aunt I don’t know about?” Alice picked up the envelope. “And she’s crazy? I thought there was supposed to be a…oh!” The envelope suddenly seemed heavier in her hand, and when she tipped it upside down a rusted silver key fell into her palm.
“This is unbelievable” Her mother was still staring at the letter. “I didn’t know she had a shop here in Victoria. She moved to Calgary when you were only seven. We never stayed in touch because she was…well, she was a little nuts.” She scratched her head and continued to stare at the letter. Alice stuck her hand into the envelope again and pulled out another sheet of paper
“Here’s the deed.”
“I can’t believe this.” Her mother flapped the letter toward her face like a fan. “Why would she leave this to you? She hasn’t seen you in years.”
Alice unfolded the deed and looked over the document, not understanding much except that her name was on it and it looked official.
“I don’t know why I’m getting the shop. Doesn’t she have children? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Most of what Ruby Cox did didn’t make any sense. And no, she never had any children. She never married.’
They looked up as Alice’s father entered the kitchen, and Alice jumped up excitedly. “Dad, look at this!”
Her father, his dark hair still wet from the shower, blinked, “What?”
“Do you remember my Aunt Ruby?” Mrs. Cunningham asked.
“The crazy one we lost touch with years ago?”
“I got a letter from her,” Alice chimed in, eager to tell her news. “It says she’s dead.”
“Pardon?” He took the letter from her and looked it over briefly. “She left you a store?”
“Yeah,” Alice said, “Apparently.” She had butterflies in her stomach, more out of nerves then excitement. She didn’t want to let herself feel excited. After all, what if it was some kind of messed up prank? “Do you think this is for real? I mean, it would be amazing if it was.”
“It looks legitimate,” her father examined the deed.
“Can we go see it?” Alice said. “It won’t be open, but maybe we can go look at the store front. It says 877 Douglas Street. That’s not too far from here.”
“I didn’t even know she had a shop” Her father frowned. “What sort of store is it? It just says Threads.”
Her mother looked delighted. “It must be a clothing store!”
Well that was an exciting thought. “Oh I hope so! Let’s go see it. Come on, it will only take a few minutes.”


“Do you see it yet?” Alice stared out the window of her mother’s car, trying to make out the little numbers on each store. She fidgeted in her seat like a third grader, barely able to sit still.
“It must be right down town.”
“I had no idea she had a store at all,” her mother repeated.
“877 - there! Pull over.” Alice unbuckled her seat belt. She swung open the door before the car was even turned off.
“Wait for me, young lady!” The car gave a little honk as her mother locked it. “Which one is it?”
“There!”
The dark store front was painted the color of wet cement. The windows were large and trimmed in flat gray, the door was white. But it was the items displayed inside the windows that affected Alice the most.
“Vacuum cleaners?”
She couldn’t help it, her chest felt tight with disappointment. She made a face as her mother began to laugh.
“I inherited a vacuum store?”
“Not the most exciting thing I can think of.”
“What kind of name is Threads?” Alice said. “It’s a stupid name.” It’s the name that made me think it was a clothing store. She knew she was being incredibly ungrateful and tried to squash the sour disappointment. “I shouldn’t complain,” she told herself. “I don’t even remember Aunt Ruby.”
“You could always sell it.”
Alice remembered the letter, how it had stated the shop was left to her and nobody else. “I don’t know,” she walked closer, staring into the dark windows of the shop, “It didn’t sound like Aunt Ruby would have wanted me to sell it.”
“Come on, let’s go home. Maybe it will look better tomorrow.”
Alice followed her mother, looking back over her shoulder. The shop windows were dark grey and still.


That night Alice re-read the letter and the deed, trying to make sense of why an Aunt she couldn’t even remember had left her a vacuum store. She went to bed just before midnight, wondering what it would be like to walk into the shop tomorrow and introduce herself as the new owner. She’d never owned anything more than a junky old car her parents had bought her last month just before graduation. She’d never had a job before either. It wasn’t like they taught you how to own a business in high school. How was she supposed to know how to run a shop? How was she supposed to have employees? She hadn’t even bossed people around when she’d been the team leader during high school projects. She wasn’t a leader, she was a follower.
