Tori felt a huge sigh of relief. She had made contact. Maybe the reading wouldn’t be that day, but she had literally got her foot in the door. The tension in her shoulders relaxed. She hadn’t realized how taut she was. Now she could browse around for real and look at the art displays and maybe, actually, find something she could turn into a hobby.

She walked over to Hot Sand and watched with fascination as someone blew glass into a colorful sphere. She noticed several of them hanging from the ceiling. The tag said:

WISHING BALL

How appropriate. Maybe she should buy one. She picked one with colors of turquoise and aqua. The price was $65. She stopped and decided it would be too much to spend and her husband would have a conniption fit. Another artist walked over to her, and said, “Hi. We’re having a special today. Everything is twenty percent off.”

Tori eyed the ball again. “It’s beautiful.”

“One of my faves, actually,” the artist said.

Tori did the math in her head. Just a little over $52. She could fudge that in her weekly household allowance. Then she stopped herself. She didn’t have to justify buying something beautiful and original. Sure, there would be a bit of a dust-up over it, but she didn’t care. She contributed plenty to their overhead, including doing all the chores. “You’ve got a deal.”

The artist pulled out a step stool and plucked it from the hook. “I just polished it this morning so it’s good to go! Make a wish!”

Tori didn’t know where to begin but then settled on “guidance.” She closed her eyes and repeated it silently to herself. That was a lot easier than she thought.

The artist smiled. “Let me wrap that up for you.” She took the glass ball and went into a back room. Tori watched with curiosity as the other artist continued spinning glass into an object of art. A few minutes later, the artist returned with a colorful shopping bag with the piece of blown glass carefully packed in a box surrounded by bright tissue. “I put some filament in an envelope for you for when you hang it.”

“Thank you. I think it’s the first real piece of original anything I’ve ever owned.” Tori blushed with a slight bit of embarrassment.

“Well then, I am rightly pleased you chose one of my pieces to begin.” The artist smiled brightly and handed the rainbow of colors to her. “Thank you very much and I hope to see you again. Good luck and enjoy your day.”