The day after Dolgas’s visit, the boys had found themselves waking up in what looked a lot like their own bedrooms minus a few details. Dan found his room to be way too clean, he was never a housekeeper so waking up to being able to see his carpeted floor instead of the piles of dirty laundry all over it, told him he really wasn’t home. The private bathroom complete with a walk in shower reminded him of something from one of the fancy hotels he could never afford to stay at. Coming out of his room, freshly showered and in clean clothes, Dan once again found himself in the store. He didn’t see Nate right off. He went to the coffee station and seeing the half pot of fresh coffee, figured Nate had already started his day.

He could see out the front window Nate walking around at the tree line, looking like someone pantomiming being trapped in a box. “Hey, any chance there’s something to eat around here besides the stuff on the shelves?” Dan asked as he approached him.

“I think I figured something out,” Nate said, ignoring him.”I think we’re on a holodeck, like on a spaceship.”

Dan looked at him with a puzzled expression, “I thought you said it wasn’t aliens. What are you talking about?”

“Nevermind, forget I said anything. Basically there’s an invisible wall around the property, I can’t touch the trees.”

“It’s too early for this shit, I need coffee,” Dan turning to go back to the store.

“Humor me, try walking towards the trees with your arms outstretched.”

Dan put his arms out like a zombie and moved forward, his hands touched an invisible barrier. He took a step back, “What the hell?” He took a few steps back and then ran towards the treeline like someone trying to break open a stuck door. He bounced off and landed on his ass. “I was just getting warmed up,” he said as he went further back, and this time tried running toward a different section of the treeline. Again, he bounced off and fell on his ass.

“I’m telling you that’s not going to work. You’re running into a solid wall,” Nate said as he watched him. “I’m gonna go back inside.”

“Suit yourself,” Dan said, continuing to take running starts towards different sections of the treeline, each with the same result.

About twenty minutes later Nate was pouring himself a fresh cup of coffee when he heard voices coming from outside. He could hear Dan shouting at the forest as two small figures walked into the clearing. Dan ran headfirst into the spot the two appeared from. Going faster than he had been running before, Dan slammed into the barrier so hard, he just disappeared while Nate watched, horrified.

He ran out the door, right past the pair that were about to enter the store. “Dan!?, Dan!?” he called, no response. He went to where Dan had disappeared and there was no trace that Dan had been there. Feeling a bit shocked and numb, he went back into the store and saw the gnome from the day before. “Do you know what happened to Dan?” he asked.

“That fat dwarf that called me a midget? Oh, I’m sure he’ll be fine. You type seem to always come back a few minutes later, probably ended up in whatever condition he was in when he woke up this morning,” Nimzik said. “I wouldn’t worry about him.”

“I really hope you’re right.” Nate said a bit calmer now. “How can I help you today, Nimzik, right?”

“Yes, I’m impressed you remembered. So many elves just see all of us gnomes as one and the same. We’re not all Roaming, you know.”

“I don’t know any Roaming gnome, you’re actually the first gnome I’ve ever met.”

“I’m honored to be your first. I’ve brought my friend Daisy to see the store,” Nimzik gestured to his friend who was almost as small as he was but a couple inches taller.

Nate reached his hand down to the other side of the counter, offering to shake hands, “It’s nice to meet you, Daisy.”

Daisy just looked at his outstretched hand and then handed the basket she was carrying to him, “I thought you might be able to take these in trade.”

Lifting the basket to place on the counter, Nate lifted the lid. Inside this picnic basket were a few jars of something, several mushrooms and a half dozen muffins. “These look delicious,” Nate said as he pulled everything out of the basket and set it on the counter.

“Thank you, I like to garden and I like to make stuff for people with the plants,” she said softly with a slight blush.

“Don’t be so shy, sweetheart, you are amazing.” Nimzik said, “She is fantastic with baking, canning, etc.”

“My wine’s not as good as dwarven wine,” she said.

“No one’s wine is as good as theirs but what you do make is pretty good. It always puts a smile on my face.”

“Is that what’s in these jars? Wine?” Nate asked lifting a jar and looking at its purplish colored liquid.

