The Fool’s Journey

“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. But there were cats and dogs. There used to be many more dogs around before those big lizards came flying about. Now, if you’re lucky enough to still own a pet you better keep it locked up, especially around lunch time if you know what I mean”

“I’m not sure I do…”

“What is he talking about?”, asked one of the kids.

“Does he think dragons eat at 1pm like us?”, laughed the second one.

The first kid made a beastly noise and tickled the brother, who waved his arms around and almost hit three big, expensive looking items. The shop was crowded with objects that the average person would not have been been able to name. Shelves full of them, and what did not fit on the shelves was hanging from the ceiling, giving the impression that the room was much smaller than what it actually was. The smell, on the other hand, was something that everyone would have been able to unanimously agree on: clothes forgotten in the washing machine for an hour too long. And dust, so much dust.

Dorothy had no time or patience for dealing with her little brothers, she waved a hand to shush them, and kept talking to the old man behind the counter.

“What has that to do with what I’m looking for?”. She was smiling gently, like when talking to someone that might not really get the meaning of what you are saying, but you know they are trying very hard.

“I apologise, young lady…” The kids were laughing in the background hearing their sister being called young lady, but the old man didn’t notice. “It has quite a lot to do with it, if I’m being honest”

“I’m not following… HEY YOU TWO STOP RUNNING RIGHT NOW!”, in a split second her expression changed completely and she was smiling again at the shop’s owner, speaking with a lower tone of voice. “Are you telling me that this has something to do with them?”

“With who?”

“You know…” she made a vague gesture pointing to the ceiling. “The big lizards”

“Ohhh” the man emitted a long bubbling sound like a kettle full of mud. He was laughing, and then coughing, or the other way round. Dorothy wondered if he was over a hundred years old, he definitely looked like it.

“You okay?”

“Yeah yeah, it’s just the dust, but that’s inevitable isn’t it, excuse me a second”, the man said while coughing badly. He made a quick gesture and a glass of water appeared in his hand. He drank it in one gulp and threw it behind him. The shattered noise never came.

While the old man was brushing his wet moustache with a sleeve of his tunic, Dorothy could not help but notice that a fresh layer of dust just appeared on top of the counter. If you could ever say that dust was fresh. That one seemed to be, it was a tad greyer than the rest all around. If you could buy a jar of dust, you would definitely want a batch of that one, it seemed good quality.

“…it’s complicated”

The little brothers were screaming in the distance, somewhere in the shop.

“Excuse me, could you repeat that”

“I said that’s complicated”

“Oh, nothing else before that? I thought…”

“No, it’s exactly what it seems like, the problem is that nothing actually ever is”

A thunder so loud to make your ideas jump in your head bursted in the sky, followed by heavy rain.

The kids screamed and then laughed, chasing each other on the stairs to the first floor.

The old guy raised his bushy eyebrows so much that Dorothy was finally able to see his eyes. They had a fierce liveliness that didn’t match with the skeletal body, covered in a oversized tunic, hinged over the dusty counter, creaky at every movement.

For the first time since entering the store, Dorothy was considering if that had been the best decision. Her mother, daughter of a witch, always said never to trust a businessman, and her father, son of an estate agent, always said never to trust a wizard. She, like all teenagers, decided to ignore them both. To be honest, what other choice did she have?

“You’ve been followed”.

Dorothy looked back at him, confused. She noticed that she was the only customer, the only sound was the rain against the roof.

“Followed? What do you…”

“The rain, don’t you hear the rain?”, He interrupted her with a sharp tone.

Drops were furiously tapping on the windows. Another rumble of thunder followed the first one. All of a sudden was night outside.

What was he talking about?

The little brothers were still playing somewhere, you could hear them stomping their feet on the wooden floor on top of them. Dorothy wished she didn’t come in here at all.

“Tell me again why you are here?” demanded the old man.

“As I’ve explained a few minutes ago, weird things have been happening lately and I need to know if there is something that I can buy that would make them… go away”

“You need to be more specific and talk faster, we don’t have much time”, the old man was raising his voice. It wasn’t the same was he had before.

Dorothy didn’t know what was happening. She could hear the wind trying to get in from every little crack in the walls. And she could feel that something else was also getting closer. She didn’t know how to explain it, but she could feel it. There was something, or someone, out there, and they were trying to get in.

The man was talking again and she couldn’t hear him properly until he said her name, with a clear, deep voice.

“Dorothy!”

That voice seemed to come from far away and from next to her at the same time.

What was happening?

“Dorothy, focus on my voice, don’t look outside”.

The man grabbed her wrist, his skin was much smoother than what she thought.

“Are you here?”

She looked at him, finally able to see him. The old man was gone, in front of her, behind the counter, was now standing a guy in his twenties, wearing a blue shirt and a green blazer. The tunic was on the floor, the moustache didn’t even leave a five o’clock shadow on his face.

“Who are you?”

He smiled gently. “Welcome back, Dorothy”.

He seemed calm, but only on the surface.

“Sorry for the dust, by the way”, he added. Only then Dorothy noticed that the counter was overflowing with dust so thick that could have been mistaken for sand, if sand was usually grey.

“But as I said”, he did a quick movement with a hand towards the door. The lock clicked. “We really don’t have much time”.

Dorothy moved herself away from the guy. “Please don’t touch me”

“Sorry, you weren’t here, I had to bring you back”.

The door emitted a cracking sound. It was made with solid wood carved with metal, and looked like a door that would still stand a hundred years from now. The young wizard was keeping his right arm pointed at it, with the palm of the hand open.

“You were saying that you came here because weird things started happening to you”, he was talking like if that was a big effort. The handle of the door moved, but he twisted his hand and it brought it back in position. A sprinkle of dust covered the floor in front of it.

“Give me an example, the first one that comes to mind”.

A thunder lightened the shop like if it was a bright summer day for a fraction of second. The night came right back.

The kids were still playing upstairs.

Dorothy looked him in the eyes and said: “I don’t have any brothers”.

The door exploded.