JENNY DECIDED TO investigate the peculiar phenomenon. Her music practical exam would just have to wait.
Cautiously, she crossed the road and approached the shop.
She stared in curious fascination at the fruits and vegetables, at their incongruous colours. The apples were a sky-blue; the pears, bright-pink; the grapes, pale-yellow; the Brussels sprouts were orange; and speaking of oranges, they were brown.
And so it was the same with all the other fruits and vegetables. The pea-green carrots struck Jenny as rather interesting, unless of course they were parsnips.
Jenny pinched the back of her hand and slapped her face. But still the bizarre colour scheme of the fruits and vegetables remained. For reality to outdo her daydreams was quite an extraordinary affair.
She eyed somewhat warily the shopkeeper who had taken to sitting on a plain wooden chair by his chunky mechanical steel till.
He noticed her and raised a right eyebrow.
Then to her surprise, he sang a few lines of a song to her:
You'll find the answer, my love,
by the light of the crescent silvery Moon.
The shopkeeper picked up a silver-coloured banana and tossed it spinning high up into the air with his left hand. For a split second, it hung just above the shop sign "Sullivan's", as if it was the crescent silvery Moon. Then it came spinning down and landed quite comfortably in the shopkeeper's right hand.
"And what can I do for you, me dear?" he said to Jenny, smiling.
His pleasant manner put Jenny at ease, but she found herself unable to speak.
She noticed that the price labels were all showing pre-decimalised currency—sterling. A currency that ended on February 15th 1971.
Jenny finally plucked up the courage to open her mouth as her curiosity overpowered her fear.
"Why are all the fruits and vegetables the wrong colours? Why are all the prices in old money? Why is this street so old-fashioned? Why do—"
"Hold on," interrupted the shopkeeper, showing Jenny the flat of his hand. "My you do have a lot of questions, young lady. Let me answer them like this. The street you see around you is simply a street out of time and out of place—to you, that is. And these fruits and vegetables here, there what you might call 'magical', Jenny."
"Huh?" Jenny was slightly taken aback by the strange words of the shopkeeper—and that he knew her name! "How'd you know my name?"
"Flesh and blood, me dear. Flesh and blood."
"You're related to me?"
"Sullivan's the name, ain't it?" The shopkeeper then changed the topic. "Fancy a banana, Jenny." He held up the silvery, leathery looking banana, which despite its colour looked quite healthy.
Although Jenny thought the situation to be as daft as a brush, she found herself playing along with it. If she was the victim of a hidden camera show, at least she could put on a good innocent performance.
"Well, I wouldn't mind a blue apple. Judging by their sky-blue colour, I wouldn't be surprised if they fell out of the sky." Jenny found the apples, particularly mesmerising, for some unexplainable reason. They seemed to be begging her to take them.
"Sorry, Jenny. They're not for sale. I never sell the sky-blue apples. Too powerful those. Too magical. And magic can be a dangerous thing, even if there's an explanation found in science that powers it."
أنت تقرأ
Full Circle
الخيال العلميJenny Sullivan has become through unforeseen circumstances the evolved version of an originally created counterpart. She needs to pass a viability test on behalf of not only humanity but all life on Earth. She finds herself experiencing jaunts back...