“That’s the best strawberry plum wine you’re gonna find around here,” Nimzik said. Daisy smiled at him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had strawberry plum wine. I look forward to trying it. What’s in the other jars?”

“Those are some of the best plum preserves, and she brought you a few muffins to spread it on,” Nimzik said proudly.

“The muffins are your basic dandelion variety, nothing fancy there but didn’t know if you had toast or anything for the preserves.” Daisy said in her soft voice.

“All of this looks really delicious, we can definitely do a trade. What about these mushrooms? What are those for?” Nate asked picking one up that fit in the palm of his hand.

“The mushrooms are only for the ogres, they aren’t really safe for anyone else to eat,” Daisy said.

“The orges will pay the best prices for the mushrooms,” Nimzik said.

“Please don’t eat the mushrooms,” Daisy said, “I don’t know what effect they would have on humans, they have special properties that make the ogres love them. Ogres call them love apples. I mostly grow them because I love to hear them singing in the spring, once their song ends in the fall, they are ready for harvesting and I can roast them and feed them to everyone. But we picked these early so you could offer them to the ogres when they visit your store.”

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“That was very nice of you. Please let me know what you’d like in trade for these.” Nate said gesturing towards the various shelves.

While Daisy and Nimzik were wandering around looking at the various items on the shelves, Dan appeared from the backroom, freshly showered and dressed, again.

“Goddamnit that fucking hurt,” he said when he saw Nate. “I don’t know what happened but I slammed my head into that invisible wall and next thing I know I was in my bed, wearing what I fell asleep in. I had to shower all over again.” Dan headed to the coffee stand. “It’s too fucking early for this shit, I need coffee and a smoke.

Whatcha got around here to eat?” Dan asked, as he stirred creamer into his drink. “I thought I saw some eggs in the dairy case, you think they’re any good? Don’t matter, thinkin’ I’m gonna fire some up. I’m gonna go see if I can find some hot sauce.”

“Saw some on the aisle by the candy,” Nate called after him.

“Thanks man,” Dan said as he headed for that aisle. He ran into Daisy and Nimzik holding a large jar of what looked like it might have once been dill pickles. The liquid looked rather slimy and the pickles were a sickly brownish-green color.

“What do people do with these seeds?” Daisy asked as Dan approached, holding the jar up to him.

“No idea, if it were me though, I’d bury the whole thing in the backyard and forget about it.”

“Great, then that’s what I’ll do,” the little halfling said as she took her friend’s hand and headed back towards the counter.

Finding the hot sauce, Dan picked up a bottle and then went to the dairy case and picked up eggs.

“Gonna go see if I can cook breakfast, I’ll let you know when it’s ready,” spying the mushrooms he picked one up, “Gonna add this to my eggs, you want any?”

“No, I’m good, gonna have a muffin with my coffee.”

“Save me one,” he said as he walked out the door.

“Do you think he’s gonna be okay?” Daisy asked, looking at Nimzik.

“That dwarf isn’t anyone I’d be worried about,” Nimzik said.

Turning their attention back to Nate, Daisy held up the jar of pickles and a small box of cereal, “I’d like to trade these for the food in the basket.”

Nate looked over her selection, brownish pickles in slimy juice and a generic cereal, “Happy Charms” . “Are you sure that’s all you want?” he asked somewhat puzzled over the selection.

When the pair left, Nate poured himself a fresh cup of coffee and then went outside to find Dan.

Dan was standing by a small fire, watching a few scraps of paper and a few twigs burn, munching on the mushroom. “You wouldn’t happen to have a pan, would you?”

“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that around here,” Nate responded, taking a sip of his coffee.

“You watch this, I’m gonna go see what I can find, maybe there’s a small metal tray in the cooler or even just an empty beer can I can cook eggs in.” Dan said as he set his small pile of items on the ground and walked back towards the store.

Inside the cooler, the light was very dim. Dan could make out the shelves by the light that came in from the glass doors. This was his first time being here, it felt eerie being so empty. As he pulled out a tray he heard what sounded like a groan coming from deeper inside. “Who’s there?” he called out.

Only silence answered him. Thinking he might have just been hearing things, he lit a cigarette and was ready to walk back out when he heard a definite moan.

