English Essays

Note: I started my new English course already, and I can't remember if I got round to posting the work I did for the last one due to technical problems, so I'm just testing this now. If I can get it to work, I'll post all of the essays.

The Forbidden Shop

I suddenly focused on myself, and an unreal feeling descended as my eyes focused away from the otherworld of arcane, magical and foreboding artefact's to the glass before them, and me looking nervous in school uniform. The change in focus caused me to become aware of traffic sounds, and the bright, noisy and forever-lasting world I lived in contrasted to the gloomy mystery of the forbidden shop I had often passed but which had never been discussed.

The door needed a hefty push of increasing pressure, slowly inching along until it suddenly announced it's freedom with a violent shudder and crescendoing jangle of the brass bell attached to it. Immediately the smells him me, incense, oils, old paper and unknown powders in jars. Beyond in the gloom a bearded man didn't look up from his book.

The space was small, cramped with a long cabinet down the middle holding incense, bells and burners. Behind me a notice board advertised local meetings that sounded spooky. I wondered where all the people in town who went to spooky meetings lived, and if I'd ever passed them and not known. The man still didn't look up, but I wanted to be a confident figure in his peripheral vision. On the near wall were old hardcovers with yellowed pages that would have tiny print and obscure language, so I strode away purposefully to Eastern Philosophy, where at least the stacked spines were colourful and new. Occasionally a book was turned forward to show it's cover, leaning up against a pile of the same to make the shelf space go further. They wore pictures of people with glowing auras meditating, watched by blue gods smiling down radiantly from perfect clouds in the sky. On the back were unreal photographs of the authors: old, bald, dark-skinned men with painted foreheads, looking otherworldly. I picked up a book and held it long enough to appear in consideration, then replaced it and crept towards the counter, gingerly avoiding piled books like a cat stealthily weaving through concealing grass. The light dimmed as I retreated from the safety of the other world outside and the subjects changed to... magic! Really? Is there really magic?

I picked up one of the few new looking books and vaguely comprehended that it was about some kind of ceremonial...something. There were strange diagrams and I started to get scared; perhaps if I concentrated on them too long then something bad would happen? I edged yet further away from the light and had to pass a full size mannequin wearing a hooded garment that looked like sackcloth. I moved on hurriedly to a mounted wall cabinet housing jewelry, wooden boxes and unknown objects behind glass. A page turned behind me and when I looked over, the man stopped reading and glanced up. He thought I wanted something and I was horrified when he stood up, retrieved the a key from the wall, then had to stoop and shuffle to escape the counter in his cramped corner.

I looked back to the cabinet, desperately trying to guess the cheapest object. There was a huge, tacky Star of David pendant in steel but I couldn't pretend I wanted that, it was madness; I was a schoolboy! He arrived, opened the glass door and looked at me expectantly. I pointed vaguely upwards.

He gestured to a crystal pyramid. 'This?'

'No.' That looked expensive.

'This?'

'... Yes,' though I couldn't actually see what it was.

He handed me a small figure, slim, blue and scary. It looked very old and ill-distinct as I took it reverently, then looked up.

He preempted the need for bluffing. 'It's a figure from the pyramids.'

As soon as he said it, the shape of a sarcophagus suddenly became apparent. I was too naive to assume it was a reproduction. I wanted to asked if was cursed but was frightened of either the answer, or laughter... or silence.

Outside, briskly walking home, the scentless air was sharp and awakening. I stopped to pull the figure from my pocket. It seemed to have brought a little of the mysterious atmosphere with it. Even days later in the glumness of school I could look at it and be taken back in my mind to the magical place, full of objects, books, ideas and directions of which I knew nothing, other than they awaited.