Ron parked the truck and waited before opening the door as he watched a woman wrestling in a giant stuffed animal into her small car. There was a sense of irony seeing the animal more enormous than the woman herself sitting in the back of the compact vehicle.
Linda was at the shop early, and he planned to join her once he met with the old man from yesterday. Ron’s mind was still wondering why the man could remember the house when no one else could. Ron touched his wallet, remembering that he had withdrawn cash in case the junk dealer had some dangerous items out for sale. He didn’t want to pay for them, but he would stop others from getting hurt if he had to.
Ron walked through the market, the weekend morning weather cooler than the previous few days. The sun was shining, and it felt good to be outside for a while. He had been working in his home office back at Linda’s house, and they had been putting together some various adventures of what had happened when they saved Amanda. Ron had also been putting together small stories from his interactions with the other magical creatures and planned to use them in some stories once he had enough.
As he made his way through the aisles, he heard a man speaking loudly.
“Miss, are you looking for something unique? Something strange? Let me show you this.”
Ron walked toward the voice, and as he neared, he could see the old man wearing a fedora hat with blue and yellow striping around the brim. He watched as the woman took what the man held, and she immediately dropped it. She seemed to be moving her hand as if the item shocked her. Ron watched as the old man deftly caught the plummeting thing and held it out for display.
“Sorry, miss, I must have been charged with static. The little bauble seems to be full of it sometimes.” He held it up to her, “care to take a look?”
The woman shook her head and started walking away, but Ron watched as a man took the item from the dealer. He rolled it around in his hand, inspecting it. The man holding the thing looked carefully, and Ron could see the expression that appeared on his face.
“How much for this thing?” Ron her the other man, ask the dealer. The tone of excitement not unnoticed.
“Ten seventy-five.” the dealer said as a smile crossed his face, “if you see anything else you like, I’ll make you a deal.”
Ron laughed, seeing the patron pull out a wad of cash, as did the dealer when he pulled out a small metal cash box to give him change. It was an easy sale if Ron had ever seen on and watched as a man with a long dark coat now stood before the junk dealer’s table. Ron smiled, thinking that the junk dealer had a great way of selling things, but when someone bumped into Ron, he turned to see who it was, only to turn back and see the man in the dark coat gone and most of the old man’s table now clear. The cash box is now full of money.
What the? Ron thought, and he moved to get a closer look. Within seconds the ring on Ron’s chain shuttered, and he paused for a moment to look around. As he turned, Ron saw movement from the corner of his eye and a shadow walking into the darkness behind the booth. But when Ron’s eyes focused, he saw nothing. So Ron’s mind began to wonder, okay, what new magic creature did I run into now?
Ron approached the old man and introduced himself. He then asked if the man had that bottle he showed Linda from earlier.
“Oh, you that woman’s husband? The one from the book shop.” Tal said.
Ron admitted and asked again about the bottle.
The old man smiled and reached down to the table only to find the spot he was grasping at empty. Ron watched as the old man seemed confused and heard him mutter, “could have sworn I bought more to sell.” Then, finally, the dealer looked up at Ron, “sorry, looks like I sold it already. But if you’re interested, I have more back at my garage.” He leaned toward Ron, giving a wink, saying, “been cleaning the place out, my wife wants to redo the place.”
Ron smiled back. Guy’s got attitude. I’ll give him that.
“Name’s Tal, if you’re interested, I’m nearby. If you like, I can show you my inventory, maybe find something else you like.” the dealer said.
Ron nodded. It was as good an idea as any. He was still hoping the old man hadn’t sold the capture jar from Terrell’s lab. But now, Ron had an opportunity to see what else the man had taken, maybe stop any of it from being used on the magic creatures or Roween. As Ron was about to tell the man, he would happily like to see what else he had, but his eyes were drawn to a bird on the lamppost nearby. A raven was staring back at him. Ron cocked his head, and as he did, the raven flew off, disappearing in the shadows of the trees nearby. Ron looked back at the junk dealer, “sure, what time could I stop by?”
Tal scratched his beard, “well if you want to wait a few minutes, you can follow me there. I seem to have sold everything I brought. But I don’t remember doing it.” He continued to scratch his beard as he looked to Ron, saying, “must be getting old” before chuckling.
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