The Magic Shop of Creation

Gulp

Although he had planned to fall, they didn't fall.

They took that first step together and even though he didn't feel anything under his feet, they were walking.

He could see nothing and feel nothing. No wind is his face, no ground under his footfalls, no nothing in front of him, and he didn't dare bother to look behind him. Just the mention of spiders—even the mention of no spiders—was enough.

What had happened to the huge cotton candy and no dad in sight and mention of dentists and cavities?

At least he had her hand.

He looked over at her and hoped with all of his heart she hadn't turned into some ghastly ghoul in the meantime. But it was Penelope.

She was quite possibly the sweetest girl he had ever known. If this was what it was like to fall in love then there was some new competition to what was previously the reigning champion of feel-good: cotton candy.

Up ahead he could finally see something. He couldn't not mention it.

"Hey, I see something."

"Yes, that's where we're going."

As they approached, he could see more and more clearly what it was. At first, it seemed like a slow tornado or maybe a wall of floating or swirling things.

They kept walking.

Wide at the top and coming down to a point at the bottom, it was a cone or a vortex.

"Hey," Lu whispered. "It's like the shop, the Magic Shop of Creation." He looked over to his new best friend.

But she looked worried or had a look that said 'Yeah, it looks good and you think you're happy about it, but you're not going to like what happens next.' He couldn't have told anyone how he was able to read all of this in just a look from a girl he had known for such a short time.

He turned his face from looking at her and slowly brought it back around to the upside-down Christmas tree of floating lighted objects.

Then he realized why she looked worried.

He saw—and heard—this happen in movies, but he was pretty sure that he had never done it himself. As he looked ahead and up to what must have been a 50-story circling fortress of lights, he gulped. Complete with the whole difficult-to-go-down swallow and even the exaggerated sound effect of the bodily function.

He couldn't take his eyes off it and he finally understood why she said it would be scary.

He didn't let go of her hand.