Possibility Shop
"Can we eat now?" "For the last time, we're not eating until we find a present for Dad! Now help me look, or at least stay quiet!" Kaci's only five, so I let it go at that. She knows when to listen to her guardians, which is more than I can say for most kids her age in this city. Kaci and I were trying to find a store in North Star Mall to buy our father a present because he was celebrating his 50th anniversary with our mom. It was 11:30, Kaci's usual lunchtime, but surprisingly, she is quite flexible in her routines. "What about that one, Harry?" Actually, my parents were hardcore fans of Lord of the Rings at the time I was born, which was right at the time the Peter Jackson renditions came out, and my parents had gone wild and named me, yep, Aragorn. Most people call me Harry, or Strider. It's strange, though. Now that I'm 17, most people agree I look like him: like the description in the book and like the actor who played him in the movie, Viggo Mortenson. I also act a lot like the description of Aragorn. Anyways, I'm getting off the subject. I looked to where Kaci was pointing, and found myself staring at a store I had never seen the likes of. "Yeah, let's go," I said, a bit mesmerized.
As we drew near, I took in a sharp breath. "It's pretty," said Kaci, making the hugest understatement I've ever heard. The entrance to the small shop was shrouded by the most beautiful cloth I had ever seen. It was a deep shade of blue, almost black, but was glossy, like pearl. It had a strange pattern of swirling colors on it, however, when it shifted and the light caught it differently, a new pattern would swirl around the fabric, like oil does. If it hadn't been for a voice inside the shop said in a melodic tone, "May I help you?", I might have stayed there staring at the curtain forever.
In response to the voice that was almost as beautiful as the curtain, I tugged at Kaci's hand and we stepped forward to go in. I was surprised when, pulling at the fabric, I found to be incredibly light, but with a texture like that of a coat of mail, or something like that. When we moved past the curtain into the room, we were just as dazzled as when we saw the shop from the outside. Shelves took up the remaining three walls, the sides being about twenty feet long, the other one about seven, and on the shelves were the most intricately desgined and magnificent bottles I had been privileged to see. Small black tags hung around each of them. There were so many it was impossible to tell what color the walls were, but the ceiling and the floor were of pure white. There was no discernable light source, but the room seemed to glow brightly. Later I figured the light must have been coming from the room itself, although I'm still not sure how that was possible. In the middle of the room there was a man standing, clad in dark green. He was young and handsome, but he seemed far older than he looked. His long ashy blonde hair was straight and spilled from his head onto his shoulders, covering his ears as it went. Two braids hung to his chest, but how far down his back it went I couldn't see. His clothes looked odd; they were green, as I said, and over his green shirt and pants he wore a grayish hooded cloak with an emerald clasp set in silver, shaped like a leaf. His boots were black and went up to mid-shin, where they parted at the front and back and went up a ways on his calves. He looked as if he had stepped out of a fairy tale.
"Welcome," he said in his pleasant voice. "This is my shop. What is you would like?" "Um, we need a gift for my father," I said. "Ah, and what is the occasion?" he inquired. "Does that matter?" I asked in return. "Perhaps," he said mysteriously. "You have a lovely curtain there," I said, pointing to the exit. "Thank you," he said simply. "Did you make it?" I asked. "No," he replied. "That is far beyond my skill to make. It was made by...never mind. Let's look around, shall we?" "Wait a minute," I interjected. "Who was it made by?" Something struck me. "For that matter, who are you, and what is this place?" "In answer to all your questions, I could tell you," he said, and at this moment he smiled and his eyes sparkled like diamonds. "But you wouldn't believe me if I did."
Still mystified by this strange man, Kaci and I followed him to the back of his shop. He walked with purpose, as if he knew exactly what I would want. "You know," he said as he paused to examine the bottles on one shelf, "you remind me of someone I doubt you know..." I cut him off, saying, "Let me guess, Aragorn, right?" I was close to him when I said that, so when he whirled around he nearly smacked me in the face with his braids. "Yes," he said quietly, a wondering look on his face as he returned to the shelf. "My parents named me after him, although I don't think it was the best name they could have named me," I said with a touch of irritation. "But at least it's not the worst," he said simply. "Here, try this one." He handed a tall violet bottle to me. On its tag it said "Thermonuclear War- 1943." "What is it?" I asked. "How do I 'try it'?" "Open it," he said. I didn't know what to expect, so, taking a deep breath, I opened the bottle and looked inside.
