Talking In Your Sleep (Celeste)

Shopping days were the best days of her life. Just what the doctor prescribed.
While being all day surrounded by her bodyguards and all the available employees, that was the only day of the month she did not feel so alone as usual. In each store, she was the center of attention of glances, sighs and murmurs.
In that small shopping area composed by a few streets, each store selling clothes, fabric and supplies for crafts, knew the benefits and dangers of trading with Celeste Manfrella. And they feared her. Of course they feared. They knew that she was able to put the entire store upside down, disturbing all the employees for hours for nothing. Because at the minimal mistake, the Queen would left the store without buying anything. Leaving chaos behind. And a very sad cash register.
Instead, they had learned by trial and error that the devil girl benignity was more than 25%.

Accustomed to hard work, her faithful bodyguards carried all her bags onto the limo. Her transport remained close for when they needed it. At that time it was parked on the entrance of the last clothing store they had visited. The bags were numbered in hundreds but the strong arms of her knights never rested until every package was protected in her white chariot of steel. Spacious as it was, after several hours of uninterrupted shopping, her transport was almost full. The bags took up all one side of the long couch that bordered the inside and piled on the carpeted floor to the height of the minibar.

There was a single store on the street she had never dare to enter. The comic book store. She had never managed to gather the courage or the curiosity needed to enter that mysterious shop. And perhaps she would never do it on her own. Unfortunately, this time the decision was not hers. Her younger cousin´s birthday was near and he had specified many times that he wanted something he could paint. She knew that painting was not the right word but she could not remember what was the term that Luciano had used. He tried to make her understand that painting was very different to carefully choose each color to give life to a lifeless figure. For her, there was no difference.
Without much enthusiasm, she headed to the store. Her steps were slow and heavy as if to delay the moment as much as possible.

Finally she arrived to her destination. From the doorway Celeste could see clearly how the store grew, stretching along roads that cornered the shelves on which rested heroes and villains alike. While small detailed figures slept under a large force field made of crystal, where they could not escape. Ogres, dragons, goblins, knights. Whole armies ready for battle. The store even had super deformed figures imitating famous cartoons and one or the other odd unknown character. Dices. All shapes and sizes. There were thousands of small objects to admire, to question and perhaps buy. And although no one in particular called her attention more than other, all exerted a strange magic in her. Old and powerful.
To Celeste that had never been in a comic book store, the show was wonderful. And without realizing it she began to walk awkwardly into the store, watching everything around her with her eyes big as saucers.
She did not have a definite plan, she just tried to look in all directions at once. She looked up to see a spaceship, and then her eyes fell back to the glass cases that locked small armies of different worlds, to jump later quickly to the walls to admire some posters.

And without knowing exactly what she wanted from that strange shop full of novelties, she was carefully approaching the counter. The store was nothing out of this world, but Celeste was so fascinated that for her it looked like an exotic timeless bazaar somewhere in the far East, full of relics.
Long before reaching the counter, she noticed that the manager was sleeping and how his spit was producing a slim gross coat over his desk but even that ugly fact could not erase the magic of her first impression.

While her black eyes were examining the throne on which rested the king of the castle, something magnetized them. That magic moved her eyes into an strange object. None of the wonders she had seen in the store could be at its level. What she did not notice until then was a word in three dimensions with rounded edges and dubious source that rested on the floor, sleeping perhaps as the manager. The shape and texture of the word were impressive, it was like magic. The word looked real and unreal at the same time. A paradox. A beautiful paradox that seemed to have come from the same pages of comics that were sold there.
Even without leaving her amazement, she witnessed as another word formed from nothing but air, taking physical form and solidify into an object as real as everything around her.
The boy whispered, and the words came from the air. As in a comic, she thought. In an attempt to make sense of this absurd situation.

Fearful that the young man would woke up and the magic would fade, she picked up the smallest word quickly. Driven by that curiosity so characteristic of her, she quickly put "Suit" on her purse with the intention of protecting it for future experiments.
The second word was too big to fit in her small purse, so she ran with it to the entrance to give it to her bodyguard. He looked at her in disbelief for a moment, but seeing that her expression did not change, he decided that the girl was not joking.

Ready to get more test subjects, she ran into the store again. Silent like a lynx and agile as a rabbit. Her graceful movements led her quickly to the counter at the exact moment her phone started to play (extremely well in her opinion) Beethoven´s 8th symphony. The sound broke the silence of the place as a whip. She startled then rushed to retrieve the phone from her purse. All the time the cellphone continuously screamed and when she finally find it, her clumsy fingers dropped it to the floor, where it remained until the sound, the lights and the vibration stopped completely.

