The boy had managed to clean half of the shelves that adorned the other side of the shop.

Incense, crystals, stones, plants, little brass bowls that made funny ringing noises that reminded him of Tibetan monks, were only a few of the items that sat on the shelves. The boy was standing on a step stool dusting the top of a display case when the bell above the front door jingled.

In walked a tall, blonde haired white man with dirty looking dreadlocks and a nose piercing like a bull. He was very lanky and covered in tattoos, dressed in a tye dye shirt with cargo shorts, leather sandals, and what looked like a burlap poncho. He had on a knitted red, black, green, and yellow striped backpack, with a black leather fanny pack buckled to his waist. He thought the man looked like a hippie.

“Hello sir, how may I help you today?”

The man turned to the boy and smiled so big the boy thought his face would crack. The man placed his hands together in a prayer gesture and bowed.

“Namaste.” Said the strange man in a very laid back voice. “My name is Rowan.”

The boy looked suspiciously at Rowan. “I’m Jovan, how may I help you today?”

“I’ve come in preparation for a journey to the deepest parts of my essence.” Rowan said dreamily. “Has Labiba informed you of my arrival?” 

The boy realized this is who the old man was waiting on. What a weird fellow, thought the boy, and he smells like he needs to take a shower.

“Oh, um, yeah it’s over here.” The boy made his way around the back of the counter and produced the very large zip lock bag full of mushrooms.

“Ahh, perfect.” Rowan said gleefully, placing his hands together again as he approached the boy. 

He took off his backpack and plopped it on the counter. He unzipped his fanny pack, and placed a very large sum of money in front of the boy, simultaneously taking the bag of mushrooms and stuffing it into the backpack.

“And this is for you, young adventurer.” The man pulled out a clear tube with a joint inside from his fanny pack and handed it to the boy. “Tell Labiba I will contact him when my mothership has landed safely back into the station.” 

With that, the man made another prayer bow, turned around, and exited the store. The boy was left standing there, dumbfounded. He was convinced; that man was definitely out of his mind. 

He stared at the amount of money on the counter. He picked it up and started to count it. $10s, $20s, $50s, $100s, it seemed there was every kind of bill inside the stack of money. He separated each note into its own pile by denomination. 

The total added up to $2000 by the time he was done counting. Woah, thought the boy, he could never make this much money in one day, let alone 5 minutes.

“Ah, good, I thought I heard the front door.”

The boy nearly jumped out of his skin as the old man emerged from behind the doorway.

“Jesus!” Said the boy. “You scared the shit outta me!”

“You need to work on your awareness.” He said as he reached down and gathered the money, stacking it into a neat pile, he folded it in half and stuffed it in his pocket.

“Thank you for doing that, he is one of my best customers but I don’t quite like doing business with him.” The old man leaned in close to the boy, shielding his mouth with his hand as if to tell him a secret. “It’s the smell.” He whispered.

The boy burst into laughter, as the old man chuckled softly.

“He’s very weird.” The boy admitted. “He kept bowing to me like this.” The boy imitated the man’s gesture.

The boy reminded himself of the old man lighting the incense earlier, and realized he had done the same thing. 

“What does Namaste mean?” He asked.

“It means my soul recognizes yours. Or, the divine within me acknowledges the divine within you.” Said the old man.

“Oh...” Said the boy, now feeling slightly foolish. “He wasn’t all bad though, he gave me a joint.”

The old man raised an eyebrow at the boy, as he raised the joint in the air smiling.

“No smoking on the job.” Said the old man.

“But we shared a whole blunt earlier!” Proclaimed the boy.

“I wasn’t open yet.” The old man stated as he folded his arms. “But feel free to take it home with you. Mushrooms might give you a bit of nausea, and the joint will help with that. You’re lucky, Rowan grows some of the best cannabis around. You could learn a lot of techniques from him.” The man picked up the joint and smelled it. “Ah yes, he gave you his best. Legend OG. Legendary.” 

The old man smiled fondly, “The shop looks good, hasn’t been this clean in a long time.” He said as he looked around.

“Thanks.” Said the boy as he tucked the joint inside his small bag of mushrooms, stashing them back behind the counter. “I’m about to start on the middle.”

“Good.” Replied the old man looking at the clock. “I’m going to deposit this into the safe,” he said tapping his pocket, “and meditate for a bit. You should be finished by the time I’m done.”

The boy thought about what had just transpired as he cleaned the display of healing crystals. He hadn’t seen a customer in the shop all day besides Rowan. 

I’d bet that’s how he pays for all this, he thought, he’s using the store as a front for selling drugs! But after everything that Labiba had said, and all the things that he had seen already, there had to be something more to it than just selling drugs.

The boy tried to think about what might be inside of the old man’s back room, but found himself unable to concentrate on thinking. He began to lose himself in the task at hand. Just as the boy started wiping down the counter, the old man re-emerged from the back of the store.

“Well,” He said, “Indeed, you seem to have cleared your mind quite well.” Inspecting the boy’s work, he made his way around the shop, swiping his finger along random surfaces as if he was a parent checking his child’s chore work.

The old man reached in his pocket, pulled out $100, and placed it on the counter.

“This is for the day’s work.” Said the old man. “Your lesson is to go home and take what I have given you. Only smoke the joint 1 hour after you have taken the mushrooms. No sooner, no later. And remember my instructions!”

The boy nodded earnestly.

“But it’s not even 6pm yet.” Said the boy, “I still have another hour left.”

The old man bent down so that he was looking the boy directly in his eyes.

“One should never question the good graces that God has bestowed upon you. To question the flow of the universe and hesitate to heed its instruction, can be the difference between life and death. One must always be aware of their intuition, and my intuition is telling me that you are done here for the day.”

The old man stood up and smiled.

“Be back here tomorrow at 9am.” He said.

With that, he sat down on the stool behind the counter, pulled a joint from his pocket, and began to smoke.

The boy emptied out his hoodie and put it on. He gathered together the gun and the bag of mushrooms, then stuffed them into his pocket. Right before the boy left the shop, he turned to the old man, put his hands together, and bowed.

Next Chapter: Zen