Have you ever heard of Ms. Sullivan’s strange shop? I have and the stories that follow are the strangest, most curiously bizarre tales I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. On the outside the store is as unpeculiar as can be, but that façade doesn’t fool me. I know what secrets lie within those very walls. I know about the magic that goes on there. And I know that Ms. Sullivan is the kindest, weirdest, most wonderful person imaginable.

By now you have probably formed some scepticism about this shop. “No shop can be that great!” you might say. You remind me of myself, I too was a disbeliever. When I heard Tiny Tim’s tale of how he bought courage and now never feared a single thing; not even death! True, Tiny Tim was one of the biggest cowards I had ever known and true, after that day he was able to look death straight in the eyes without flinching. I still refused to believe this nonsense.

Then there was Silly Sally’s story about buying wit. Silly Sally hadn’t always been called ‘silly’- we used to call her Serious Sally. Every day she would bore us with dull stories about bugs and we would despise her for it. So she decided to pay Ms. Sullivan a visit. “Ms. Sullivan I need something that will make people interested in what I say!” she pleaded.

Ms. Sullivan smiled down at her, with her warm and loving smile, and grabbed a round, pink phial that sizzled when you touched it.

“Drink this,” she told the young girl, “and the whole world will want to hear your stories!”

Sally did as she was told and suddenly everyone enjoyed her bug stories! I must admit, they are extraordinarily entertaining. This story, however, was still not evidence enough for me to believe in the magical wonders of Ms. Sullivan’s strange shop.

It was eventually Airy Anna’s Anecdote that did the trick. Her story was, in my opinion the most amazing of all. Airy Anna always planned things. She could not even have a proper conversation without planning what she would say next. When she started planning all her steps as she walked, she decided she had had enough and went to Ms. Sullivan’s strange shop to buy a phial of ‘breezy potion’.

“I must warn you,” said Ms. Sullivan sternly. “Do not under any circumstances drink the entire potion! One good sip will be enough. If you drink too much you will turn too breezy and might fly away.”

Airy Anna, however, did not heed this warning. She wanted to obey Ms. Sullivan so she took one sip, but this sip did not do the trick so she took another one… and another one… and another one until the potion was completely finished.  This did the trick alright… She became breezy, so breezy in fact that her parents had to tie a piece of string around her ankles so that she would not fly away. But it was not all bad; her planning became less and she was generally a happier person.

That was my queue to try my own luck. Well, you see, that was the problem, luck. Or rather, the lack of it. I was the most unlucky person in the world. No matter how many competitions I entered, I never won. And no matter how careful I was, I always got hurt whenever I went outside. No, luck was never on my side. But that was about to change.

I left my house in a brand new outfit and, as luck would have it, it started to rain and my last umbrella had been broken the previous day. It wasn’t even the light, pleasant kind of rain; no, this was full on wannabe hurricane rain. I decided to run for it; it wasn’t that far and if I kept a nice pace I wouldn’t get too tired. But running makes a person careless- even the lucky ones- and as fate would have it I slipped in a puddle and fell right onto my bum. This was enough motivation for me to continue my journey. I picked myself up from the ground and hobbled further, until finally, I arrived at Ms. Sullivan’s Strange Shop.

As I said before: the store is as unpeculiar as can be on the outside. It is a tall brick building that blends in nicely with its surroundings. There is only one window that is so tiny and far up you cannot see a thing of the beautiful interior. And to top it all off, the sign that once said the name of the shop, now has faded so tremendously that you can barely make out the writing. I started getting doubts again; could a woman who owns such a shady-looking store really help me out?

This was no time for getting cold feet; I put all my doubts aside and crossed the street… without looking… Still-unlucky me got hit by a biker who was not looking where he was going. I fell to the ground and scraped my knee quite severely, but nothing I could not handle. I picked myself off of the ground and stumbled on.

Words cannot describe the beauty and magic that was held within those dull walls. It looked like a room describe in fairy tales. The walls were covered with shelves that held flasks of all shapes, sizes and colours: there were tiny blue flaks, enormous elephant sized flasks and even flasks that glowed in the dark (which was necessary because the room was very poorly lit). In the centre of it all was Ms. Sullivan herself, an old woman of around seventy wearing horn rimmed glasses with chains at the ends so that she could wear them around her neck.

“Hello dear,” she said kindly. Until she had spoken I had found myself in a sort of trans, bewitched by the immense beauty.

“Hello,” my voice was barely louder than a whisper and still the old lady could hear because she continued the conversation.

“What do you seek my dear?”

“I need something that can make me lucky.”

She nodded and started rummaging around her shelves. Every time she grabbed a phial she would shake her head and mutter ‘no…no… that’s not right’. She had spent a good ten minutes searching her shop when finally she turned to me and said, “I’m sorry dear, you’re just out of luck. I must have sold the bottle.”

“Oh…” I said hoping that more words would follow, but they could not.

“I could of course make you a new potion, but that would take weeks. Also taking this potion is highly dangerous, are you sure you want it?”

“Am I sure? Of course I’m sure! My entire life I have been the most unlucky person I know. And now the only thing that could cure me and give me a break from the unluckiness that is my life has been sold and you are asking me if I’m sure I need it?”

“Think about it dear,” she said. “You are alive are you not?”

“Yes, but-“

“Have you ever been hungry or not had a place to sleep?”

“No, but-“

“It seems to me you are one of the most lucky people inhabiting this planet, you might not need that potion after all.”

This made me think. I had had all those accidents in the past but they had never been very extreme. I mean to say, they never killed me and I had never broken a bone. Maybe I was lucky… Would someone who is truly lucky not be able to survive fatal accidents with nothing more than a scratch? And would someone who is truly lucky not have been born into a family that loves them and cares for them?

“… You’re right!” I said with a hint of shame.

“Now, will you still be needing this potion?”

“No,” I said. “No of course not!”

She smiled at me and through her horn rimmed glasses I saw her wink.

“Thank you,” I said and headed through the door.

“Until the next time dear!”

I truly was the luckiest person in the world because if she had had the potion I would have never learned how utterly blessed I am.