Amy wasn't oblivious. She had been fully aware that Mark had had a hopeless crush on her since they were in middle school. For a while Lilly thought Amy was being dense, but gradually realized that Amy just wasn't interested in Mark that way. Sure, the three of them were all great friends, no doubt about it. Amy genuinely loved spending time with both of them, and they had similar tastes. But Mark, and Lilly too for that matter, just seemed so lazy to Amy. Amy spent nearly every waking moment working towards some goal, even if much of it was at her parents' overbearing behest. She might complain about having little free time, but she loved keeping busy and feeling useful. Mark, on the other hand, was involved in no extracurricular activities, and whereas Amy thought through problems and took the effort to find the best solution even if meant a lot of work, Mark spent just as much mental effort finding ways to avoid doing any work at all. He was naturally bright, as Amy was, but he didn't use any of it. He lacked initiative, and even though Amy thought he was a nice guy and a good friend, she couldn't see them ever being in a relationship. Although, as Mark was quick to tell himself whenever he started feeling too depressed about it, she had never had an actual boyfriend anyways. Dating just didn't interest her.
And yet, it was this mentality to find the easy way out that Amy latched onto at the moment. Mark had an idea, a crazy idea, but Amy was willing to try it.
"This guy saved my grandpa back in World War II, and he's been sort of a family friend ever since. He doesn't even look that old, but trust me, I've seen pictures. The guy's gotta' be a hundred or more. Anyways, he knows . . . things."
"Forbidden things?" Lilly said in a mock spooky voice.
"Yeah, forbidden things," Mark snapped back, "Like how to trade on part of yourself for another."
"Explain," Amy said simply.
"Say you want to be better at, I don't know, bowling, but you don't want to take the time to learn it."
The concept was classic Mark. Amy had to smile at that.
"So, you go to this guy--Uncle Al, I always called him, on account of the family friend thing and all-and you say, 'Hey, I want to learn to bowl. Can you get me that?' And he'll be all like, 'Well, I did have some bowlers in the shop a while back. Turns out they didn't want to bowl anymore. They said they'd rather be fly fishermen.' And so the guy goes, 'Hey, I learned how to fly fish with my pop back when I was a kid, but when he died I vowed to never do it again!' So then Uncle Al will take the ability to bowl from the guys he bought it from before, and trade it to the new guy for the fly fishing knowledge."
It sounded incredible, but Amy had seen some strange things in her day. She knew there was a lot more to the world than most people were willing to admit.
"So he buys talents and stores them to sell or trade for later?" Amy asked.
Lilly nodded in appreciation of the idea. "Does he trade physical traits, too? Like if you want better hair?"
"Sure, he does it all. I guess it's how he makes his living. Not sure how he got a bank loan to start a business like that, but he's been at it forever as far as I can tell."
Amy thought about this. Mark just stared at her. As far as he was concerned there was nothing more beautiful than Amy looking off in the distance deep in thought. Most others might say that her taller, shapelier friend Lilly was by far the hotter one, but Mark took Amy's understated figure, shortness, and pretty face over Lilly any day.
"You know what? Let's do it. I'd at least like to hear him out, see what his pitch is."
"But is there anything you'd want to give up?" Lilly asked.
"Pfft, plenty," Amy said, "Do you know how many talents and skills I had to learn that I still know and am never, ever going to use again? Nobody needs to know how to add in Roman numerals! Why would I even that?"
"He lives in his shop. He's probably closed this late on a Saturday but we can still go visit him," Mark said.
"But let's get some food first, I'm starving," Lilly said. Mark agreed.
"We ate, like, four hours ago, guys," Amy said. Mark was a fairly big guy, and so it made sense he ate more than two girls his age, but Lilly ate far more than her slim figure should allow. Amy's mom used to constantly berate her and claim she would be fat by the time she was twenty if she kept it up. So far the prediction was false, but Lilly still was self-conscious about eating at Amy's house because of it. Amy, though, ate very little, and only as a practical means. She was not one to appreciate good food.
But they did stop for a quick bite all the same.
Uncle Al was actually Alonso, if the name on the door to his store was anything to go by. The store had two stores crammed in between two larger buildings in the town square, away from most of the main buildings and courthouse. Amy couldn't remember ever noticing it there before. The sign said it was closed, yet Mark knocked anyways.
