Shops that work magic, Tales from Greta's Health Food Store

The moment Hattie entered the new Health food shop she felt ten years old again. She'd always had an evocative memory, one whiff of a satchel and she was back in a gym slip.

The shop was laid out just like Cartwright's the corner shop, where she grew up. So many enticing bottles and colours everywhere, and rich inviting aromas. Back then it had been the sweets that caught her attention. She'd go into Cartwright's with her pocket money, a three penny bit and count out all the sweets she could buy. Shrimps, Flying Saucers, Liquorice strings, sherbet lemons, toffee crunch. Sometimes she would save up for two weeks and then with a sixpence she could buy a whole bar of chocolate. That shop had smelled of magic to Hattie.

 Her weekly trips to the sweet shop had seemed like a magic kingdom comforting her when her brother left home, when she discovered that her mother had a serious illness, when her best friend emigrated to Australia. A feeling of loneliness had crept around her heart and had never gone away. Yes she thought, the sweet shop had saved her.

 Hattie breathed in the smell of the Health Food shop. Her hypersensitive nose could pick out lavender, sage, orange and eucalyptus. Maybe she would find some magic here. There were big shiny posters placed around the shop with photos of beautiful slim women and happy middle-aged couples, all clutching big jars of herbs, minerals and vitamins, pink and blue pills.

Hattie read the list that the alternative health practitioner Greta, had given her. At first glance it looked like any other shopping list, cinnamon, cranberry, beetroot but then there was copper, zinc, chrome and magnesium, Melissa, valeriana and passiflora. Greta said that Hattie had lacked sweetness in her life, she'd never had enough affection and that explained her craving for sweet things.

Every time Hattie went to her doctor and burst into tears he wrote out prescriptions for anti- depressants without even looking up from his desk. Hattie knew she wasn't depressed because she knew what that felt like, she'd had it when Brian was born, nearly forty years ago, and had got through it thanks to Tom's gentle kindness and patience.
 She felt tears come to her eyes as she thought of Tom. She would never stop missing him and the pain of losing him never seemed to lessen.  Now her beloved son Brian was working on the oil rigs in the North Sea and she hadn't seen him for months. She was feeling deeply sad, a lonely little girl turned into a lonely old woman.
 A colleague from the library where she used to work had told her about Greta's advert outside the Newsagents and had her first appointment. Greta had told her all about Naturopathy and the healing power of herbs and plants. When Hattie had told  Brian he'd scoffed and said it was all a load of baloney and she shouldn't believe all the hype.

 Someone coughed behind her and she turned round. It was her new neighbour John.  He looked tired and old, his grey hair needed a cut and his clothes were very crumpled.  Hattie knew that he was on his own and had moved here to be close to his daughter who lived nearby and had two little boys. She'd only seen him once briefly over the fence.

'Sorry Hattie, I didn't want to startle you.' He smiled at her and put his hand on her arm.

'Are you into all this health food ? Maybe you could help me'.

He held out a piece of paper.
 Hattie looked at it and read out loud,' Glucosamine. What's that for?'

'Well my daughter gives it to her horse for his joints and she said I should try it for my dodgy knees. Maybe it will turn me into a stallion.'

Hattie felt a giggle rise in her throat and coughed.

'There it is John, over there with all the other things for arthritis.'

 Above the display of bottles  was a large colourful photo of a grey haired couple running along a beach hand in hand.

John picked up a jar and put it in his basket. Hattie studied him carefully. He was still a handsome man. Her fingers itched to iron his crumpled shirt and sponge down the front of his jacket. She imagined running a hot bubble bath for him and shampooing his hair and giving it a quick trim. She thought of him sitting at her table tucking in to her special casserole and raising  a glass of wine to his lips.
 It had been so long since she'd looked after a man.

John turned to Hattie and she saw his eyes were bright. The young woman by the till had been busy filing her nails but she looked up and smiled at them.

'May I help you both? Greta has gone for a coffee and left me in charge.' She pulled herself up, tossed her mane of shiny hair and grinned.'I'm Greta's niece Jemma. I'm training to be a doctor but this is my work experience.'

John paid for his jar of tablets and then moved aside to study a poster on the wall advertising herbal teas proclaiming to cure all manner of ailments and restore balance and harmony to your life.
 Hattie put  her basket on the counter.  Jemma's eyes widened in amazement at the number of bottles before her.
 The two women looked at each other and smiled. Something passed between them, a sort of female complicity. Hattie thought of the fancy lingerie shop in the High street and the  new butcher's shop next door. An echo of her grandmother's voice travelling down through the years telling her that the best way to keep a man happy is a good steak and  a flash of something frilly. She looked at John hovering near the door and turned back to the young girl.

'I'll just take the cinnamon for now and see how I get on.'

Then she called to John, 'Would you like to come to dinner this evening with your daughter and her family? My son's coming to stay for a few days and I'm going to make a special meal.'

Jemma beamed broadly and looked from one to the other. John's shoulders relaxed and he smiled warmly.

'That's very kind of you Hattie. I'll ask my daughter, but I'd love to come anyway if I may.'

Slowly a cloud started to lift from around Hattie's heart. Just like the sweet shop when she was a little girl, she had found magic here.