“Way ahead of you buddy,” Scott said. He dug through the storage unit’s costumes with aplomb. His eyes went wide as he fished through the first garment bag he had opened.
“Oh wow! This werewolf costume looks haunted house level quality!” He stared, “How long have these things just been sitting here?”
“Over a decade?” John laughed, starting to unzip one of the garment bags himself. “I don’t know why I didn’t revisit these sooner. I- Oh wow.“
Scott looked up from the werewolf mask he had been inspecting. He expected John to have found something equally impressive, but instead his friend appeared to be looking down at a bath robe.
“Please tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Scott laughed.
“This is my uncle’s old wizard robe!” John’s eyes lit up.
John reached into the garment bag and pulled out the robe. It was a dark blue with a bit of silver trim around the edges. The robe was a bit of an odd thing. It was… functional would be a word for it? It gave off the air of a professor jacket. And not just because of the shoulder pads on the sleeves. There were all sorts of small personal touches on the robe, right down to a custom pocket for a magic wand. The robe had a surprising amount of quality to the material, and definitely gave the vibe of a working wizard.
“This is so cool!” John grinned, sliding the robe over his shoulders.
The robe kicked up a cloud of dust. John sneezed loudly. He felt a shiver run down his back as his senses momentarily fizzled. As soon as the sensation started, it quickly passed.
“Look at me, I’m a sales wizard,” he grinned and held up the long poofy sleeves.
Scott laughed, “I’m glad you’re enjoying this at least.”
“Halloween only comes once a year!” John said with a sarcastic sales pitch tone of voice.
“Uh huh,” Scott laughed, “You’re lucky that thing fit you.”
John spun around, watching the robe spin out around his legs. He suddenly looked up at Scott’s comment, “Ah, you’d think so, but all my costumes are form sitting.”
Scott tilted his head skeptically.
John coughed into his hand, “Sorry, just something my uncle used to always say.”
“Right,” Scott chuckled politely, “Well you can drop the sales pitch.”
“Ah, but a sales wizard’s job is never done! And you appear to be without a costume,” John grinned.
Scott rolled his eyes.
John was laying it on a little thick to be fair. Part of him couldn’t help himself though. It was fun seeing all these costumes after so long, and it was easy to get swept up in it all.
“I saw how much dust you kicked up,” Scott laughed, “I’ll try some on at home one they’ve been throughly dusted and de-loused.”
“But-“ John really wanted to see Scott try something on. He supposed it could wait, but no time like the present, right? “Did you find something you liked at least?”
Scott lifted up the first garment bag he had poked his head into, “Werewolves, foxes, seems like I found the canine bag?”
John’s eyes lit up, “Oh! We should grab the dog bag too!” He walked into the storage unit and plucked out another one of the hanging bags, “I had a fun time in these while I was tending the store. Every shop needs a good guard dog.”
“Right…” Scott watched John eagerly pour through the costumes.
“Oh, and we might as well bring some cats home too! Lions and tigers and- Bears may be a little big for the house,” John plucked another garment bag off its rack.
“I thought you said you didn’t know where anything was?” Scott watched John pile up the costumes by the door of the storage unit.
“That’s preposterous. I know my wares like the back of my…” John started. Then he stopped. Wait. How did he know where the bag with the feline costumes was? “I umm…”
“John?” Scott looked a little concerned, “You alright?”
“Of course!” John patted his chest. Something under his robe crinkled. He reached inside and pulled out a small stack of stapled papers, “I found the inventory.”
“Oh! Why didn’t you say so?” Scott took the papers from him, “Anything good?”
John blinked. He hadn’t felt those papers in there earlier. “Uh… There’s a box of high quality masks in the corner by the door.”
“Oohh, maybe I could dust one of those off,” Scott walked over to the box in question.
John patted his chest again. No crinkle of papers. No outline of anything. How had he known that was in there? In the heat of the moment he was just making an excuse, then suddenly he had the inventory in his hands.
Hmm. John opened his robe and focused on… How about a business card? He reached into his coat pocket and miraculously found a sturdy piece of card stock.
He pulled out the business card and stared at it in disbelief. Resting in his hands was a card for, “Uncle Jack’s Costume Shop”. John knew it wasn’t there a second ago. Something strange was going on. Something magical.
There was a chance John could have written it off as him just not feeling the card through the robe. The contact info said otherwise however.
Jack Smith
184 Cottage Lane
(555) 555-1946
Underneath uncle Jack’s name was the address of John and Scott’s condo. The phone number was John’s personal cell phone. That phone line hadn’t even existed sixteen years ago. What the hell was going on!?
“You wanna help me get these out to the truck?” Scott picked up the mask box with a loud grunt.
“Yeah, just give me a second…” John nodded distractedly.
He heard his roomie head down the halls of the storage unit. John kept staring at the card. This was absurd! He moved to put it back in his pocket, but he wasn’t quite sure how to explain it to Scott if he saw it. He needed to get rid of it. He needed to dispel it.
John’s hand started to glow slightly. He casually flicked the card into the air and watched it vanish into nothingness. The glowing of his hand stopped the instance the trick was over.
Huh. Okay.
“Coming John?” Scott called from the hallway.
“Yeah, be right there!” John anxiously ran his fingers through his hair. That was magic. He just did magic.
Was he a wizard? Wait-
Was he a sales wizard?
John tightened the sash on his robe and picked up the nearest two garment bags. He chased down the hall after his friend.
“Something tells me we’re going to have a lot of fun with these costumes,” John grinned.