On that bitter note Alice rolled over and jammed her pillow over her head, as if it would block out the mental onslaught. A million thoughts whizzed around in circles as she drifted off. She dreamed about parades of vacuum cleaners marching out of a drab grey shop on the main street. Then that dream ended, and another one began. This time she was in a beautiful room with dark wood walls and shelves filled with mysterious and exotic artefacts. There was a woman there, her face a vague blur. A faint aroma hung in the air as the woman bent over her, spicy and sweet. A gentle voice murmured instructions. The woman’s voice was far away and Alice couldn’t make out the words clearly. Something pressed into her palm and she looked down at a tiny silver bracelet with charms that tinkled like chimes in the wind.


The dream came with her when she woke up the following morning. Usually Alice couldn’t remember her dreams, but this one was startling in its clarity. She went straight to the little glass jewellery box on top of her dresser and raked through the contents. There it was.
She’d had the silver charm bracelet since she was a child; she’d stopped wearing it years ago. Alice couldn’t even remember where she’d got it from. Now she examined it more closely - a braid of silver strands with charms set in it, tiny charms delicately detailed. A heart, with smaller hearts etched into the front of it, an old fashioned key, a half-moon with a little grinning face, and a ship’s anchor. Curiously, Alice slipped it over her wrist and was surprised that it still fit. Shouldn’t it be a lot smaller? She’d worn it years ago.
The mirror above her dresser caught her eye. The Alice in the mirror looked sleepy and confused, her normally pin-straight brown hair was messy, and the baggy t-shirt she’d worn to bed had slipped off one boney shoulder. Large brown eyes stared back at her, bambi eyes in a narrow face. Her lips were thin and pale. A forgettable face if ever there was one. She frowned, disgusted. She was so plain looking. She remembered a school field trip to the duck pond, how the teacher had explained the female ducks were drab in order to disinterest predators. She would disinterest predators alright, and everyone else.
Maybe that’s why her one and only relationship had ended, why Jason had dumped her a week before graduation. He had told her she wasn’t “spontaneous” enough. Was that a nice way of saying she was boring? Alice looked at herself closely. Did she look boring? No, more likely worried. After all, this was the day she’d meet that Azura person. The woman would probably take one look at her and think Aunt Ruby was mad to give the shop to a scrawny, doe-eyed nineteen year old straight out of high school. Snap out of it, she told herself, you’ve just been comparing yourself to a Mallard. Geeze.
Alice showered and got ready slowly, deciding to dress professionally, then she observed herself in the mirror again. She was wearing a white blouse, black pants and a pair of white pumps she had stolen from her mother’s closet. Her hair hung straight and limp but at least it was clean. The picture she made might be good enough to fool someone else, but when Alice looked at her face all she saw was a scared high school kid.
“I’m graduated now,” she told her reflection firmly. “I’m grown up.” Yeah right, the fact that she’d just used the term “grown up” disproved that.
Her parents looked up as she descended the stairs into the kitchen and her mother beamed in approval. “Wow, you look like a real businesswoman.”
“Thanks.” Alice sat down and grabbed the cereal. Her father swallowed a mouthful of toast. “You look very nice, Alice.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“You think you’ll do vacuums full time?”
Alice wrinkled her nose and put a spoon full of cereal into her mouth to delay her answer. She hadn’t exactly grown up dreaming of being a vacuum cleaner sales man, or rather, sales woman. She hadn’t dreamed of anything, actually. She remembered when the teacher in grade five had asked the students what they wanted to be when they “grew up”. The other children had clamoured excitedly about being doctors, fire fighters and vets. Ten year old Alice had shrugged. How was she supposed to know? She was only ten. Now that she was nineteen she still felt like that. How was she supposed to know? She couldn’t think of anything she was particularly good at. The aptitude test they’d taken in grade twelve had told her she was destined to be an English teacher, and she’d figured that was as good a career as any.
