Redemption

Alec Thompson was hot, thirsty, and above all he was lost. His mind was focused on a single object, he must continue to move. For a long time he sucked on a pebble for saliva to counteract the dryness in his mouth. That old trick no longer worked. When the sand tripped him, and the sun beat him to his knees, he crawled. Each time he fell it was harder to get back up and stumble further.

He tottered under the gentle push of a hot breeze. At first he failed to notice that the breeze carried the sound of distant tingling bells. Bells. He paused considering the novelty of a human sound. A human presence would mean water; an end of thirst. Alec turned slowly about seeking the source of the bells. Silence was his reward. Then another breeze confirmed the sound; the tinkling seemed to come from beyond a line of tall dunes. Alec struggled to the top of the nearest dune. The sound, salvation, seemed closer. In his rush, Alec fell and tumbled to the bottom of the dune. After a while, he stood again and climbed the next dune and the next.

Below the final crest Alec could make out a half-timbered shop nestled within the dunes. It was whitewashed, with a thatched roof, and had mullioned windows flanked by green shutters. The shop stood alone without a single tree or shrub to shade it from the angry sky. Alec staggered down the dune slope and finally stood before a half-opened door. Over the door was a sign, “Alice's Curiosity Shoppe”. He pushed open the door, and from within came the sound of a wind-chime carried on a cool refreshing draft of air.

“Hello. Hello... anyone here?”

No one answered. Beyond the shelves crowded with curiosities, there was a table set for tea. It was a round oak table covered by a red-checkered cloth on which sat two Dresden cups and a steaming pot of tea. His thirst pushed him to the table, where he poured himself a cup of tea. It scalded his mouth, but it also revived him. He pulled an ancient rocking chair to the table and poured himself another cup.

“Who invited you to tea?” Alec froze and turned to see who had spoken. The shop seemed empty. Out of the corner of his eye, a large yellow cat seemed to materialize lying on a silk pillow with tassels. The cat looked down from a high shelf, and spoke again, “Well, what have you to say for yourself?”. The cat winked at him, and seemed to chuckle. Alec stared up at the cat, and gulped down his second cup of tea. With shaking hands, Alec poured another cup of tea. He caught a glimpse of a young woman reflected in a large mirror, and as he turned to look, the cat faded away. Just too much sun, I guess.

“Hello, I'm Alice. I see you've already met Chelsea.” Her hair seemed like spun gold in the light from the shop windows. She wore a blue dress, with a white apron. Her voice was soft as her innocent smile. “Welcome to my shop. What will you be needing today?”

Alec tried to answer, but his voice failed him at first. He took another sip of the tea, and found that it restored his ability to speak. “I'm Alec Thompson, and I'm lost. I've been lost a long while. Without water, I've become confused. Somehow, I seem to have forgotten how I came to be lost.”

Alice refilled Alec's cup and poured herself a cup. She sat down in a chair that wasn't there, and then it was and Chelsea the cat was yawning on her lap. “Have a bite?”, Alice asked offering Alec a platter of warm, crisp cookies fresh from some unseen oven.

Alec took a cookie, but his nibble became a bite and the cookie was gone. The fogs from Alec's mind seemed to dissipate, and the world around him snapped into focus. The cookie gave Alec the feeling that finally things might be sorted out and put right. Alec stared at his hostess, his mouth open in astonishment. “Who are you? What is happening to me? Where is this place? I don't understand.”

“Why, I'm Alice... don't you remember, I introduced myself just a moment ago. This is my shop on the High Street, where I supply the needs of all who wander in. You needed something, and somewhere on my shelves that item probably exists. What is it you need?”

“Well, I was dying of thirst... I think, but then your tea revived me. My thirst is quenched, but how did I get from the desert to the High Street. Have I gone mad? I have so many questions, that I don't know where to begin.”

Alice smiled and said, “go on.” The cat, Chelsea, leaped down from Alice's lap and stood regarding him with large eyes. When Alec tore himself away from the cat's gaze, and looked back at Alice, she was smoothing a wrinkle from her green silk sari. He was so startled that he stood, sending the rocking chair back against a glass case knocking over a counter mirror. The mirror fell and shattered on the marble floor. Chelsea vanished again.

Alec knuckled his eyes, and shook his head. “This shop, you and your cat, are so strange. Are you real? Is this a dream, or a hallucination? Things keep changing, and I don't know what to believe.”

“Being lost can be disorienting, can't it? Perhaps we can sort it all out. Would you like that, Alec?”

Alec looked deep into Alice's brown eyes, and nodded. “Yes, please. Help me. Please.”

Alice rose from her chair, and it vanished. “Chelsea, is very good at helping with this sort of problem.” Alice retrieved a silver whistle from the bodice of her flowery kimono. Alec heard nothing, but wasn't surprised when the cat suddenly appeared atop the tea table. The cat licked a cookie crumb from the plate, before turning its attention to Alice. “Chelsea... this nice man needs something, but doesn't know what it might be. Any ideas?”

