Exchange Rate...

The bell on the shop door rang out its happy little tune. It actually made Gracie a little mad to hear it. Like it should have been a gong, or bass drum. Something to warn people what they were dealing with beyond this door. But that was probably the point.

"I thought you would be by soon." the lovely young woman behind the counter greeted her.

Gracie just stared. Puzzled.

The young woman waved her hand in front of her face, "Nice isn't it? I got it in a trade. A woman who thought she wanted money instead of beauty. I am always amazed at what people think they want."

The hairs on Gracie's arm stood up. The voice was the same. Twenty years later and it still echoed in her thoughts. So yes, this lovely young woman was who she was looking for. Gracie held herself rigid, trying not to jump over the counter and claw her eyes out, "You need to stay away from her."

The woman's lip curled in to a small half smile. "I didn't seek her out, she found me."

"I don't believe that."

"You can believe what you want it doesn't matter to me. But she came to me, I didn't go to her. The same way you came to me years ago."

Gracie's jaw tightened. She did not believe that her daughter had just happened upon this woman or her shop. "You are trying to tell me that you just happened to relocate here? In this town? After all of these years?"

"Oh, sweetheart, I have locations all over the world. You had to know that. Someone like me? To be limited to a small shop in, where was it you found me? Iowa City? When did you move? I am guessing pretty quickly after our visit?"

"That's none of your business."

"Oh but it is, isn't it? I mean she is my business."

Gracie frowned. "She is not part of the deal."

"Not part of the deal? She was the whole deal. She IS the deal."

"Our deal was between us."

She made her away from behind the counter to stand in front of Gracie. She gestured to her face again, "The woman who traded away this for money? She also thought she had a different deal than the one she made. Why is it that you people never pay attention to what you are actually dealing?"

"We had a deal."

"Yes, and the woman this belonged to thought she had one as well. See she thought with enough money it would be easy to get her beauty back. Plastic surgery being what it is. But she dealt her beauty away. The more she spends trying to get it back the worse it's getting. She should have stopped at what I gave her. Not beautiful, but not really all that bad. Plain. Plain and rich would have been a good thing, instead she's, well, she's still rich but she's fairly hideous, to be frank. People don't pay attention to the deals they make."

"I did. I paid your price."

"You made a deal, you got what you wanted, and you tried to negate what I asked for. And I have to say you did a pretty good job. I don't think anyone looking from the outside would ever be able to tell. But she kind of knows doesn't she? How did you work around that?"

Gracie sighed, "We taught her the same way we would have taught any other child. We read to her. We sang to her. We taught her. She learned just like any other child."

"But she's not just like any other child is she? I mean that's why it's really very remarkable. I'm impressed. But tell me, just between us, how worried have you been? When she did something thoughtless? Careless? Did you wonder if this was normal behavior or the sign of something worse?"

"She was always very good."

The woman laughed, "Well no. Not really."

Gracie felt her anger rise again, "Yes, yes really. She is very good. She's a good person and you need to leave her alone!"

The woman remained calm, "Did she tell you what she asked me for?"

Gracie shook her head. She hadn't. Gracie had found the card to the shop in the pocket of her daughter's jeans when she was doing laundry. Just seeing the name had made her want to throw up. How in the world had she found them? When she had asked her daughter about the card and the visit she had just laughed and told her it was silly bachelorette party stuff. They had all gotten their fortunes read it was no big deal.

"She worries about love. Her friends are all getting married and she's never even had a serious boyfriend or girlfriend. She doesn't even know which she would prefer. Have you never talked to her about this?"

A tear started to roll down Gracie's cheek. Of course she had talked to her about it. Over and over again. That it would happen when it was the right time. That there was nothing to worry about. They had even talked about not finding romantic love. That there were people who lived very fulfilling lives with never having a romantic partner. That that was just a different normal. But her daughter didn't want that. She wanted to love someone. She wanted that feeling. But she never could find it.

"She just wants what everyone else has. And I feel for her. I feel responsible for her as well, as you know."

Gracie could feel her heart starting to race. What had she done?

"Everyone thinks they can make a deal and not pay the real price. You all think you are so clever."

The tears started in earnest now. What had she done?

"You asked me for a child. You said you would do anything for a child. So we made a deal. And you thought you were being clever. That you could work around it. Tell me, did you even believe before you had her that you were giving anything real away?"

 And here was the truth. She hadn't. Not really. She had thought it was all a joke. She didn't really believe in such things but when she had discovered she was pregnant just a day after leaving the small dusty shop she had started to believe. And when her daughter was born, when they started to raise her, when they could see the missing parts, then she knew. She knew what price she had paid.

"You bargained with something that wasn't really yours to bargain with. And then you thought you could work around it, you didn't want to pay the price for the deal you made. But there is always a price to be paid. And if you won't pay it, well someone has to."

Gracie started to shake, "What did you do?"

"I just gave her what she asked for. A soulmate of her very own. Of course, not every parent who makes the deal you did is successful in raising a good child. It's going to be very interesting."

Gracie started to scream as the woman laughed and laughed and laughed....