“I’m not sure yet,” she finally mumbled as she finished her breakfast, “I need to check it out.”
She put her empty bowl on the counter. “Okay, here goes. I’ll call you in a few hours.” She headed for the door, breathing deeply to stifle the case of nerves she felt coming on. When she was nervous her stomach got upset, sometimes resulting in embarrassing side effects.
“Keep us updated.” her mother gave her a cheeky grin. “I’m sure the vacuum business will be very exciting.”
She rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Mom.”


The shop looked just as dull in the daylight. The only difference was that she could see inside now that it was light out. Alice peeked in the window. The only word to describe it was…boring. Vacuum after vacuum lined the stark white walls like an army of stiff little soldiers awaiting command. Off to the left she could see a few racks of vacuum paraphernalia. At the back was a sturdy oak desk with a cash register. A woman sat there. She had short silver hair with a few leftover black streaks and a pair of small spectacles perched on her nose. And she was staring straight at Alice. Oh crap. Embarrassed to be caught peeking in the window like a curious child, she straightened up abruptly, hoping the woman couldn’t see her face flushing from there.
She entered the store. “Ms. Gray?”
The steel-haired woman looked her up and down. “Yes, you must be Alice.”
“I guess Great Aunt Ruby…told you about me?” She didn’t want to admit to this stern looking woman that she couldn’t even remember her Great Aunt.
“She told me that one of her young nieces would be inheriting the shop when she went.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, um…are you the manager?” Alice tried not to squirm. “The letter didn’t explain much.”
“You are the owner and manager; I am your only employee.” Azura Grey smiled reassuringly at her. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I know you must have a lot of them.”
Alice wound a strand of hair around her finger, clearing her throat nervously. “Um, the letter wasn’t very specific. How…I mean, what happened….” she trailed off helplessly.
“How did Ruby die?”
Alice twisted the strand harder, looked at her feet and nodded.
Azura’s mouth quirked into a little half smile. “Nobody is really sure. She was on vacation in Hawaii when it happened. The letter I received said it was a “tragic surfing accident”.”
“Surfing? Wasn’t she…older?”
“Very old. I suppose that’s why there was an accident.”
Alice smiled, and then quickly schooled her face into a frown. “That’s….tragic.”
“It’s rather funny actually,” Azura smiled slightly. “When I first received the letter I had a bit of a laugh.”
“I think I would have liked Great Aunt Ruby. Mom said she was crazy. Oh...” Alice clapped a hand over her mouth, horrified. “I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t worry. Ruby was absolutely crackers. She’d be the first one to tell you that.”
Azura’s hand suddenly grabbed at her shoulder, pinching Alice’s skin through the thin materiel of the blouse. Alice jumped, and tears stung the back of her eyes. What was that for? She blinked furiously, fighting the urge to cry.
“Sorry, dear. There was a bit of lint on your left shoulder,” Azura said sweetly.
Alice bit her lip. Maybe Azura was the crazy one. She didn’t look crazy though. Maybe she just really hates me. Alice realised she was twisting her hair again, pulling on it so hard it hurt. She shoved her hand in her pant pocket instead.
Azura was staring at her expectantly. “Don’t worry, it’s gone. Now, you have questions?”
Just for a second the lights overhead seemed to flicker and dim. Or was it her eyes? Alice blinked as the shop started to go blurry around the edges.
“Are you alright, dear?”
Again she was aware of the woman’s fierce scrutiny. “I’m sorry, it’s nothing. My vision just went a little funny. What were you saying?”
“Questions.”
“Yes. I don’t understand why she left the shop to me.”
Azura laughed. “Ruby had her reasons. I’m sure we’ll understand them in time.”
“I have no idea how to run a store,” Alice murmured, and then wished she hadn’t admitted that.
“It’s okay,” Azura said, “That’s what I’m here for, to show you the ropes.”
