The Nowhere Emporium

by Ross Mackenzie

  Ellie let her arms fall to her sides. “It’s always tomorrow. Or the day after that. Or next week. It’s always later. While you’re out and about with your new best friend,” she pointed to Daniel, “I’m stuck here every day. And you can’t even find five minutes to talk about my birthday! You don’t care about me. You never have.” She stormed towards the curtain and disappeared.

  A moment later, she poked her head back into the shop and added, “I hate you.”

  Then she was gone.

  Silver scrambled up, knocking over an inkwell on his desk. He went after Ellie, leaving ripples spreading through the velvet curtain, and black ink seeping across his desk.

  Daniel didn’t know what to do. He was more certain than ever that Ellie must hate him. And he could understand why. He had been brought to the Emporium to do what Ellie couldn’t: to learn about magic and Wonders and all the rest.

  He grabbed an old newspaper and began soaking up the spilled ink from Silver’s desk. As he worked, something caught his eye. One of the drawers in the desk was open a fraction. Daniel leaned to shut it, but a glint of light from within caused him to pause. Without knowing why, he opened the drawer. He felt a flutter in his chest.

  Inside the drawer was Mr Silver’s Book of Wonders.

  In all the commotion with Ellie, Mr Silver hadn’t locked the drawer.

  Daniel stared at the book. Anticipation began to build inside him. Ever since he’d written his first Wonder, something had been playing on his mind. It seemed to him that anything was possible, that there were no limits to what the stroke of a pen could achieve inside these walls. And if that was the case, if anything was possible, then why couldn’t he see his parents again?

  Mr Silver’s warning echoed in his mind: “If, by some tiny chance, you ever come across the book when you are alone, I must ask that you do not write a single word in its pages without me.”

  Daniel tried to turn away, to close the drawer and forget about it, but he could not shake the notion that had gripped him. His heart ached to hold the book, to write in its pages, to open a door and see his parents’ faces – faces that he could barely remember. He could almost feel their arms wrapping around him.

  And anyway, hadn’t he been creating Wonders of his own for days and days, all of them perfect? Surely it wouldn’t hurt to add another?

  A final glance at the curtain, and Daniel snatched the book from its place in the drawer. He rested it with great care on the desk, and turned to a blank page. He grabbed one of Mr Silver’s fountain pens. He dipped the pen in what was left of the puddle of ink, and lowered the shining nib to the page, hardly daring to wish or hope.

  The nib of the pen found the page, and he began to write.

  ***

  Ten minutes later, Daniel was sweeping through the Emporium towards his new Wonder. He hurried up a narrow staircase, turned a sharp corner into a passage with a low ceiling.

  For a moment, he forgot to breathe.

  The new door was just up ahead. But everything was very wrong. Something inside, something huge and angry, was banging and pounding on the door, straining to get out. Guttural screams filled the air as the door juddered and shook.

  And as terrible as all of this was, as confused and scared as it made Daniel, the worst thing of all was not the beast behind the door. No. The very worst thing was that Mr Silver stood by the new door, arms folded, thunder-grey eyes glaring down the corridor. In his hands, he held the Book of Wonders.

  “What did you do?” he asked. His voice was calm and low, which unsettled Daniel more than if he had yelled.

  The door rattled. A howl came from the creature beyond. In that moment Daniel wished to be anywhere else – even back on the streets of Glasgow, running from Spud and his gang.

  “I … I wanted to see my parents,” he said, amazed he could still speak. “Every day, they get a bit further away, a bit harder to remember. When I picture them, they’re sort of fuzzy round the edges. So I wrote a room where they’re still alive.”

  Silver’s shoulders seemed to sag a little. He looked old and hunched. And then he straightened up and was himself again. Something battered the door with the force of a train. Daniel jumped back.

