"Can you believe some of this stuff?" Karyn said. "What's this? Magic pencils? Magic 8 Ball? They don't look like anything special and they have really dumb names. See any good costumes, Jon?"
"Not really, Karyn," Jon said. "I mean, there's some interesting outfits here, but I'm not sure I'd call them 'costumes', and even at 50% off, some of these prices seem a bit steep."
A short while later, the old man reappeared from behind the curtain. "See anything you like?" he asked.
"Not really," answered Karyn. "I don't get all that magic this, magic that stuff, though."
"Oh," replied the old man. "The kids love it. Though I had one of them ask me why he needed to pay me if I could do real magic. Why didn't I just conjure up some money? Smart kid."
"What did you tell him?" asked Karyn.
"Oh, that I sold magic because I liked people to have it and the money was just a cover story. Then he said he knew it was a story already, and he wanted everything for 25 cents. He also told me he'd pay a whole stack of Pokemon cards for a magic rock."
"A magic rock?" wondered Karyn.
"Yeah, there are rumors among the kids, that there's a real magic rock floating around. They say it will return to its true owner someday, but only when he becomes worthy."
"A magic rock?" said Jon. "I... You know it's strange but a couple of months ago I had a dream about something like that. I can hardly remember it...."