The lights flickered again. This time the rows of vacuums faded out and Alice stared as the ceiling of the shop seemed to melt at the corners. Everything grew darker. Her breath was becoming short, and she clutched the counter, afraid she might faint. When she glanced at Azura she seemed to be studying her with interest, and she knew her vision was doing funny things because she could swear the woman was grinning. Alice’s palms were sweaty on the countertop; she could hear her own heart thundering in her ears. She had only fainted once, in grade eleven P.E. It had been one of the most embarrassing experiences she’d ever had and she didn’t want to repeat it. It would be horrible to pass out in front of a total stranger. Azura said something, but her voice sounded a million miles away. Alice’s vision faded and grew darker, and she heard herself babbling.
“I just need a minute. Sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She shut her eyes and pushed the heels of her hands into them, willing her sight back to normal.
When Alice opened her eyes, everything was different.
Gone were the orderly rows of vacuum cleaners. In their places were old wooden shelves filled with jumbles of baskets and boxes overflowing with colourful trinkets. A display of winter hats by the door had a sign that proclaimed, “Head Warming Hats” in golden letters. Another display boasted “Love Potions and Bedazzling Elixirs”. The shop was lit by several beautiful hanging lamps instead of florescent tube lights, giving the dark wood interior a subtle glow, and the entire place seemed to be bigger. There was a second section of the shop through an arched doorway, over which was painted in silver letters, “IsnerElen Gorga Eshniel”
The words didn’t make sense. The entire place didn’t make sense. Alice could see a fireplace through the arched doorway, a grey cat basking in the warmth of the flames. She breathed in deeply, smelling fire wood and the faint scent of spices. Turning to her right, she found herself staring at a stand of hand drawn maps, a bin full of pencils and erasers, and a shelf of leather bound books with golden writing on the spines. And the air was full of glowing threads, like coloured strands of yarn floating in the air, and looping around everything in sight. They draped down from the ceiling like neon party streamers and wrapped around every shelf and ceiling post. What on earth are those? Alice walked closer to a post that was wrapped entirely in glowing threads of blue and orange. Whatever those things were, they were beautiful, their shining light alluring. She found herself reaching one hand out to touch them, and pulled it back with a gasp. What am I thinking? What the hell are these things? She looked around, wondering if she’d gone off the deep end. The big oak desk still looked the same. That was one thing. The other thing was that Azura Grey was still standing there, staring at her. Something was different about her too. She was smiling at Alice this time, instead of staring straight through her.
“You can see it now, can’t you?”
“I can see…” Alice mumbled, rubbing at her eyes, “…What?”
“Welcome to Threads. You didn’t really think it was a vacuum store, did you?”

Chapter Two- A New Career

CHAPTER TWO
A New Career
Alice blinked at the woman standing in front of her.
“What’s happening? Are my eyes going?” She put her hands over her face, blocking out her surroundings. “Oh, my gosh…I’m…seeing things. I’m losing my mind. I’m going to be the bag lady that talks to herself and lives on the street in a cardboard TV box.” Azura eased her hands down gently. The woman was studying her with soft brown eyes. She had very long, dark lashes.
“You’re not crazy, Alice. I’m sure you must have thought I was the crazy one, pinching you like that, but you’ve had a spell on you for a very long time and I’ve just removed it.”
Alice squinted at her in disbelief and finally choked out, “A spell? What…why did the shop suddenly change?”
“The vacuum shop is what most people see. You are not most people. Your Aunt Ruby saw that about you when you were very small, and she cast a spell on you so that you wouldn’t see the magic. It doesn’t do to have non-magical parents raising a magic child; they tend to think the child is unstable or possessed.”
“Magic?” Alice repeated dazedly.
“You never believed in magic, Alice Cunningham? Not even as a child?”
“I…I suppose when I was a child.” Alice continued to gawk at her surroundings, waiting for them to start flickering again, to turn back into the vacuum shop. Nothing changed. The cat in front of the fireplace uncurled with a sleepy “mew”, and observed her disinterestedly before sauntering towards the back room and out of sight.
