Chương 27: Episode Two Hundred and Seventy-One: IT Support

"Let's check the laptop and see if I can get it working," I said, as I clutched the flower in my hand. I didn't want to let it go. Indigo zoomed ahead of me, flying through the opening without a problem. She aimed down for the kitchen. Noises echoed down the hallway, and I hurried to catch up to her. Henry sat in front of the laptop with a confused look on his face, as he carefully hit a button.

"It's letting me add things to the cart… Why is it a cart?" he mumbled, staring way too close at the screen.

"Remind me to give you a few books on technology and the internet," I said, as I walked closer. His head jerked up and he nodded.

"I want to understand how this works…"

"Wait, you added it to the cart?" Indigo landed on the counter next to him, and Henry quickly backed away. She stared at the screen and made a deep sigh before looking at me.

"It works now…" I chuckled.

"That happens sometimes with technology." Thankfully, it was working. I had no clue how the wifi worked in the magical shop, and it could stay that way forever as far as I was concerned.

"So, can I buy the food scale?" Both Henry and Indigo turned to me.

"Sure, just the food scale," I said.

"What about cooking items," added Henry.

"There are a few things we don't have…" Indigo eyed him out of the corner of her eye, then glanced at me.

"Don't spend over $100, okay?" This time I looked at her, waiting for a response. Indigo nodded frantically, as her tail whipped about behind her.

"I can do that. We can do that…" she trailed off. Henry glanced at her, then the laptop.

"How do we give it the money?" Indigo's eyes went wide.

"I can explain. Sable had to show me how it all worked. But we need to make sure this number doesn't go over $100." I stepped slowly out of the kitchen, and let her teach him for once. Hopefully, we had a few books on how the internet worked on my world. It wouldn't explain it working here but it'd give him some background. Behind the front counter, I paused. A vase rose from the wooden top, and I carefully placed the barely-open sunflower inside.

Just a sliver of bright yellow peeked out of the tight bud, with a hint of purple. I pulled my stool closer to the counter, along with the tablet from the register. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. My notes appeared, along with a pen, and my drink from upstairs. Chocolate would help with this. Paperwork wasn't my favorite thing to do, but it was worth it to help Betty. I read through my notes, then opened the messages.

Before I typed anything out, I worked on drafting a message in my notebook about how the shop would be at the Bazaar, and to bring this item if they still had it. The first message was way too long, and the next a little short. It took longer than I liked, but by the time I finished my drink I had something written that I felt good about. After a deep breath, I sent it off to the oldest message, one with an item that my abilities said we needed. Bit-by-bit, I worked my way through the list.

Thankfully, nothing yelled at me that I was spamming people, since sending duplicate emails like this normally could trigger a spam filter. Instead, it appeared they all went through. A bing made me jerk while drafting one of the messages. It took a few seconds of tapping around, but I found the message. Someone had responded to my follow up.

"I look forward to doing business with you," I read out loud, and frowned.

"Hopefully, we can come to an agreement for a longer-term mutually beneficial relationship." A sigh escaped before I could stop it. Then I rubbed my eyes.

"Why does that totally sound like business speak? I don't want business speak…" I trailed off. It was one of the reasons I had drafted a few versions of my message to begin with. Yes, I went to school for business, but I ran the most amazing magical shop. I didn't need business speak. I rested my head in my hands for a moment, then stood.

"More coffee. The answer to this is more coffee." First, I closed the message, but made note of the name. Sterling Drake. Another bing sounded, but I ignored it as I ground the espresso beans.

"I need caffeine before I read any more of these," I said to Betty. It didn't take long for a refill of my iced mocha to be complete. This time, I added whipped cream on top. Sometimes, one just needed reinforcement of the sugary kind. This message was from someone else. Garrett Cinder: Unfortunately, I have already sold the item, but I will have plenty of wares available to bring. Now that was a much better message. Less business speak, and more casual.

I snagged my notes and flipped through them, searching for the item. It hadn't been a high priority one. More something I hoped to feed to Betty, to help her energy issues. Two tight pulses rose from the counter, along with a flash of voices in the shop.

"People in the shop, wait…" I said, thinking about the voice.

"Do you want to open the shop?" Warmth blazed under my notes.

"Yes!" Figuring out communication with Betty sat close to the top of my list.

"Yeah, we can open. More book shoppers?" I asked, looking around. The layout remained the same as before, lots of bookshelves. The door unlocked, but nothing changed, so I went back to copying and pasting my message. There was still at least half of my list to work through. After a while, the door swung open, and a light jingle caused my head to snap up.

"Welcome to the shop…" My voice trailed off as I jumped to my feet and hurried around the counter as tears rolled down Molly's face.

"Molly, what's wrong?" I asked, as I knelt next to her. She crumpled in my arms, sobbing. Her jacket was opened in the front, and a puddle gathered around her boots. I couldn't help but pull her into a tight hug, patting her back.

"Oh, honey…" More tears followed, soaking into my shirt, but I didn't let go as she trembled. Her crying continued for a while, then halted, letting two words slip free.

"Daddy's sick…"