It was a slow, cool day in the shop. Bec and Feisty waited for customers. Both were used to it.

A strange man entered – strange even by the shop's standards. He towered over the counter, bones prominent at selected chakras, jester suit tattered under diaphanous sarongs. His feet were curled and petrified. He greeted the shop assistants with rabbit teeth and one good eye, while the other took a crazed, milky inventory. Then he made for the dim corner and retrieved Bondage Bear.

'I've just got to buy this.'

Bec looked sharply at Feisty, but on seeing him stunned, held fire.

Feisty recovered quickly, to enjoy the rarest of retail triumphs. 'Will that be cash?'

'Yes thanks.'

Bec shook open a plastic bag.

'Lord no! Bondage Bear must be wrapped thus!' So saying, Feisty put the bear into a kneeling position and trussed the arms behind it with a rubber band. The customer nodded. Feisty snipped a corner off the bag and tied it firmly over the bear's head with raffia. Bec watched, mouth agape.

The strange man placed his purchase carefully inside a knapsack and beamed. 'I'm so pleased I found this.' And he swept away into the dusk.

Bec and Feisty gazed after him.

'What, in God's name, is he going to do with that thing?'

'It's not a thing, Bec. It's Bondage Bear. Don't worry, his mystical hand-tooled Indian arm bands will protect him.'

'Bullsh*t; our belts are made in Sydney.'

Feisty froze, a horrified expression on his face. '...I see.'

Bec glanced at her watch. 'It's five-thirty; better bring the stock in.'

END.