Abnormal Gravity: A Parapines Fanfic

Chapter 16

Norman returned to the Shack just after noon, coming through the gift shop entrance. At the sound of the bell placed above the door, Mabel perked up from behind the counter with a beautifully manufactured smile plastered on her face.

"Hello! Welcome to - oh!" Mabel's smile became much more genuine and she relaxed a little. "Hi, Norman."

"Hey." Norman quickly looked around the gift shop. It was strangely stocked, with a rack of generic snacks on the far wall, a flickering vending machine next to it, and a postcard rack that never seemed to stop moving. It twisted back and forth with the faintest squeak. The walls were covered with various clothing items, signs and booklets. Several mysterious artifacts were lying about, some behind glass cases. Underneath the counter were books, a tribal head, and a small brain floating in a jug of water. There was also an obscene amount of question marks covering almost every item.

"Whaddya think of our humble business?" Mabel said.

"It's... weird," Norman said, still looking around. "But, in a good way," he added quickly. "Do you get a lot of business?"

"We get enough. Ever since we bought our new vending machine, business has picked up. It's amazing how mini pretzels attract customers."

"Mini pretzels?"

"Yup!" Mabel pointed to the vending machine, where three whole rows were solely dedicated to a popular brand of snack pretzels. Or at least it looked popular, although he couldn't remember where he'd seen them before. Staring at the packages, Norman got the strange feeling that he wouldn't mind some snack pretzels right about then, despite the fact he didn't particularly like them. Weird.

Mabel continued. "But, really, we're only here because we promised Soos and Grunkle Stan we would. We don't actually get paid."

"Free child labor?" Norman asked, smiling.

Mabel returned the smile. "The best kind of labor."

They both chuckled from that. It felt... nice.

"So," Mabel said, "Did you find anything?"

"Not really. Ghosts can be... difficult sometimes."

"I agree wholeheartedly."

"But, I did find one ghost who knows something about those poltergeists we found, but he was being really shifty for some reason."

"What did he say?"

"I'll wait till Dipper gets back. It'd be faster to tell the both of you at the same time. Where is he, by the way?"

Mabel rolled her eyes dramatically. "Probably reorganizing the toilet paper in the bathroom. Again. It's like he's trying to figure out every possible way rolls of paper can be stacked. There can't be that many, right?"

Norman just shrugged, unsure how to reply.

"I'll go get him. Watch the shop for me?"

"Sure," Norman said, but Mabel had already left the counter and entered the house proper, yelling Dipper's name and various nicknames.

Norman was left alone. He looked around the shop once more, saw nothing of interest, or perhaps too many things to choose. He walked over to a barrel sitting next to the counter. He hoisted himself up and sat on the barrel, right next to an obviously fake—though, eerily realistic—jar of eyeballs.

It was very quiet. The only sounds were those from outside: the singing birds and the wind blowing through the trees, shuffling the leaves. It was very calming. Unable to stop himself, Norman began to swing his legs and whistle.