Albert Inkling and the Magic Shop of Wonders (I can't believe you've read this far... but we still have pictures!!) |
| The boy SNAPPED HIS FINGERS and a searing pain almost immediately shot through Albert�s right hand and up his arm. Reacting in the same amount of time, Albert leapt to his feet and began tearing around the shop, knocking over and breaking several items as he did this.
�Would you just� Wait� Look what you� If you�d just hold still a minute�� the boy said, unable to finish any sentence as he watched Albert run and thrash in agony. Finally, he was able to complete a whole sentence: �Listen,� he said. �If you want your fingers back at some point in the near future, I suggest you stay still long enough for me to complete the spell!� Upon hearing this, Albert ceased to run and thrash, replacing these actions with motionlessness and blank staring. There was not a single concept in the sentence the boy had uttered that made a lick of sense to him whatsoever. With all the stealth of a hunter, Albert raised his throbbing hand in front of his face to test the boy�s statement. Luckily, the rubber band was no longer holding the fingers on his right hand together, but that was only because there were no fingers to hold together! The rubber band itself was nowhere to be found, but Albert was more concerned with his fingers that were in that very same predicament. Upon deep and serious thought, Albert decided to reenact his previous hysterical behavior. While doing this, though, he failed to notice a third person walk through the door. �That goodness you�re here, Greg!� the first boy said, his eyes immediately filling with hope at the sight of his brother. �Help me get this customer under control before he wrecks the entire store!� Albert, overhearing the boy say this, knew he was talking about him, but Albert didn�t care. The way he saw it, when a person loses half of his fingers in a split second with no particular explanation, then he or she has the God-given right to completely and utterly flip out! Unfortunately, Greg did not see it that way. He dropped the paper bag he was carrying in his arms, raised both palms in Albert�s ever-changing direction, and spoke in a booming voice the word �UMBRELLA!� Just like that, in an explosion of wind, sound, and light, Albert was sent hurtling across the room into the mirror that he had been experimenting with earlier, finally coming to a crash on top of the table holding paper and a pen. The table died. �Well, I guess that�s one way to get a customer under control,� the boy said, mostly to himself. The mirror shattered, causing it to incorrectly reflect Albert several times. It was okay, however, as the reflections did not plan on hanging around for long. The six differently sized, smaller Alberts crawled out of the enchanted mirror via the newly formed cracks, all shouting, �we�re free!� With that, they ran out the front door of the shop and immediately vaporized. �Reflections,� the boy said to his brother, Greg. �Never could handle SUNLIGHT without the protection of their mirror.� Greg simply nodded in response. Meanwhile, as consciousness began to slip from Albert�s mind due to the particularly harsh slam he had taken, one last thought crossed his mind: �I only needed to use the RESTROOM,� Albert thought. Then, reality was nothing but another word to him with no meaning connected to it whatsoever. THE END << Previous |