“Are you sure that you don’t have any in stock?” 

The woman leaned over the table looking down at my notes. A lock of her hair dangled down into my notebook, covering what I was reading. 

This woman had been coming into my shop relentlessly for the last couple of days. She comes in asking for various things, but is never satisfied with any of them and keeps coming back. It's been good for business, I guess. 

“Yes, ma’am I am sure.” 

The woman leaned over the table and locked eyes with me. Without breaking eye contact, the vile thing snatched the book out of my hands. She smirked as she ran her finger down the page, flipping through the book. 

“Aha, look here”, she slammed the book down onto the table. She looked at me with a satisfied look on her face, her shoulders back, and her chest puffed out as far as the tight dress allowed.

She sure looked happy with what she found. Idiot. 

“I’m sure you have no idea what you are actually looking at.” I peered down at the woman through my readers. She was a short thing with not much meat on her bones. Her facial features were defined, which added a sharpness to her overall appearance. Most people find her rather attractive, due to the various comments I have overheard.

“Oh, really? Well, it says right here that your shop sells marshmallow root. So if you wouldn’t mind going into the back to check, I would really love to give my pregnant patient some relief.” 

She smiled. But not a genuine, loving smile you would want to see from a young lady, but a smile that a wife would give her husband after saying, “I’m not mad! What are you talking about?!”

I sighed, and walked around the counter. I never had a wife, but I had a mother. It didn’t matter if I had known there was nothing in the back of the shop. She was not going to leave, until I actually physically walked back and checked. 

I held open the door, as the woman walked past me with a spring in her step. The woman looked rather pleased with herself as she peered through my shelves looking through all of my things. I stood up against the door, keeping it propped open. The woman did not seem bothered at all with the cramped space, but there was no way that I was adding another body to an already cramped storage room. 

The woman searched through the shelves, running her finger across the dusty labels. “You oughta clean this place. "You know.” She shouted as she continued to mumble the different names of the things she found. It took a little while until she came to the spot “marshmallow root” and, of course, only random vials of “white snakeroot” were found in its place.

The woman huffed as she searched through the other spots, trying to find one hidden among the many different tonics I had. Eventually, a hand shot out from the shelves and the rather glum expression turned into a peaceful smile. “You were right.”

“Of course.”

“But you could have offered me alternatives to what I was looking for, you know? That would have helped me and you. It would have saved a lot of time.” She placed a handful of coins into my palm as she passed by me with a jar full of dried leaves labeled, “papaya leaf”. 

"You should also learn how to update your inventory book more frequently. It would have saved you a lot of trouble.” 

The woman did not even bother to say a formal goodbye. She simply waved her hand with that cunning smile on her face as she flew through the door.

The woman never ceased to irritate me. I am not sure how she had bewitched the men in town. She was neither the kind nor gentle woman they all talked about. Sure she had a feminine way about her, but that stopped short of her dress. She was a stubborn and cunning woman the church would have hung. I let out a deep sigh, ‘if only the trials hadn’t ended’. 

I walked over to the front window and turned the open sign in the window around. I was reaching out to lock the door as it flew back trying to hit me in the face. I looked at the woman at the door, bewildered as the woman who stared back at me with an exhausted expression. I finally got rid of her only for her to run back in at closing time. This woman is the vain of my existence. 

She stood hunched over, breathing heavily as she pointed towards the street. “Did you know-”, she huffed, “they are going–", she mumbled between breaths. 

“Breathe, I don't want a body in my shop.” I walked over to my water pictures as I gave the woman a glass. The woman looked as if she was on the brink of death. I couldn’t let her die in my shop. “Could you imagine the headache you would cause me?” 

The woman drank a couple of gulps, slamming the glass onto the counter. “You know you could be a little nicer to me. Especially after I ran back here to tell you something. Perhaps it's something urgent?” 

“I highly doubt it's that urgent if you forgot to tell me earlier.” I continued to sweep up the floors as the woman stood there by the door. 

“So you don’t want to know?”

“Did I say that?” I sighed, looking up from the floor. The woman stood there with her shoulders back with that determined look on her face again. “What did you want to tell me?” 

“There is a town meeting today at the tavern just off of main street. The one on Fifth Street.”

“I know it.” 

“They found three bodies down the street from there, and supposedly they were all last seen at the tavern.” 

If the woman was worried, she sure did not show it. I sighed, “The harvest festival was last night. A lot of different kinds of people in one spot. It was probably a petty little squirble gone wrong. I doubt there is anything to fear.” 

“Three men are dead. I highly doubt it's anything.” She looked at me with a certain disdain in her eyes. “I will be attending the meeting. I know you are a quiet man, but I still feel like this would be worth your time.”

“Are you asking me to attend it with you?” I smiled at her. 

The woman looked at me with a displeased look as she stormed out the door.  I wished that I had known earlier that I only had to tell a joke to get her to leave. I smiled as I continued sweeping up the dirt into little piles.