There’s a shop in the nearby village which I swear might be magic.

It’s not a large shop, not much bigger than my living room, yet it is packed floor to ceiling with stock. The window display boasts everything from slippers to antique jewellery to thermal underwear to shovels, and the table and racks outside have a similar array of goods.

Yet what is magical about the shop is that, no matter what you go in and ask for, they seem to have one. Or several, in different colours or sizes. You can look around the whole shop and not find what you want but then the shopkeeper, her dark eyes shining, will say, ‘Can I help you find something?’

‘Yes, I’m looking for a…’

And she will smile, then turn and reach into a shelf or box or tiny cupboard, and produce just the item you’re looking for. Or, she will send her husband, bespectacled and cardigan-ed, to the ‘back room,’ where he will emerge a short while later, the item you want in hand. And this item can be anything from a specific type of button to drain unblocker, an umbrella or a length or ribbon. Incense or a frying pan or garden tools or a tiny silver charm, shaped like a dragon. I’ve not yet asked for car parts or an elephant, but I’ve no doubt that if I did, something would be produced.

I have visions of their back room being of warehouse proportions, yet I know there is nothing out of the ordinary at the back of this row of shops. And yet, each time I go in there, they have just what I need. Sometimes my daughter and I try to challenge them by asking for an unusual item, something we may have had trouble finding somewhere else.

And yet another cupboard or drawer is opened, and the item appears.

I don’t know about you, but it seems like magic to me 🙂