There was nothing inside it. "Uh, I think it's broken," I said. "There's nothing in it." "It's not broken; it worked perfectly, and there's nothing in it because you let it out," the man explained. I didn't understand. I pulled aside the curtain, looked around the marketplace through my goggles, and didn't see anything I could have let out. The same dark skies, the same gray ash, the same bombed-out buildings, the same people wrapped in coats and goggles and breathers. Yet there was something strange about it that tugged at my mind. "Huh, that's weird," I said. I looked back in and saw the man grinning when there was a loud chattering noise. I checked my Geiger counter; the radiation was going up. We would have leave now to get home safely. "Sorry," I said and held out to him the bottle and stopper. "I gotta go." "Ok, ok, I know you didn't like that one," he said. "I just wanted to see if you caught that one, and it looks like you did. Go ahead and put the stopper back on that one." I did so, and gave it back to him. This was a weird shop, but probably the most interesting one I had ever found at this mall.
"This one will be interesting, I promise," said the man, handing me a light green one labelled "Gender Switch". I opened he bottle. Again, nothing appeared to happen. "Oh, that's different!" said the woman. "Uh, nothing happened this time, either," I said. "Did you notice anything, Casey?" I asked my little brother. "No, Arwen," he replied. I still wanted to know what was going on with this shop and the woman and the curtain, but I was still wearing the same underwear from gym, and they were sweaty and bothering me. Those annoying boys had snapped my bra on me and it itched but I didn't dare scratch them. Plus, being on my period, I was irritable, especially since it was one of those times when my huge breasts were killing me. I felt really bad. Suddenly I thought it very strange to be a female. It made perfect sense. I was born a girl, I had grown up a girl, and now I would soon be a woman. It just seemed extremely odd, and I told the woman that. She grinned largely, but then took a look at me and turned more serious. "Well, I can see you're in discomfort, so you can plug it back up," the woman said.
"What's your name?" I asked, stoppering the bottle and handing it back to the man. "Well, Aragorn," he said, "you may call me Legolas." That LOTR name suited him as well as my name suited me. "Well, now that we know each other better, perhaps you would like to choose one," said Legolas. I nodded, still wondering what the difference would be; nothing happened when I opened the bottles, except I felt something strange afterwards and couldn't remember why it felt strange.
I scanned the shelves, looking at tags as if reading the titles of the books at the library. Spanish Flu Returns-1957. I skipped that one on account of the title. Romans Defeat Vikings and Barbarians. Interesting, but not my subject. Television Not Introduced to Society. I didn't what "Introduced" was supposed to imply, but I liked TV, so I passed that one up. Ghosts Conquer the World-1877. Too weird and scary. South Wins Civil War-1870. I hated slavery. Second Ice Age-2007. I'm a warm weather person. Star Wars Universe. I had no reason not to; in fact, I really love Star Wars. I unplugged it. Unfortunately, again there was nothing.
"I'm afraid your trinket doesn't work," I told Legolas. "Do you sense anything, Padawan?" I asked my apprentice. "Yes, Master ," she replied immediately. "I sense a disturbance in the Force." "Really?" I focused for a moment. She was right: something was different, but I wasn't sure what it was. " That's interesting," I mused. I pondered over this for a few minutes. The noise of the air lanes hummed when no one talked. "I don't know what it is," I said finally. "That's alright," said Legolas, "Most people don't." He paused a moment, then continued talking. "You know, I'm sure you like this and all, but I don't think this is what you really want. Give that one back to me." I did so.
By now it was noon, and I promised Kaci we would go eat lunch now. I was about to leave when I saw one bottle that caught my eye. I don't know why; the carving was less ornate and was just a pure milky white, but that one entranced me. Legolas followed my gaze and smiled. "I thought that would be the one you would like," he said. "That will be ten dollars." I handed him the money without question. He took the bottle from off the shelf and handed it to me. "Thank you so much," I said after a few moments of inspecting it. I was sad to go, but I knew had to. "Goodbye, Legolas," I said. "I hope I'll see you again someday." "Oh, you will," Legolas said. "You will. Just not in these surroundings. I'm only allowed to sell one bottle per planet, you know. Oh, and don't forget, the hobbits, Treebeard and I need to meet with you Tuesday the twenty-fifth of May, by Shire- reckoning, to discuss what you're going to do about the Entwife problem." With that he smiled and showed us out the door.
Outside in the mall, I turned around to ask Legolas what he meant, but, try as I might, I couldn't spot his shop anywhere. I wondered briefly if it had been some sort of dream or hallucination, but quickly stopped wondering when I saw the bottle in my hand. I hadn't looked at the tag, but when I did I was glad because I knew my dad might like it. On the tag it said "Middle Earth." I hadn't noticed it until then, but the bottle was engraved with Elvish characters, which would certainly make them like it. I warned them that nothing would happen when they opened it, but they did so anyways, partly because they were hoping something was in it, and partly because they liked the bottle better without a stopper in it.
So I never found out why Legolas had that shop with the mithril mail curtain and the bottles. When I went to our meeting on Tuesday, after we resolved the issue of what to do about the Entwives, I questioned him about the shop again, but he would only keep telling me, "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."
