Daily Prompt: It was sunny when you left home, so you didn’t take an umbrella. An hour later, you’re caught in a torrential downpour. You run into the first store you can find — it happens to be a dark, slightly shabby antique store, full of old artifacts, books, and dust. The shop’s ancient proprietor walks out of the back room to greet you. Tell us what happens next!
“Typical weather,” the wrinkled man smiles at me, making him all the more wrinkly. I nod and smile and do that awkward sort of laugh you do when you can’t think of anything to say other than ‘I know’. He walks behind the dust-coated counter and begins sorting through some papers, letting me take a wander around the strange little shop. I shuffle behind a couple of cabinets, looking at everything from fragile painted teacups to fat stacks of yellowing photographs. I really wish the rain would die down a bit. I come to a little wooden table and stop to flick through the ageing books stacked on top of one another, their covers crimson and adorned with swirls of gold. Their pages are smooth beneath my fingertips and I stop when I come to a beautiful illustration in the middle of one of the books. A laughing girl with bright cheeks and bouncing pigtails is running through a blossoming meadow, her patterned umbrella swinging behind her as little drops of rain splash against her shoes. I brush my fingers over the drawing and laugh in astonishment as the ink girl springs to life, galloping across the page with all the energy of a feisty pony. I must be going mad. I turn to see the old man behind the counter grinning at me knowingly.
“You never know what you will find in this shop,” he chortles. I just stare rather rudely, but he continues anyway. “Why, the other week I think I may have stumbled upon Narnia.”
x
All Things Cute and Beautiful 
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