The Merchant’s Blog

Merchant’s Log: February10 http://www.thetreasuremerchants.com

Morning

First Entry.

The Storms must have raged through the night, for as I made my way across the docks through the early morning fog, I could see that the mooring lines had come loose from their fittings, driftwood and other debris had crowded up against the docksides.

I made a mental note to myself to help clean up the mess before the next merchant ship arrived,
But for now, a hot cup of coffee was calling me.

I climbed the wood plank, zig zag steps up to the first landing and paused to take a breath. I was carrying a special package today, one long awaited for, and did not want to risk dropping it.
As I carefully checked the bundle beneath my cape, I caught the faint whiff of deep dark chocolate escape the pouch.
Not just any chocolate. A rare variety from the Ivory Coast that had come on the evening tide, brought by a merchant ship rarely seen in these parts.
As my thoughts wandered to where he had come from, and what adventures had been his, I tucked the precious parcel back inside, and began the climb up the next set of stairs.

I could see the shutters to the shop first through the fog, followed by the quaint round front door, with it’s time ravaged bell fixed atop. I made another mental note to myself to get a new bell soon, though this one still rang true, and frankly, shepherd bells are hard to find these days.

I put my package down on the front bench, smelling the Lavender in the window boxes as I did so.
Ah, (deep breath) I will never tire of that fragrance!
I straightened the “Treasure Merchants” sign that had blown askew in the storm, broke off a few sprigs of rosemary and tucked it into my shirt pocket, and opened the door.

I made my way straight to the french coffee percolator. I measured out a few teaspoons of my favorite Blessed Bean coffee, (Sumatra, if you must know), and while it perked and dripped, I busied myself in readying the shop for opening.

I threw the shutters wide, and breathed in the ocean air. From here, overlooking the vast blue sea, we can see for miles in all directions. The air is crisp and clear up here and full of surprises.
(Sometimes I can smell the spices from the merchant ships from miles off).
On the horizon I could see a ship, a merchant brig whose colors I well knew. The gulls had already started to gather on the docks, and the longshoremen were busy at their preparations.

As the morning fog slowly burned away, I could see that the storm had indeed passed.
We were in for a gloriously sunny day.
The coffee’s aroma was filling the shop, and as I arranged the special fragrant soaps from England, and Portugal, straightened the spicy incense from India, and took in all the sparkling treasures that filled each nook and cranny, my thoughts went back to the chocolate.

I carefully opened the Pouch of fair trade chocolate (another plus, I thought) and inhaled the heady dark scent. A stamp in the brick read “Theo”.
Tucked inside the cambric fabric was a cryptic note that simply read “Hold for stranger”.

“Hold for stranger?” how odd, I thought. Virtually everyone in these parts is a stranger or traveler or some such. So many come and go in this “portal to the world” that I can barely keep track of all the visiting faces. This ship or that with it’s exotic passengers and colorful Sea Captains.
Oh well, I folded the cambric gently back around the brick of decadence, and put it on the shelf for safe keeping.

Whoever this “stranger” was, I would meet him soon enough…………………..

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 2:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.