Dreamily AI Stories Volume 1

Tiny Shops

I was walking down a street of tiny shops on my way home from work when it happened. I had just turned the corner and was standing in front of a small boutique of clothing - a shop with no name, only a small sign out front. On the sign were printed a few words: TINY SHOPS. That was all. Not a single clue as to what they looked like or what kind of business. I glanced at the window and noticed that there was an empty display in the store - and that the door wasn't locked. Well, why would they bother locking their doors at this time of day? I decided to step inside. The shop was brightly lit and very warm, even though the air outside was cold. It smelled of fresh flowers and spices, with a hint of pine. There were shelves of clothes behind glass windows. A long counter ran along one wall. On each side of the counter were rows of shelves stacked high with boxes, which presumably contained everything from shoes to clothing to jewelry. In front of me, there was another open area covered with a large red carpet. On one end of the carpet sat a sofa and a coffee table. And on the other end were some chairs, which presumably belonged to someone else. At first glance, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary, but once you got closer to the counter it became obvious that this wasn't the usual layout for a little shop. For starters, the counter didn't have any drawers or cubbyholes to put things in. Instead there were shelves upon shelves of books. The book shelf stretched all the way around the room, from floor to ceiling. There were so many books here you wouldn't be surprised if they kept them up there on the ceiling themselves. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of books they were - not just books on fashion or history, but the books that came before or after the fashion era. They must be fascinating if you could sit and read them every week, no matter how crowded your own living room felt. Maybe the owner's mother used to live here. Or maybe her family had once owned the place.

The thought gave me hope. Maybe I was wrong and the tiny shop really did hold something unique, and that it really was just a coincidence that they were closed at this particular time of night. As much as I wanted to believe that there was more than one shop here, however, my logical side told me that I'd probably overreacted to being so shocked by such a small display. After all, this tiny shop didn't look too different from any other shop on the street. If people came in from work every evening at this exact same time, it wasn't anything special. But if a shop opened for business, with no explanation at all, it might be a bit more unusual. And besides, I was sure these shops had to keep hours, whether open for business or not. So they certainly had to be working nights. If only I knew what time they worked.

But I knew better than to ask someone about it. If I asked someone about the shop, then I might find myself asking for directions. And I didn't want that. Besides, who knows what those people might tell me. They might say that it was closed for the weekend. Which would mean that they must have customers at some point in the week. And if I said I wanted to buy one of the dresses I saw, well then, surely they'd get angry and start yelling. And if that happened, I'd lose a lot of money in sales. Plus if I bought one of their dresses and left without buying anything, that might make them upset. They might decide to close their shop and lock the door. And if they locked the door, I definitely didn't want to know where it led to. Or what it looked like or what it felt like. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that part.

So it was best not to ask anyone. That way I could get home with no trouble. That way I could spend the entire evening curled up on the couch reading a good book. Maybe even order pizza or Chinese food. Maybe even eat ice cream with sprinkles. Just me and my laptop and my favorite Netflix show. Yeah, I definitely needed something like that tonight. Even more so since I was on my way home. My boss has been trying to fire me ever since he found out about me and my friend, Tim, staying the night at his friend's house last year. He'd given us an earful about it this morning when we showed up late for our shift. Luckily I was able to convince him that I was fine. That I had made a decision and it was the right choice. And that I regretted it and was going to do everything in my power to avoid doing anything stupid like that again.