My cell phone rang. I looked at the caller I.D. and it said, “Mom.” I picked up the call and Mom immediately started yelling, “Andy where are you? I’ve been waiting for over 15 minutes for you!”

“Sorry mom, had to talk to a teacher, will be out in a minute.”

I took one last look at Principal Van Dooren’s door and then walked away to the front entrance of the school. Mom was in the car parked right in front of the entrance with the engine still running. She had a blank expression on her face as I hopped into the car.

“Are you okay, Mom?” I asked her, remembering that she was in a very bad mood this morning.

“Yes, yes. I’m feeling better now, just had a bad migraine this morning. Oh honey, I have a little surprise for you!”

She pulled out her purse, dug through it for a few seconds, and then passed me a $20 bill.

“Here, because you’ve given me no troubles all this week and saved me a trip to the market street yesterday, I decided to double your allowance.”

The moment mom said the words, “market street,” the rubber controllers, the gypsy lady in the red dress, and the weird store all flashed into my mind. That’s it! Maybe the gypsy lady has something that can fix everything! Maybe a potion, a spell book, a cuckoo clock that rewinds time, anything that can undo everything! Every single terrible thing that I’ve done because of the rubber controllers.

“Mom, can we please go to the cookie store on the market street? I really, really want to buy a cookie pie for Avery! His birthday is tomorrow and it’s really important that I get something for him!”

Mom gave me a pretty long stare with a pale, tired look that was still engraved in her face.

She said and finally answered, “Okay, okay. For a few minutes only. I had to drop off your sister at the airport for her dance competition this morning and your dad is having his best friend over for dinner tonight.”

We took a five minute drive down to the market. I glued my eyes on the window, eager to dash out to the gypsy lady and beg her to undo everything. My palms were getting sweatier and sweatier as we passed by the French restaurant, the sporting goods store, then by Swift’s, where the $100 skateboard was still there. I felt a tiny wave of envy because despite everything else happening, I still desperately wanted that skateboard.

I couldn’t help but steer my eyes on that skateboard for a few moments, until Mom interrupted my trance.

“Hey baby, you’re going to have to get Avery something else. It looks like the cookie store is completely gone.”

A small shock hit my brain and my heart at the same time. My face turned towards her and shouted, “What?”

“Yes…the store is completely gone.”

I looked right at the place where the Gypsy store was only yesterday and I absolutely, positively could not believe what I was looking at. The building was completely abandoned! The windows had nothing on display, the signs were torn down, and the paint was a faded blue, like how the old cookie store used to be!

I immediately opened the car door, jumped out, and ran to the empty building. I looked into the window. The glass display for the cookies were back, the shelves where cookie mix used to be sold returned, and there was even a banner at the back of the store that said, “Store Closing! Everything 75% Off!”

How is this possible? How? The Gypsy store was just here 24 hours ago, fully stocked, and fully ready for business! How could it disappear like nothing was ever there?

My whole body felt numb. I couldn’t think at all. I backed away and finally, I just shouted out, “Gypsy lady! Where are you? Come back you evil witch! Look at you made me do!”

“Andy, who on Earth are you talking to?” Mom shouted out from the car.

I dashed to her and, speaking much faster than I usually do, said, “Mom, you are not going to believe. I now you are not, but please keep in mind, I have not made up a single crazy, lunatic story since I was three. There was a random nick-knack store here yesterday. It was painted green, there were antiques and toys everywhere, and there was a gypsy lady in there. Now it’s all gone! It literally disappeared and it’s as though it was never there at all! She sold me something and because of that something, I got everyone in trouble at school!”

Before mom could say anything back, I saw a tall, slim figure in the distance. It was all the way across the street. I focused my eyes towards that figure and squinted my eyes a bit. I couldn’t believe it! It was her! It was the gypsy lady who sold me the rubber controllers. I didn’t wait another second and I didn’t even look both ways on the road. I ran.

I didn’t care that brakes were screeching, that people were honking and yelling, “Watch it, kid!” I didn’t even turn my head to mom when she screamed, “Andy come back!” I just kept running and running towards the gypsy lady, until my brain cleared up for a split second. As my eyes were still stuck on the figure, I slowed down when I finally saw that she was behind a glass window, standing behind a sign that said, “Spring sale! 50% all dresses!” and that she was standing perfectly sill. I got closer and closer, realizing that the woman had dull eyes, skin that was painted on, and a wig that was tied into a bun.

The numbing shock returned to my body as I finally figured out that she was a mannequin.