The Hole in the Wall Shop

As it turned out, there was nothing to fear. After several hours of walking Hollywood Boulevard with Mia, Ella had begun to feel like the girl might be her new best friend. At the start, they’d both been very quiet, but it’s amazing how talkative two introverts can become when they get together.

Mia was about the same size as Ella, though maybe a little more athletic. Her dark hair was straight and barely shoulder-length, and Ella was immediately jealous of the girl’s blazing blue eyes.

After several hours, they both sat down with their backs against the wall of a gift shop to rest. The flow of visitors passing by was an endless stream of people to observe. The break also gave them a moment to really look at and comparing some of the small things they’d each bought.

“What’s that?” Mia asked suddenly.

Ella followed the direction of Mia’s finger to the bottom row of bricks on the building opposite them. The small street between the buildings only hosted someone passing through every couple of minutes, as opposed to the main boulevard it connected to.

“I only saw it because I tried to check out that one dude’s bright orange shoes when he walked by. I think it says Secret Shop Is… or something.”

“No, Secrets Shop, as in more than one secret, and ‘fifteen’ not ‘is’,” Ella said quickly before realizing what it meant. Squinting at it, a tiny black arrow pointing away from the boulevard and tiny white letters were etched into one of the ground-level red bricks of the building.

“15? Are there fourteen more?” Mia asked.

“No, it probably means fifteen steps or fifteen yards or something like that.”

The two girls looked sideways at each other. “Should we…”

“Check it out?” Ella finished. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“C’mon.” Mia said, standing and seeming to count fifteen strides as she left Hollywood Boulevard behind.

Ella’s curiosity kept her from protesting any further as she followed. Mia counted fifteen and found another ground-level brick with a tiny “25” carved into it. So the girls went twenty-five more. This was just short of the back corner, so they assumed their paces to be a bit short, and Mia quickly located an arrow at the same height just around the corner with a “10” by it. Ten paces further, they found nothing. Mia had given up by the time Ella considered the hole in one of the bricks at about her knee level. Bending down to examine it closely, there seemed to be a silvery color inside. Cautiously, she pulled a pen from her purse and poked it into the hole. There was a click, and a door with uneven sides from the alternating brick pattern swung open.

Ella met Mia’s wide eyes in shock.

“Come on, quick. Before anyone sees.”

Together they poked their heads in, and pulling a curtain aside, they saw what was indeed a dimly lit shop with an old woman sitting behind the desk with a book. They entered together, pulling the door closed behind themselves.