4 Ways Are Better Than 1

Chapter 1- the magic shop

Emily was sitting on a bench in the centre of the big shopping mall. She’d had a fun day spending money that she’d received from Christmas and her birthday which had been quite close together and she was taking a rest because she had no fewer than 5 bags in her hands. Some of them contained clothes and others had games in which were two of Emily’s biggest loves. Emily wasn’t a very tall woman at the height of just 5 foot 3 and the biggest thing she didn’t like about that was the stumps she had for legs and feet. They were so short that Emily often got tired from walking after 10 minutes if that. Normally people wished to be taller in this situation but Emily wanted a bit more than that. She wanted to have even better more adventurous ways to move around but knew that she’d probably be stuck like this for the rest of her life.

As Emily set off for home she decided to head around the back of the mall which was an area she never usually went to. It was there that she discovered a small purple building simply tilted “Martha’s Magics”. What caught Emily’s eye was that most of the products seemed to be moving by themselves and that was enough to get her interest and make her head inside. There was no one at the counter when she walked in so Emily stared at what was around. There was a jack in the box that contained a hand instead of a man, a painting that changed every 30 seconds and a mirror that saw the reflection melt and change into a scary version of the person staring at it. Emily started to wonder if this was really a basic magic shop.

Suddenly she got a fright by a silky female voice. “I see you look quite intrigued by my products”. Emily turned around and saw a pink haired woman who’s arms were covered in tattoos and her nose and exposed bellybutton with a few piercings. “I’m Martha the owner of this magic shop, I don’t get many visitors around here and I wouldn’t have expected someone of your type to be exploring here by which I mean a clothes shopper” she said pointing at the clothes bags in Emily’s hands. “Just proves that you don’t know what to expect” was Emily’s reply “Can I ask why do your products look so realistic? You must have good special effects” Martha let out a laugh “these are all real effects because I have magic in my blood or should I say fingertips, I can make any dream of any customer come true so please what’s something that you’d really like?”

Hearing this Emily’s eyes lit up. “Do you have anything that can help with moving around?, my legs and feet are too short but I don’t just want the old way of being made taller, I want it to be unique”. Martha mused and then she had it. “I think I have just the thing” she replied. She dug under the counter and pulled out a small red box which had the label “The 4 B’s” written in big black letters. “I’m not going to spoil this for you but let’s just say that what’s inside might just contain some cool new ways for you to get around. “Give all 4 a try on a separate individual free day and see if you like them. I say this because once you’ve activated a form you’ll stay like that for 24 hours so you don’t want to use it on a day of importance”. “Once you’ve tried all 4 come back here and if you like them I might have a way to make them a permanent part of you”

Emily’s heart was racing with every word Martha said. She was getting quite excited at the prospect of not having aching feet anymore and it was a chance too good to pass up. “How much for it”? she asked. Martha replied “just £5 for this trial, obviously it will be more if you want it permanently”. “I’ll take it” Emily said excitedly. “I am so going to enjoy this” Then the 2 women said their goodbyes and Emily rushed home excited with her new buy....