The Charmed Card and Paper Shop

On a dark street corner, off a narrow road off Main Street, stands a small card shop. It has all the accoutrements you expect from a card shop—racks of greeting cards, shelves of specialty paper, pencil holders filled with pens from calligraphy to fineline, to Blackwing pencils, and writerly gifts of all kinds. Whether you need five hundred engraved wedding invitations or a simple thank-you card, you can find it at Charmed.

Dalia learned the art of cardmaking sitting under her mother’s art table. She collected the bits and pieces that fell from her mother’s work to create miniature tableaux. Her mother pasted these onto cards and sold them at the fairs they frequented to make a living. Alifair oohed and aahed at Dalia’s work. “Oh, this is wonderful, mieloji. How did you know to use color that way?”

Dalia shrugged a shoulder and absorbed the compliment as if it were the most nourishing of foods.

Alifair Voytek was an artist of certain renown. Her mixed media pieces with their symbols and hidden treasures captivated onlookers, drew them inside the art, giving them insight into their own minds. Something that often scared people. Nobody really wanted to look into a mirror and see their fears and faults. So Alifair and Dalia never stayed long in any one place.

Dalia fulfilled her promise to her mother and studied art in college. Something that nearly broke her. Professors understood history and technique and theory. They didn’t understand the simple complexity of her work and made her feel as if her work, and therefore she, had no worth. And none of her classes came close to teaching her the art of inserting intention into a piece the way her mother had. And intention carried with it a certain kind of magic.

Dalia is an attentive shopkeeper, who seemingly knows just what you’re looking for, earning her a solid five-star reputation.

Behind the check-out counter stands an antique rolltop desk where a special collection of cards resides. You can’t buy these cards; they must be gifted to you. And Dalia knows who to gift a card to by the sound of her shop’s bell. It seems to say, “For her!” or “For him!”

You can imagine her surprise when one day a man walked into her shop and the thought of her latest creation—a heart of periwinkle forget-me-nots and a miniature sand dollar—came to mind. And this time, the bell said, “For you.”

P.S. Read about Dalia and the Charmed Card and Paper Shop in The Art of Mending Hearts, Love in Brighton Village Book 6.