The Light Fantastic (Discworld 2)

The room was full of shelves, and the shelves were full of everything. Things that couldn't be accommodated on them hung in bunches from the dark and shadowy ceiling; boxes and sacks of everything spilled onto the floor.

There was no sound from outside. Bethan looked around and found out why.

'I've never seen so much stuff,' said Twoflower.

'There's one thing it's out of stock of,' said Bethan, firmly..

'How can you tell?'

'You just have to look. It's fresh out of exits.'

Twoflower turned around. Where the door and window had been there were shelves stacked with boxes; they looked as, though they had been there for a long time.

Twoflower sat Rincewind down on a rickety chair by the counter and poked doubtfully at the shelves. There were boxes of nails, and hairbrushes. There were bars of soap, faded with age. There was a stack of jars containing deliquescent bath salts, to which someone had fixed a rather sad and jaunty little notice announcing, in the face of all the evidence, that one would make an Ideal Gift. There was also quite a lot of dust.

Bethan peered at the shelves on the other wall, and laughed.

'Would you look at this!' she said.

Twoflower looked. She was holding a – well, it was a little mountain chalet, but with seashells stuck all over it, and then the perpetrator had written 'A Special Souvenir' in pokerwork on the roof (which, of course, opened so that cigarettes could be kept in it, and played a tinny little tune).

'Have you ever seen anything like it?' she said.

Twoflower shook his head. His mouth dropped open.

'Are you all right?' said Bethan.

'I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen,' he said.

There was a whirring noise overhead. They looked up.

A big black globe had lowered itself from the darkness of the ceiling. Little red lights flashed on and off on it, and as they stared it spun around and looked at them with a big glass eye. It was menacing, that eye. It seemed to suggest very emphatically that it was watching something distasteful.

'Hallo?' said Twoflower.

A head appeared over the edge of the counter. It looked angry.

'I hope you were intending to pay for that,' it said nastily. Its expression suggested that it expected Rincewind to say yes, and that it wouldn't believe him.

'This?' said Bethan. 'I wouldn't buy this if you threw in a hatful of rubies and —'

'I'll buy it. How much?' said Twoflower urgently, reaching into his pockets. His face fell.

'Actually, I haven't got any money,' he said. 'It's in my Luggage, but I —'

There was a snort. The head disappeared from behind the counter, and reappeared from behind a display of toothbrushes.

It belonged to a very small man almost hidden behind a green apron. He seemed very upset.

'No money?' he said. 'You come into my shop —'

'We didn't mean to,' said Twoflower quickly. 'We didn't notice it was there.'

'It wasn't,' said Bethan firmly. 'It's magical, isn't it?'

The small shopkeeper hesitated.

'Yes,' he reluctantly agreed. 'A bit.'