The Pandora Effect

by Olivia Darnell

  “I like the Lung Ching, personally.” He smiled at her and she almost giggled.

  She tucked the box under her arm and looked at the teapots. She had the distinct feeling that he did know how she felt, but it didn’t seem to matter anymore.

  He took down a fat little white pot with a black wire and teakwood handle.

  “This is nice,” he told her.

  “Yes it is.” She looked at him instead of the pot. “Very nice.” She felt almost drunk. If he were to offer her a drink, it would be all over. Damn the festival and damn his wife and damn everything else in the world. What on Earth was the matter with her?

  “It’s from Shoaxing in the Zhejiang Province. Especially made for brewing... green tea, that is. This symbol...” he tapped a black, brush-stroked Chinese symbol on the pot "is the Chinese word for 'tea'. See? It looks like it has an English 't' in the center. A coincidence." He laughed at her expression. “Paula Anne, you really are something else.”

  “I am?” She leaned subconsciously toward him.

  “Yes, you are or at least, you were,” He glanced around the store. “Are you sure I haven’t met you somewhere before and don’t think that’s a stupid question. You remind me of someone. Have you ever been to China?”

  “No, but I’d love to go there,” she told him and did giggle.

  “You would?” He looked at her closely. “I think you have already been there. I think I might have met you in the South China Sea.”

  “In the sea?” She frowned at him quizzically.

  “Yes,” he nodded and laughed again and then shook his head. “But that was a long time ago. Before you were born, perhaps.”

  “You do say strange things,” she told him, but his words weren’t all that strange after all. Dottie had warned her. And what about all those stories floating around? No wonder he was in so much trouble already. “Dottie told me about you.”

  “Dottie?” He looked confused and then recovered. “Oh. Dottie at the bank.”

  “Yes, Dottie at the bank,” she nodded.

  “I knew she would,” he said. “But I didn’t know you were here.”

  “I’ve always been here,” she told him.

  “No, you haven’t.” He shook his head slightly. He reached to touch her elbow and this time the shock was transferred to him. He pulled his hand back quickly. “I want you to remember something.”

  He held out the teapot and she reached for it. When her hand touched his, she froze. For a moment there was water all around her and she was swimming like lightning through a warm ocean. The sunlight filtered down around her and cast rippling shadows on the corals and sea fans below her. She raised her head slightly and up she went, breaking the surface in a long spinning roll. The experience was breathtaking as the water fell away from her and left her exposed in the cool breeze. Then she fell back gracefully into the water and felt its warm embrace close around her like a soft down comforter on a cold winter night. She was not alone. Someone else swam with her, matched her speed and rose and fell with her through the rocks and corals. Beautiful colors and glittering schools of smaller fish flashed past her as she swam faster and faster. She broke the surface and again and fell... Perry caught her arm and righted her.

  “You would like to buy this teapot?” He asked her.

  She blinked at him in confusion and then turned the pot over to look at the price on the bottom.

  “Oh, I think that’s a bit out of my price range,” she shook her head.

  “Tell you what,” he said and took the tea and the porcelain pot from her. “You write something on the scroll in the box. You give me the box and I’ll give you the teapot. Deal?”

  She looked at the little box she still clutched in her right hand.

  “You’ll keep it safe?” She looked up at him.

  “Of course,” he nodded. “Any time you want it back, you can have it.”

  “Alright.” She smiled. “It’s a deal.”

  “Good.” He stood on tip-toe to locate Angelica. She was over by the wines with another customer. “Come on now. Hurry.”

  He guided her to the counter and quickly wrapped the teapot in tissue paper and pushed it into a bag. He rang up the tea while she scribbled on the scroll.

  “That will be six ninety-five, Mrs. McDaniels,” he announced solemnly.

  She pulled a ten from her jeans and handed it to him along with the box. He took her money and put the box under the counter.

  Angelica appeared at the counter as he was counting back her change.

  “Hello, Mrs. McDaniels, I believe.” Angelica smiled at her and she blushed. Angelica looked suspiciously at Perry, but he pretended not to notice.