“This isn’t possible. Magic isn’t real.”
“True - to anyone who doesn’t have magic, it isn’t real. They won’t hear it or see it. Anyone else who walked into this shop right now would see a very dull store full of over-priced vacuum cleaners.”
This was ridiculous. It had to be a joke of some kind, or she was hallucinating. This happened to people in movies, not in real life. And it most certainly didn’t happen to her. “I’m not magic. It isn’t real,” Alice insisted. “It can’t be.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know! It just isn’t!” Her voice squeaked a little. She was beginning to sound hysterical.
“It took a while for you to see through the enchantment on the store,” Azura mused.
“It’s not real,” Alice whispered, trying to convince herself. She blinked again, wishing this new shop would go away, wishing for the boring vacuum cleaners. “I’m not going nuts. I can’t be crazy. There’s no history of mental illness in my family, so it wouldn’t make sense…wait, crazy Aunt Ruby, Oh no!”
“You are not crazy,” Azura said. “The denial will last for a few minutes until you get over the shock.”
“This is crazy.”
“You seem to use that word a lot.”
“Oh no! That’s a symptom of being crazy, isn’t it?”
“I wouldn’t think so.”
Alice tried her best to calm down. It occurred to her suddenly that this might all be a strange dream, and maybe the best and simplest thing would be to play along.
“What are these floating, shiny strings?” she asked quietly.
Azura Grey looked pleased. “Ah, you can see the threads. Good. Ruby was right.”
“What does that mean?”
“You can see magic.” Azura tapped her pointed chin thoughtfully. “I can’t imagine how she knew just from watching you as a little girl. That woman never ceased to amaze me.”
“Those strings are magic?” Alice stared at them again. The strings were thick in the air, running around the shelves and displays in the shop, curling up bookcases and ceiling pillars and clinging to the roof. Some of the colors stood out brighter than others, in some places they were together in patterns. Here and there lights pulsed gently as some kind of energy ran up and down the patterns. When she looked carefully she could see the objects on the shelves had threads on them too. She approached the shelves cautiously, peering at the objects more closely. A straw basket of colourful scarves had blue and yellow threads woven into the wool. In a wooden box a collection of reading glasses had threads of pink and brown clinging to the frames. Alice spotted a box of reed flutes with a neon pink thread wrapped all the way up to the mouth piece. “These things are enchanted too?”
Azura looked proud. “You catch on fast. We sell all sorts of enchanted objects.”
“Oh.”
“You’re taking this all rather well,” Azura said, thoughtfully. “That is to say, you aren’t screaming or fainting.”
“I think…I think I’m dreaming.”
“Ah,” Azura responded, “I think you will find you are not.”
Alice shook her head like she was trying to get water out of her ears. It sort of felt like she was underwater, or that her head was stuffed with cotton, and nothing made sense. It was as if reality had cracked down the middle like a badly made clay pot, and all her assumptions of what was real and normal were leaking out the bottom. It had been several minutes now and the store was still the same; no vacuums suddenly appeared, the threads still floated in the air, refusing to vanish in the face of her denial. A thought snuck in past her defences. Maybe this is real.
“Okay,” Alice spoke, trying to gather her wits, “I inherited a magic shop, and I can see magic, and I’m not going crazy.” Maybe if she said it out loud everything would start to make sense.
“Also, you may want to start packing,” Azura added calmly.
“Packing?” Alice was struggling to keep up. “Why?”
“There’s a suite above the shop for you.”
She had to pause for a second to grasp this new information. “I inherited a suite too?”
“It comes with the store. It’s sort of necessary.”
“Necessary?”
Azura didn’t seem to mind that she kept repeating everything. “If you work here you need to live here, since you never know where it’s going to end up next.”
“I don’t understand,” Alice said faintly.
The older woman smiled sympathetically. “I know this is hard to take in. Let’s have a seat by the fire, you look like your knees might buckle.”
