IV

The woman handed the watch to Piper, and she took it. It was round and had circles and lines on the back, which reminded Piper of something that could be a foreign language. Alien, even. She wanted it.

"How much?" she asked the woman at the counter.

"Five bucks," she replied lazily, "It's stuck closed."

Piper found the money in her wallet. She didn't care that it was stuck, five dollars was cheap enough that it was worth trying to fix. She handed the money to the woman and went to find Merma. She found her in the shoe section.

"What'd you find?" Merma asked while looking at some red converse high-tops.

"I bought a pocket watch," she replied, "how about you?"

Merma shrugged. " would these sneakers look good with this dress?" she held the dress up to herself for Piper to look at.

Piper squinted. "Yeah, I guess it does."

Merma grinned. "Perfect. I can wear it out today. Hey Piper," she said.

"Yes?"

"What time does that pocket watch say? They say that if it's stuck on a time, that's the time that your dreams will come true."

Piper laughed. "I don't know. It's stuck shut."

Merma shrugged. She went up to the counter and bought the dress and shoes, along with two  books and a necklace.

"Six dollars," said the woman. Merma handed it to her and she took it and put it in the cash register.

Piper and Merma walked from the thrift shop into the bright San Francisco sunshine. They walked past the odd shops and local cafes until the got to the bookstore.

Gilligan waved from inside. They waved back. Piper went to talk to him, and Merma went to get changed.

"Hey," she said. He raised his pointer finger and bent to grab something under the table. He handed her a book. "You found it!" She said excitedly.

"Told you I would. So where did you guys decide we're going?"

"Well, we haven't been to the beach in a while, so we decided to take the two-hour cable car ride there and have dinner at the boardwalk." She smiled pleadingly, hoping that Gilligan wouldn't refuse and make them go somewhere else.

He laughed. "Fine."

Piper smiled. "yay! I'll go see if Merma's almost done. She's taking forever." She went into the bathroom and yelled for Merma.

"Hold on a minute!" Merma replied. She came out of the stall and modeled the dress.

Piper clapped. "Gorgeous."

They left the bathroom. Merma ran into a man in a trenchcoat. she apologized, wondering why he was wearing a trenchcoat in the summer and why he didn't look the least bit warm. She forgot about it quickly, though, dismissing it as a fashion statement. She looked at her watch. "Four o'clock! We have to go!" She grabbed Piper and Gilligan and ran out of the store.