The secret of the magic portal in the changing room

It was hard being a magic shopkeeper in a fancy dress shop with a magic portal in the changing room.
For a start he didn't like wearing the fez.
The consequences of the choice of head attire, made so many years ago,were with him everyday.
If only he'd bothered to read the contract properly. Maybe if he'd used an agent or solicitor. He had been unaware of the permanence of the clothing choice made on his first day as "The Shopkeeper".


And just appearing and disappearing grew very tiresome. To those watching (i.e. Mr Benn) he just appeared. For the shopkeeper, it was an experience akin to being dropped by a Heron into a pond. And disappearing was like being plucked by a Heron from a pond. Not really very pleasant. Not very pleasant at all.

All the time he had to wear this ridiculous outfit with the fez! The fucking fez!

So why on earth is it surprising that he would want to share his pain? Having to go through this was ok the first few times. But the constant pain of appearing, disappearing and wearing a fez all to serve one man some "adventures" was borne alone. No one to talk to or share in his misery.

No one to share in his misery....until now.

Mr Benn was to sample the horror of an incomprehensible existence. All he had to do is find a way to make Mr Benn question his own ludicrous existence, to become self aware. With self awareness comes misery.

Once the shopkeeper had achieved this, he would at least have someone with whom to share his misery. He would then at least not be alone  - in a fez.

Alone in a fez is the most alone anyone can be.

So his plan was to help Mr Benn to question. Until now Mr Benn had simply accepted the situation:

• He turned up at the fancy dress shop.
• The Shopkeeper appeared - as if by magic.
• He went into the changing room, through a portal into another world and at the end of the day took home a souvenir of his 'adventure'.

He happily did this for years without question. Never once did he turn to the shopkeeper and say,"This is all very odd" or anything that suggested he didn't accept this as all completely normal. This infuriated the fez wearing man.

"Is Benn a simpleton?" he thought to himself. "Has he no critical faculties or curiosity about how this all works?"

The answer had been,"apparently not."

So the task the shopkeeper set himself was to turn this simple, happy man, who breezed through his smartly dressed life without much care, into someone who questioned and pondered the meaning, but also to bring him to the verge of breakdown. The shopkeeper needed Mr Benn to feel the pain. "Then" thought the shopkeeper, "I will no longer be alone."

He would use the portal.

The portal, usually based in the changing room of the fancy dress shop, holds a secret known only to the shopkeeper.