“you can thank her by buying something. business ain’t been too good lately.”
yancey entered the store. it was smaller than it looked from outside. it did not look like quite what he had expected. it had some of he usual things found in a general store or convenience store - canned and bottled drinks, chips, snacks, beef jerky, packaged sandwiches, dog biscuits - but there was something missing…
the lottery. there were no signs advertising any lottery or big games.
and there was a table in the center of the store filled with what looked like little knick knacks and toys. they dd not seem to have any prices marked on them. magical charms, maybe?
there was a counter with a heavy looking old fashioned cash register. but nobody behind the counter.
or anybody in the store at all, that yancey could see. he had assumed from what the old man had said that the “mrs gilgamesh”. who had dragged him out of the road would be present.
in front of the counter was a big wooden barrel. yancey had never seen one like it before, except in stories on television about the “old west”. was it a “cracker barrel”?
“is anybody here?” yancey asked.
“i am here, young man,” a voice answered. a little old woman with her white hair in a bun stepped out from behind the big black cash register, which had hidden her small self from view.
yancey thought she looked familiar…
a little old woman had walked out of the rain into the convenience store just before he had blacked out, or before whatever had happened to him had happened… could it be her…?
“may i assist you?” the little woman interrupted yancey’s thoughts.
“um - was it you who… who dragged me out of the street? the gentleman outside…”
“yes, it was indeed i. and mose is no gentleman.”
yancey was a little perplexed by this last statement. he had been brought up to be polite, and call men gentlemen and women ladies. but he just said, “thank you, i hope i was not too heavy.”
“heavy enough, but i know the proper techniques. i have been dragging drunks out of the street all my life.”
yancey smiled. “well, i don’t think i was drunk, exactly. be that as it may, i thank you.” he looked around the little store. “and i would like to buy something.”
“suit yourself.”
yancey was standing beside the table filled with knick knacks. he looked down at it. “how much are these things?”
“whatever you would like to pay.”
“oh. are they magic?”
“magic? not so far as i know. magic that anybody buys them, maybe.”
yancey picked a little object up at random and looked at it.. it was about two inches high, a creature halfway between a lizard and a monkey, dressed like a toy soldier with a high plumed helmet and brandishing s bayonet. the creature was green, its uniform red, and its rifle and bayonet a dull gold.
“how much is this?”
“like i said, whatever you care to pay.”
“i will give you two dollars for it.”
“thank you. that’s very generous.”
yancey went over to the counter to pay. he noticed that the old woman was even smaller than he thought, and was standing on a box to reach the counter. he had no cash, so despite the presence of the massive old fashioned cash register, he paid with his card in the usual way.
he hoped the difference of two dollars would leave him enough for a cab if he needed one.
yancey thanked the woman again, and went outside to wait for “kingfish”, whoever or whatever he might be.
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