“Who’s in here?” he called out. This time the groaning grew louder. He set the tray by the door, it made a clanging sound as it slipped onto the floor, the groaning was unmistakable now.

“Doug, is that you?” he called into the darkness. He went towards the back of the cooler, and found himself walking through a dimly lit room. “I don’t do this haunted house shit, man” he called out nervously. He took a drag of his cigarette, the tip of it, casting a small light into the inky blackness of the room.

“Go away,” the gruff voice said coming from a corner in the room.

Dan almost jumped out of his skin at the sound. He put his thumbs together and made a small flame shoot forward. In the brief flash of light he thought he saw something that resembled a large gnome sized gummy bear laying on the floor with a damp paper towel on its head.

“Turn off the light and get the fuck out of here,” it said. “Can’t a bear die in peace anymore?”

It might have said something else but Dan decided he didn’t want to stick around and have a conversation and ran back towards the door, barely remembering to pick up the tray on his way out.

Back outside, Dan found Nate where he had left him. “You ain’t gonna believe the hallucination I just saw,” he said as he set the tray down.

“I was told the mushrooms might have side effects,” Nate said.

“Yeah you coulda warned me. I ‘bout shit myself, I saw what looked like a very large gummy bear nursing a hangover,” Dan said as he started to fix his eggs.

Nate left him to it and went back inside the store where he arranged Daisy’s items on a shelf near the register, keeping back one jar of wine and one jar of preserves for him and Dan. He put the muffins by the coffee maker. Thinking the store was already looking better with these items on display, he thought he might spend some time making signs for the items.

Nate spent the better part of the morning cleaning out the storage room looking for poster board, store signage, anything that might have a blank back that he could reuse and make his own signs with. He found a small selection of magic markers in a drawer of various colors.

Taking everything to the front of the store, Nate sat down with the first piece of poster board and with a marker in his hand, thought about what he wanted to say and what he wanted the sign to look like. To his amazement the marker lifted out of his hands and wrote on the board in very neat script, the sign Nate was envisioning. Before he had time to process what he was seeing, Dan walked in carrying the scorched tray and the almost full bottle of hot sauce.

“I burned the trash. That shit was good, you don’t know what you’re missing. This hot sauce though, damn it’s fucking hot, probably gonna be shitting flames later. I suggest you go easy on that.” Dan said as he set the bottle on the counter. Noticing what Nate was doing for the first time he said, " What's all this?'”

“I was thinking about making signs for the store." Nate said as he continued to watch the pen write.

“You know, pal, that’s a great idea. I was just wondering how anyone’s gonna find us since you lost your sign. Ain’t no one gonna know we’re out here if they can’t see the sign from the road. I once got lost in this town, don’t even know the name of the place and ended up in this weird store. Shit might not have happened if stores had better signs.”

“You talking ‘bout coming here three days ago?”

“Shit, was it just three days ago? Sure does feel longer. I remember stopping in this little poduck town right off the exit a couple years ago, had to shit something fierce. Thought I’d mess all over myself if I didn’t find a bathroom pretty quick. There wasn’t any signs for gas stations or food or nothing. There was one sign, it was for an all night adult bookstore.

Now why couldn’t I have been trapped in that store? The time would have just flown by there, if you know what I mean.

They even had coffee behind the register for the employees.”

“Are you not seeing this?” Nate said pointing to the marker writing of its own accord on the poster board.

“You talkin’ ‘bout the remote controlled gadget? That is pretty neat. I had one once, you turned it upside down and a naked lady popped out. She had some big ole knockers. Don’t know what happened to that, think my dog might’ve chewed it up. He chewed up my power cord to my computer once. You know how much it costs to replace those things? The damn cord is almost as much as the fucking computer.”

“A remote control marker?” Nate rolled his eyes at him.

“I don’t know man, everything here is strange. I try not to think too hard on it. If you make some for the outside, let me know if you need help hanging them up, I’m gonna grab a coffee and a muffin and go back to my room for awhile. If I die shitting flames later, I’d rather wake up already showered and fed, so I’m gonna try to get a short nap in as well.” Dan said as he headed back towards his room.