“Oh shit, we’ve spent too long buying stuff!” Taylor fretted. “Here, take the stuff and bring it back to the shop. Once it’s time to swap, I’ll send Chaos to come and get you.” She shoved the tote bag into Ever’s chest, weaving through the burgeoning crowd back towards the food section.

  This third night of Mid-Summer Nights once again seemed to have even more people coming than the last. Ever hugged the things Taylor had bought close to his body, paying particular attention not to press the pot too hard in case it broke.

  He got back to the ice cream store soon enough. Luckily, it seemed like no-one had come by, or maybe they had, but they couldn’t go in anyway. Ever held the tote by the handles, fished the keys out of his pocket then went inside. After a quick check on the ice cream, he started looking through the gifts.

  Congratulations young soul, you’re discovering a key joy of humans: buying crap, Death yawned.

  Ever wasn’t sure what ‘crap’ meant, but he had a feeling it wasn’t nice. He first took out the plant pot. It gave him shivers just to touch it. He put it inside the back room, tucked into the back of Taylor’s locker.

  Next was a wallet. Like the tote bag, this one also was made with the earth in mind. G said that she had used plant leather for the outside, with the inside lining stitched in from old cotton shirts. Turns out Taylor had noticed he often kept his cash in his pocket, and that he didn’t put his driver’s licence in a wallet.

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  There was a card inside one of the card slots. He took it out and read it:

  Earth’s Embrace,

  Hand-made Gifts That Don’t Harm Mother Nature,

  G.

  It must have been the same card that she dropped off at the ice cream stall. Ever pocketed it. Last thing was just the tote itself, except… there was an envelope at the bottom of it. Ever picked it out. It was plain, slightly crumpled here and there, but still sealed. On the front there was no writing. On the back was a message, scrawled in the corner.

  Every purchase of a pot comes with some seeds.

  Nurture it and you will grow yourself.

  -G.

  The door opened and Ever looked up.

  “Hello Ever,” Chaos said, “time for a switcheroo.” He pulled one hand towards him and pushed one hand out.

  Ever’s heart picked up pace slightly. Should he bring the gifts with him? He would have felt fine to leave them here if it hadn’t been for the threat he made a few days ago.

  “The stall you got gifts from, the owner was a little, old woman. She visited our ice cream store yesterday.” Chaos’ questions sometimes sounded more like statements.

  “How did you know?” Ever asked.

  “Taylor told me,” Chaos replied. “Do you know who she is?”

  “She goes by the name, ‘G’.”

  Chaos smirked. “Do you know who she really is?”