the name shop

A crowd of bewildered locals gathered outside the new shop in the high street. No one could see the name or inside the windows because, like all the other shops in the village, had been completely frozen over by the sudden snow that seemed to have come with this new building. There was a ripple of excitement and questions as a gush of warm air washed over the crowd.

"Why is there a new shop? We need no more. There is a fishmongers and a butchers and bakery and a green grocers and a tea room and a clothes shop." A older woman mumbled angrily to her husband.
"Maybe one is closing, the bakery perhaps, and we need a new one." A man responded.
"Maybe it is a nursery or a childcare house." A tired looking woman gasped wistfully with three young children running round her feet.
"Could it be dinner place, a restaurant maybe, for people to eat and dine?" A young man looked over at a girl in the crowd grinning. She glared and scornful turn of her head.

A mother carrying a new born baby girl, still pink and small, wrapped in soft fleece. She stood at the back, her head bent. The ideas of the crowd where still being voiced.

"Maybe if we looked at the name of the shop, it would perhaps, if it not cryptic, could help us figure out the service of this building." One gentlemen spoke from the back. There was a ripple of murmurs agreeing with him. "Someone who is closer to the front then I, go and read the name out to this curious crowd so our curiosity maybe satisfied." The gentleman pointed to a boy at the front who was appropriately dressed with a thick coat on. "You there, boy, you look of a reasonable education, one who can read, please read the shops name to us."

The boy, realising this was his time to impress, took a gulp of air and then sighed before declaring.
"If only sir, but the ice caused by the nights blizzard has frosted over the sign. It is illegible through it."

Several people had a go reading it with no success. Now as the crowd became more stirred, the mother and the new born baby made her way to the front, sliding though a sea of angry failing arms. She got to the front and bent her head lower.

As soon as the mother stopped at the front of the crowd, a tiny bit of the ice thawed leaving a small circular window no bigger than a bottle lid. A air of excitement ran through the crowd as they all pushed to look through, but they seemed to be going nowhere, which allowed the mother to peer through undisturbed.

The interior, from what the woman could see, was green and grey. They weren't harsh tones of these colours but pleasant shades. Also in the shop was a girl, about 15, with the brightest red hair you can imagine. It was a neon scarlet mane of corkscrew curls that tumbled down her shoulders and finished at her waist. She was wearing in a beige dress with embroidered lavender sprigs elegantly placed on the dress. Also tied to her waist was a crisp white apron with lace edging. She was a beautiful girl.

The crowd then pushed in front of the mother and peered in. Some tutted and left saying "Redhead! Child of Satan" but others remained rooted by deepening curiosity.

Once the crowd had thinned a bit, the circular shape of thawed ice grew bigger and the crowd could see into the shop a bit more. The locals could see the roaring fire, not of the usual oranges and yellows, but the flames where pink and blue. The girl was putting ivory coloured enamel tiles, like that of a scrable boards, with strange black markings on them into a wooden box, not big enough to be of much use but big enough to store odds and ends.

The rest of crowd took one look at the fire and shouted "witchcraft!" And ran away, taking children, animals even husband's and wives along with them.

After this uproar, there was only 3 women left, each one a mother to a fatherless child. The first mother, the one the ice thawed for, was the only mother out of the 3 with a daughter. The women exchanged looks.
"Do you know why we are here, for I know not?" One woman asked while she looked concerningly at her rasin-like baby boy with a scrawny face. "My son takes badly to icy weather."
"No, do you why we are hear, for I know not? I have been attracted here on a unexplainable idea it can provide me some assistance." The next mother, who was plump and rosie-cheeked but not a healthy woman. Her baby was large and almost bursting out of his blanket. "You fellow mother, how are you feeling about this place?"

The mother looked down at her baby and took a deep breath. "My daughter is left with no father, no man to protect her. I have no money left after I came here, humiliated in my home town after my pregnancy befell me. I remember this shop, though no one else can. My daughter's only hope is here, I feel it sisters." The mother looked up, her blue eyes shiny with water and tears spilled over as she blinked.

The other women, taken back, returned to waiting in silence. Suddenly, and for the first time, the girl in the shop lifted her head and looked straight out at the women. They gasped. The girl had startling eyes. They were mostly green, but burgundy, starry silver and royal blue marbled over patches. The girl and her magical eyes stared directly at the mothers before she got up and walked to the door. Before it was open, the ice on the shop thawed completely, melting to nothing. The gold lettering that spelled out the shop name was now visible. The Name Shop.

The girl opened the door. Each mother tensed, ready to run if they weren't supposed to be there. The girl smiled warmly at them.
"Ahh dear women. Come and warm yourselves and your babies. It's not doing them any good standing out in the cold," the girl laughed and beckoned them in.

The women where now inside and, after downing a cup of herbal tea each, the tea tasting exotic and yet homely, the girl introduced herself.
"My name is Meredith And you are," she listed the names of the mothers in order of how they were sitting. Shocked, the mothers nodded. "And you are Mrs Alice Maze." Meredith told her.
" Yes. " Mrs Maze said, biting into a pink wafer.
"Now all of your beloved children are three days old, fatherless and nameless, is this right, ladies?" Meredith asked and they nodded again. "Well, dear ones, I presume you feel outcast?" She questioned. The women where do shocked that this girl could label there personal details and feelings so exactly, better then they could themselves and yet they have never met her.

Suddenly, a older man with greying hair and a knowing moustache appeared from the back of the shop.
"Ahh three lovely ladies, I am sure dearest daughter? With fine babies ready for the process?" He chuckled.
"Yes father. Ready to go." Meredith responded

Gesturing to the first women who had a large muscular new born followed him through and a few minutes later walked back into the shop front smiling and took the papers Meredith had in her hand and walked out of the shop. The next women did the same with her scrawny little thing but Mrs Maze sat, mesmerized by the rainbow fire.

Then it was her turn. Alice Maze walked to the back of shop and into a huge room stacked with shelves from ceiling to floor, each containing about 200 boxes on each shelve.

"May I?" The old man said and took the baby girl from the mother and lay her in a table and removed her blanket to find her in a sugar pink robe. Smiling, the man called some number to his daughter and she passed him a box.

He opened it and lay out, tile by tile, letter by letter, a name.

Olivia Maze.

"Oh it's perfect! But how?" Miss Maze exclaimed.
"A magician never reveals his secrets. Now take your daughter, Olivia and keep her safe. May you be blessed." The man said.

As she left, Meredith passed her some papers which Alice Maze signed and then walked away, whispering her baby's name. Then she stopped. "I won't ever forget you."
Meredith laughed, "Oh that's rare, we won't forget you Miss Alice."
With a grin of ambition and optimism, Miss Alice set out of shop.

Maybe if she turned around, she would have noticed the shop fade away, disappear, to nothing and maybe she would have seen the girl sigh from the window and the rainbow fire burn brightly until it flickered to a candle clam and then die away.