Chapter 1
It was a normal Tuesday afternoon for Seattle, but not so much for Dan. Dan had been working on a class project for 3 weeks, and it was destroyed today right before her presentation. Rachel had successfully tripped her in the classroom while she was carrying it to her seat. Dan could hear everybody laughing at her, especially Rachel’s high piched laugh. Dan had a strong urge to throw a punch and break her hooked nose, but she kept quiet. Moreover, her teacher, Mr. Wall, didn’t even listen to her. He simply gave her an F. A big fat F. Dan hated that. For the first time in her life, she had gotten an F. She wanted nothing more than to run back home, and shut the door and cry. Let everything out. Just cry.
Just as she was walking home, cursing rachel, somebody tugged at her pants. She looked down to find a ragged looking homeless man at her feet. She took out a cent from her pocket and dropped it in his container.
“Go away”, he croaked.
“What?” she asked, puzzled. Dan wasn’t expecting anything other than a ‘thank you’, maybe a smile too, but this was unexpected. She ignored him and looked around herself. She had been lost in her thoughts for far too long. Dan realised she was in an unknown place.
Dan had never been to this street before. She had probably taken a wrong turn somewhere busy in her thoughts and reached here. She didn’t know where to go now, whether to keep moving forward in hope of reaching the main street or turn around and find her usual way back home.
“Maybe I should just keep walking forward, I’ll reach somewhere”, she guessed. She kept walking deeper into the unfamiliar street.
And Dan found a thrift store a few steps away. She saw a 10 dollar worth of a set of 5 romance novels and 5 dollar small wooden bookshelf. She promised to come back to this street next month when she had more money.
Dan was a reader, romance being her favourite genre. She loved to imagine herself as the female protagonist and wait for her lover. Dan was a little happy now that she had discovered these books. Just as she was about to take a turn and find her way back home…
“‘LOST WORLDS’” she read on a small wooden shop’s board. It was a tiny shop at the corner of the street. A shop so tiny, she would have actually, missed it.
It would have been nice if Dan had actually missed it, because from this moment on, her life was going to change completely. She would in the future, come back to this very moment and wish she had just stopped or listened to the old beggar say...
“I won’t go there if I was you”.
“What?” she asked, utterly confused.
“Go away, You’ll regret if you stay.”
Dan hesitated and looked at the beggar blankly.
She was about to turn around when she saw a familiar face coming out of the very shop. It was Taylor. Taylor lived 2 streets away from Dan's own, and they’d talked a few times before. Dan walked towards her and saw that she was carrying a paper bag in her hand.
“Hey”, said Dan.
It took a few seconds for Taylor to recognise her, as if Dan had just pulled her out of her thoughts,“hi… um, Dan?”
“Yes. That’s right, actually I was coming back from college and probably I'm lost, I am not actually sure how to get back home”
“Just turn around and walk the same path you came, silly girl.” The madman was starting to get at her nerves now. She didn’t look back at him.
“Umm… he’s right, actually” Taylor said with an awkward and hesitant smile.
Dan too smiled awkwardly at her. She looked sick, Dan observed. Her eyes and cheek were sunken, giving her the appearance of a malnourished child. Her hands holding the paper bag were looked long and thin. Her eyes were bulging and sad and lifeless.
All three of them stood there awkwardly for a few seconds, before dan said
“So what did you get from that shop?”
“Oh, umm, they’ve got this nice collection of vintage stuff. Old books, pens, vases and everything else. Umm, the owner is a bit weird, he asked me three times if I was sure I wanted to buy the vase. He uhh probably thought I didn’t have the money or something. It was weird. But umm the stuff in there is really nice. You can go and see if you like… something” This was probably the most Dan had seen Taylor talk ever. It looked as if it took effort for taylor to talk. As if taylor changed her thought several times while talking and she kept reconsidering her words. Something was off.
“I’m getting a bit late, I uhh have to reach somewhere. “
“ya, bye”, said Dan.
Taylor didnt reply as she hurried down the street.
The madman was gone, and Dan found herself reconsidering the thought of going into the shop.
“Should I go home or into the shop. What did the madman mean by go away. Ungrateful beggars.”
But Dan should have listened to the ungrateful beggar, because he was not ungrateful at all. He was trying to save her life, in return for a cent.
The shop, you see, had an unsaid rule: everything was a deal. Something had to be given, to receive something, not necessarily money. It was more, much more than just money. The beggar, in return for a cent, was trying to save Dan’s life. The shop, in return for an item would take away the buyer’s soul. We shall remember Taylor, she too did herself a favour by telling Dan to go to the shop. But what has been done has been done. Dan is now in the shop, and her future decided.
