Needful Things, Friday

[needfully_yours]

Leland Gaunt's plans were proceeding ever so nicely. Far better than he had hoped. There were tendrils out in the ether; there were possibilities branching off from one another. He'd known this island was a good choice.

The sign in the window still read:

NEEDFUL THINGS
A DIFFERENT KIND OF STORE

You Won't Believe Your Eyesand Leland Gaunt waited

Comments

Re: Shop with Leland

[hexentotchen]

Hanna had been on her run for the day again after her classes, thinking of things like love, and glory, and ... everything she didn't understand.

She'd slowed down to look in the windows when she got to town, and stopped to look at the motto on the window of this one.

Why not? She opened the door, and stopped just inside, looking around at all the stuff. It sort of reminded her of Mr. Knepfler's place in Berlin.

Re: Shop with Leland

[needfully_yours]

"Welcome," Leland greeted, smiling brightly at the young woman who had just ventured inside. "Welcome and hello! I'm Leland Gaunt, and I'll be happy to help you find anything, absolutely anything you desire!"

Re: Shop with Leland

[hexentotchen]

"Hello," Hanna greeted him, amused already, and carefully making her way around the shop so she didn't knock anything over. "I'm Hanna. I am not looking for anything in particular today." Although. Anything German, that would remind her of her Papa, or home a little bit... or of the Arctic Circle.... Just something to combat the homesickness that hit her sometimes. She stopped to look at a set of glass animals, smiling. "And I do not have much money. At all."

Re: Shop with Leland

[needfully_yours]

"Well, that works out neatly enough, Hanna," Leland replied, chuckling to himself. "You might notice that I have no price tags on any of my merchandise. I will accept money if absolutely necessary, but I'd really rather barter. Haggling is one of my favorite pastimes, I'll admit."

Re: Shop with Leland

[hexentotchen]

"Ahh." Hanna wondered for a moment, if she should call someone to come haggle for her; but really, this was a new experience, and why shouldn't she try it? She looked up at a dreamcatcher, and then made her way closer to the counter. "I like fairy tales. And music. If you have anything like that, or from Finland? I would be happy to see it."

Re: Shop with Leland

[needfully_yours]

"Oh, we have all manner of music," Leland replied, chuckling as he gestured to a display of assorted vinyl records. "I'm a bit of a collector, you see. I like to pick up a little bit of something from everywhere my travels take me. You might, in fact, find something in Finnish, if you care to look."

Or in German, for that matter.

Re: Shop with Leland

[hexentotchen]

Pleased, Hanna went over to the bin, thumbing through a few. "I would need to obtain a record player, if I found something I liked..." But that shouldn't be too hard, right? "Do you have any favorites?"

...wait, what was that record she'd just gone past?

Re: Shop with Leland

[needfully_yours]

"I have a record player and several favorites," Leland replied with a chuckle. "My tastes run rather European as well, actually. I've given American music a try, but I'm afraid very little of it does anything for me."

Go on, Hanna. Backtrack a little. Have yourself a better look.

Re: Shop with Leland

[hexentotchen]

The title of the album was Drei Tag Mond - Three Day Moon - and the name that had caught her eye was Knepfler (producer). It couldn't be the same one, could it? "Jazz," Hanna said, her tone distracted. She took out the album and turned it over.

And felt herself go light-headed from what she read:

Vocals - Johanna Zadek

Her fingers were trembling.

Re: Shop with Leland

[needfully_yours]

"Ah, Drei Tag Mond," Leland said, appreciatively. "That album in particular is especially enchanting. Would you like me to play it for you? I have a turntable by the counter."

Bait the line...

Re: Shop with Leland

[hexentotchen]

Hanna could only nod, speechless, and hand over the album, face flushed and eyes prickling. She knotted her fingers in her jacket to keep herself from reaching out for it again, waiting, hoping it wasn't a coincidence.

Re: Shop with Leland

[needfully_yours]

Oh, there were no coincidences in Needful Things.

"Here, just one moment, then," Leland mused, pulling the record from its sleeve as he made his way over to the record player. "I take it you're familiar with this one?"

Another moment to ease the needle into place, and...

Ah. There, wasn't that lovely?

Re: Shop with Leland

[hexentotchen]

The thing was, Hanna wasn't familiar with it; she just had the barest memories of her mom singing to her, when she was a little, tiny wee Hanna.

But the song started, and the vocals came in, and it was her, it was her Mama, and she found herself nodding, tears running down her face, as her mother sang about stars and clouds and oh.

"That's my mother." She gulped for breath, and a bit more strongly, "She was a singer. Isn't it beautiful?"

Re: Shop with Leland

[needfully_yours]

"It is," Leland agreed, gently. He could sound like silk if he cared to. It was his business to do so, really. "I'll admit that listening to these songs have made me tear up on occasion, as well."

He nudged a box of tissues in Hanna's direction.

"And you haven't got a copy of this recording?"

Re: Shop with Leland

[hexentotchen]

Hanna shook her head, taking a tissue and wiping at her face, then closing her eyes to just listen for a minute, grateful to Mr. Gaunt for letting her hear this, for having this.

"She died when I was two. We didn't-- there was no way to keep a copy, and my grandmother died this year, so I don't have anything of hers..."

It was complicated, and messy, and unfair, and Hanna felt like her chest was seizing tight. She closed her eyes, and swallowed. "Is it worth very much?"

Re: Shop with Leland

[needfully_yours]

"It's a rare recording, and an import, I'm afraid." So clearly, Leland's hands were tied, and he could hardly do the decent thing and just gift it to her, could he? "Though, as I said before, I'm in the habit of bartering, dickering, of negotiating what an item would be worth. It has no price tag, after all."

Which only meant that he wasn't locked into a price that might be so much less than it was worth to any one particular buyer.