CentralImportance

It's a hot summer day! Who could possibly want to stay out in this heat?
     A woman of only twenty escapes the scorching sun by way of a knook of a toy store in the middle of downtown. One step into the small, one room, one window, one shopkeeper toy store brings her an instant sense of one feeling: relief - cool air! Not even thinking what store she may have been entering, more attempting to simply escape the heat, she didn't realize much more than the cool air until a gruff voice permeated the room.
     "Hello. How can we be accomodated today?" She jumped at the voice, surprised not to see the abominable snowman staring at her and blowing cool air to better serve her. "Would you like some ice cold lemonade to take the sweat off that pretty forehead?" Was it the abominable? No, instead the helpful shopkeeper better resembled the most huggable, white bearded, slightly stout grandfather figure you could imagine.
     "Oh! That...that would be great, thank you." The woman finally responded. the shopkeeper made his way to the northwest corner of the store where stood a small table holding a pitcher of iced lemonade and a coffee pot. As he poured the lemonade, the shopkeeper melted the silence by commenting.
     "I offer most folks a cup of coffee, but you're not tha first one to slide in here with that look on your face." She looked slightly bemused in thought as to what this supposed look she had was. He chuckled. "As if the sun itself has been walking by your side all day."
     She paused for a mere moment until the recognition kicked in, her whole body relaxed and she finally wore a genuine smile on her face. It definitely is a proper California summer. No doubt. Every time I open a door outside it's like I'm being hit by a cement wall of sun!"
     The Shopkeeper chuckled again as he handed the woman a sizeable glass of lemonade. The ice sloshed in the clear glass, which oddly seemed to remind the woman of an event from her childhood, though she could not put her finger on from when. "Thank you very much. Mmmm, this....this lemonade is fantastic!"
     "Ya feel nice and cooled off now don't cha?" The shopkeeper replied with a smirk.
The woman quickly assessed - indeed she did feel much cooler. She nodded in response to his question.
     "Very much so; thank you. Is the lemonade a family recipe?" He adjusted a nearby doll to better fit in with its neighbors' scene of a tea party.
     "It was my lovely wife's best summer concoction," He smiled. "The summer she pased away she had perfect it so that kids from three blocks on all sides made the trek to take one, single, sip." The woman responded with a pleasant smile.
     "That's nice. Sort of a way to honor her; let her know how all the kids felt; how they appreciated her."
     "Definitely," he smiled. "My dear Willow was something, but definitely a person who is beyond words...and so I will not dishonor her," he finished with a pleasant pursing of his lips, and then bellowed. "What about yourself?! Come! Sit!" He guestered to a chair sitting in the north east corner of the store. There sat an arm chair, slightly weathered, but in no way worn. Against the other wall that met to make the corner sat another chair, similar in age. Inbetween, on a table sat one of several candles strewn about the store. She slowly took a seat and became aware that each one was deeply encased in long ago dried wax, and despite the small number of them, that the room seemed lit just enough so the detail in the store's toys was easily evident and yet not so much to cause the comfort of the store to be overlit.
     It was then; at that very moment. There were rag dolls on one shelf wall, another held both old and new fire trucks, another vintage G.I. Joes - only slightly faded - and in the middle of the store a table with only a handful of the most meticulously detailed wooden marionettes. They almost seemed alive due to the obvious care that had been taken when shaping them. Her heart rose inside her with a sense of warm and gentle nostolgia. This feeling grew when she noticed to the left of her a work table where the shopkeeper must have been working previous to her entrance in search of cool air. It was littered with unfinished marionettes, wooden trucks, little dolls with what seemed to be moveable limbs: completly constructed from wood. In fact, on every shelf and table that lined the store's walls, each toy had a wooden companion sitting next to it, sometimes in duplicate form while others were obvious artistic deviations - stunningly so.
    She slowly turned to the shopkeeper, her jaw slightly ajar. He sat down and his deep chuckle rumbled from the depths of his belly. "Just noticed that I carried toys, did ya? I'm pleased to see you don't think them atrocious." He paused and feigned shock and hurt. "Or is your jaw propped open a signal to me that I need to find a new profession?"
     "Oh! No! Not at all!" She quickly responded. "In all truth, I...love your toys. They are absolutely magnificent. They are....beyond words, so maybe I should not dishonor them."
     "Ha! Wahahaha!" He bellowed. "You're quick on the uptake. Heh heh, I like your way." He leaned in with his shoulder and smirked. "How about we make a deal you and I eh?" Her head cocked to the side in puzzlement. He answered in a slight hush. "You tell me a bit about yourself. No longer will we have to stay as strangers; and I in return, will make you any toy of your liking."
     "Oh! I...it would really be a pleasure to buy one of your gorgeous dolls, but I'm just not..." It was obvious she was struggling to force out the inevitable truth. "I'm what you'd call a ramen noodle kid, a lowly college student: just dump the rent, pricey textbooks and out of state tuition on my lap!" She expressed with a smile of slight annoyance and fatigue.
     The shopkeeper met her eyes with a soft, whole faced smile that quickly illuminated his eyes. "When a guest enters the home of anohter, does he ask payment for the hospitality he gladly offers? I definitely think not."
     She began in protest with widened eyes and a ginger touch on his arm. "How could I even begin to think of accepting a gift with that much worth?!" She searched for the right words to express her churning thoughts that had been effortlessly, yet madly attempting to digest the foregn world she had slipped into mere moments ago - it seemed as if almost a full relational repoitre had occurred though. "You make masterpieces here. Beauty surrounds here," she realized and expressed truthfully. "Love happens here."
     He took her hand with surprising softness considering his stature and led her to stand, and then to the store's entrance. "I know just the toy so be sure to check up on me soon, alright? Brownie's honor - or however they say that?"
     She chuckled slightly and responded with a pleasant expression. "I suppose so." It was from then he began work on the toy, and it was soon thereafter when night encompassed his work in the store for the day. His body left then to its well deserved rest, and what is left stayed behind.

Of Central Importance