9. Market for Magic
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It was about quarter after eleven when we left the house, and I figured we'd get there around noon. The boutique was right downtown on Main Street. I hadn't been there before but I knew the area like the back of my hand. Me and Lexi grew up here, we'd been all over downtown a million times.

When we got to the address, we found it wasn't exactly on Main. The building was, but the place we were looking for had its entrance around the side off an alley. The building was in the part of downtown that hadn't been bulldozed and rebuilt yet, so compared to places across the street or a block up the road it looked kind of old and seedy.

The side that faced onto Main was home to a grungy little bar on the right and a tattoo and piercing parlour on the left. They were both closed as we walked past, but Lexi stopped in front of the tattoo place and stared in the window for a few moments.

"What's up?" I asked. "You're not thinking of getting a tattoo are you?"

She giggled, "Nah I don't want any ink. Not yet anyways. I was thinking about getting my ears pierced though."

I did a sort of double-take. I don't think I'd ever heard her giggle before. More to the point, she'd sworn once she was never going to get any piercings. She thought it was dumb.

Then I wondered again, was that really her? Or was that something 'Alex' said, but I remembered Alexis being the one to say it?

"How about you, Chloe? Would you ever get your ears pierced?"

I blushed when she said my name, and glanced around. There was nobody near enough to hear it though, and I realized she must have checked before saying it.

"Yeah," I replied quietly. "Not till I'm fully out though I guess, not till I know it's safe. But yeah I really want to get them done, actually."

Lexi smiled, "Then we'll do it together. I'll wait till you're ready."

That melted my heart just a little. I smiled and blushed, "Aww! Thank you!"

"Now c'mon!" She grabbed my hand and half-dragged me around the corner into the side street. She marched us up to the 'Magic of the Moon' shop door and tugged on it, but it wouldn't budge.

"Crap! They're closed!"

I pulled my phone out of my hoodie pocket and checked. "We're five minutes early. It's not noon yet."

We ended up standing right outside the door as we waited. The windows were dark, I couldn't see anyone inside. No sign of movement, no indication anyone was even getting ready to open the shop. I was starting to get a bad feeling as my phone's clock ticked past twelve-oh-two.

Then I heard the door unlock and suddenly all the lights were on inside. Right there inside the door was a friendly-looking middle-aged woman. I had no idea how she'd got to the door without us seeing her, considering we were right there looking in the windows.

She was dressed all in black. Black leggings, a knee-length black dress, and black shoes. Her shoulder-length hair was blonde but there was some grey in it here and there. She was about my height, like five-foot-eight or so. Kinda slim except for a bit of extra padding around the middle, she looked like she tried to keep in shape. And she had the obligatory silver pentagram hanging from a cord around her neck.

There was a name-tag pinned to her dress that identified her as Selene, so I assumed she owned the place.

She held the door open and smiled, "Come in dears. Sorry to keep you waiting."

I followed Alexis inside and looked around.

The air was thick with the smell of incense. To the left there was a large display of packaged incense sticks and cones, then beyond that was another display of herbs and loose incense prepackaged in little bags. To our right was the counter with the cash register. Under the counter inside glass cases were lots of jewelry and even some knives and daggers. And inside the window hung some dream catchers and colourful glass balls. Another display under the window held crystal balls and fancy mirrors and other shiny stuff like that.

Along the back wall were a couple fully stocked bookcases. There was also a grey door with an 'Employees Only' sign back there that presumably led to the stock room. In the middle of the shop were a couple display tables. The nearest one was full of various crystals and stones or rocks or whatever. The one further back was full of candles, candle holders, incense holders, that sort of thing.

On the wall behind the cash register there was a display of 'magic wands', and there were even a couple swords on the wall. And at the end of the counter between the cash register and the window there was a small black cat sleeping quietly, curled up on a purple cushion.

Selene turned around an open/closed sign on the window next to the door so folks would know the shop was open, then her attention returned to the two of us. "Now, what can I do for you two?"

Lexi glanced at me, but I kept quiet. This was way out of my comfort zone, and it was her idea.

She looked back at the woman then gestured vaguely around the shop. "So maybe this is a silly question but uh, is any of this stuff real? I mean, is magic real?"

Selene gave us both a warm smile, "Magic doesn't live in books, or in jewelry. It's not in candles or incense. Magic is real though, and it's everywhere. It's in the air, and in the Earth. It's in all living things. All of this," she gestured around the store like Alexis had, "This just helps people to understand it and access it."

I glanced at my friend and immediately recognized that look in her eyes. Something just jogged her memory, she just remembered something from the other timeline.

"That's the sales-pitch though right?" Lexi asked. "I mean, I get what you're saying but that's not what I'm asking."

Selene had a faint smile on her face as she asked, "Well, perhaps you could rephrase the question then? Be more specific in your asking, if you'd like a more specific answer."