"Can we eat now?" "For the last time, we're not eating until we find a present for Dad! Now help me look, or at least stay quiet!" Kaci's only five, so I let it go at that. She knows when to listen to her guardians, which is more than I can say for most kids her age in this city. Kaci and I were trying to find a store in North Star Mall to buy our father a present because he was celebrating his 50th anniversary with our mom. It was 11:30, Kaci's usual lunchtime, but surprisingly, she is quite flexible in her routines. "What about that one, Harry?" Actually, my parents were hardcore fans of Lord of the Rings at the time I was born, which was right at the time the Peter Jackson renditions came out, and my parents had gone wild and named me, yep, Aragorn. Most people call me Harry, or Strider. It's strange, though. Now that I'm 17, most people agree I look like him: like the description in the book and like the actor who played him in the movie, Viggo Mortenson. I also act a lot like the description of Aragorn. Anyways, I'm getting off the subject. I looked to where Kaci was pointing, and found myself staring at a store I had never seen the likes of. "Yeah, let's go," I said, a bit mesmerized.
As we drew near, I took in a sharp breath. "It's pretty," said Kaci, making the hugest understatement I've ever heard. The entrance to the small shop was shrouded by the most beautiful cloth I had ever seen. It was a deep shade of blue, almost black, but was glossy, like pearl. It had a strange pattern of swirling colors on it, however, when it shifted and the light caught it differently, a new pattern would swirl around the fabric, like oil does. If it hadn't been for a voice inside the shop said in a melodic tone, "May I help you?", I might have stayed there staring at the curtain forever.
In response to the voice that was almost as beautiful as the curtain, I tugged at Kaci's hand and we stepped forward to go in. I was surprised when, pulling at the fabric, I found to be incredibly light, but with a texture like that of a coat of mail, or something like that. When we moved past the curtain into the room, we were just as dazzled as when we saw the shop from the outside. Shelves took up the remaining three walls, the sides being about twenty feet long, the other one about seven, and on the shelves were the most intricately desgined and magnificent bottles I had been privileged to see. Small black tags hung around each of them. There were so many it was impossible to tell what color the walls were, but the ceiling and the floor were of pure white. There was no discernable light source, but the room seemed to glow brightly. Later I figured the light must have been coming from the room itself, although I'm still not sure how that was possible. In the middle of the room there was a man standing, clad in dark green. He was young and handsome, but he seemed far older than he looked. His long ashy blonde hair was straight and spilled from his head onto his shoulders, covering his ears as it went. Two braids hung to his chest, but how far down his back it went I couldn't see. His clothes looked odd; they were green, as I said, and over his green shirt and pants he wore a grayish hooded cloak with an emerald clasp set in silver, shaped like a leaf. His boots were black and went up to mid-shin, where they parted at the front and back and went up a ways on his calves. He looked as if he had stepped out of a fairy tale.
"Welcome," he said in his pleasant voice. "This is my shop. What is you would like?" "Um, we need a gift for my father," I said. "Ah, and what is the occasion?" he inquired. "Does that matter?" I asked in return. "Perhaps," he said mysteriously. "You have a lovely curtain there," I said, pointing to the exit. "Thank you," he said simply. "Did you make it?" I asked. "No," he replied. "That is far beyond my skill to make. It was made by...never mind. Let's look around, shall we?" "Wait a minute," I interjected. "Who was it made by?" Something struck me. "For that matter, who are you, and what is this place?" "In answer to all your questions, I could tell you," he said, and at this moment he smiled and his eyes sparkled like diamonds. "But you wouldn't believe me if I did."
Still mystified by this strange man, Kaci and I followed him to the back of his shop. He walked with purpose, as if he knew exactly what I would want. "You know," he said as he paused to examine the bottles on one shelf, "you remind me of someone I doubt you know..." I cut him off, saying, "Let me guess, Aragorn, right?" I was close to him when I said that, so when he whirled around he nearly smacked me in the face with his braids. "Yes," he said quietly, a wondering look on his face as he returned to the shelf. "My parents named me after him, although I don't think it was the best name they could have named me," I said with a touch of irritation. "But at least it's not the worst," he said simply. "Here, try this one." He handed a tall violet bottle to me. On its tag it said "Thermonuclear War- 1943." "What is it?" I asked. "How do I 'try it'?" "Open it," he said. I didn't know what to expect, so, taking a deep breath, I opened the bottle and looked inside.
