"I...I broke my chain." You say, holding out your large gold pendant. "And I lost the pieces. I could just stick it in my pocket, I guess, but you really can't do that in my line of work."
"Why not?"
"Things get lost...stolen...I can't lose this. It's a very, very important reminder to me."
"Things lost and forgotten?" The woman asks, without a smile and with a funny sort of glaze to her eyes. Like she was quoting from memory, working on automatic. "You want a chain?"
"Yes." You say. "But a simple one. Plain gold, if possible. And maybe a bit thicker than the one I had...something like..." for a moment you look around in confusion, for all this old woman has is row on row of glitter and glitz, nothing that wouldn't drown out that pendant. But then you see it, simple and gold with it's own pendant, laying before you, to the left.
"Something like that one. Without the pendant, though." The incredibly detailed animal is too much for you.
This snaps the old woman out of her daze. "That one? That chain, no pendant? Or that pendant, no chain?"
"That chain. No pendant."
She becomes real, agitated, for the first time sense you entered this shop. "No." She says.
"I can pay." You reply.
"No one has ever asked for that...the chain without a pendant. They always want the pendants without the chain. Are you sure you don't just want this?" She pulls the pendant out without even opening the door, dragging your glittering chain behind it.
"No." You reply, "just the chain."
"Just the chain, just the chain. The girl must be mad." But she begins undoing the clasp and sliding off the pendant. "I can never refuse a customer. She is always right, you know." The woman is shaking her head...her entire body is shaking, badly. "The customer is always right."
"Are you alright?" You ask.
"Yes, yes. Now take it." She shoves the chain at you. "Take it, wear it, burn it." There is almost a glee in her eyes, a maniacal hysteria you don't like. "Melt it down for all I care. Just take it!"
"How much do I owe?" You ask. "How much do I owe you?"
"No Charge." The woman replies. "Now leave."
Turning, you almost flee from the shop. But once you're outside you can relax. Somehow, you know you're safer outside the shop than in. Pausing on the street, you take out your pendant and string it onto the chain. You place it around your neck and fasten the clasp. The weight is satisfying. You like it.
You decide to go to your work...which is...