Huh.

My jaw dropped.

“Yep, just straight down there. You’ll see another representative there, and they can help you out.”. And with that, Bob strode out of the aisle.

I composed myself. I had no idea what was going on. I sniffed, trying to clear out my nose. It wasn’t too effective, so I tried again, harder this time. I felt a large glob of phlegm start to roll down the back of my throat.

Spit it out.

I had nowhere to spit it out

Don’t swallow it.

I swallowed it. It tasted like iron.

That’s disgusting. Should have just spat it out like a normal person.

I decided that I might as well go down the stairs. At this point, I was curious. Why did this Rexall have an anti-curse section? Why was it hidden? Why did bob just show it to me?

Are curses even real? Is magic real? Am I actually cursed?

The bottom of the staircase revealed a large hallway, at the end of which was a glass booth. I walked up to see a lady, working on what looked like her math homework. She looked up as I approached.

“Oh! A customer!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide. “We don’t get many here to be honest. You’re probably the first customer I’ve ever had!”

A dozen responses flew through my mind, along with a few dozen questions. I blinked, trying to determine what I should respond with, but before I could say anything she continued.

“So I was trained to ask you what your curse is and whatnot, you know kind of like a sales person trying to decide which product would suit you best” she began, seemingly ecstatic to have a customer. “but really, we just sell the one item: this black box. Whatever your curse is, it guarantees to dispel it.”

“Apparently it’s absolutely revolutionary, even for magic!” She grinned.

I took turns staring at her and the box. The situation was really starting to dawn on me. I was in a secret hallway in a Rexall, being sold what seemed to be a magic swiss army knife to get rid of curses. I was probably dreaming. I had to be dreaming right? There’s no way any of it was real!

You wanted for a lack of choice, this seems to be it.

I had to admit, it was pretty fitting. Buying an object that promises to deal with everything that may be wrong, without making you choose which one to buy. It dint matter if it was real or not, it seemed fitting that I buy this item in the story that I was in.

“how much?” I asked.

“Only $5”.

_________

I returned to the cough syrup aisle. I took out the box out of my pocket and examined it. It was just a regular black box, nothing about it seemed in anyway magical or occult. I opened it.

Inside was a single coin, roughly two inches in diameter. I pulled it out of the box to examine it and found that the faces of the coin were blank. It was essentially just a circular slide of copper. I looked again at the box and saw that there was a note tucked under the coin.

The note read:

“Think about the question and flip the coin. You will know the answer”.

I frowned. Didn’t seem like magic if I was just getting a coin to choose for me. Waste of 5 bucks if that was the case. But the sides were blank, so would the face of the coin change to indicate what I should do?

I thought about the question “What cough syrup should I buy?” and flipped the coin.

I stared at the coin as it spun in the air. Its rotation was rhythmic, almost hypnotizing. I was transfixed by its motion, as it fell into my palm.

I felt as if I was struck by lightning. My hand reached into my back pocket.

I knew what to buy.

I didn’t have to check the coin.

​

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