CHAPTER FOUR
It is mid afternoon when Buffy enters the magic shop. She has some two hours before she has to be at the Bronze for her 4:00 shift and has decided that she should spend them in training. The day before she received a vague message from Giles, delivered by way of a snacking Dawn, about more Ger'acht demons on the prowl in Sunnydale. They are easy enough to kill, but their horns sometimes make it difficult to determine where they will strike next. Buffy thinks some agility training might be in order.
Just inside the Magic Box, Buffy sees that hard economic times are not limited to the large chain stores at the mall. On a small round table, covered in an antique white lace cloth, is an arrangement of assorted items, all marked fifty percent off. A jar of mummified warthog's feet, a vial of salamander eyes, some dried sage, and an imposing ebony statuette of a woman that could very well have been modeled after Pamela Anderson, sans the over abundance of bleached blond hair.
"Hey," Buffy says, pointing to the figurine. "Why is the Maori fertility goddess on the discount table?"
Anya and Giles exchange a brief, pained look and Giles clears his throat.
"It was an accident," Anya says in confession mode. "We were doing inventory last night. I was reaching for the book on Spells for the Uninitiated when my elbow smacked into the statue. It landed with a thud on the floor. I didn't think I had really done any real damage, but then I found her nipple by the pre-fab potions. See?" Anya draws a finger over the clear halo of glue around the statuette's left areole.
Buffy picks the statuette up to inspect the break a little further. "So you don't think it works anymore?"
"The energy has been disrupted now," Giles explains. "Corporal energy to a graven image always insures that the intentions of the deity have not been compromised. In this instance, rather crudely and carelessly."
Anya's lips form a straight line and she balls her fists at her side. "OK, Giles. You promised you wouldn't keep badgering me about it. And I told you if it's not sold by the end of the season, you could take the money out of my paycheck." She shrugs. "At any rate, it would make a nice tchochke for someone's eclectic living room."
"So how do you use it?" Buffy asks, tilting the god on its side.
"It works by will," Giles tells her, wincing as Buffy turns the statuette in her hands. "A woman wishing to become pregnant touched the statuette on her abdomen. If it is truly her desire to have a child, then she will supposedly be with child very soon."
Buffy is holding the statue by the neck as the base collides with the hem of her cropped tee shirt. "Any proof that it works?"
"Well, I suppose, the Maoris themselves," Giles answers.
"Would you like me to wrap it for you?" Anya asks eagerly.
Buffy returns the statuette to the table. "No thanks. Even marked down from $150 to $75, it's still a little out of my price range. Besides, every bit of my money is going towards Dawn's big Christmas present."
"She still really wants that computer, does she?" Giles asks.
"And I still really want to give it to her. Spike's out seeing what he can do about getting a cheap one now." She pauses to blow a stray piece of hair from her forehead. "Why am I picturing a guy named Guido, the back of a truck, and a bunch of used stereo equipment?"
At dusk, gratefully early for vampires seeking gifts, Spike enters Helena's House of Herbs. There are few patrons. As he crosses the threshold, he meets a confused teenager who seems to think that this place is the hub of all weed exchange in Sunnydale.
"Can I help you?" the slight blond behind the register asks as Spike's seeking gaze meets with every root and leaf in the place.
"Yeah, I'm looking for…" How does he phrase this delicately? Or does he want to phrase it delicately? It might prove more effective if delivered in one breath, without hesitation. But he has already hesitated. "Spells. You have spells?"
"Spells? Not here," the shop woman says. She is not still a girl. She is in her forties. Her crows feet shine in the track lighting above as she goes and dusts some ebony statuettes holding small blue crystals. She seems awfully nervous.
"You have ingredients for spells?" Spike asks, giving into the thrill that he is making someone uncomfortable.
"No. Just herbs. Hence the name." She does not look at her patron; just purses her lips and continues her dusting. "You should try the Magic Box."
"Oh, the Magic Box? I wouldn't go there even if my life depended on it. Have you seen how much they charge for taggis root? And the shop girl there? Ex-demon, she is."
The woman's unadorned pink lips open to a gasp. "Really?"
Spike nods his head swiftly. "Oh, yeah. It's always the person you least expect."
"That is so very true," the woman says. Her eyes are trying to derive some meaning behind Spike's visit. "What is it I can help you with?"
"I'm looking for a rejuvenation spell."
"Oh, like an energy pick up! I have just the thing for you. A tumeric and ginko combo with a twist of ginger."
Spike waves his hands in front of his face. "No. no. What I'm really looking for is something to…something to help with..." He takes a deep breath. "It's a problem my girlfriend and I have in the bedroom."
"You're impotent? Have you tried Viagra?"
"What? NO! I can get it up quite nicely, thank you. It's only when I fire my boys out of the cannon that they become quite dead. As a matter of fact, I'm quite dead."
The shopkeeper keeps her distance with a widening "o" to her expression "You're a zombie?"
Spike frowns as he approaches her. "Bloody hell! Did I ask for your brain when I came in?"
"Well, no. But---
"I am a vampire. But no worries. I'm not of the biting variety."
The shop woman is still guarding herself behind the counter and it appears as though she is looking for something heavy to hurl his way if he gets too close. For now, he keeps a polite distance.
"So you're a…vampire," the woman says, raking her hands down her sides. "And your girlfriend is—
"Human."
"That's sort of odd, isn't it?" she says with a nervous laugh at the end.
"We're a very odd couple. But we love each other and we want to be together forever. And I can love her and I can live with her and I can sleep in her bed every night and wake up next to her every morning. And we can go through our days together as any other couple would. And we can hold each other and make love and really be making love, but I can't…I can't…"
"Create life with her," the woman finishes for him.
"Yes, that's right," he says, with a relieved sigh. "Look, I came here before and you helped me, even though you may not have known it. My girl was very ill with a fever and I found the ingredients for her cure right here in your store. She came back to me, and I knew that after she was well, I had to do everything I could to insure that I would never lose her again. It occurred to me the other day that she might want a child one day and I would like to be able to father one with her. But you see, we don't have a lot of time."
"She's not ill again, is she?"
"No, nothing like that. She, uh, she has this…this curse on her lineage. Most like her only live to be a certain age. Not much older than she is now. So if we want to have a child, it has to be soon."
"I see," the woman says. "Well, as I said, I don't carry spells in my shop. But I do think I have something that might help you."
All of a sudden, Spike is caught up in the crest of a wave of nervousness and for a brief second he teeters on his feet. "You do?"
"Well, I don't know how it would work on vampires," she says, moving out of her safe space behind the counter, "but it has helped with the love lives of some older gentlemen I know. Now, it's not a cure. It's more or less and enhancement. But it's all natural so even if it doesn't work, you haven't done any real harm to yourself."
"But you think there's a chance that it might help with our situation?"
"It couldn't hurt. Here. Let me get it for you."
Spike can feel a wide grin forming on his face. There is something inside of him that is stirring his long-dead heart. It is as though for the first time in his relationship with Buffy someone is giving him hope. Hope for the future. Hope for a little bit of eternity that will live on past their years together.