"...Uh....What?" Andrew said sharply.
"Trans-for, for---"
"Like what? You change my body or something?" Andrew said abruptly. He assumed this must be some sort of Chinese New-Age shop.
"Yes!" The old man replied with enthusiasm, "That is it!"
Andrew was taken aback by the old man's reply. He had expected some kind of jarbled speech about transforming one's mind or inner peace or love or something. But no.
"anysing, I have much stuff."
"So could you make me.... say, um..." Andrew paused for a moment and thought about it. His mind ripe with questions. Would it work? is this guy crazy? is it a hoax? He thought about what he would like to change for his own body, just in case this was possible. What was something that he wanted to change that wouldn’t be embarrassing to ask for?
"could you give me a beard?" Andrew replied. It had dawned on him that this one option that could be looked at with some humor, later, in the case that this was just a joke.
"ah! yes!" replied the old man loudly.
Again, Andrew was caught off guard by the old man's response. He was 17 after all and he hadn’t a bit of hair on his face, whereas most guys his age did. In fact, Rick, his old friend from elementary could now grow a huge beard if he wanted, and a topic that came up frequently. Needless to say, Andrew wasn’t thrilled with his lack of development, and wanted, not surprisingly, to be able to grow just as much of a beard as anyone else his age.
The old man paused for a moment, turned his back and made a hand gesture. "dis way!" he said calmly. The old man walked fast and Andrew followed, again surprised by the old man's quick pace. The old man turned down an aisle and Andrew followed behind. He couldn’t help but notice the dusty jars, ancient looking, on all the shelves. They where piled up high, and set on big heavy-looking shelves. Two shelves, one way down near the floor and the other level with his chest. Rows of these jars, on and on, stacked on top of each other. thousands of them.
"Dis!" the old man yelled out. He had grabbed a small jar from the lower shelf and dusted it off with his hand. "Dis is what you want!" Andrew felt a little embarrassed now at his question. This probably wouldn’t work, its probably just a dumb joke. It didn’t dawn on him until just now that there was no one in the store besides him and the old man. He didn’t need to feel so embarrassed, he reassured himself.
"How can i be sure it works?"
"I give it to you free!" The old man held out his jar and moved it to Andrew's right hand. Andrew took the little jar, and examined it closely.
"Really?!?" Andrew, yet again, surprised.
"Yes! no, i need tell you, eese very strong. Use veeeeery little of it."
"Ok" Andrew replied.
"But somesing else it does. It make you hairy man!"
"Um...uh, ok" Andrew said
"Use little and it grow beard on you, but it also grow hair all over, so use little. it work very well" Cautioned the old man. "put it here" He gestured towards his chin. "or here" he pointed to his chest.
The Chinese man stood straight up and looked at Andrew. His eye bright and his face happy. "You skinny, too, you too skinny boy, here..."
"Uhh..." was all that Andrew, surprised by the old mans words, could say.
The old man leaned over, began shuffling through the jars. He moved over a little bit. Found another jar, looked at it for a moment. "Here! Dis good fo you too, you too skinny. use dis." He handed Andrew another small jar. Andrew was perplexed by this whole thing.
The old man smiled and walked back to his desk at the front of the room, and Andrew followed him. The old man's movements were quick and sharp.
"so is that all then?" Andrew asked politely.
"Yes, you go now, Come back again, ok!" The old man said abruptly.
"uh, thank you, thanks, uh, bye" and Andrew waved, leaving the dusty room and back into the ally.
He didn’t quite know what to do with the stuff. As he walked out of the ally he twisted the lid open of the first jar, which was rapped in some type of paper and smelled a thick dark brown substance inside. It didn’t have much of a scent at all. He twisted the lid closed again and put the first small jar into his big pocket. Andrew didn’t seem to have much interest in wandering about china town. His thoughts were preoccupied with the jars and that old man's shop. The second jar was of a different shape and didn’t have any writing on it; he kept his hand tightly rapped around it for the rest of the walk back to his dad's work.
Andrew jumped into his car, He set the jars down there, and he drove off to home.... Traffic was bad, of course. He knew it would be, but it wasn’t as bad as usual, and within 35 minutes, he was back home. Back before his father.
A quick note was written on the white board in the kitchen "wont be back till very late, order a pizza" Something he hadn’t seen on the board when he left. With his mom out of town, it appeared that he had the house to himself for the evening. "Awesome" he said to himself. He had left the jars in the car, so he went and grabbed them. Walking back into the living room, he set the two small jars onto the coffee table and sat on the sofa. Andrew stared at them for a moment, thinking. He wasn’t sure what to do....