The modern device remained dead in the same place where her loved owner had thrown it. Now that it ceased to vibrate there was no way it could move on its own, so it seemed like a small dead animal. No sound, not breathing. It was static. As attached to that point in the carpet. It even gave the feeling that it had always been there. As quiet as it was.
Even the screen that until a moment before had been burning with intensity, was now as black as ink.
The owner of the object remained static as well. Unable to leave her surprise. Unable to command her body to move. Should she run or should she stay? She did not know exactly why but a large part of her wanted to run. Although she had done nothing wrong, she felt guilty. Guilty because she woke him? Or guilty for stealing his words? Could he utter those words again?

While wasting time on meaningless conjectures, she watched in horror as the man behind the counter was recovering his conscience. As if it had gone for a walk and was returning to his body.
She knew that the confusion that now sedated him would soon be diluted in its blood, and she had no time to escape.
Very clumsily, she attempted to retrieve her cellphone from the floor, but despite it was completely immobile, it was as hard as to catch a fish in water.
She swatted, and thinking she succeed the girl tried to run away, just at the precise moment when she noticed that she had just touched it and had never caught it. Despair only maimed her locomotive skill so she finally decided that she could not escape on time. She would have to face the situation as best she could.

After devoting a withering look at the traitor cellphone that was still in the ground, she noted with surprise as the man used his hand to clear a word that was being in the process of materializing. It was as if he had deleted a word on a invisible blackboard, fortunately for her, the man was not fast enough to clear the first word, which fell to the ground. The sound of its fall was immediately engulfed by the hungry carpet.
Now just in front of her feet were her cellphone, and the word "love" that clearly had materialized from nowhere.

To his interrupted greeting, she replied with her customary curtsey. A sample of courtesy from old and better times, now used only in the presence of nobility.
Almost used daily, the girl had adopted it as her personal greeting. A way to show her education and manners while making a very clear statement: she was superior to other humans.
It was very clear that the manager did not have any blood ties with some of the old houses of Europe. Even without knowing him, she could tell. She could almost see the word "commoner" written on his forehead. But the simple fact that he could make words with his mind was worthy of remembrance. So this time the greeting was more than a greeting, it was a small gift in his honor.

As if she had read his thoughts on angels and holy visions, she introduced herself saying her name with grace and sweetness. "My name is Celeste." Certainly hers was a heavenly name that separated her from all other creatures that plagued the world. She knew it well and loved her name as much as her golden hair. She possessed a name that crowned her as more than a mortal, the sweetest of creations.

She was not surprised that the person who had before her eyes did not know how to presented himself properly. He did not even give his name to her. But at least he had appreciated her presence, it was almost a gift in a place so empty and lonely like that... the girl had her doubts about how many women entered the shop daily. Maybe she was the first. That would explain why the employee was so clouded with her presence.
She even had doubts about how many people visited the storel. She never saw it full, but she had not paid much attention to that store in particular. There was no clothes in there.
At least his kindness exceeded his manners, that was good. With a smile, Celeste took her cell phone while thanking him with a musical "Thank you." Then she stored the device carefully into her bag. And as if it were a deep cave, the cellphone simply disappeared into a darkness that seemed almost endless. Without leaving any trace of its existence. Inside it would have the good company of a few cosmetics products, the keys to her house and her trusty taser.

She could not find a more silly question to ask in a similar situation. Of course she needed his help. Otherwise she would already left the store which everything she wanted. Of course she would let the payment on the cash register because in the Manfrella family there where no thieves.
The girl let out a long sigh of impatience. At the rate things were going, she would spend the rest of the afternoon in the store and even worse, she was not going to get what she wanted.
The girl still retaining a little of patience, that was good. The trouble was that she did not know how much it was going to last. Therefore she decided to take control of the situation and speed up things a bit. She only hoped that the unnamed manager could keep up with her. "I have all your attention now, right?" The girl asked innocently, but in a tone that clearly informed him that she did not care what the hell he was doing before, as long as he pay attention and obey her orders.

Having his attention or not, the girl took off her beautiful black eyes from his face, and aimed at the word "love" with them. Her eyes shone fiercely as she fought mentally with the inanimate object. "I want that word." Demanded the girl. With a surprising authority in her voice. Clearly she was accustomed to give orders. Clearly she was a queen. A good queen. And to prove it to the newly awakened man she granted him a few seconds for his brain to process the order, and then continued with her demands in the same tone that mixed authoritarianism and sweetness. "And an army."

