No, this blog isn’t about men who drink a bottle of vodka a day and wake up in the morning to the sight of Anne Widdecombe sitting next to them all dolled up for Come Dancing as they stare bleary eyed into the mirror. It’s about quartz crystals with a clear well defined point known as a termination at each end. In the jargon of the crystal healing fraternity this is known as a double termination, hence the D.T’s. The important question is why people want them and are willing to fork out the cash.A woman came to the stall yesterday and seeing I had some in an open box on the table, talked the talk and showed me she had the knowledge. About crystal healing I mean, not driving a black cab in London.
“Very powerful,” she enthused. “I can feel the energy from here.”
“Real power,” I solemnly confirmed. “Double terminations have that effect on people.”
I was there to take money not talk about Dostoyevsky. Unless he helped me sell crystals that is.
She leaned forward and slowly moved her hand over the box. There was suddenly a surprised look on her face. “Wow, one of them’s really responding.”
“It must be in tune with all your chakras,” I said knowingly. “The healing energy flowing through freely all the way to its maximum. It only happens with doubles and one of them’s got to be special to you.”
She looked at me like I was an idiot. She knew all that!
I peered down over the box with visible reverence. All the crystals were translucent at least and most of the small ones transparent. Those cost me 50 pence each. The larger ones, 2-3 inches long, up to a couple of quid. If the big ones were fractured inside I got them for half, wholesale prices of course.
“There’s something very unusual in there,” I said softly, shooting her a meaningful glance. “You can see it. It’s darker than the rest.”
“Full of dark energy,” she shot back. “I’ve been reading about it.”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “”It’s that mysterious energy all the cosmologists are talking about. They say it makes up most of the Universe but no-one’s discovered it yet. This double termination’s a smoky quartz crystal. The only one that I’ve got. It’s packed with atoms of manganese.”
I instantly knew I shouldn’t have said it. Bloody disaster! Trying to talk scientific! The woman was a believer. Confine the conversation to Energy, Chakras and Healing. Take the money you idiot. This wasn’t the Royal fucking Society.
For a moment I thought I’d lost it. Twenty quid down the drain but mercifully she restored my faith. With a gentle movement of her hand she rolled the crystals out of the box onto the table and separated them out. Then closing her eyes moved her hand over each. For some reason I thought of Derren Brown!
“Got it,” she shrieked, picking up some piece of crap I only sold for a tenner.
My heart sank. The smoky quartz rarity was left to its own devices. “Can’t you see the ghost?” she said triumphantly. “There’s a ghost crystal inside. That’s where all the power’s coming from.”
I gazed and gazed. Like Wordsworth at the poxy daffodils. Yes, I could see it! Quickly, act all amazed! “It’s a real ghost,” I murmured in wonder. “The power’s not just doubled, the increase is geometrical!”
Her manner turned all aggressive. “I suppose you’ll be wanting ten times more for it now.”
“Actually I won’t,” I said, allowing a look of bitterness to steal over my face and thinking fast. The healing crowd used the term ghost for what was just a common phenomenon. A fracturing of the internal lattice. It was because it went with a double termination that was freaking her out. It was the idea that was energising her. Exciting what she already had in her head from some healing book she’d been reading, making her so susceptible to suggestion. So open to the dark side!
I had to take hold of myself. It was the frigging Emperor’s voice I was hearing…
“The price was twenty and now it’s fifteen,” I said coolly. “Just so you don’t think I’m ripping you off.”
She pulled out a note. It was purple. “Keep the change, darling,” she smiled extra sweet. “I like what I’ve got and I know you’re really one of us.”
And no, she didn’t want it in tissue. I let her go saying it was the right thing for her then bent down and took another from the box under the table. It was even bigger and also fractured. The wholesalers thought they were flawed and flogged them off cheap. I was surprised she hadn’t sensed it. With that kind of power she could have been ruling the Galaxy!