Come to think of it, her knees did feel watery. Alice followed the woman into the next room, looking around as she went. The cat was in its spot again, and it lifted its head to blink sleepily at Alice. The fireplace was small and made of bricks. It was a real fire, not the gas kind and the heat it gave off was comforting to Alice as she sat in one of the old brown armchairs beside it.
“You see,” Azura continued, “the shop never stays in one place for long. It moves from city to city.”
“A traveling magical shop?” Alice rubbed at the beginnings of a head ache behind her eyes.
Azura chuckled. “You’re starting to look a little less shell shocked. That’s good.”
“I guess.” She was beginning to accept that this might not be a dream, which, in itself scared her.
“Hot Chocolate?”
Alice was surprised at how much she wanted a hot drink right now, something normal to grasp on to, to reassure herself that she wasn’t going nuts. “Yes, please.”
Azura got up and moved behind some bookcases, Alice heard a door open and the woman’s voice floated out from the back. “Several hundred years ago people believed in magic. They also feared it. Witches and Wizards were hunted down and killed; anything that had been enchanted was destroyed. That is why the shop moved, to avoid the hunters and protect itself. Ruby left it that way when she bought it, I suspect because it adds an air of mystery.” Azura came back around the bookcases holding two red mugs, she handed one to Alice.
“Plus it’s cheap.”
“Thank you. How do you mean cheap?” She inhaled the smell of peppermint.
“When the shop arrives in town it simply chooses the first available place. Sometimes it’s a vacant lot, sometimes an empty store front that hasn’t been rented out yet. Either way, the owner of that place always conveniently forgets he owns that plot of land for the time we’re there. No one has ever come around asking for rent.”
“So…” Alice dragged out the word, trying to think. “Aunt Ruby wanted me to inherit the shop, live above it and travel from town to town selling magic…stuff?”
“That’s the gist of it.”
“Well,” she said, weakly, “It sure beats the hell out of being an English Teacher.”
Azura’s smile lit up her face. “You’ll do it?”
“I guess I will.” Alice shrugged, feeling like she was on the verge of a hysterical laugh. She shut her mouth firmly.
“I know it will take getting used to.”
“I’ll say, I’m just starting to believe this actually might be real.” Alice paused for a desperate sip of her drink, as if the hot chocolate might ground her in reality. “So, what if I tell my parents this and they think I’m nuts?”
“They will,” Azura said firmly.
“I can’t tell my parents?” She felt vaguely panicked. How was she supposed to keep this a secret?
The woman raised a steel coloured eyebrow. “Would they believe you?”
“I could show them.”
“They haven’t got any magic,” Azura said, “So all they would see is over-priced vacuum cleaners and grey walls.”
“Oh.” Alice felt deflated.
“Sorry, but it’s a limited amount of people that have enough magic to see through the spell.”
Alice was twisting her hair again. She made herself stop, taking a deep, calming breaths.
“I don’t know if I can take this.”
“I know it’s a lot in one go,” Azura said sympathetically. “You must have more questions.”
She thought about this. “About a million. What happens if we move on to another town and Mom and Dad come down to visit me at the shop? Will they find it gone? That would be sort of hard to explain.”
“I’m sure they will be visiting a few times to begin with, so we won’t move the shop for a little while. After that, should they think about going to visit you at the shop, they’ll remember that they already went to visit you several hours ago and that it would be silly to go back. Should it be some type of emergency, however, the shop can be back in this space in under three seconds.”
“Aunt Ruby put a spell on them too?” Alice felt slightly horrified at the idea of this crazy Great Aunt casting spells willy-nilly over her entire family. “Mom said the last time she saw us I was only seven.”
“Ruby never did things last minute.” Azura smiled fondly. “I believe she knew you would be getting the shop since the moment she met you.”
“Wow.” Alice warmed her hands on the mug. “That’s crazy.” She added to herself, and a little bit scary.
