Marcus scanned the junk before him, sure that there was nothing there that would catch his interest, moving from one table to the next as the owner of the shop glared at him from the corner of her eye, her lips silently moving, constantly forming the words, "Hurry up," and "Buy something already," as Marcus perused the different items.
He had been coming to this shop for the past couple months, always looking for the same items. Items that were rumoured to being magick artefacts, which he had read about online and where sure existed and weren't just some internet rumours perpetuated by online crazies and people even more lonely and desperate then he was.
Turning away from the long table he was browsing, Marcus was just about to give for the day when something caught his attention from another table directly in front of him. Taking the three steps to approach the table, Marcus reached out and picked up the trinket that had caught his attention, careful not to touch anything else as he did so, thinking, "The Amulet of Zulo. It's real," as he did so.
As he ran a hand across the medallion, brushing dust off and revealing the image, he felt his spirits lift as he had finally proven that it existed and his mind began to think of ways to test its magickal authenticity. Taking a deep breath, he thought, "Get a grip, Marcus. You still have to purchase it," and flipping it over, he found no price sticker and glancing at the table, seeing no tag or announcement of prices, he turned away from the table and approached the front counter.
Dropping the amulet onto the counter, he asked the woman, "How much?"
As she eyed the skinny, pale teenage kid that had been coming into her shop for the past eight months and never buying anything, the shop owner reached down and picked up the amulet. Hefting it, she wondered what it was made of, decided it might be copper and dropping it back onto the counter, she picked up a book and began to flip through its yellowing pages.
After a moment of not finding the amulet listed, she turned back to the teenage and wheezed out, "Five dollars."
Elated at such a bargain, Marcus fished out the necessary money and handed over the five, one dollar bills. As the woman behind the counter took the money and placed it in an antique-looking till, Marcus picked up the Amulet of Zulo and telling the woman, "Have a nice day," to which she merely waved a hand absently in his direction, he slipped the medallion around his neck and dropped it under his shirt.
Leaving the shop, his mind racing, he wondered how he should attempt to prove that the Amulet of Zulo was something that had magickal properties. "I could change my sex and gender," he thought, but immediately dismissed the idea, along with the idea of becoming an animal or somebody else.
As he walked, thinking of the different ways he could try out the amulet, Marcus' mind soon drifted to his favourite subject, dragons, and after a moment of idle thought, he stopped in mid-step and touching the amulet through his shirt, he wondered if it would be possible to become a dragon. But then, almost as soon as the thought came to mind, he dismissed it as he realised that dragons, for all intents and purposes, were mythical and did not exist, except in the realms of the imagination.
Disappointed, he started walking again, thinking of the kind of power and wisdom he could have it he were to become a dragon and how happy he would be to say goodbye to his current miserable life, the main reason he had been searching for the Amulet of Zulo or any other magick artefact.
And then, it came to him. Thinking, "There is a way I could become a dragon," as he settled on the notion that the Amulet of Zulo could, in theory, transform a person just by their touching a costume.
Remembering a costume he had seen in the local close-out store in the section that sold holiday merchandise from the past year and that it still had stuff from Hallowe'en nine months ago, Marcus changed course and crossing the street, began making his way to the nearby bus transit centre, his hand absently touching the medallion underneath his shirt as he did so.
----
Half an hour later, Marcus pulled the signal cord to for the bus to stop and getting off, he looked at the various stores making up the strip mall and quickly finding Big June's Close-Out Deals, Marcus headed across the steaming asphalt and through the automatic doors into the air-conditioned store. Getting his bearings as his vision adapted from the glaring July sun to the artificial indoor light, he quickly spied the aisle he wanted and heading past the check-out counters, he began to search for the dragon costume he had seen awhile back.
To his disappointment, it became quickly apparent that somebody had bought it, except for the piece that made up the front of the costume. Holding the piece that was evidently supposed to be a dragon's underbelly, Marcus wondered why it was that somebody had bought the rest of the costume and not this piece.
Figuring that it was all that he need, Marcus took the medallion out from beneath his shirt and once again started at the image, trying to make out what he was seeing as time had muted it. After a couple minutes, he took a deep breath and thinking, "Here goes what I am sure is nothing," he touched the Amulet of Zulo to the piece of the costume, making sure that the two were also touching his exposed flesh at the same time, silently hoping that something, anything would happen.
But nothing happened and disappointed, Marcus found himself suddenly feeling like a fool for believing in such things as magick and dropping the piece of costume back onto the shelf, he slipped the amulet back underneath his shirt, thinking that he might just throw it in a nearby trash bin or give it his sister's kid.
Leaving the store, he looked about and wondered what he should do now and after a couple seconds, he went to the local soda machine set up in front of one of the huge windows that made up Big June's Close-Out Deals. Purchasing a glass bottle of soda, he popped the cap using the device rigged to the machine and sitting down on the curb, he silently asked himself, "How could you be such a fool for being taken in by such a thing as magick," as he absently ran a hand across the medallion, tracing its image through his cotton shirt.