The cat grinned a wicked grin, and winked at Alec.

Alice was not amused. “Chelsea, mind your manners. Make yourself useful for once.” The cat looked chastised and disappeared. A moment later the Cat was back, and whispering into Alice's ear.

“I wish that cat wouldn't keep doing that,” Alec said. “It's making me dizzy.” The cat giggled and was gone.

“Chelsea, says there is a steamer trunk here that might be what you seek.”

Alice led Alec back into the shadows near the rear of the shop. Chelsea was hanging Christmas ornaments on the branches of a Bonsai tree that sat atop a dusty steamer trunk. Alice said, “That must be the trunk Chelsea meant.” Alec wiped away a film of dust that had taken centuries to accumulate, and found his name neatly stenciled in black along the faded blue top of the trunk. He set the Bonsai tree aside, and knelt before what seemed to be a familiar chest. His finger tips bushed over shipping labels of places he couldn't remember ever visiting, and came to rest on the latches. They sprang open easily, and Alec lifted the lid.

Inside the chest, Alec found a gyroscope, an Ukrainian Easter Egg, and something tightly sealed in a glass jar. Alice put her hand on his shoulder, and gave it a gentle squeeze, “now we're getting somewhere. Bring your trunk out where we can look through it more easily, Alec.”

Alec pulled the old trunk into the light streaming in from the windows at the front of the shop. In the better light, Alec could see that the trunk was lined with old playbills, canceled tickets and posters. There were posters for bullfights, circuses, and vacations in France. Alec recognized nothing, and none of it made any sense to him. He sat the gyroscope and Easter Egg aside, and tried to figure out what was in the glass jar. It suddenly hit him, it was a heart and it appeared to be still faintly beating. Alice took the jar from him, and held it up to the light before sitting it beside the other items. In the bottom of the trunk was a thick book bound in hide. Alec lifted the book up and blew away the dust. His initials were stamped in gold on the cover.

Alice held out her hand, and Alec gave her the book. She carefully put a deerstalker cap on over her auburn curls, and seemingly snatched a magnifying glass out of thin air. “The Game's afoot,” she almost shouted as she opened the book. Alice turned the pages, considering each pop-up picture in turn. She studied them closely with her glass, and shook her head. “I'm sorry, but this is just a jumble to me,” she told Alec. “Chelsea, bring us some clarity... if you please.”

The cat pushed a small blue bottle with a dainty paw. The bottle silently rolled across a Navajo rug and came to rest beside Alice's bunny slipper. She picked it up and pulling the cork, offered it to Alec. “This should clear things up.”

Alec took a sip, and noticed that the shards of mirror he had broken earlier had somehow reassembled into a clear glass. He reached for his book, and it naturally fell open to a shamrock bookmark. He looked down, to find the page filled with unreadable cuneiform wedges, hieroglyphs, and runes.

“Well,” Alice asked, “what does it say?”

“I can't read it,” Alec said, “its in languages I've never learned.” He paused and then continued, “It says that I've lost my balance and must recover it. It says, I've lost my passion for life and must renew it. It says, that redemption is promised and that it is never too late to change.” Alec looked up from the page, and shrugged his thin shoulders, “What does it mean though?”

Alice snapped her fingers, and Chelsea leaped up onto a counter before disappearing. “I know what you need,” Alice got up, and led Alec to a show case. Inside were watches without hands, Swiss knives with many blades, a snow-globe, odd surveying tools, and... a brass bound compass. “This is what you need.”

Alice wrapped the purchase in a day-old “Times” and tied it with a blue ribbon. “That will be twenty drachmas, please.”

Alec checked his empty pockets, but found only what amounted to a handful of sand. “I haven't any drachma, nor any money at all. It was all lost somewhere out in the desert.”

Chelsea giggled from its spot on a Persian rug. “No cash, no sale,” the cat purred and winked again before taking a puff from a bubbling hookah.

Alec was overcome by despair, his mouth went dry and he shivered. He looked at the neatly wrapped package lying on the counter, and knew that the compass was his only hope of finding his way. Perhaps he could trade something, but what? He had nothing. Chelsea seemed uninterested, but took another puff from her hookah. Outside, beyond the bow-window, was the busy High Street bathed in golden sunshine. He could hear the church bells of his youth tolling at the edge of town where the green fields rose to wooded hillsides.

Alec picked up the bottled heart, and thought to himself, I knew him once. Alice smiled still holding out her small hand for payment. “Well, what will it be Alec? How much will you pay for something so precious?”

Alec raised the bottle above his head, and dashed it against the stone floor. The glass shattered. In the quiet that followed, Alec swung open the door and made his escape from Alice's Curiosity Shoppe. As the door swung shut behind him, Alec realized the compass still rested on the showcase inside Alice's Shop. He turned, but the shoppe had vanished as surely as Chelsea. A wave of heat washed over him. The horizon was empty behind endless sand dunes. Alec fell and lay panting for a moment. Then he rolled over and gave himself up to the burning sky.

2,081 words.