The Trade

Two severed rabbit heads were mounted above the door frame of the Crystal Shelter, facing opposite directions of each other viewing the left and right flank of the entrance. The head on the right, which was facing Eloise and Olivia bore an expression suggesting it was still processing its transformation from living creature to taxidermy ornament.

Eloise wondered if the two heads had known each other in their past lives.

More disconcerting than the heads themselves were the way the eyes of the one facing her had followed Eloise down the sidewalk up until the threshold of the beaded doorway. It seemed to be trying to convey some rapidly changing, ineffable emotions to Eloise which caused her to avert her eyes until they were in the store and out of view.

Olivia, as expected, gave off no signs of discomfort from the rabbit’s heads or the preternatural items inside. She did however, as Eloise had now come to expect, immediately set off in a direction of the shop as if she already intimately knew the place.

Besides the two of them, the only other person in the shop was an older woman behind the store counter. The woman had barely noticed Eloise and Olvia as she was lost in a large book laid on the counter in front of her.

“Ellie, here it is,” Olivia called out from a corner of the shop.

Eloise walked over to Olivia and found her pointing at a small bundle of flowers which reminded her of gumdrops with red tips.

“It’s paracress flower. It’ll help me with my sleeping problem.”

Eloise picked up the flower and studied it.

“Melatonin, sleeping pills, and wine will also help with that.” Eloise didn’t mean for this to sound so condescending.

“I know, but that stuff just treats the symptoms,” Olivia said, unfazed. “This will treat the root cause.”

“If you say so.”

“You’ll see, waking me will be like waking the dead. Now we go eat. Unless you want to look around some more. I know how much you love these places,” Olivia said, teasingly.

“Oh yeah, where else am I going to get…” Eloise looked around for an object she recognized but found none. “...this stuff,” she said, deflated.

When Eloise placed the bundle of flowers down on the counter the woman was still focused on her book.

“Did you find everything alright?” Asked the woman.

“Yes,” Eloise returned the peasantry.

The process of the sale was ingrained and practiced with the woman not taking her eyes off the book though its majority. It was not until the woman was handing Eloise a bag containing the flowers that she looked up and matched eyes with Eloise..

The woman’s expression immediately changed into a cascade of complicated emotions Eloise did not immediately know how to interpret.

“Your eyes,” said the woman.

“My eyes?”

There was a moment of disconnection between them before Eloise realized what the woman was referring to.

“Oh - yes It’s called heterochromia.”

The woman did not respond but continued staring at Eloise with a discomfortable wonder.

I was born with it.” Eloise immediately felt stupid for this followup but continued. “My dad’s side has brown eyes and my mom has blue and I got one of each.”

“Please - Please, wait here a moment,” The woman said, dropping the bag on the counter and walking quickly into the backroom.

Eloise and Olivia gave each the briefest of looks before the lady reappeared holding a small beige wooden box in her right hand.

From the box she produced an envelope and a small, black notebook. She took the notebook and opened it to two pages which were both blank except for a single underline across the middle.

“I have been waiting for someone like you,” The woman said with a poorly veiled desperation in her voice. “In this envelope is a very large sum of money, I would like to give it to you if you would agree to help me.”

“Let’s just go. Forgot the flowers.” Olivia sounded uneasy.

“How much money?” asked Eloise

After a moment the woman responded. “Twenty thousand dollars.”

Eloise did not hide her surprise. “What could I possibly give you worth twenty thousand dollars?”

The woman hesitated and then seeming to come to some internal decision, answered. “I want to trade you for the color of your eyes.”

“You want my eyes?” Eloise could hear the alarm in her own voice.

“We need to leave,” Olivia said, grabbing Eloise by the arm and pulling her toward the door.

“Not your eyes,” said the woman. “Wait! I’ll give you one thousand dollars to listen to what I have to say.”

Eloise stopped and turned with Olivia still pulling on her arm.

“Please, one thousand for five minutes of your time and then you can leave if you’d like.”

Despite her fresh panic, Eloise considered this. “One thousand just to listen to you and then I can just leave without doing anything you ask?”

“Yes,” said the woman.

“Can I see the money?”

“Ellie, come on. Let’s go. This isn’t good.” Olivia had still not let go of her arm.

“Give me a second, Olive.”

The woman reached into the envelope and flashed a stack of hundred dollar bills.

“I agree only to hear what you have to say,” said Eloise after the briefest pause.

The woman’s shoulders relaxed a bit.

“I am not asking for your eyes. I only want the color of your eyes. You will still have your eyes and your sight, but you will have to take the color of my eyes in exchange.

Eloise studied the brown, whiskey colored eyes of the woman behind the counter..

“It seems,” said Eloise, “That the color of your eye and the eye itself is a package deal.”

