Of all the physical locations and settings that authors conjure up in their stories, shops tend to be my favourite. In real life, commerce tends to be rather straightforward; we are always limited in what we can buy, both in terms of expense and because the only thing to trade is money. In stories like those below, one need not be rich to make a purchase or sell goods. There’s so much that goes on with the characters behind both sides of the checkout counter; both the seller and the receiver are much more complex than the economic roles they’re playing, and when you add in speculative elements, the exchange can take on a much deeper meaning. Here are some stories that dig into that complexity and spin the results into reflections on love, wisdom, loss, and more…
“So You Want to Kiss Your Nemesis” by John Wiswell
Robin runs the Intimate Blade, where “We find the edge for that special someone in your life” —be it a lover, or in the case of this new customer, Zsofia, a nemesis. The store carries everything from rapiers and scimitars to daggers and axes, and Zsofia is in search of the perfect tool she can use to propose to her foe—propose a duel, that is. Obviously.
A charming story, and perhaps my favorite take on the enemies-to-lovers trope.
“Big Box” by Greg van Eekhout
A store appears in a place where it wasn’t until yesterday, suddenly taking up space where there wasn’t any. You step in, and find yourself considering if you’d take some magical monkey paws (price: the animals’ extinction), a love potion (price: “the memory of your first kiss”), or pillows that help you sleep (price: no dreaming). There are so many good deals in here, so hard to resist! Maybe it’s too early to go to the checkout counter…
“The Potion Seller Will See You Now” by Dianne M. Williams
When a 12-year-old shows up at the potion seller’s mostly ignored shop, she knows he’s too young to be fighting, too brash and foolhardy. But the shop isn’t doing well, so she’ll take whatever coin she can get; she can’t afford to care about all the young boys going to war. But then the boy shows up again, having grown a little, still fighting. When he returns over and over, having become a new man each time because of the war and the things he’s seen, the potion seller starts worrying—not for herself, with no business thanks to the war, but for boys like him. How will they survive?
“The Merchant With No Coin” by M.A. Carrick
Thanks to a detailed reading of The Merchant of Venice in Grade 10, in my mind the word “merchant” is always accompanied by the sense of someone who’s skilled at dealing with people and money shrewdly, and more importantly, someone who’s wealthy (like Antonio, the play’s titular character). But as I’ve often heard from people older than me, you can’t truly hold on to wealth, and you can’t take it with you. What ought a merchant to do when such is his fate? A visit to the szorsa tells him he’s fated for poverty, yet he still asks for all the money he can get. Where will such a wish lead him?
“How to Find a Folded Bookstore” by Devin Miller
Blue Heron Books folded in the 1990s, but when the right person comes along, it shows itself and lets them in. Europa, who runs the bookstore, is attuned to the bookstore’s whims. It makes people want to stay, guides them to comforting chairs, relocates shelves to get them what they need—or what it thinks they need. Today, the bookstore is determined to find Europa a date, and no amount of requesting is going to change its mind. Perhaps it’s time Europa accepted that help?
