THE MIDNIGHT MARKET

 Lilian wiped down the tables. The restaurant was about to close in thirty minutes. She had taken this job to support herself. She was a graduate student studying biochemistry. She lived in Berkeley, sharing a room in a house with two other young girls.

As she wiped the tables, her thoughts wandered. This shift was longer than usual. Time seemed to move slowly. She had homework she needed to complete before going to bed. She stared at the time on the big wall clock close to the register. It was a few minutes to midnight. She needed to get going. Her boyfriend George was not answering her calls. She would probably Uber home, the last train left at 11.30. She lived two miles away, but didn’t feel like walking. She pulled out her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and tried to call him again for the fifth time. The call went straight to voicemail. She wondered where he was and what he was doing. She noticed a change in his behavior lately. He didn’t spend much time on the phone, he began cancelling dates last minute.

“He is probably seeing someone else Lilian, I hate to be the one to break it to you,” Pamela, her Chinese room mate, told her while they played dominoes on Saturday evening.

“If he is seeing someone, maybe he should break up with me, so he can move on with his life.” Lilian replied.

“It’s not that simple, men do not like initiating break ups, just like men don’t like filing divorce. They want the woman to do it, they would rather remain in a miserable marriage than file for a divorce.” Pamela said as she took a sip from the lemonade in the mason jar beside her.

“It’s a cowardly move in my own opinion,” Lilian replied.

Lilian picked up her backpack and bade the chef Timothy and the bus boy Idris goodnight. As she walked outside the restaurant, George’s familiar Toyota Camry was parked outside. She was relieved. She didn’t need to call an Uber.

She opened the passenger door and sat in the seat. She looked at George, who had an expression on his face she had never seen before.

“Are you okay?” Lilian asked.

“Hello, for starters would be nice,” George replied coldly. She sensed the coldness in his voice, but she could not understand why he was cold to her.

“What is the problem?” Lilian asked.

“We need to talk,” George replied.

“I am listening,” Lilian replied.

“I am tired of the relationship, we need to end this,” George told her.

Lilian’s heart sank. She knew something was wrong, but contrary to what Pamela said, he called for the end of the relationship. It was obvious he was no longer interested. She saw the signs. He was always short with her, he got angry quickly, he canceled date nights. He made excuses. It was a lot of things. She was not sure what to say, but one thing for sure was, she was relieved. Tears began to form in her eyes, she held them back from spilling onto her face. She didn’t want to give George the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She wasn’t going to ask questions either, who she was or why the break up. It was not worth the hassle. He clearly didn’t respect her. She had so much ahead of her. Her father always told her that God would not let your yesterday be better than your today.

“Thank you for everything, goodbye,” Lilian said as she opened the passenger door and walked away. She heard George calling her name, she didn’t look back, neither was she going to answer. George stepped out of the car and yelled her name. She kept walking briskly, each step was a little faster. She decided to walk home. The tears began to fall down her cheeks. She wanted to be strong for herself, but her heart decided to bleed a little.

Lilian had taken a leisurely walk to her house once. When she was still exploring the neighborhood during the pandemic. There were so many emotions going through her mind. It was a painful break up, even though she was relieved. George was definitely seeing someone else, and she wanted no parts in his shenanigan.

She was sure the route she was going was correct, but suddenly she saw beautiful bright lights.

What street was she on? She checked for the street sign and saw Post Street. Yes, she was familiar with Post Street, but she had never seen the bright lights. The illumination was attractive, and it picked her interest. She slowly walked towards the lights. The road began to form a turn, and it stretched, making the lights seem closer. It was a market. She had never seen this market before or heard of it. The surprising thing was how late the market was open. The path was lined with light, the vendors stood behind their wares.

There was an old woman at the entrance. She was shriveled, about five feet tall with gray hair.

“Hello young lady,” the old woman greeted, exposing her gums as she smiled. She only had three teeth.

“Hello,” Lilian replied.

“Welcome to the Midnight Market,”

“Yes, I have never seen this market, and the lights led me here out of curiosity. I followed the lights.” Lilian replied.

“Interesting, well there are rules you need to know,” the old lady said.

Lilian nodded slowly. She turned back to look. All she could see were lights. The road behind her no longer looked familiar.

“Rule One, you have to come here with the intent to buy. You cannot come here out of curiosity or intent to harm or cheat anyone,” The old lady began.

Lilian didn’t have a problem with the rule. She had some money, the only thing was she hoped the goods were not too expensive.

“I hope to buy something.” Lilian replied.

“Good,” the old lady replied nodding slowly.

“If you don’t buy anything, you won’t be able to leave the market,” the old lady replied.

It was a strange condition. What if she didn’t find what she wanted to buy?

“What if I don’t find anything I want?” Lilian asked. She did not think the condition was fair.

“You will find what you need in this market,” the old lady replied. “Secondly, do not touch the item unless you intend to purchase it, if you touch an item without purchasing it, you have automatically placed a curse on it, and whoever buys it will have bad luck, it will also bring bad luck to the market.”

Lilian had never heard anything like that before. It was a strange market. She wondered what was sold. She didn’t see clothes, shoes or purses. There were no groceries either. It was oddly strange. She saw a vendor selling lanterns. Another vendor was selling ear buds. They were from a unique brand, because she had never seen the brand before. She decided to visit each vendor to see what was being sold, before she could make a decision. She realized there were not many people at the market either.

“You can only buy one thing, so make a wise decision before making your purchase. If you try to buy more than one thing, all the purchases will void out, and the custodians of the market will lead you out, and you will never come back here again.” The old lady informed her.

Each rule got weirder as it was told. She looked back, but the road out of the market did not look familiar. Was she dreaming?

“Next rule, you cannot tell anyone about the market, the market only shows up once a year in a random place, so if you try to come back here tomorrow, the market will be gone. If you tell anyone about the market, you lose your memory, and other consequences associated with your purchase will begin to happen to you.” the old lady said with a stern look on her face.

A cold feeling came over Lilian. She should have ubered home. Now she was in a strange place.

“And finally, you must leave before dawn. If you don’t leave before dawn, you will be stuck here until the next appearance, which will be about a year from now.” The old lady said with an air of finality.

Lilian looked at the time, it was 12.32 am.

The old lady gave a smirk. “Time does not work here, when you see the vendors packing up their goods, know it’s time to leave, the time only works for visitors when they are not in the market, it stopped as soon as you walked into the market.”

Lilian sighed.

“Do you understand everything I have just told you?” the old lady asked.

“Yes,” Lilian replied nervously.

The old lady made way for her to walk into the market.

to be continued