She did not like his laughter at all. No one was allowed to laugh unless they were echoing her harmonious laugh. If someone else was in the same room as her, that person should be suffering, otherwise the child was doing something wrong. How was that this man was not suffering? She did something wrong, clearly.
The tone in which he spoke, she liked it much less. Nobody spoke like that to Celeste Manfrella and lived to tell. But she had the good sense not to respond badly. She would have her revenge, and he would not even expect it. "One day is more than enough." Replied the girl while maintaining her air of superiority in the physical plane, while mentally analyzing the possibility of electrocute him until he lost consciousness. Or better yet, send her bodyguards to give him a good beating. That way he would learn some respect. She was still trying to decide which punishment was more appropriate when the subject added another crime to his repertoire.
Not only he had laughed at her, and had used a tone that was not permitted, but now he was mocking her openly.

At least she had another one of those magic words in her possession. If the manager was telling the truth, she had little time to analyze and experiment with them. Wasting no time she introduced the word into her bag where the multiple objects inside settled in a new position while "love" entered, pressing against the walls of the cave where they were.

Celeste knew that all of it was her fault for trying to soften her orders, pronouncing them with kindness and sweetness. She had forgotten what kind of person she was dealing with. Some only understood violence.
She knew it was her fault for not having specified more. In fact, what she had in front of her beautiful eyes was an army. Each rank and specialty was covered, the little people stood waiting for orders while performing various actions. Some were giving orders by radio, or standing firm in their positions, or moving with guns and rifles ready for combat. But still, as magnificent as they were, those beautiful toys of yesterday were not what she wanted. Those soldiers would have been a great gift fifty years ago, but now, no.
"I want an army of orcs or goblins, not plastic soldiers. Models, with many small details, with their weapons and armor." This time the order escaped from her lips without the slightest hint of sweetness, it was a direct order and hard spoken. Learning from her mistakes, she added the next quickly without losing the strength she had acquired. "These are for my cousin, he like to paint them." She needed to be specified or that the jester would look for a way to turn the situation and laugh at her once more.

While the employee was looking for her army again, she could not help but hold her breath afraid of being mocked again. He was looking for another way to make fun of her. But fortunately she was wrong, the employee had a heart, unlike her.
When he returned to the counter, his hands carried exactly what she had asked for. At first sight she could see goblins and knights, but the most she concentrated the more and more races and professions she was able to see.

Clearly the goblins were the little monsters with big ears, standing next to other figures they were the smallest, and even funny. Their expressions were warlike and yet comic at the same time . Some carried sticks with nails, some simple clubs, morning stars and even bows. The ones that looked like humans carried weapons and shields as large as each goblin.
As she observed the disparate army, a triumphant smile appeared on her lips. Clearly that was what she had asked, it was similar to her cousin´s collection, although at first glance it was difficult to know which would be new for him. For her, each of these figures was new.

The gray figures shocked her a bit, most were not painted and exhibited a metallic gray that was so lifeless. They did not spark as she had expected, and that grey reminded her of the sad gray left when stealing colors. It was not something you'd like to see often, so her smile was momentarily hidden under a black cloud of sadness. Maybe that was why her cousin enjoying painting them so much. Perhaps he felt as if he was giving life to these models.

Once all the pieces were in position, the employee began to give specific information about the figures. And Celeste could not help but smile back, Mr anonymous really knew what he was talking about and could easily infect others with that same admiration. she could almost see the love he felt for those figures. With that demonstration of passion and knowledge, he gained a lot of her respect. The employee continued stating the material used in them, and which kind of "units" he had in stock. He even showed her two figures that stood out from the rest. One for being painted and the other for being three times the size of any of the others unit.
At first glance she could see that all the figures possessed a certain quality, but as the employee like a ancient archaeologist revealed the hidden story behind these figures, she began to understand the true value they had. She even gave a quick glance at all again, finding new details like clothing, armor, expressions or body positions. All were wonderful but the knight he designated as Junk Knight was even more magnificent than all the others together. The details were there, for anyone to see, but it was not until the employee with his silver tongue mentioned it that Celeste really paid attention and saw with these details with her own eyes. The play of light and shadow on the figure made it look alive, it had so much life that even seem possible to take out his helmet, shield, sword... perhaps even open each one of his pockets in search of some treasure.

The story behind the piece called Umber Ant was even more striking. In her opinion the monster did not look like an ant, but she had to admit that she did not want to be find a life-size version of that monster. The details were very well made, but again the lack of paint made it look like a dead statue. Still, the monster was unique. 37 years had passed since its creation, and the death of its creator made the giant ant a unique piece of collecion.
Was it her imagination or he felt a special affection for that piece? She did not know if his recent sigh was due to the death of his creator that he considered a big loss, or he lamented the possible sale of the ant.

