The Magician's Assistant

1

Rachael stepped over a few dusty old boxes as she stocked another shelf. She brushed aside a few cobwebs as she placed down more unsold ornaments to be safely stored until next year. 

The ornaments were meant to celebrate the end of winter, which had already come and gone. Now, they were being put away to clear shelf space.

Rachael wiped her hands on the apron she wore over her old green dress. The shelves were covered in dust and grime. She'd have to clean them off at some point soon. She pulled her long, brown hair back to keep it as far away from the cobwebs as possible.

Rachael picked up another ornament. The store had been quiet and empty for at least an hour. The owner, John, had been expecting a slow day today, so Rachael was alone. She wondered if it was even worth opening up at all this morning.

As Rachael was about to set the ornament down, she was startled by a sudden noise behind her.

"Hello! Hello! Anyone here?" a old sounding man said from what seemed to be directly behind Rachael.

Rachael jumped up in surprise. She turned around, only to be greeted by the familiar shelves.

As her green eyes searched the dim closet around her, she heard something shatter beneath her feet. Small objects bounced off of her boots, and she just barely managed to catch the fragments of one of the ornaments slide across the floor in the corner of her vision.

"Damn it!" she yelled.

Rachael stormed out of the closet, towards the store's counter. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth.

"How could I be such an idiot? How did I not hear them come in sooner?" she muttered under her breath.

Part of her wanted to blame the customer for her mistake, but she knew better. At least those ornaments were cheap and unwanted. Some had been in the store longer than she'd been working there. Still, John might make her pay for the broken merchandise regardless.

Rachael stood behind the counter. She spent a moment trying to calm herself down, before a stranger peaked out from behind one of the store shelves.

Just like the voice Rachael had heard earlier, the man seemed to be quite old. He definitely wasn't one of the regular customers. His short gray hair was disheveled, and he probably hadn't shaved in several days. He wore an expensive looking purple cloak covered in elaborate gold colored designs.

"Ah, there you are," the old man said with a cheerful look on his face.

He walked towards the counter. He moved quickly, effortlessly, and energetically.

Rachael hid the scowl from the earlier accident as best as she could. She reminded herself that he hadn't done anything wrong. The broken ornament was her fault.

The old man set down an armful of snack foods, mostly cheap candy on the counter, and began to dig through an old purse.

He must have grandkids, Rachael thought to herself.

"By the way, I heard some sort of commotion back there. I hope I didn't cause any trouble," the old man said.

"Oh, it was nothing. I just knocked over some old junk is all," Rachael replied.

"Nothing damaged, I hope?"

Rachael paused for a moment.

"Well, one thing fell and shattered," she admitted.

"I'm sorry about that. May I see it?"

"See it?"

Rachael stared at the old man with a raised eyebrow. Did he think there was some sort of "You break it, you buy it." type rule in effect?

"I could probably fix it," the old man said, cutting Rachael's inner monologue off.

"Thanks, but it's a write off. It wouldn't even be worth your time to pick up the pieces,"

"Please let me have a look anyway. There may be something I can do,"

Rachael couldn't find any sort of malicious reason for the old man's request. If he wanted to steal from the shop, he probably could have done it already. She stepped away from the counter and motioned to the closet behind her.

The old man walked around the counter and into the closet. He found the pile of shards that used to be the ornament and bent down over it.

"Well, this little thing has seen better days, hasn't it? This shouldn't take long," he said.

He scooped up as much of the ornament's remains as he could, and cupped his hands around the sad pile of trash he had collected.

Rachael stood by the door with her arms crossed, silently watching the old man as he worked. She wasn't sure what to make of what she was seeing.

The old man uttered something under his breath. Rachael managed to catch him say "try to remember", but the rest was inaudible. She could only guess at what was going through his mind.

The old man slowly parted his hands, revealing the ornament, completely intact, sitting completely intact on top of a pile of dust and debris that had originally been clinging onto pieces he'd collected.

The old man slowly lifted up the repaired ornament.

"So, what do you think of my work?" he asked, looking to Rachael for approval.

Rachael was stunned for a brief moment, before she quickly pieced together what she'd seen.

"You're a magician, then?" she asked, quickly shaking off her surprise.

The old man nodded.

"I should have guessed sooner," Rachael replied.

The old man stood up and placed the ornament down with the others.

"I assumed you already knew. Did you think I was just going to sit here and glue it back together?"

"In my defense, we don't have many magicians visiting us around here," Rachael said.

The old man walked out of the closet and back around the counter.

"I suppose this far into the interior no one's visiting very often,"

He counted out a few coins.

"The roads have been especially bad lately. I heard someone even spotted one of those walking corpses a few weeks ago," Rachael said.

"A bushranger?"

"Yeah, I think he called it that,"

"That's what's brought me out here. Any report of the undead requires investigation,"

The old man offered Rachael a few coins as payment. It was almost pocket change.

"You don't have to pay for that. The ornament you fixed was worth more," Rachael said.

"I insist," the old man said.

"Alright. Thank you," Rachael said, taking the money.

The old man collected his groceries, and headed out of the store.

As the old man left, Rachael couldn't help but feel like she'd forgotten something, or that something was slightly off. She returned to her work in the closet, and the feeling passed after a few minutes.