She didn't sound angry or irritated. She honestly just sounded a little amused. Like she was a friendly shopkeeper who was used to smart-ass teens coming in and trash-talking her new age wares.

Lexi sort of braced herself as she asked "So is there magic that would change someone's entire life, their body, and the rest of all reality so nobody even knew something was changed?"

Selene's eyebrows crept up, then dropped down as she frowned. "That's the stuff of stories and fantasies. And you two look a little too old to believe in magic."

"Do you believe in magic?" Alexis asked the middle-aged woman.

"Touché," Selene smiled slightly. "The sort of thing you asked about is still the realm of fantasy though. Why do you think you'd find that here? Why are you looking for that?"

Lexi glanced at me again and gave me an apologetic look. I knew she was about to 'out' me, but I just nodded. I figured, if you can't trust the strange lady selling new age trinkets, who can you trust? Actually it was more like I didn't think anyone else would trust her either, so it didn't matter if she knew or not.

"My best friend here is trans. Her name is Chloe. What if I wanted to find magic that would let her have the body she deserved, let her have the life she deserved? And what if somehow that magic would make it so everyone else thought that's who she always was, so nobody questioned it when she changed?"

Alexis hesitated, then added with a slight blush "And what if we found that magic and used it, but somehow it went wrong? What if it missed Chloe and hit someone else instead?"

Selene's expression went through several shifts while Lexi spoke. First it was sympathy, then concern, then perhaps amusement at the idea of looking for magic to help me transition, then in the end, worry.

"And I suppose you're going to tell me you believe this has actually happened?" she asked us. "You think somehow you two stumbled onto real, powerful magic? And you messed it up and it had unexpected results?"

Me and Lexi glanced at each other again. She blushed a little brighter then nodded.

She lowered her voice almost to a whisper and said, "Yes. I think it hit me instead. I think somehow I got changed, but I don't remember? There's just been vague hints and strange deja-vu things, like my memory's all mixed up."

Selene sighed. She looked conflicted, but finally asked "I'm sorry dear. Have you thought to see a doctor?"

"If we don't figure this out by tomorrow, I'll see a doctor on Tuesday." Alexis replied in a quiet, slightly dejected voice. "I only just noticed things were weird on Friday morning, and whatever actually happened, I think it was either last night or tonight. Like it kind of bumped me back a couple days."

She added, "That's how we found this place? I recognized your card. I keep seeing stuff that jogs my memory, like I get glimpses into the original timeline or whatever."

I saw something in Selene's expression, just for a moment. Something Lexi said seemed to catch the woman's attention. She hid it quickly though. She frowned slightly and asked, "Who are you two? What are your names?"

Me and Lexi glanced at each other again. She looked back at the shop keeper and replied "I'm Alexis Holmes. She's Chloe Taylor."

The woman narrowed her eyes at Lexi, "Alex Holmes?"

Lexi seemed surprised, "I used to call myself Alex, but I go by Lexi or Alexis now. Have we met before?"

Selene stared at us both for a few seconds, then turned on her heel and stalked back to the front door. She locked it and flipped the sign around to show the store was closed again.

When she turned back towards us I nearly jumped out of my skin. She wasn't the same woman.

The friendly-looking middle-aged shopkeeper was now an uptight-looking girl barely older than me and Alexis. Same clothes, same everything, except it's like she suddenly went from mid-forties to no more than twenty. Her eyes were the same bright blue. Her hair was now a bright platinum blonde, without even a hint of grey in it. She was slimmer too, her figure and face were both suddenly more attractive.

My heart was racing and my eyes wide. I had no idea what was going on but things just went from vaguely odd to completely surreal. Lexi grabbed me by the arm as we sort of both held onto each other. She was just as freaked out as I was and she clearly had no more clue than I did what was happening.

We both watched wide-eyed as the suddenly-young Selene marched past us behind the counter, then she bent down and seemed to be digging something out of a drawer.

A moment later she straightened up and set a thick old binder on the counter. She opened it and started flipping through the numerous sheets of paper stuffed inside.

"Uh," Alexis sounded nervous and still had a tight grip on me as she stared at the young blonde, "What's going on?"

The shopkeeper ignored us as she kept flipping through the binder. After another minute or two she stopped and stabbed at a page with her finger, "Aha!"

She turned the binder around and motioned us to look at the page she'd found.

We both approached nervously. I saw what looked like a one-page contract of some kind. Some of the text was blurred and warped as if it was the result of several generations of photocopying. The whole thing looked like it was originally created on a typewriter, like it pre-dated word processors and laser printers.

And clearly visible at the bottom, written in creepy dark red 'ink' was a name, a date, and a signature.

The date was yesterday, and the name was Alexander Holmes.

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