Well! It was all save the souls of this one and heal the curse on that one, and truth be told, Avalon was SICK OF IT.
How on earth did she ever get any shut-eye with all this rukus?
"I've told you a thousand and twelve times!" Avalon snapped at a small boy, "They are not toys, they are voodoo dolls and they are worth seventeen dollars each!"
The boy snorted, which surprised Avalon as he looked only eleven, and said in a sneering voice: "I didn't come here for the dolls Miss, I'm shopping for wart cream." And he grinned up at her.
Avalon narrowed her eyes in suspicion at his clear complexion. Did he now...
"Yeah, and, and..." he cast his eyes around the shop, his expression lit up with a playful glee that Avalon found unsettling as well as appetizing. "...and because my mam has these great big warts," he looked up at her then, straight at her own wart sitting peacefully on her chin minding its own business, and he smirked wickedly. "Great ones, all on her chin that she says are unsightly and heinous."
Avalon shrieked out a laugh. The fact that this boy knew a word like 'heinous' was far-fetched and hilarious. She felt like bottling this whole experience and using it for one of her midnight bath expeditions.
The boy snickered.
"You are a lying little brat, if you even are little, and I will have none of you fouling up my shop. Away." Avalon waved her hand and turned. Her indoor room of potted plants and herbs was calling out a soothing song to her wounded soul. Heinous warts... she ran his unthinkable words over inside her head. They aren't that heinous, are they? Cara said they were in fashion, part of the Autumn feel. The thought that warts were not in fashion flared up a fire inside Avalon's stomach- which could have just been a burning hunger for the little runt's words and ears but she doubted it as her eyes fell upon an opened, empty packet of infants fingers and she recalled her satisfying breakfast- and this gave Avalon a new task to set right. She needed wart cleanse tea, right now, lest she be seen out of the fashion loop and cast aside for that old Paypine at the Seventh house. She snorted.
"Miss, miss, I need to tell you something..." the boy whined.
Avalon said, "Are you still here?" as she ran her gaze along the shelves behind the counter. Who put this thing together? And who sorted all the potions, teas and herbs? Who was the imbecile that needed firing?
"Yeah, mam said she really needed that cream because she was butt ugly. So ugly-"
"I've seen bottoms in the Ready To Eat Fried Children menu that are more appealing than your mother's complexion," Avalon replied without interest. Oh, right. It had been herself because she'd fired her last employee three months ago. "Damn that sneaking Jouaul!"
"You look at bums!" the boy mocked with a laugh. Avalon heard him throw out his yoyo in a practiced way, heard the zzzzzzzing! as it unwound and then the zzzzzzzzooong! as it wound up and she whirled around with her finger pointed high. "I eat little bums like yours for breakfast, you snot-nosed, sliming, ant-faced hooligan of the modern age, and I can just SMELL yours from way up here!"
His face dropped but his smile stayed hitched as if pegged. "You don't, you're not a real witch."
Avalon laughed in an aggressive way. Her frown was starting to hurt her forehead and she was sure if she didn't relax soon it would stay there, like a line etched into her head, and she would be laughed out of the town. She hissed a spell in an old language, that was probably just a jumble of words and not old at all, and waved her hands in a theatrical way to appear fresh and contemporary, which clashed with her long black robe and haggish silver hair.
"No!" the boy cried in horror. "I haven't washed yet!" Avalon laughed again as he shrank down in size, merging into himself as grotesquely as any of these transformations were and with a great deal of screaming that Avalon could have done without. She sighed as she watched him. Did these things really take forever? She checked her wristwatch.
When the screaming had stopped she looked up to find a small green lizard baring it's open mouth at her and twitching its tail.
"Hello there, little rat bait." Avalon scooped him up and dropped him into a container, punched in some holes, and fell into a lawn chair that was set up behind the counter, lit up a smoke and took a puff.
Ahhhh, yessssss, she thought indulgently. He'll do nicely in preparing my wart removal tea.
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~Up next week! Is Avalon the ONLY witch roaming around town without a wart? Has fashion in the witching world changed that much? Will the poor little boy return to his human form and gain revenge? Who knows! Certainly not I!
Stay tuned for more Avalon adventures.
@__-~
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