I went to the market and bought a chocolate tree.

The day was bright but slightly overcast, with streaky clouds blowing along, high in the sky. I like the market best in bright sunshine but this was a pretty good second choice, and a lovely way to get my cloudy mind into fresh air. People arrange their market stalls beautifully so that it’s a feast for the eyes.

This market attracts vendors with some really offbeat fruits and vegetables, grown by enthusiasts. Their rules about local produce are generous so flowers can come from a huge variety of ecosystems, or be grown in greenhouses, or in weed lots. 

So I wasn’t surprised to see two women holding greens I didn’t recognize. I was surprised that they were arguing. Each had a basketful of other purchases, and the baskets had names on them. I had seen the women before at the market since their baskets made them memorable..

‘Van’ was holding a bunch of green leaves with a fuzzy texture and white bloom over them. “See? It’s rapunzel salad.”

“No, that’s just lamb’s quarters. This is rampion and it’s awfully early.” The second woman, ‘Kit’, was holding a rosette of slender leaves about four inches long. “And see, I have roots with it.” 

“No, that’s just campanula.”  

“This kind of campanula is also known as rampion, and it is the rapunzel salad!”

“I just bought these greens and the vendor said they are rapunzel greens.” 

“So did my vendor!” 

As their argument started to escalate I looked around for the dueling vendors. The market consists of two long rows of vendors, set up facing a wide central aisle, curving through a large parking lot. Large vendors often had their trucks behind them. Small vendors can set up tables down the middle, and the curve allows for surprises.

The wind was light and clouds kept blowing across the sun, but between two vendor trucks on the curve there seemed to be steady sunlight. I walked over to look down the alleyway between the trucks, just as another customer stepped out from between them. He was carrying a bouquet of violets, both purple and white, and lilies of the valley, whose fragrance stopped me, even ten feet away. Pink nemesia, prairie gentians and meadow rue were also mixed in. And moss roses. 

A pretty woman with dark hair and light eyes was his objective. She did not like the bouquet, wrinkling her nose at it. “I like much bigger flowers. Those are too tiny, and smell too much. Couldn’t you find anything better? I’ll have to come look myself. Just dump those.” 

He turned and dropped the flowers right into my basket. His head down, he saw my cane first, and then the basket in the other hand. Before his eyes lifted the rest of the way he had released the flowers. I saw the surprise on his face, registering faint familiarity, when his eyes met mine, just before he turned again and walked back into the sunlit alley with the dark-haired lady. 

The two women arguing over rampion and rapunzel and corn salad, were tossing around terms like Shakespeare and the Grimm brothers and Heine and Frederich Schulz, and people started giving them a wide berth. And all the while, the produce in their hands sparkled like green jewels. 

The couple arguing about flowers had vanished. I walked up to the alley and just as I took the last step, I reached ahead with my cane. For a moment as I looked left between the trucks I could see the parking lot beyond them and the generator and crates and extras that vendors bring to markets. Overlaying that was another market at right angles, where two long rows of vendors were offering the most wonderful vegetables and flowers and other things that sparkles. 

The vendors… were different. Very different. They were goblins. 

They were just … goblins. They were generally short and had sharp teeth in wide grinning mouths, and they seemed to flicker, in and out of my vision. I pulled the cane back before I took the last wobbly step and the alley vanished. Well, “vanish” is a very definite word. The flicker quit flickering!  

I stepped sideways very carefully, and turned around and walked back down the long vendor line. My orthopedic doctor would be proud of my exercise, I thought. At the far end of the line, I circled around and started walking back up the other side, passing the apple seller, and the yogurt man, and the baker of fresh bread, and the wood carving master. I came up on the opposite side of the market from those two trucks, and didn’t see anything special. As I watched there was a sudden sparkle of sunlight at my right side and I leaned forward. I was looking down the long line of goblin vendors. There was an extension of the goblin market on this side, and I had crossed the line.

My first instinct was to back right out but there was a goblin behind me, and instead, I stepped forward hastily. I knew better, but while I was still using a cane, I was terrified of falling again. 

And this market was beautiful.