  “Yes,” Paula Anne answered shyly. “Your shop is wonderful.”

  “Thank you.” Angelica tilted her head to one side, inhaled deeped and looked at her curiously. “You were interested in dolphins, I think?”

  “Yes!” Paula Anne’s face lit up. “I wanted to find some dolphin wind chimes. I found some seagulls out at Louis Parks’ table, but I really wanted some dolphins. Maybe some silver ones?”

  “We have a variety of wind chimes...” Angelica led her away. She shot a frown at Perry who shrugged slightly to her and then turned to ring up another customer.

  Perry had barely finished waiting on the next customer when Maureen Fitzgerald appeared at the counter with a worried look on her pretty face.

  “What’s wrong?” He asked her when the lady in front of her had gathered her packages and left them alone.

  “It’s Sam,” she whispered and looked around. “He might come over here. He was at the house this morning and he knows you spent the night there.” He thought she was about to burst into tears. “I think he might even tell your wife about us. He said he wouldn’t give me up that easy.”

  “He hasn’t been here,” Perry told her and stepped out from behind the counter to take her arm. He led her in the opposite direction of Angelica and Paula Anne.

  “Did you tell him about... it?” He asked with his own worried look.

  “No, of course not!” She said and then stood back as a fat lady in a flowered dress passed by them carrying three bottles of Chardonnay. “But it doesn’t take a genius to figure things out.”

  “Oh,” Perry nodded and pretended to be examining some of the wines on a rack next to the cooler. “Did he offer to marry you?”

  Maureen frowned and picked up one of the bottles as well. “Not exactly. I really did love him, you know. I just got tired of waiting for him. He doesn’t understand me at all. Sort of like your wife...” She glanced at him. “She is your wife?”

  “Not exactly,” he told her in all honesty. “Go on.”

  “I told him that you were different. I told him that you understood me and that we had things in common. Boy, was that a lie! Anyway, I told him that I needed someone who would be... well, more receptive to my feelings. More... romantic. He, of course, thought that you were playing me for a fool. He told me you are a millionaire playboy and that you’ve probably known dozens of women like me. I told him that wasn’t true.”

  “And he believed you?” Perry looked at her in surprise.

  “Of course not,” she shook her head. “He didn’t take it too well at all.”

  “I see.” Perry put down the wine he had been perusing and picked up another bottle to hand it to her. She shifted the Pandora Box she carried to her other hand. “You bought one of my boxes,” he added.

  “Your boxes?” She looked down at the silver filigreed box with a pair of exotic birds on the cover.

  “Yes. I donated them to Louis’ cause.”

  “No wonder I liked them,” she said distractedly. “Was that your story he told about writing something inside that you don’t want?”

  “Yep,” he told her and smiled.

  “It’s true, isn’t it?” She looked up at him and smiled as well. She couldn’t believe how just being near him made everything seem alright. “That’s what I like about you. Whenever
you are near me, the rest of the world just fades away. Your... wife or whatever she is, doesn’t know how lucky she is.” She glanced over her shoulder at Angelica.

  “I assure you, luck had nothing to do with it,” he told her and sighed.

  “You know so many things,” she said. “I bet you know all the secrets of the universe, don’t you? And you’re so... cute.”

  “Cute?” He frowned.

  “Yeah,” she nodded. “You’re cute. Like a kitten. Or a puppy. That’s what I told Sam.”

  “You told Sam I was like a kitten?” He looked at her in amazement.

  “No! Silly,” she laughed. “I told him you were innocent.”

  “That’s even worse.” His face fell. “I don’t understand that myself.”

  “I think you do. If we weren’t in this store, I’d kiss you til you dropped dead.”

  He stepped back a bit and bumped into a man who was pulling a magnum of champagne from the cooler.

  “Don’t worry!” She said. “I’ll restrain myself... for now. But back to this little box. I know exactly what I’d put in it. I’d put...”

  He pressed one finger against her lips quickly to stop her.

  “Don’t tell me,” he warned her in all seriousness. “It has to be a secret.”