“I suppose.” Azura shrugged and tapped her chin again. “Hmm…I believe I should tell you a few things before I open the shop.”
Alice hadn’t looked at the front until now. The door was made of dark wood, with a glass pane in the top half. There was a sign on the glass with the “We Are Open, Please Come In” part facing inwards. Large rectangular windows were set on either side of the door, and she could see a pair of wrought iron lamps through the panes. The end of a dark green awning peeked through the top of the window. She couldn’t help the thrill of excitement that went through her. “Wow, the store is just so...so…”
“Enchanted looking?”
“That’s the word.”
Azura smiled. “You should see the looks on some of the regular children’s faces when the shop chooses to let them in.”
“Regular children?” Alice repeated blankly.
“Regulars - the slang term being “Regs”, I believe.” Azura leaned down to place her mug on the corner of the rug by the fireplace. Alice did the same. Her hot chocolate had been cold for a while now and she’d been clinging to it simply for the sake of holding onto something.
“Oops,” she squeaked in horror as the cup tipped over, dark liquid splashing out over the rug. “Oh no I’m so sorry!” She stared at the spreading chocolate stain in horror. The rug was dark red with a complicated pattern around the edges. It was probably Persian and about a million years old, and she’d just spilled peppermint hot chocolate all over it.
“Keep watching.” Azura’s eyes twinkled as Alice’s mouth dropped open and she stared as the rug seemed to suck the stain in. It didn’t simply soak it up like regular fabric, it sucked it in and she could have sworn she heard a little slurping noise. She stared in shock. The place where the chocolate had been was suddenly spotless.
“Oh! That was magic?”
“It was. Feast your eyes on our “Self Cleaning Carpet”.” Azura chuckled. “Oh, the look on your face.”
“I thought I’d ruined it.” Alice let out a breath of relief. “That’s amazing!”
Azura laughed again. “You won’t be as easy to impress in the next couple weeks; you’ll get used to it.”
“I can’t imagine getting used to all this.” She continued to stare at the rug in astonishment, wondering if it would do anything else. Maybe leap up and fly around the room.
“It takes time,” Azura said. “Now what was I saying?”
“Regular children,” Alice mumbled, still watching the rug.
“Ah yes. Occasionally the shop takes pity on an un-magical child from a bad home or school situation. Usually the poor child finds an item, a magic bouncy ball or something that just happens to cost the exact amount of change in his or her pocket. Of course, the store is gone the next time they come back, but they treasure the experience and the magic object for the rest of their lives.”
Alice remembered the strange dream she’d had last night. She fingered the silver bracelet around her wrist, running her fingers over the carved surface of the charms. She inhaled, smelling the wood burning in the fireplace and that faint spice that lingered in the air. It brought the dream back sharply.
“Or at least it usually goes like that.” Azure glanced down at the charm bracelet on Alice’s wrist. “There was one incident where a young boy got turned into a Werewolf, but…” Alice’s mouth dropped in alarm, and Azura hastily continued. “But regardless, our normal customers are usually Wizards, Witches, Mages, Sorcerers, Elves, and so on…” Azura trailed off. “Alice?”
She had gone very pale. Her breath was coming in short, sharp gasps. “Werewolves?”
The older woman shrugged apologetically. “Magic.”
“Oh.” Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay, give me a minute.” Did she really want to see these people? It sounded terrifying.
“This is why I have the store closed right now,” Azura said gently, “Because I don’t want you meeting any of them yet.”
“Are they dangerous?” Alice pictured packs of slathering Werewolves coming in to buy magic hats and pencils.
“Not usually,” Azura said. “And each city has leaders that oversee each type of creature, councils that keep their kind accountable. There are always reports of a rogue or two within every species, but they mostly try to stay civil. If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be much chance of staying a secret.”
“Why do they have to stay secret?”
“Because if we didn’t, the hunts would start all over again. Nobody wants that.”
“But what if a rogue comes into the shop?” Alice frowned.
“Do you see how many threads of magic there are here?” Azura asked.