  “Magic cannot bring back the dead, Daniel,” said Silver, and he began to flip through the book, stopping when he found the page on which this Wonder had been written. Another scream, and the corridor trembled. “There are certain borders that should not be crossed. The line between the living and the dead is one of them; if we mess with that, we create cracks that allow terrors beyond imagination to escape, nightmares that have been trapped for eternities.” He pointed to the door.

  “Will it get out?” said Daniel.

  “If it did, we would all be in trouble,” said Silver. He ripped the page from the book, and at once the bricks around the doorway began to shift, closing in around the door, sliding and swivelling into place until the doorway was buried beneath, the wall blank and clean. Then Silver held out his hand, and the page caught fire. Daniel watched it curl and blacken, and soon nothing remained but floating whispers of cinder.

  Silver wagged a finger at Daniel.

  “If you had told me you wished to see your parents,” he said, “I might have been able to create an image from your memories – an echo of what has passed. But they would not have been real. The dead are beyond the reach of magic. Do you understand?”

  Daniel nodded.

  “You have failed the second test,” said Silver, stowing the book away.

  “Test?” said Daniel. And then it came to him: Silver had left the drawer unlocked on purpose, giving Daniel access to the book. How could he have been so stupid, so easily tempted? He wished that he could go back and change things, that he had left the book in its drawer. Everything was ruined.

  “Are you going to sack me?” he asked quietly.

  Silence.

  Silver stared at Daniel, seemed to be staring through him.

  “What you did was dangerous,” he said. “What if I hadn’t been watching? What if a customer had come along and opened that door? Do you understand what you’ve done? Not only have you disobeyed me, you’ve used the book selfishly, and hurriedly.”

  Daniel felt small and ashamed. He felt like a thief.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, and to his surprise there were tears in his eyes. Real tears. He took a breath, and fought them back. “If you want to drop me back in Glasgow, I understand. It’s my own fault. I’m the one who ruined everything. But I promise you I’ve learned my lesson.”

  Silver let out a long, wheezing cough. He leaned against the wall until it stopped.

  “I will give you one final chance,” he said, and he held up a finger to silence Daniel’s thanks. “But you must be punished. You have a connection with the Book of Wonders. That much is obvious. I won’t break that connection. But I will not permit you to write a single word in its pages until I feel you are ready. If you put even one foot out of place, you will be gone.”

  Daniel wanted to jump up and down. Instead, he pushed his relief and delight back down inside.

  “Thanks, Mr Silver,” he said. “I promise I won’t let you down.”

  Silver raised an eyebrow, and the lines around his eyes seemed to deepen.

  “You had better not.”

  CHAPTER 14

  TRUCE

  Since his run-in with the mugger in Paris, Mr Silver had not been the same. Aside from putting a stop to any lessons (which Daniel missed greatly), Silver treated him well enough. Still, there was no denying that something was not right. His limp was showing no signs of improvement, and his general health seemed to be worsening each day. He looked older somehow, tired and fragile, and at times he would simply sit staring into space while cups of tea grew cold and customers came and went. His production of new Wonders had slowed to a halt. Daniel was worried about him, and about the Emporium.

  Silver moved the shop around a lot over the next few weeks, visiting Berlin in the 1930s, as Hitle
r was riding the crest of a dark wave; London during the coronation of Queen Victoria; and finally, the streets of Barcelona just months after the end of the Spanish Civil War. In each of these places and times, Silver would scour the backstreets for magical shops, searching for his elusive treasure. But he would always return empty-handed and angry.

  One morning in Barcelona, Daniel set out to fetch coal for the fire. Upon his return to the shop, he began to tidy in preparation for twilight. He listened to the ticking of the clocks as he worked, humming tunes and tapping on the tables and books.

  “You should be on stage with a voice like that.”

  Daniel, who had been polishing the eagle feet of Mr Silver’s desk, sprang up, catching the edge of the table with a thud.

  Ellie stood by the velvet curtain, arms folded. Daniel had not seen her since Paris. He knew that she didn’t like him – and why should he like her? She seemed pig-headed and infuriating. But he found her fascinating.

  “Where’ve you been?” he said.

