Two sisters step out of their car at a mall’s parking lot. The older sister opens her purse and takes out 20 Dirhams between her pointer and middle finger, then she hands it to her sister.

“I’m thirsty go buy me some coffee, Nora”

Nora frowns at her sister’s rudeness. Even though she is used to her acting like this, she still gets annoyed. “You can’t get hydrated from coffee, Salma,” Nora said. Salma just shakes the paper in her hand “Go,” Salma orders. Nora takes the money and walks off silently. “I’ll be in homes R us,” Salma calls out to Nora as she walks away.

Nora stands in line waiting for her sister’s coffee when her phone rings. She picks up the call. “You wouldn’t believe this.” Says Salma, “I found this ad for another furniture store. Their prices are so cheap we can get a desk for less than a hundred dirhams.”

Nora’s eyes widened. “A hundred dirhams for a desk? It can’t be a good one. Is it small?”

“No not at all.” Said salma. “I’m looking at the picture. It’s 150 by 75 centimeters. I think it could be suitable for my room. It’s got 3 drawers too.”

Nora picks up the coffee. “I think this sounds too good to be true. Let’s not waste our time.”

“Meet me by my car.”

“Wait Sal- “, Salma hung up the phone. Nora lets out a long sigh. Sometimes she wonders why she ever bothers to talk to Salma when she ignores everything she says. Nora puts the phone inside her purse and makes her way to her older sister’s car.

Salma’s car is already on. Instead of taking the passenger seat, Nora goes to her sister’s window and knocks on her glass. Salma signals to Nora to go around to her seat. Nora rolls her eyes and walks around. She opens the door but doesn’t get in.

“I’m not going to some unknown store.” Nora said. Salma takes out her phone and shows her sister a picture of the poster.

The ad says ‘Al Mjles’ in big litters, with pictures of traditional style furniture tagged with ridiculously low prices.

“Just look at the stuff they have.” Salma says, “Vintage style bedrooms, beautiful designs...”

“These prices are not reasonable.” Nora interrupted, “Maybe this stuff is all used.”

“They’re not used!” Salma insisted. She puts her phone away then reaches her empty palm towards her sister. “Now give me my coffee.”

Nora hands Salma the coffee. “You Don’t know that.” She sighs, “I’m calling Mom.” Nora sits in the car. She tries to call her mother a few times while Salma sips her coffee. To Nora’s frustration, her mother doesn’t pick up. She remembers that her mother is not good with technology. She often forgets her phone at home or in her car if she goes anywhere. Salma puts the coffee in the cup holder then puts the gear on drive.

“Salma, wait”

Salma drives off.

Nora finally gives up on calling her mother. She puts her headphones in her ears. She listens to music and rests her head back on her seat. She looks towards the window, letting herself zone out. After what seemed like an hour of driving, Nora notices that she is in an unfamiliar area. She turns off the music and looks to Salma, who seems to feel lost too. She is reading the address on the ad on her phone over and over, then looks around the area as she drives slowly.

There are few buildings outside, nothing else other than the desert that extends as far as the sight can reach.

“Salma, can I look at the ad again?” Salma still drives slowly around the area, then turns back to the road.

“Salma, I want to see the ad.” Nora demanded. Salma continues to ignore her.

“Salma!” Nora calls.

“Shush.”

“Where are we anyway?” Nora asks.

“I know where I’m going.” Salma dismisses Nora.

After a few minutes of going around in circles Salma finally stops in front of an old looking building. The girls inspect it for a while. The building is two stories high. Looks old and worn out. The walls are yellowed where the paint didn’t fall off. A sign hung over the front entrance that says ‘A Majles’. With a slightly lighter color ‘l’ shape in between the ‘A’ and ‘Majles’. Salma gets out of the car.

“Wait,” Nora gets out as well and follows her. “Maybe it’s closed.”

Salma walks to the front door and pushes it open. Nora grabs her arm before she walks in. “This doesn’t look good to me, lets go home.”

“We already arrived anyway. Might as well just look around. If you still don’t like the place we could just leave anytime, alright?” Salma assures her younger sister then walks in. Nora lets go of her sister’s arm. She walks close to her.

As soon as the girls walk in, they are breath taken by the beauty of the place. It looks something completely different from what it looked like from the outside. It seemed like they just walked into a luxurious palace. The owner must really like gold and red. The girls looked around admiring the beautiful couches and carpets. Gold and crystal Chandeliers hung from the… nothing? They just hovered above them.

“What a creative trick!” Said Salma, “They must be using some kind of invisible strings.”

“But look at the ceiling.” Said Nora. “I see beds and cupboards and…” The ceiling looked like a second part of the store. Except everything was set upside down on the ceiling.

“I know, such a beautiful decoration idea for a store like this.”

“But it doesn’t look like a decoration, it looks like actual stuff.”

Salma sits on a couch. Take a photo of me.” She hands Nora her phone.

“Where are the cashiers and the employees? Why are we the only customers if the place is this good?” Nora says as she takes the picture. She hands the phone back to Salma.

“I look so good here, wait let me post it to Facebook.

“Salma, there is no one here except for us.” Nora raises her voice. Finally, tired of being ignored.

“Fine let’s go.” Salma gets up. She attempted to leave but was surprised by a short fat bald guy panting heavily. He waddled towards them. He bowes down and put his hands on his knees. They gave him a moment to catch his breath. He finally stood back up. “Welcome to my store, sorry I took too long I was in the back.”