Alice looked up at the threads floating in large colourful bunches in the air around them.
“Much of this is raw magic, which I will show you how to use, but the patterns you see on the walls and ceilings as well as all the furniture, those are spells. They protect us while we’re in the shop.”
“Oh…” Alice trailed off, still worried. What about outside the shop? Discovering a magical world was great. Discovering you could get eaten by a hungry Werewolf any minute, not so great.
Azura was tapping her chin again, something she seemed to do every time she was thinking. “I think we should test you out a bit, just to satisfy my curiosity.”
“Test me?” Alice repeated nervously, “How do you mean?”
“See that pattern of threads just above your head? Try to touch that.”
Alice stood up slowly. All the threads seemed to float just above their heads, close enough to reach, but not to get tangled in their hair. The pattern that Azura had pointed out was made of several different shades of red. She was supposed to just reach up and touch it?
“Are they solid?”
“Not for most people,” Azura said, “if they were at our height we could walk through them as if they were as insubstantial as smoke. But if you concentrate you should be able to touch one. Just try, not to worry if you don’t get it on the first attempt. It’s a difficult thing to learn when you’ve never done it before.”
The threads that Azura had pointed out stretched from the wall of the shop and disappeared in the brickwork of the fireplace. She hesitated, and then reached out with one shaking hand, bracing herself. Her fingers passed through it as if there were nothing there at all. She stared down at her hand. Did that mean she wasn’t magic? Now Azura would send her home because she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t run the shop if she couldn’t even touch magic. She felt her stomach turn leaden with disappointment. Suddenly being an English Teacher didn’t sound so great. “I don’t think I can do this.” Why had she expected to be able to do it on the first try? Perhaps Aunt Ruby had been mistaken and she didn’t have any magic at all.
Azura smiled encouragingly, “Try again, and this time really concentrates on making it substantial. Picture it in your mind as solid. Will it to happen. You have the ability to touch it. You only need to command it to respond to your touch.”
Alice frowned. Use your force of will, that’s what Azura was saying. She had never been strong willed. She wasn’t a stubborn or forceful person. Maybe she wasn’t meant to do this. A mean little voice spoke up in her head, that’s right, because you’re not really good at anything, are you? You’re just average. Alice gritted her teeth and reached with all her might. She demanded the threads be solid. She concentrated so hard her head hurt. And she touched it. “Ah!” She shrieked and pulled her hand back, her fingers tingling. “It shocked me.”
Azura looked surprised, “look at the fire.”
Her mouth dropped open as she saw that the fire had been snuffed out. The logs were smoking, as if someone had poured a bucket of water over them. “Did I do that?”
Azura looked delighted, “You did! Goodness, Ruby was certainly right about you. That’s amazing considering that was only your second try.” Alice glowed at the praise, startled to feel the prickle of tears behind her eyes as the relief nearly overwhelmed her. “So,” she changed the subject, determined not to show how silly and emotional she was, ‘That’s a spell on the fireplace?”
“Smart girl,” Azura rose gracefully to her feet and reached for the threads, she wrapped her thin fingers around the pattern and it glowed brightly. Alice sat up, startled, as the fire re-lit itself with a loud “WOOF”.
“Now,” Azura said, “You should run back home and start packing. I imagine that you’ll want to take some time to explain to your parents that you’re moving out. I’ll be here waiting to help you get settled in.”
“They’ll be happy,” Alice said distractedly, “They knew how miserable I was about Jason and all our plans…“She stopped, feeling embarrassed to have blurted that out. It wasn’t like Azura knew who Jason was, or cared.
“Ah,” Azura nodded. “I see.”
“This is all really crazy, “she looked around the shop again, “but it really is perfect timing.”
“You have a new life now.”
“A new world.”
Azura stood up, “Ah yes, but I think you will find that this one is far more interesting.”
Alice stood as well, grabbing her bag from where she had dropped it on the floor, “I don’t doubt it for a minute.”

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.02.2012

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