She almost did not realize that he had asked something so self-absorbed as she was in the observation of those little pieces of art. But when she noticed the question, she rushed to respond, forgetting her authoritarianism and her tone of superiority. This time Celeste replied, and not the queen she pretended to be. "Very satisfied. I would like to buy them all." She smiled and nodded to herself for the good deal she was almost closing. "I doesn´t matter if they repeat but could you add more standard units?" With standard she was referring to the first type of figures that he had shown. The unpainted metal figures. Which seemed petrified. Then she gave him, her almost unlimited debit card. And as usual, she order an extra bonus to be added. "Add 20% more for the problems."

The creatures that came out of the box of extra units were as good as the previous ones. Perhaps better. This new set was composed of heroes, and new monsters that were not among the first, and this time the girl recognized several of the creatures that lay before her. Perhaps that feeling of familiarity with the new units was what made her like them more. She did not need to speculate on what they could be, if orcs, ogres, trolls or goblins. These were clearly dragons, werewolves and skeletons, among other figures.
While admiring the second battalion, the girl nodded solemnly as she passed her eyes over each figures. Analyzing, judging. Silently giving her approval to the employee and the army as well. The entire army looked a bit uneven with many units of different breeds and sizes, but the overall result was much higher than her initial expectations. She wished the days to pass quickly, just to see the surprised face of her cousin while opening the wonderful gift. Surely it would be his best gift.

Quite expensive. Instantly she felt humiliated. Outraged by his audacity. But the feeling quickly disappeared under a heavy curtain of understanding. It was not his fault that low-income people thought that way, for every purchase they had think carefully. Each buy was important. Sometimes, while watching other buyers, she wondered silently how would be to have to measure her costs. And every time she tried to think of that, she felt really frustrated, money was never enough, and she would never feel secure. But the problems of ordinary people was far away from her privileged understanding.
Fortunately for her, the business of his father gave all the family almost unlimited money. With velvety voice she thanked and cursed the employee. "I am touched by your concern, but it also insults me and my family." Although the words were harsh, the tone was not. A simple courtesy to the man who had won some of her respect in so little time.

The insult that once would have ended with a slap of a glove and then in a duel with pistols at dawn, go unnoticed in this case. And even though she had a bad taste on her mouth for such audacity, she preferred to be kept that feeling for herself. There were other ways to tell him that she have plenty of money.
"Do you see the white limousine parked there? Is mine." And indeed, on the sidewalk was parked a white Chrysler Imperial limousine. An elegant carriage with modern style and luxury, a classic fashion that never would get out of date, and that had nothing to envy to the huge hummer limousines with had so little grace and subtlety.

Her eyes widened so much, and with such force that she feared her eyes to come out of their orbits. Her surprise was so great that for few seconds she was paralyzed. Her brains needed valuable seconds to recover from the shock, after her operating system restarted, she continued questioning herself and the universe. How could it happen...? Still trying to understand that unprecedented event when she could not help it anymore and her face contorted in a grimace of brutal hatred. Her eyes narrowed concentrating all their strength in the daring individual. The smile on her face faded completely without a single trace of another residual feeling. At that time there was only room for surprise and hatred. She could not feel anything else. Her gaze pierced the man like lasers. Laser vision. Unfortunately she did not have such power, and the coward employee hid behind the counter. Anyway, the man was a little tall for her to reach him squarely in the face with full force, he was out of reach to get one of her famous sounding and humiliating slaps. So she choose to close her fist tightly until her knuckles ached. Then asked in an unfriendly tone. "Common people rent limousines?" Every word completely bathed in a harsh sarcasm to feign surprise. She continued, adding disbelief to her performance and then mixed it with fascination. "What a strange occurrence. I always buy them." Her animal smile showed her beautiful white teeth. She just lacked a strong grunt.

Now it was her turn to attack. She continued to hold the tone of superiority which separated her from mere mortals, ready to tell him why she used a limousine that was neither the last nor the best. Even when she had not any obligation to do it, she felt as her duty to put some common sense into that man. While trying to mold her mind, her eyes full of fire shoot invisible bullets that penetrated his chest as butter. "Besides the Imperial series, standard or limousine is a classic between classics." Her knuckles already as white as her teeth. It was wise to relax her hand before it exploded. "But what could know about limousines a user of public transport? Or you were dreaming about that, sleepyhead?" Her smile of triumph did not last as much as she expected since she discovered that the evil employee was very well trained in the art of war.

As if the word came of a strange language, the girl repeated softly. Trying to make sense of this peculiar sound. "Discount?" She again felt humiliated to the point she had to hold back and order herself to stay there. So big was her desire to leave the store kicking comics, figures and anything that got in her way. But that would mean she had lost, and therefore that her enemy had won.
With renewed vows, she continued her slightly menacing speech that tried to hide behind a friendly but authoritative tone. "Surely your boss would not care if I pay twice its value." Said the girl, offering her dog smile to the employee. "And neither will want to know that his marvel employee was not only sleeping during work but also refused to close a very substantial sale."