The Magic Shades

by Enderle, Dotti

• ISBN13: 9780738703411
• ISBN10: 0738703419
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd

Summary

Order before the September 2003 release date and receive a 10% discount. "* This product will not ship until it''s release date: September 1, 2003

Excerpts

Chapter 1
Discovery
“It stinks in here,” Gena said, pinching her nose
and breathing through her mouth. “Like
smelly socks.”
Anne laughed. “And no one’s more of an expert
on smelly socks than you, Gena.”
Gena slipped her foot out of her shoe and wiggled
it near Anne. “My secret weapon,” she said.
“Guaranteed to exterminate roaches, rodents, and
rude boys.”
“And best friends!” Anne backed away and
stood on the other side of Juniper.
Gena slid her shoe back on and watched Juniper
dig through a box of old baseball cards.
She thought a thrift store was an odd place for
Juniper to buy her little brother’s birthday gift.
“Look for the dead guys,” Gena suggested.
Juniper held a bulky stack of baseball cards in
her hand. She didn’t raise her head, just her eyes
to look at Gena. “Why?”
“Aren’t dead players worth more?” asked Gena.
Juniper shook her head. “Popular players are
worth more. Dead or alive.”
Gena wasn’t interested in searching through
old baseball cards, and she could tell by Anne’s
fidgeting that she wasn’t either. “Let’s go look
around.”
Gena and Anne wandered about, looking
through bins filled with old purses, hats, toys,
and books. Some bins were just a dumping
ground for miscellaneous items.
A young woman approached, straightening
things that were strewn about the shelves. Then
she reached down to pick up a toy that had been
tossed on the floor. Her long brown hair fell
passed her shoulders, but Gena could make out
her Thrifty Saver badge and knew she was an
employee. She watched the lady work, and wondered
how someone could force herself out of
bed every morning to work at a place that
smelled like this. She must be desperate or immune
to the dank air, thought Gena. Probably both.
Gena stepped over by Anne, who was thumbing
through a box of old postcards.
“These look about as exciting as the baseball
cards,” she said, picking up one that showed a
crispy white Vermont church with a bell nearly
as big as the steeple.
“Those are five cents a piece,” the woman
said, sweeping by Gena and Anne and hurrying
to the other side of the store.
“Why would anyone pay five cents for these?”
Gena asked when she was sure the woman couldn’t
hear. But Anne was staring down at the cards
with a look of disbelief on her face.
“Some are worth more than a nickel!”she
squealed, pulling up a faded card from the pile.
“This one is mine,” she said, grinning like she’d
struck gold.
Gena snatched the postcard out of Anne’s
hands. “Lucky!” The card was titled The Fortune
Teller and showed a woman in white holding a
magic wand. The card also had four wheels, a
pointer, and instructions. Gena read them out
loud. “Cut out the arrow and stick a pin
through its center and the center of the circle.
Circle 1 gives a YES or NO answer. Circle 2
spells the name of the person you will marry.
Circle 3 tells his business. Circle 4, how many
children you shall have.”
She handed it back to Anne. “Are you going
to cut out those circles?”
“Of course not!” Anne said. “I’ll use it as a
guide to draw my own. I plan to frame this card.
Look how old it is.”
Gena peeked at the tiny copyright date in the
corner. 1812. “Yeah, I bet that card’s worth
more than a nickel, but don’t tell that lady who
just walked by.”
Anne laughed. “I wonder what other gold
mines are in this store.”
Gena wondered too. Suddenly, the place didn’t
smell so bad anymore. She looked through a bin
that had costume jewelry. Nothing weird or mysterious.
She found a plastic sunburst that she
thought would make a cool necklace, but it
looked more like a broken belt buckle than a pendant.
Then she saw a bin filled with sunglasses.
Gena rummaged through the bin, examining
each pair. She liked the zebra print pair, but the
rest looked like they’d come from an Old Lady
Fest. Old ladies with pointy noses and French poodles,
Gena thought. But then, she noticed one pair
lying near the bottom. A pair of black cat-eye
sunglasses with mirrored lenses. Each point had
a gold emblem, the symbols of Comedy and
Tragedy. Gena ran her finger over them. These
are great, she thought. She wiped the smudges
off the lenses with the bottom of her t-shirt,
then tried them on. The glasses fit like a cozy
hug and felt like a part of her face. She turned,
searching for a mirror. She had to see how they
looked.
She passed several racks of clothes and boxes of
shoes and there on the wall was a full-length mirror.
Gena stood close and gazed at herself. A lot of
descriptions ran through Gena’s mind as she
stared. Awesome. Cool. Movie star. She didn’t care
how much they cost—she had to own them.
“Hey!”she said, rushing over to Juniper, who
now had about a zillion baseball cards piled up
beside her. “How do I look?”
Juniper didn’t say a word. She just doubled
over with laughter.
Gena felt like the boy who had cried wolf. She
joked around so much, her friends didn’t know
when she was serious. “You don’t like them?”
“You do?” Juniper asked, still giggling.
“I think they’re great,” Gena said, glancing
around the store.
Juniper slipped them off Gena’s face. “For
Halloween!”
“Well, I like them,” Gena said, not wanting Juniper
to know how hurt she felt. “I’m going to
ask that sales lady how much they are.”
She pointed to the brown-haired woman who’d
been straightening things earlier.
“Excuse me,” Gena asked, putting the glasses
back on. “How much are these?” Blue-white lightning.
Gena blinked her eyes. When she looked at
the sales lady, she barely recognized her. The
lady’s face was bruised and scabbed, her left
cheek red and swollen. Her left arm was cradled
in a sling and her smile revealed a chipped tooth.
Startled, Gena jumped back, feeling she’d left
her thumping heart two feet in front of her. Was
this lady in a wrestling match that she’d just
missed?
“How much is what?” the sales lady asked
through her scraped lips.
Gena took off the sunglasses, her hand trembling.
“These.”
The woman reached for them with her left
hand, now miraculously healed. Gena took a
deep breath. One minute the woman looked
like the victim of a train wreck, the next minute
she was the same little mousy woman who’d
said “Those are five cents a piece.”
A weird chill snuck through Gena as the
woman handed the glasses back.
“All our sunglasses are fifty cents each,” the
lady said.
Gena held the glasses close. “Thank you,” she
said, hurrying away.
“Are you really going to buy those?” Juniper
asked.
“Yeah,” Gena said, still staring at the woman,
now unloading a box.
Anne had just walked up with her prize postcard.
“Buy what?”
Juniper pointed to the sunglasses.
“Ewww,” Anne said, wrinkling her nose. “Why
do you want those?”
Gena wished she knew. She wished she could
explain. She looked at Anne and Juniper, feeling
desperate and unsure at the same time. She
shrugged. “I need them.”

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Excerpted from The Magic Shades by Dotti Enderle
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.