Unusual Uniques

“Hello there girls. You’re the first visitors in over a week.”

Ella scrutinized the old lady. Thin, with curly white hair, and surprisingly few wrinkles despite her obvious age. Thick black reading glasses obscured the eyes somewhat.

“Well, I assume if you wanted more visitors, you wouldn’t make it so tricky to find.”

The woman shrugged. “I didn’t say it was bad or unusual. Until someone spills the secret, I don’t have to pay taxes on the income.”

On first glance around, Ella had a hard time understanding what she was seeing. “What is this place?”

“It’s a cursed toy shop. Everything in here is said or rumored to be cursed. But more likely, they are one of a kind objects. They’re very cheap and I only accept cash.”

Mia was already wandering around the various shelves, looking at objects.

“There’s no order to things, just have a look around. Well, no order other than the more… eh… adult… things being over in this corner back here,” she added, motioning to her left.

The more Ella looked around, the more she felt she’d never be able to describe this place. A small wooden train with a steam pipe that curved back down and pointed into the train. A golf club, magenta from end to end. A pair of cowboy boots open on the bottom with no soles. A crystal clear tree sculpture with leaves wider at the top than the bottom. Tiny roller skates with triangular wheels. And hundreds more bizarre or inexplicable oddities.

“Hey Ella, check this out,” Mia said from over by the wall. “It’s a pink bracelet that glows for a moment when you shake it.” She walked over and handed it to Ella as it faded.

Ella shook it, and sure enough it glowed with pink radiance that almost immediately began to fade again until it was completely dull. Another shake produced the same result. “Fascinating,” Ella said, handing it back to her friend.

It took almost fifteen minutes, but Ella finally found something that caught her eye: an old box, designed to look like a book with a clear top. Inside was a rocklike object that was grey-black and veined with jagged red lines. The box however, didn’t seem to open.