The taxi dropped 14 year old Janet off into the heart of Chinatown. The girl excited the cab, paid the cabby from the purse slung over her shoulder, and looked around nervously as the yellow vehicle drove away. She pulled a small shred of paper out of the pocket of her black jeans and checked the address. This was the street all right.
Janet took a deep breath and walked down the street, passing an aging street vendor. The man smiled and bowed at her politely as she walked by. Janet couldn’t believe she was doing this! If her mother knew she was halfway across the city in a part of town she hadn’t been to before the poor woman would have lost it. Stephanie got to go wherever she wanted.
Janet growled and walked with more determination another block, her thoughts turning from fear to annoyance. Her sister Stephanie was 17 years old and a complete bitch. The older sister treated Janet like dirt, embarrassed her at school, and worse. To add insult to injury, the tall blonde haired knockout was miss popularity, so somehow that made it okay. Fair and plain Janet was always jealous of her sister, her social success, her huge tits, how she could get any guy she wanted.
Janet suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked up from the sidewalk to see a small aging building in front of her. The simple wooden sign hanging above the window was written in oriental script that Janet had no idea how to read, but written below was one English word: “ointments.”
This was definitely the place.
Janet took a deep breath and stepped forward, opening the big wooden door with a creak and stepping inside. An exotic spice of many different aromas immediately assaulted the young girl’s nostrils. Incense, herbs, spices, and perfumes. It was an incredibly different smell than anything she had ever smelt before and gave her senses a tingle of pleasure. A bell rang as the wooden door slammed behind her and Janet jumped.
An old Chinese man’s voice spoke in heavily accented broken English from the back. “Ah! You stay there, I be right up!”
Janet stood where she was and glanced around, marveling at the incredible assortment of exotic containers and flasks adorning hundreds of shelves.
Her eyes were suddenly drawn to a friendly smile peeking from behind one of the shelves at the back and a doddering old man shuffled his way towards her. “Welcome, young lady! Welcome to my humble shop! It not much to see, but it very special!”
Janet smiled back warmly and felt incredibly comfortable with this strange new person. He looked like a man who had seen the world twice over. His soft wrinkled face gave an impression of wisdom, his gray hair experience, and his short beard a slight mischief. He walked hunched over, with a slight limp and a cane, but Janet thought that added to the air about him.
The old man stopped in front of Janet and looked her up and down from head to toe. He took his wire rim glasses out of his pocket and slipped them onto his nose, blinking feebly. “Ah yes! Now I see you better!” He stood with incredible patience smiling. “Now, what can I do for the young lady?”
“Uh… well.” Janet said, “A friend of mine, Megan, um, said I should come here and see what you have.”
“Ah! Megan!” The old man repeated. He nodded slowly and thoughtfully, stroking his beard. “Yes.” He looked up at Janet and stared her in the face with a slight grin. “And what she say I can do that make you come here, I wonder?”
Janet blushed slightly. “Megan said you … can change people.” It was the most absurd thing she ever thought she would utter from her lips without having been smacked in the head first, but there it was.
The old man again nodded slowly and walked towards the front of the store with his cane. “Do you believe this, young lady?” He asked her, stepping behind the front counter and closing the blinds on the shop’s only window.
Janet gulped as the old man locked the door and walked back towards her. “I have to!” She admitted. “Janet has gotten really tall in the last couple of weeks. At first we thought she had gone through a growth spurt, but… people don’t just grow like that so suddenly after having been the same height for a year and half. She’s gained like six inches!”
The old man chuckled and nodded. “Yes! Very true! I help Megan be tall so she get noticed by boys!” The old man faced Janet and smiled warmly. “Help her get lots of dates! Maybe do the same for you too!”
Again Janet blushed, but felt unmistakable excitement building up in her. “Then… this is really real?”
The old man let out a huge laugh and waved Janet to follow him. “Oh yes, come young lady, I show you! Give you little in store demonstration, as you say!”
Janet excitedly followed the old man to the back of the store and one of the shelves lined with exotic looking flasks of liquid.
Here the old man stopped and rested against the wall with his cane. “People here think I evil. Practice evil sorcery, they say.” He waved his cane dismissively. “Not true! I old man, I see the world! See its secrets! I travel far and wide learning of medicine and potions. Much hidden from eyes that do not see.”
Janet nodded in rapt attention.
“I offer rare service with what I know. No different than man who work, no different than store selling goods.” He lowered his glasses and smiled a toothy grin. “Just unusual goods.”
“But what do you get in return?” Janet asked. “Do you charge for this?”
“Of course I charge!” The old man replied, somewhat surprised. “You pay me money, I keep getting ingredients I need and make my fortune. Old man like me not need money so much, but staying open not cheap!”
Janet again nodded. “What about the demonstration?”
The old man chuckled. “Ah, I ramble on, bore impatient youth I bet. You want me to prove I real thing, not just crazy!” The old man walked towards the shelf on the wall and looked Janet over from top to bottom. “Tell me, young lady, what do you wish you could change for you?”
Janet blinked in thought and then grinned.