There was nothing inside it. "Uh, I think it's broken," I said. "There's nothing in it." "It's not broken; it worked perfectly, and there's nothing in it because you let it out," the man explained. I didn't understand. I pulled aside the curtain, looked around the marketplace through my goggles, and didn't see anything I could have let out. The same dark skies, the same gray ash, the same bombed-out buildings, the same people wrapped in coats and goggles and breathers. Yet there was something strange about it that tugged at my mind. "Huh, that's weird," I said. I looked back in and saw the man grinning when there was a loud chattering noise. I checked my Geiger counter; the radiation was going up. We would have leave now to get home safely. "Sorry," I said and held out to him the bottle and stopper. "I gotta go." "Ok, ok, I know you didn't like that one," he said. "I just wanted to see if you caught that one, and it looks like you did. Go ahead and put the stopper back on that one." I did so, and gave it back to him. This was a weird shop, but probably the most interesting one I had ever found at this mall.
"This one will be interesting, I promise," said the man, handing me a light green one labelled "Gender Switch". I opened he bottle. Again, nothing appeared to happen. "Oh, that's different!" said the woman. "Uh, nothing happened this time, either," I said. "Did you notice anything, Casey?" I asked my little brother. "No, Arwen," he replied. I still wanted to know what was going on with this shop and the woman and the curtain, but I was still wearing the same underwear from gym, and they were sweaty and bothering me. Those annoying boys had snapped my bra on me and it itched but I didn't dare scratch them. Plus, being on my period, I was irritable, especially since it was one of those times when my huge breasts were killing me. I felt really bad. Suddenly I thought it very strange to be a female. It made perfect sense. I was born a girl, I had grown up a girl, and now I would soon be a woman. It just seemed extremely odd, and I told the woman that. She grinned largely, but then took a look at me and turned more serious. "Well, I can see you're in discomfort, so you can plug it back up," the woman said.
"What's your name?" I asked, stoppering the bottle and handing it back to the man. "Well, Aragorn," he said, "you may call me Legolas." That LOTR name suited him as well as my name suited me. "Well, now that we know each other better, perhaps you would like to choose one," said Legolas. I nodded, still wondering what the difference would be; nothing happened when I opened the bottles, except I felt something strange afterwards and couldn't remember why it felt strange.
I scanned the shelves, looking at tags as if reading the titles of the books at the library. Spanish Flu Returns-1957. I skipped that one on account of the title. Romans Defeat Vikings and Barbarians. Interesting, but not my subject. Television Not Introduced to Society. I didn't what "Introduced" was supposed to imply, but I liked TV, so I passed that one up. Ghosts Conquer the World-1877. Too weird and scary. South Wins Civil War-1870. I hated slavery. Second Ice Age-2007. I'm a warm weather person. Star Wars Universe. I had no reason not to; in fact, I really love Star Wars. I unplugged it. Unfortunately, again there was nothing.
"I'm afraid your trinket doesn't work," I told Legolas. "Do you sense anything, Padawan?" I asked my apprentice. "Yes, Master ," she replied immediately. "I sense a disturbance in the Force." "Really?" I focused for a moment. She was right: something was different, but I wasn't sure what it was. " That's interesting," I mused. I pondered over this for a few minutes. The noise of the air lanes hummed when no one talked. "I don't know what it is," I said finally. "That's alright," said Legolas, "Most people don't." He paused a moment, then continued talking. "You know, I'm sure you like this and all, but I don't think this is what you really want. Give that one back to me." I did so.
By now it was noon, and I promised Kaci we would go eat lunch now. I was about to leave when I saw one bottle that caught my eye. I don't know why; the carving was less ornate and was just a pure milky white, but that one entranced me. Legolas followed my gaze and smiled. "I thought that would be the one you would like," he said. "That will be ten dollars." I handed him the money without question. He took the bottle from off the shelf and handed it to me. "Thank you so much," I said after a few moments of inspecting it. I was sad to go, but I knew had to. "Goodbye, Legolas," I said. "I hope I'll see you again someday." "Oh, you will," Legolas said. "You will. Just not in these surroundings. I'm only allowed to sell one bottle per planet, you know. Oh, and don't forget, the hobbits, Treebeard and I need to meet with you Tuesday the twenty-fifth of May, by Shire- reckoning, to discuss what you're going to do about the Entwife problem." With that he smiled and showed us out the door.
Outside in the mall, I turned around to ask Legolas what he meant, but, try as I might, I couldn't spot his shop anywhere. I wondered briefly if it had been some sort of dream or hallucination, but quickly stopped wondering when I saw the bottle in my hand. I hadn't looked at the tag, but when I did I was glad because I knew my dad might like it. On the tag it said "Middle Earth." I hadn't noticed it until then, but the bottle was engraved with Elvish characters, which would certainly make them like it. I warned them that nothing would happen when they opened it, but they did so anyways, partly because they were hoping something was in it, and partly because they liked the bottle better without a stopper in it.
So I never found out why Legolas had that shop with the mithril mail curtain and the bottles. When I went to our meeting on Tuesday, after we resolved the issue of what to do about the Entwives, I questioned him about the shop again, but he would only keep telling me, "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."