The Antique Shop
He got to the library at the soonest opportunity and tried to remember the last time he was there. He remembered he went there along with Courtney, one of his female classmates and a good friend to do some research for their coursework from the previous school year before the summer holiday.
He didn't know what to look for and where he could find what he was looking for so he looked around each section.
He tried looking at the paranormal and mysteries section but he saw none there referring to a wand. The only other option he could think of was the internet. Thankfully, he brought his library card with him and googled magic wand but he could not find anything which relates to its use, just some fictional stories and movie clips of dressed up men causing a rabbit to pop out of a hat with the wave of a wand.
He took a deep breath and realised that he didn't get anywhere in his endeavour. "Think!" he breathed. He realised that his very last resort could be in an antique book shop so instead of googling information about wand he typed antique book shops in the search box and he looked for the nearest one in his town.
He came across a site that lists all the antique shops but the one nearest to him was called McIntire Antique Book Shops. It also sold many things, old collectibles, records, coins, etc. He realised that that was his best bet, to find the oldest book he could find that mentions anything about magic.
He looked at the time and saw that it's nearing 5pm, he needed to go back home before Vera does, he planned on going there in the next couple of days.
He got home just in time quite exhausted, his nana was not home yet so he looked for things that he could tidy up before she arrives.
He got upstairs after that and washed his hands and his face and fell straight in his bed.
Three days had passed and he organised his trip to the antique shop, he got up at 10am in the morning and readied himself. Before he left, he made sure that their home was secure.
The day turned out to be friendly, it was sunny but it was not too hot. He didn't need to wear anything heavy. He decided to take a bus to get to the train station. The antique shop was about 20 miles away from his town and to get there, he would need to walk for another 10 minutes from the station.
He got off the train and looked at the GPS map off his mobile for directions, the shop was located near the town's high street. He walked there without rushing and saw what he was looking for to his delight. He went inside and saw that the shop was well decorated and lit although it had an unpleasant smell of old wood and leather and among other things he couldn't quite fathom. "What do you expect, it's an antique shop after all?" He said to himself. He also realised they must be a collective smell of old things that had been in and out of this store.
He saw many interesting things, from coins that date back to hundreds of years ago, old toys, tea pots and spoons all meticulously organised inside glass cabinets. The store had a first floor where they stack all the books and the reason he was there. He made his way to the stairs and walked up with a bit of effort as the gaps between steps were a bit wide. He reached the floor breathing rather heavily trying to catch his breath.
He saw that the first floor had 20 wooden shelves for books arranged into 10 in two sections. He looked around and saw many sections from archaeology, old history and encyclopaedia books and so on. He looked for the section that said Supernatural, Mysteries and Paranormal. He browsed that section and saw old books about numerology and astrology and he saw one book there titled Encyclopaedia of Magic A-Z; the old book had a beautiful ornamental design on its dark and sturdy cardboard cover. He could tell that the book had not been opened in a very long time as it was covered by a thick layer of dust.
He searched for a table and a chair and fortunately, the shop had placed two tables by the aisle and four chairs. He sat there and made himself comfortable. He opened hardback and saw the preface, it did say anything about the publisher, author or when it was printed but his guess was it must be several hundred years old. The paper pages had all turned brown and slightly disintegrating on the side. He quickly went straight through the business and went to the "W" section of the encyclopaedia. He made sure to tread through the pages carefully as to avoid any further damage. The word wand was the first on the list to his relief and delight. It defined the word as.
"A magical tool discovered in the ancient times by ancient wizards. It enhances a wizard or witches conjuring abilities of magical spells and charms by means of channelling natural energies into a wooden stick made out of a tree that grows solely from Mt Albion. Over time it became the norm for all wizards that they all possess one. Over time the wands were decorated and came out with varying sizes and designs according to one's taste or to indicate stature, authority and level of skill and power."
The definition that he found had struck him so much and he never found such information from his previous research but the one information that really caught his attention was the channelling of natural energies in a wooden stick. He made the connection from the incident when he tried to use the wand that he was somewhat able to perform magic and when his drawers and cupboard opened on their own. He must have channelled some energy on the wand although unaware how he managed to do so or whether the wand had some kind of energy left still that he had managed to tap or it had some other mysterious abilities he's not aware of. Those are the only explanations he could come up with.
He wanted to bring the book with him and unfortunately, the book was not a library book therefore he can never borrow it but purchase it. The book did not have a price tag or label and he hoped that he could afford it so he went to the till to enquire. To his surprise, the lady who was on the till gave him a price of £20.00 for the book and fortunately he had enough money to pay for the book and for the fare back home.
He decided to read the book in its entirety that it might have more useful and intriguing information about the secret world he never imagined could even exist.
He got home straight after that although the journey back felt like a long time. The house was exactly as he left it and he felt a little knackered that he wanted to lay down in his bed to rest for a bit. He fell asleep without noticing it, and in his slumber he had an unusual dream, he dreamt he was inside a big hall of four white walls and a glistening white marble floor. He was holding the wand he found and he was right at the centre of that hall and he was hearing voices around him that must be coming from hundred or even thousands of people though he could not see any until he had a better look at the walls, he saw faces on the walls that seemed to be cheering him or booing him, he could hardly work out the expressions of the faces if they had any at all. The walls' white colour made it vague for him to see clearly perhaps. In a short moment, the cheering got louder and he heard footsteps that seem to come from behind him, as he turned around, he saw three more people that seemed to be approaching him, and he could hardly see the faces as they were quite blurred, too. He wondered what they were, if they were enemies or allies but as soon as one of them wanted to utter something he suddenly woke up and he instantly realised that he had lost the dream that trying to close his eyes to try and sleep will not bring him back to that same spot again.
He straightened himself in his bed and looked at the clock, it was nearly 5pm, and he must have slept for nearly three hours. He felt a little thirsty so he decided to get up to rush down to the kitchen and fetch himself a glass of water from the tap. He drank and finished the glass in one go and he felt relieved and more awake. He began to recap the dream he just had, he wondered what it meant and who those three people could be, he pondered in fascination.
He went straight to his room after that and looked for the wand he kept in his drawer he held in his right hand looking at it closely. He thought about his dream and concluded this wand may have something to do with it. He grabbed the old book he just purchased from the antique shop he left on top of his desk. He had a good look at it, too. He felt that it needed a bit of cleaning so he grabbed a cleansing wipe and gave it a good cleaning. When he was satisfied, he got back to the page to read the definition of a wand once again.
He wanted to test it, so he grabbed the wand and pointed on an empty wall just in case. He concentrated or perhaps pretended that he was channelling something onto the wand but he sensed nothing that would indicate he could perform any sort of magic.
He realised that there must be something he wanted to accomplish, intent perhaps and he thought of trying to make something move or levitate...