The woman shifted uneasily. “A very long, long time ago a woman from another plane fell in love with a human man. This woman was very powerful and made herself a physical body here on earth. The two of them had a child. It is said that descendants of this child can be born with the gift to see into this ethereal plane, and they are marked with this gift by the blue eye of their mother and the brown eye of their father.

She then held up the smaller black notebook. “This is the Book of Binding. If we both come to an agreement, we will both write our names, and that agreement will be completed. Only the color of our eyes will be switched.”

Eloise noticed Olivia’s face had suddenly flushed of all color.

“Ellie, let’s go,” she said with a shake in her voice. “Now. Let’s go. Please.”

“You want to give me twenty thousand dollars to write my name in your black book?”

“Yes,” said the woman, “as an agreement that we will exchange the color of our eyes.”

“I sign it and then what? You have a surgery room in the back?”

“After you print your name the transaction will be completed in the ethereal plane, there will be no need for anything further in our physical world.

Olivia tugged at Eloise’s arm. “Please, Ellie, we have to go. You shouldn’t listen to her.”

“Olive, please. Just let me think.”

Eloise again addressed the woman, “what if it doesn’t work? What if I print my name and your eye color stays the same?”

“You will still receive the money,” said the woman.

Another moment of silence passed between them.

Olivia finally broke it. “Ellie, listen to me. This isn’t right. There’s something you don’t know that I’m not allowed to tell you. Let’s just forget about this and go eat. Let’s get some wine. Let’s just try some wine.”

“Olivia, it’s twenty thousand dollars just for my name.”

“Please.” Olivia sounded like she was close to tears. “Please, just come with me.”

“Olivia…” Eloise trailed off then turned back to the woman. “I need at least half of the money before I print my name.”

“Deal,” said the woman.

Eloise approached the counter. In the background she could hear Olivia’s voice grow more panicked and distressed, but the overall volume was diminished, and the clarity of the words was distorted to the point which Eloise could not make them out.

The woman reached into the envelope, and after a moment fingering through it, removed a stack of bills and placed them underneath the counter. She then slid the envelope across the counter.

Eloise confirmed the contents of the envelope.

“Okay,” she finally said. “Give me the book.”

The woman took a pen from underneath the counter and wrote her own name on the right side of the page.

She flipped the book around, placed the pen on top, and slid it over to Eloise.

Eloise read the woman’s name. Mya Carroll.

“I must warn you,” said Mya, “the book only works on an ethereal item once. Once I have the color of your eyes they cannot be transferred to anyone else - not even you.”

For a moment Eloise hesitated, but out of the corner of her eye she caught the envelope.

None of this is real. She assured herself. The money probably wasn’t even real. But if it was just writing her name in the book what did she have to lose?

She quickly wrote her name in the notebook. As she pulled her pen back from the last letter, everything went white. Then, a darkness like Eloise had never before experienced consumed her. A pang of terror rose up within her but before she could act upon it, the darkness receded and her vision began to return to her.

Eloise found herself in front of a mirror. No, not a mirror. Something else. But it was Eloise looking back at her.

Eloise’s vision became more and more clear. No, it was not a mirror, either, and it was not Eloise. It was the woman, but with one brown and blue eye. It was the women but with Eloise’s eyes.

Somewhere within Eloise a seed of realization began to grow.

Mya, seeming to be coming out of her own episode of vertigo, shakily reached for a round makeup mirror on the counter and inspected her new eyes.

“Oh, it worked!” She said laughing through her disorientation. “I can’t begin to thank you enough for this.”

She grabbed the envelope from Eloise and hastily brought it beneath the counter.

“I am a woman of my word. The twenty thousand dollars is all here.”

She brought the envelope out from underneath the counter and handed the considerably wider envelope to Eloise.

Eloise, still in shock, did not respond but mindlessly took the envelope from Mya.

As she was handing over the envelope Mya’s expression turned from elation to concern.

Oh, dear, why are you crying?”

Eloise instinctively felt the area around her eyes. They were slightly damp.

“Oh, I don’t think I’m crying,” said Eloise.

“Not you, her.” said Mya.

Eloise noticed Mya was not looking at her but looking past her. She turned around but the room was empty.

“Who?” Wait, where’s Olive?

“Olive?” She called out, but there was no answer.

“Olive?” She looked around the shop.

Her eyes continued to vainly search the shop until they rested back on Myas. Mya was still looking past her but she had her hand over her mouth in an expression of grief.

“Oh, dear, I am so sorry. I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what?” Asked Eloise with fresh panic her voice. “Where’s Olive?”

Mya turned her attention to Eloise.

“Your friend Olivia. She’s… she’s of the ethereal world.”

Suddenly, Eloise thought again of the two rabbit heads on the door frame, forever looking in opposite directions. Again, she wondered if they had known each other.

“My dear,” said Mya, “I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid without these eyes, you will never see your friend again.”