Joel always hated the family vacations. His parents never picked anything good, and now here he was, wandering through Chinatown while his mother gazed in a little ceramic shop and went gaga over some little panda statuette, typical touristy crap.
Joel was thirteen, and about to start high school in the coming year. He wasn't one of the popular kids in school, nor was he one of the geeks. He was just kind of average. His dirty blond hair was long enough that it sometimes covered his green eyes. He wasn't exactly tall either, most of his classmates had hit growth spurts recently, but Joel was still stuck at a bothersome 5'1". And with the way his family genetics were, being tall just didn't seem like it would ever happen.
Joel sighed as his mother declared her intention to go into the store to get a better look at the panda. The herb and ointment shop next door looked at least a bit more entertaining than that. "Mom, I'll be in there.." Before she could give her consent or not he ducked into the ointment store, the small chiming of bells announcing his arrival.
Joel wrinkled his nose at the sudden onslaught of odd smells and aromas. It smelled like his grandmothers medicine cabinet mixed with a gym. So lost in trying to identify the smells had Joel become that when the old man spoke up he nearly jumped out of his shoes. "Welcome, you looking for something?"
"Uh, no. Just looking around." Joel headed down one of the small cramped aisles to get away from the old man, who just nodded in response to Joel fending him off. The fact that this stooped old Chinese man was actually taller than Joel somehow managed to irritate him even more. The jars all had strange labels, some in Chinese that he couldn't even read, others just pictures, and a few in pidgin English that was sometimes just as hard to understand. A small green glass jar caught his attention though, the label proudly displaying the name 'Gro-Tall'. He took it off the shelf, looking more carefully at the label.
'Rub Gro-Tall on skin once a day to grow taller quickly.'
Joel thought it was probably a sham to sucker tourists out of money, but it managed to strike right at his weak point. The price label did too. "50 dollars... damn.." He stood on tip toes to look around the store, but couldn't find the old man anywhere, and he didn't see anything that looked like a camera either. Still, carefully he slipped the jar into his jacket pocket and made for the door.
When he opened the door the voice of the old man echoed to him from out of the back room. "Thank you! I will see you again!"
'Yeah right,' thought Joel as he ducked out of the shop.