  “See? I told you,” she smiled at him. “You’re are just adorable and I can’t help but say it.”

  The man disappeared around the end of the aisle and she suddenly stood on tip-toe to plant a kiss on his lips.

  “I thought you said you’d restrain yourself.” He was taken off guard.

  “I did,” she shrugged and wandered down the aisle away from him. He closed his eyes momentarily and then followed her.

  She stopped to pick up a faux-jewel encrusted kaleidoscope to look at the price. She held it up and looked through it.

  “Here.” She handed it to him. “Look in there.”

  He took the thing and looked through it with one eye. A million colors and shapes danced around as he twisted it slightly. He’d never looked in one before.

  “That’s how it was,” she whispered in his ear when he lowered the toy.

  “Really?” He smiled and looked in it again. “That’s very nice.”

  “It was,” she assured him. “If that thing didn’t cost so much, I’d buy it and keep it with me forever. And every time I wanted to remember you, I’d look in there.”

  “I have an idea,” he said.

  “You do?” She looked at him expectantly.

  “Yes.” He handed her the kaleidoscope. “You take this and I’ll take back the box.”

  “But...” She looked at the box.

  “I’m not in the box,” he told her and winked.

  “I know, but...” She frowned.

  “You write your secret in there and then we’ll trade,” he said and winked at her. “I can keep it for you in case you ever want it back.”

  “Ever?” She eyed him closely. “That would mean that we would have to stay in touch for a long, long time.”

  “I can handle that.” He smiled at her.

  “That sounds like a fine trade to me.” She took the box to an antique wash stand and opened it up. He waited for her a discreet distance away and kept an eye out for Angelica while he fronted the rows of imported cookies and teacakes. Angelica was back at the register waiting on another round of customers.

  Maureen bumped into Bobby Greene on her way out of the store. She carried the jewel-encrusted kaleidoscope wrapped in bright pink tissue paper.

  “Watch out!” Bobby said and grabbed Reggie’s arm. “Sorry Maureen. Look Reggie, don’t touch nothin’ and don’t ask for nothing, you hear?”

  “OK, Dad.” The boy took the candied apple out of his mouth long enough to answer and went back to sucking on one side of it. He fell into a trance immediately when a toy train whistled and ran down a track on top of one of the display tables. He grasped the edge of the table and glued his attention to the train.

  “Wait a minute.” Bobby caught up with him. “Here. You hold your box and I’ll take the apple while we’re in the store. I don’t want you gettin’ sticky stuff all over the merchandise.”

  Reggie handed over the apple and took the Pandora Box with the silver and black horse on top. Bobby sighed and looked around the dim interior wondering where Joanne had gotten off to. He thought she’d come in here, but he didn’t see her.

  Perry stepped up next to Reggie and then touched the controls to speed up the little train. The whistle blew and the crossing guard fell as it passed over a make-believe road.

  “You like the train?” He asked the boy.

  “Uh, huh!” Reggie said and nodded, but only looked up at him momentarily. He held one of Perry’s boxes in one hand and the koosh ball in the other. “It’s spiffy.”

  “Spiffy?” Perry asked. “Did you ever get a new bicycle yet?”

  “Nope, don’t want one,” he said as he circled the table to keep up with the train. Perry waited for him to come back around. “Too dang’rous. I just want a ’lectric train.”

  “I see you got yourself a nice box there,” Perry told him.

  “Yep, gonna put my cat eyes in it,” the boy told him.

  “Your cat’s eyes?” Perry was somewhat taken aback.

  Reggie looked up at him and grinned. “Not real cat’s eyes. You know? Marbles.”

  “Oh,” Perry nodded in relief.

  “An’ my shooters. They’re special, you know? Used to belong to my grandpa,” he told Perry proudly. “My dad says nobody knows how to shoot marbles any more. He taught me how hisself.”

  “I see,” Perry didn’t see. “That’s an awful small box to put shooters and cats eyes in, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe, but I like the horse.” Reggie looked at the box and then up at Perry.