"Uncle Al, it's Mark! You in there?"
Some rustling inside. From the shadows a man looking to be no more than sixty emerged. His sour face lit up when he saw Mark and he opened the door for them.
"Mark, my boy!" he ushered them in. He spoke with some kind of accent, but Amy couldn't place it. He had a sort of Old World charm about him, in his manners and clothing. He turned on a light. Amy saw that book shelves lined the walls, filled with books and boxes in no discernible order. The boxes dominated, each one study, heavy, and locked.
"And who are your friends?" Uncle Al asked after the two exchanged hugs.
"This is Lilly, and Amy," Mark said. The man got a look in his eye when he said Amy. Presumably Mark had told him about her, Amy thought. Yet he never mentioned his great Uncle Al to them before, so how close could they really be?
"A pleasure to meet you both," he said. "Sit, sit," he motioned to some chairs, "You want some coffee?"
"Yeah we would," Mark said. Al went to get some freshly brewing in a back room.
"Now," he returned with the mugs. "What can I do for you young people? Is it business?"
"Afraid so, Uncle Al," Mark said, "See, Amy has a problem and we think you can give her a way out of it."
"Mm, well, I can't really 'give' ways out of tight spots, my boy," he said, his voice growing more serious, "I would if I could, but it's just not the way it works, you understand."
"Oh, Mr, uh . . ."
"Just Al," he said.
"Mr. Al, I wouldn't ask for anything for free," Amy said. She had thought a lot about this on the way over. She had thought she knew what she had to offer and what she wanted. "What I want is to be able to spend less time studying. I want to absorb information faster, learn more thoroughly than I do now."
"Mmm," Al leaned back. He seemed to understand exactly what Amy was saying, "You want more intelligence, you mean? But why would you want that? I can size up a person better than most anyone and I can tell you're about the sharpest sixteen-year-old I've ever seen."
Amy blushed a little despite herself. "I'm getting a lot of pressure from my parents to do even more than I already am. There just aren't enough hours in the day. I have to have some down time. I need to have a social life."
"Mmm," Al said again, thinking. He glanced to Mark, who looked oddly eager. "Stand up, Amy, let me have a look at you."
"Oh, okay," Amy stood up, feeling awkward. Al walked around her, and Amy didn't entirely like the way he was sizing her up. Not like a dirty old man, more like an art appraiser.
"Intelligence is a might big thing to trade, young lady. It's one of the last things people come in here asking to trade. I've given quite a bit of money and other boons to get what I have." He continued to pace around her.
"I-I understand that. I've thought about this. I have a lot of knowledge, talents, abilities, that I learned over the years. I know four languages mostly fluently--Spanish and French pretty well, but I'm not willing to give up English, or Mandarin, my dad would kill me. I learned higher level calculus just last summer but I don't think I'll ever need it again. I am a master chess player, for another thing . . ."
Al nodded but wasn't fully listening. It would not be mental traits this girl could trade for. She was plenty talented and smart, but too young. Maybe in ten yeas her abilities would make fine catches, but now he could see exactly what she had that others might want. She might not look like a model like her friend there, but she had some prized attributes he knew people would give a lot to have. Her body was slim, for one thing, and what she lacked in obvious curves she made up for in the benefits of having a flat stomach, a slim waist, a cute little butt and breasts. Not to mention she had a perfectly balanced appetite and metabolism. People with no self control would kill to have her lack of desire to eat more than she needed. Oh yes, Al, thought, a young, pretty girl like this could get him a lot of business, even if honestly he would have preferred Lilly in these matters.
"Young lady, I have to be honest. I have intelligence, raw intelligence, I can let you have that will make learning so easy for you you'll hardly remember doing it. But it's mighty precious to me, and to let it go I'm going to have to take more than just one or two things from you."
"How about five?" Amy said.
Al smiled broadly, and laughed, "All right, five is a good number."
"So, you want my Spanish, French, chess, all those things?"
"Well, first things first. I can take specific knowledge but since I'm giving you intelligence I can't take anything that would stop you from using it. And I won't do anything to hurt or maim you at all, no sir."
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