Page 101 of The Time Hop Coffee Shop
‘Come on, Mum, let’s go,’ Lottie said, wrapping her arms around herself. ‘It’s cold out here.’
‘Okay. Just a minute,’ Greta murmured. Something else had caught her eye, nestled amongst a crop of dandelions. Approaching it, she held her breath.
Could it be . . . ?
She crouched down and gently picked it up.
A jade mortar and pestle.
Greta turned the mortar over in her hands, its pale green surface glinting in the weak daylight. There was a note taped to the bottom.
Use Wisely.
Greta’s fingers tingled as she held the cool jade. Was it a reminder? Or a gift?
The shop might have disappeared, but Iris had left something behind—to help mix and create. Maybe magic wasn’t about coffee and wishes after all. Maybe it was about blending the past and the present—l ove and ambition, reality and hope.
Her mum had always said a cup of good coffee could fix most things, and Greta liked to think that was true. There was something comforting in carrying little pieces of her mum’s wisdom forward, even in something as small as a mortar and pestle.
Greta carried them over to show Jim and Lottie.
‘What’s that?’ Jim asked.
Lottie peered around his arm.
‘I think it’s a present from Iris.’ Greta held up the small bowl, catching a faint scent of aniseed on the breeze. Or perhaps she imagined it. ‘She used this to mix her coffee blends.’
Jim gave a small nod. ‘Maybe she thought you could use it . . .’
‘I wondered the same thing, too,’ Greta said, pleased they were both on the same page. She placed it carefully in her handbag, glad it was her roomy old leather one rather than her tiny Mapleville handbag.
She linked arms with Jim and Lottie.
‘Come on,’ Greta said brightly. ‘Let’s go and get a cappuccino.’
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