  Ellie shrugged. “Around.”

  “I’ve been watching out for you,” said Daniel. “I’ve … well, I’ve been wanting to say something: sorry.”

  Ellie tilted her head a little. “Sorry?”

  “Aye,” said Daniel. “I mean … I can understand if you hate me. Some wee boy from Glasgow coming in here and getting a job. Working with your dad. But, Ellie, I don’t really have a clue what I’m doing! I’m sorry I didn’t know about you, about how you’re stuck in here. I’m just…”

  “Sorry?” said Ellie.

  Daniel nodded.

  “Daniel Holmes,” she said, unfolding her arms, “however it might seem sometimes, I promise you that none of this, none of my storming off and throwing strops and getting angry, is really about you. Well, not much of it anyway.”

  “It’s not?”

  “Nope. Look. Papa and me, we have … well, we don’t have a very smooth relationship. I love him to bits, really I do. But I get so angry with him sometimes. It always seems like I’m the least important thing on his list, even if I know that’s not really true. And you … well you were just another distraction.”

  “I didn’t mean to be,” said Daniel. “I didn’t ask to come here.”

  “I know,” said Ellie. “I know. That’s the point, I guess. Neither of us asked to come here. But here we are.”

  “Is it really true you can’t leave?” said Daniel.

  Ellie ran her fingers over the point of her chin. “Yes.”

  “And the customers can’t see you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Is it, like, a magic disease or something?”

  Ellie laughed. “It’s complicated.”

  “Well, I can see you,” said Daniel. “You’ve got someone else to talk to. I mean. If you want.”

  Ellie stared at him, the corners of her mouth forming the tiniest smile. “You want to see something cool?”

  ***

  Twilight came and went, and the Emporium opened its gates to the public.

  “What are we doing?” whispered Daniel. They had followed a customer, a man in a flat cap, through the Emporium, keeping out of sight, watching him enter several Wonders. Along the way, they passed Caleb and Anja, who tagged along, quite delighted to be a part of whatever was going on.

  “You’ll see,” said Ellie. They reached a quiet passageway where the customer in question entered another Wonder. “This’ll do,” said Ellie. To Daniel she said, “You. Stay.” Then to Caleb and Anja, “You know what to do.”

  Daniel ducked behind a coat of armour just as the man reappeared. He watched Ellie walk towards him.

  She’s going to bang into him! Daniel thought.

  But Ellie did not bump into him. She walked straight through him, like she was made of mist. The customer shivered, rubbed his hands together. He glanced around the dim corridor.

  “Is … someone there?” he said in a quiet voice.

  Nobody answered.

  Ellie ran a little way down the corridor, to where another suit of armour was standing, and she began to push the armour along the ground towards the customer. When he heard the shrieking, scraping noise of the armour on the floor, the man jumped, and turned just in time to see the suit of armour emerging from the shadows. He screamed, twisted round, and ran right into Anja, who stood tall, every inch of her covered in undulating, glistening snakes. The man shrieked, and spun again, just as Caleb lit his torch and blew hard on the flame, making the tongues lick and curl into the shape of a monster. In his panic, the man ran into a wall and then went sprinting away, back towards the hall of stairways.

  Ellie was laughing so hard she was bent double.

  “Did you see his face?” said Caleb, tears of laughter streaming down his cheeks. He mimicked the poor customer. “That was one of the best in ages!”

  The laughter was catching, and Daniel was soon slumped on the floor beside the other three.

  “This is how you pass the time?” he said. “Isn’t it a wee bit mean?”

  “Oh, I don’t do it often,” she said. “But it usually works if I need cheering up.” She wiped her eyes. “Customers don’t remember anything after they leave the shop, do they? So it’s perfectly harmless to scare them half to death!” Her brain seemed to switch gears. “Hey, we’re having a ball for my birthday soon. You’ll be invited.”

