The shop\u2019s door opened with a gentle \u201cding\u201d. A teenage girl walked in, looking around, getting used to the cluttered dark room. On shelves, all sorts of unusual items were put for sale: a wooden pigeon, an engraved locked box, a teddy bear; unsophisticated at first, each one contained a special purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe all-knowing glasses? Is it like Wikipedia?\u201d she stopped in front of round glasses in a golden frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNearly\u201d, the shopkeeper replied,\u201d but you can\u2019t have Wikipedia transmitted directly into your brain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The girl laughed. She kept walking until she found a shelf with sealed empty bottles. Just looking at them already felt unusual, like nostalgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u201cAh, that\u2019s the Memento bottles\u201d, the shopkeeper explained. \u201cOnce broken, it will let the moment last just a little longer for everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t that too pricey for \u201cjust a little\u201d?\u201d she asked. \u201cWhatever; what\u2019s the point of it, if you can\u2019t do anything fun?\u201d she looked down at her dirty old shoes: she couldn\u2019t afford not only that expensive bottle, but anything at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That day, she left without buying a thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She returned in a few months, the mischievous spark in her eyes, and asked for \u201cinvisibility.\u201d Yes, sure, old as the world and still in working order\u2014a black hood. That costed her all the savings she had as a kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple more years \u2013 \u201call-knowing glasses\u201d\u2019 time; apparently, Wikipedia couldn\u2019t keep up with the mark. The price was slightly too high, but the shopkeeper agreed to lower it for a few lovely rocks she brought from the family sea trip. She looked at the Memento bottles \u2013 before exiting the shop right after; no moments to prolong, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She returned in a year, a student already, and left with a pillow that could give her a full night\u2019s sleep in one hour. That costed her nearly all the month\u2019s budget, plus an old child\u2019s album with drawings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years, she was buying weightless leg plasters, headphones that can silence your own thoughts, and a watch that makes you move faster. Every visit, she looked busier. And better. Wore a well-made suit. Her old dad\u2019s car was replaced by, at first, her own; then upgraded to a sports car and later to a new electric vehicle with a personal driver. Still, every time, she glanced at the old Memento bottles on her way out\u2014just for a second\u2014before leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One day, she was in her sixties. She walked into the shop slowly, like it\u2019s the first and the last time at once. No car waiting outside, and her business outfit seemed slightly untidy. Her expensive purse didn\u2019t fit the medical folder she was carrying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She proceeded to the counter and put everything on it: her banking cards, and then all the rings and bracelets she had. It was finally the time. Or, to put it another way, there won\u2019t be any other time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m very sorry, miss\u201d, the shopkeeper said slowly, \u201cbut the Memento bottles are sold out\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The shop\u2019s door opened with a gentle \u201cding\u201d. A teenage girl walked in, looking around, getting used to the cluttered dark room. On shelves, all sorts of unusual items were put for sale: a wooden pigeon, an engraved locked box, a teddy bear; unsophisticated at first, each one contained a special purpose. \u201cThe all-knowing glasses? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1129,1327],"tags":[1354,114,1085,1351,7,145,1355,116,1349,902,14,1049,1353,690,1352],"class_list":["post-2121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1129","category-july-2024-for-sale","tag-bottles","tag-but","tag-girl","tag-glasses","tag-her","tag-just","tag-knowing","tag-like","tag-looking","tag-old","tag-she","tag-shop","tag-shopkeeper","tag-unusual","tag-wikipedia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-yd","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2122,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121\/revisions\/2122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}