  “I got a bigger box over here,” Perry directed him to a pile of metal boxes of every shape, size and color. Reggie laid down the little box and picked up one of the boxes shaped like a red and black train engine.

  “Hey! I like this one!” He turned it over and squinted at the price sticker. “But I ain’t got no more money. I done spent it all.’

  “How about a trade?” Perry asked.

  A few moments later, Bobby Greene found them and ruffled his son’s curly mop affectionately.

  “Hey, that’s neat!” Bobby eyed the train box. “You didn’t try to beat Mr. Aliger out of it, did you?”

  “Nope, we traded!” Reggie told him. “You know I’m a expert at tradin’ things, Dad.”

  “Ooooh.” Bobby looked at Perry. “Is that so?”

  “Yeah,” Perry told him. “He needed a bigger box. I think it was a fair deal.”

  “I bought one of these little ones for Joanne,” Bobby showed him another of the Pandora Boxes. It was black lacquer with a gold tree on the top. “Her birthday’s comin’ up and I thought it would make a nice gift.”

  “Very nice,” Perry agreed. “Did Louis tell you the story that goes with it?”

  “Yeah,” Bobby answered. “That makes it special, don’t it? Actually Tyler told me. He’s better at storytelling than Louis. Actually, Mike is the best storyteller in town, but he ain’t feeling too good today...”

  “So I noticed,” Perry said, unwilling to discuss the night before with anyone else.

  “Oops! There’s Joanne.” Bobby stuffed the box back in the pocket of his jacket. “Wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

  Bobby grabbed Reggie’s hand and dragged him off in the direction of Joanne.

  “Mr. Aliger!” Someone called his name from across the store in a high falsetto.

  He looked up to see Mildred Morris waving to him above the tables. She weaved her way through the aisles to get to where he stood. She carried a gold filigreed Pandora Box in her chubby hand.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Morris,” he said and smiled down at her when she stopped in front of him.

  “Good morning, Perry.” She eyed him carefully from top to bottom. “I
was talking to your wife. She said you spent quite a bit of time in the Orient. I wondered if you might have some suggestions as to what would be good in this climate to add an Oriental flair to the pocket park I’m constructing.”

  “I might be able to give you some pointers,” he said.

  “Good,” she said. “We’ll have to get together next week and I’ll show you the plans. Right now, I’d like for you to show me which of your cheeses would go with Medoc.”

  “Brie de Meaux,” he said immediately.

  “But I really like Camembert better.” She frowned.

  “Then I suggest Haut-Brion,” he said smiling at her and wondering why she had asked him, if she already had her mind made up. “Allow me.” He took her arm and led her toward the cooler along the back wall. He pulled a very expensive looking bottle of wine from a wooden rack under the cold case and handed it to her. “This will go much better with Camembert than Medoc.”

  She took the Haut-Brion and looked it over carefully.

  “Some good quality Camembert, a splash of Haut-Brion, a loaf of black pumpernickel and a few scented candles from the south of France,” he told her. “Add a little Mozart and what do you have?”

  “I can’t remember.” She looked up at him with a gleam in her eye. “Why don’t you tell me?”

  “Who would not be impressed?” He asked her instead of answering. “We have Anne-Sophie Mutter. She plays Mozart divinely.”

  “I’ll bet she does,” Mrs. Morris agreed. But who did she have to impress with such romantic extravagances? Only someone like Perry Aliger would appreciate it and there was only one Perry Aliger in Magnolia Springs. She sighed and tucked the wine under her arm. “Where is she?”

  Perry escorted her back to the front of the store where a small wire rack held a limited selection of classical CD’s. He plucked one off the rack and handed it to her. She shifted the wine and the little gold box to hold them close to her bosom while scanning the titles of the musical pieces on the CD.

  “I see you purchased one of Louis’ little boxes,” he said casually. “Did he tell you the legend?”

  “No, he didn’t.” She looked up. “What legend?”

  Perry told her the story associated with the Pandora Box. When he was finished he waited for her to respond. She just stood staring at him.