  Daniel, who had never been invited to a party in his life, opened his mouth to accept, but Ellie was talking again…

  “Papa throws the best balls for my birthday. I think it’s his way of making up for the fact he’s so completely obsessed with the Emporium for the rest of the year. All of the staff will be there.” She nodded to Caleb and Anja. “Won’t you?”

  “Of course!” said Caleb. “Have we ever missed a ball?” He clapped his hands together. “Oh, I love mixing with people from the real world.” He stopped short, remembering that Ellie would be nothing but a ghost to many of her own birthday guests.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s nice to have so many people there just for me. They can’t see me, of course, but I enjoy watching them, listening to how they talk, hearing their stories from out there.”

  “Where has everyone gone today?” said Daniel. They had been walking back through the Emporium as they talked. There was no sign of customers or staff. The place had fallen silent. “It’s too early for closing time.”

  “Something’s up,” said Ellie.

  They said goodbye to Caleb and Anja and rushed down staircase after staircase, seeing no one, until they were on the ground floor, through the red curtain to the shop front.

  The CLOSED sign had been hung on the door. Mr Silver, limping and wheezing, was busying himself at the strange instrument on the wall. He was twisting dials as if his life depended on it, an expression of panic on his handsome face.

  Ellie leaned close to Daniel and whispered, “He’s lost his marbles. It’s finally happened.”

  Daniel squinted at Mr Silver, who was now tossing handfuls of coal haphazardly at the fire.

  “We’re leaving?”

  “Very perceptive of you.”

  “Why so sudden? What’s happened?”

  “I’ve decided I don’t like Barcelona.”

  Daniel glanced at Ellie, who gave him her best ‘I told you so’ look.

  The fire roared. The flames turned red.

  “I’m supposed to be your assistant,” he said. “If something’s wrong, maybe I can help?”

  Silver stopped. He turned and fixed Daniel with wild grey eyes.

  “Nobody can help.”

  Daniel didn’t get the chance to ask another question. The fire exploded in a cloud of soot. By the time the dust had settled, Mr Silver had disappeared through the curtain.

  CHAPTER 15

  BIZARRE’S BAZAAR

  The Nowhere Emporium arrived in New York on 30th October 1929.

  “It has a magic all of its own, this city,” said Mr Silver, staring through the sepia tinted window from behin
d his desk. “The buildings – skyscrapers they call them – are growing taller by the day, it seems. It is as if they are racing to touch the sky. There is no place like it.”

  Daniel turned from the impressive view and watched Mr Silver, who was half hidden behind a pile of black envelopes, scribbling on small black cards. A silver magpie sat on each shoulder.

  “What are those for?” asked Daniel, scrubbing a layer of soot from the mirrors and clocks.

  “Invitations,” said Silver. He did not elaborate.

  ***

  “It’s for my birthday ball,” Ellie told him later. “It’s tomorrow.”

  Daniel and Ellie had begun to meet most days before the Emporium opened to the public. Ellie, for all of her fierce bravado, was also caring and loyal, and Daniel had seen flashes of the person she hid behind her armour. It was also useful to be in Ellie’s company; he was still banned from writing in the book, and Mr Silver seemed too distracted to teach him much. Ellie was the next best thing – a guide who knew every corner of the Emporium.

  Daniel supposed that loneliness was binding them together. He was an orphan after all, and Ellie was motherless and always chasing the attention of her father. So here they were, two lonely children sharing in the biggest, most incredible secret there ever was.

  A smile spread across Ellie’s face. “When Papa’s finished the invitations, you can help me send them out. It’ll be fun!”

  “Fine,” said Daniel, unable to fathom why anyone would get so excited about posting some letters. His mind turned to Mr Silver. “Ellie, have you noticed anything strange about your dad recently?”

  “He’s always strange,” said Ellie.

  “I mean a different sort of strange. Not in a good way. He spends most of his time alone, either locked up in his apartments or out looking for some secret object. I think he might be ill. He’s been limping and coughing and all sorts.”

  Ellie considered this for about four seconds.

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” she said with a shrug.