Polly's Not So New

The sign read Polly's Not So New, which was intriguing in and of itself, and since that was the whole point of today's expedition into the world, Tink went in.  The explosion of visual weirdness she found in the little shop was almost too much. 

"Okay, wow", she whispered in appreciation.  "This is what I was looking for."  Tink looked right and left, up and down, and her eyes jumped from one unusual thing to the next.  "This place is amazing."

"Glad you like it." came a deep rich voice from behind a counter stacked high with objects de art and what have you.  At first Tink saw nothing, just the piles of interesting things.  "Yours is the reaction I enjoy when my things are seen for the first time".  The voice flowed around her, wrapping her in a soft vibration that sent tingles to her toes.

Eyes darting all around the counter area, Tink saw no one, until a bushy head popped up, followed by a face that seemed to be all lumps and crags.  She was startled, when the dwarf with the beautiful voice climbed up on to the counter, pushing things out of his way carefully to make room.  "Welcome young lady, what may I show you today?"

That voice was extraordinary, especially coming from the very short and stocky man.  "Oh hello, um, I'm just exploring actually." Tink gave a self conscious laugh and smile.

"Excellent, look around, enjoy.  Find anything you have a question about, let me know, I'll be back behind the counter somewhere.  Just call out, I'll hear you.  I'm Polly...short for Pollyandrus if you're wondering." 

"Thank you, nice to meet you." but he was gone already, having ducked back behind the counter and already rummaging through things by the sound of it.  Tink shook her head, still smiling.  What a strange little man, though certainly appropriate for this shop. 

She started wandering among the shelves and stacks eyeing everything.  Her eye caught on a camera tucked in between a telescope and a microscope on a top shelf.  It was a basic black but with a purple lens.  Tink liked purple, and had been looking for a digital camera so reached up and plucked it off the shelf without disturbing the other items.  Carrying her find back to the counter, she called out to the proprietor.  "Excuse me Polly?  I think I've found something I'd like, could you tell me how much?"

Polly appeared out of nowhere, and seemed to climb up on something until he was eye to eye with Tink.  "Certainly, young lady, let's see what you've got."  That perfect voice again, wrapping her in tingles.  "Ah, the Franklin Sover camera.  That is a very good choice. For you, only $15. What do you think?  Fair?"

Tink thought it was perfect, and made her purchase.  Polly smiled, thanked her for her purchase and waved her out the door.

Not waiting to start taking pictures, Tink looked for a likely subject and spotted a bus stop just down the street that was empty but had some interesting grafitti painted on the side, so she snapped a shot of it.  She continued snapping away taking pictures of a dog in the park that was busy sniffing the flowers, a playground empty of children but littered with papers, bottles and cans. An overturned trash can spewing items onto the sidewalk.  Birds sitting on a window ledge of an old building.  She kept snapping different pictures until she arrived home and entered her basement apartment. 

"Now, let's see what I have with my new camera and if there's anything worth keeping."  She plugged the camera into her computer and downloaded the memory file, opened her photo editor and waited for the images to load.

The first thing to open was a shot that looked similar to the bus stop she had taken, but this one was freshly painted, clean of graffiti and there were people sitting there looking at her.  Another looked like the park she had taken pictures in, but there was no dog sniffing flowers, but a little girl picking flowers.  There was a playground, but it was filled with laughing children, the equipment was clean and brightly painted, the mulch fresh, the trashcans upright and clean.  The one she thought she'd taken of birds sitting on the ledge of an old building had two women, chatting amiably from their windows next door to one another. 

These were not the pictures she thought she'd actually taken, but were what she had wished they were when she was taking them.  The graffiti covered bus stop was actually rather pretty in bright colors, and the people didn't look sad, they looked expectant and happy.  The playground was not the miserable place she had seen, but the vibrant place she had wanted to see.  When she'd seen the birds on the window ledges she had been imagining neighbors talking to one another like the women in the photo she was looking at now.  All of the pictures she had thought she'd taken were changed, they were filled with her hopes and dreams.  There were happy people and clean safe streets.  What was going on? 

Tink didn't know what to think, as she sat and looked at all the pictures again.  And then it dawned on her, She really did feel hope that things could change and become better.  These pictures were a reflection of her deepest desires for a whole new world, and her belief that change for the better can happen.  She didn't know why, but just knowing that her positive energy could change the tired, sad pictures she had been taking into these filled with hope, renewed her strength and faith in humanity. 

Of course, when Tink returned to the place where Polly's Not So New had been just hours before, it wasn't there.  That dwarf with the extraordinary voice and the shop full of wonders was gone.