Charlie was out of soya margarine, tofu sausages and baked beans. He wrote his shopping list on the back of an old water bill that hadn’t been paid for a few years now. It was dated 4th June 1986. His usual diet of orange juice mixed with macca powder and bananas was getting tedious now. He wanted a change. He needed a change. The old brain cells needed to work even faster for his up and coming manifestation project. He’d lived without an oven or hob for 4 years and 4 months now. He’d become a dab hand at heating tins of baked beans on the radiators and grilling peppers, tomatoes and bread in the George Forman. But old George would soon become a thing of the past when Charlie brought a new level of cordon bleu into his cookery regime.
Charlie was the strictest kind of vegan. He had given all his leather boots, shoes and belts to Oxfam and to homeless people he knew on the streets. He gave up his honey, cheese and milk in favour of the wide range of vegan milks such as soya, oatly, coconut and rice milk. He had even started making his own sunflower milk from a few sunflowers mixed with water in his blender. The only thing he missed now was his honey, especially when he had a cold. Anyway Charlie was not deterred and ate lots of molasses and agave syrup instead, especially when he made his delicious raw chocolate cakes.
Charlie was renowned in the whole neighbourhood for his raw chocolate. The local kids seemed to sniff him out when he was on his flat roof brewing up chocolate. He would heat up the hard coconut oil over the camping gaz burner and mix it well with the raw cacao nibs, seeds, nuts and raisins. He was really a dab hand at chocolate making and would offer it around in small cupcake paper parcels.
Charlie was greatly in need in the neighbourhood. People wanted his chocolate but most of all they wanted his manifestation help or advice about food and nutrition. Charlie was always there willing to offer his knowledge and expertise. But he needed his food to keep him going! He taught himself all about energy renewal in the body. He learnt how to get the maximum strength from the best food sources. He managed to maximize his intake of the best superfoods for the highest nutritional intake for his bodily needs. He would then utilize his spiritual and magick powers to make himself even stronger.
It was a Saturday morning, bright and with a blue sky. The local traders and farmers would be setting up at the farmers market now and Charlie had decided to investigate their farming techniques and products then visit the local supermarket. Fortunately for Charlie the supermarket was a health food shop, not the normal kind of supermarket. In this way he could get his bulk supplies of nuts, seeds and organic tomato ketchup.
Charlie put on his purple flared trousers which he’d found in a field at the Goodey Organics food festival he attended the previous year where he’d offered a seed sprouting and chocolate making workshop. He was becoming quite popular on the festival scene and already had bookings for this year’s events.
He had been young in the late seventies and loved the era, especially the clothes. Not only did he acquire clothes he’d found in fields and woods but he also had a collection of 44 pairs of his old Jeans which he’d bought or acquired every year from 1978. Most didn’t fit any more but were part of his clothing collection.
He decided to put on his 70’s shades to mask himself from the wind, rain and flies. It wasn’t that sunny, although clear. It was just that he didn’t like flies getting in his eyes and sometimes he liked to just be incognito otherwise he would be smothered by all his local fans who would pester him for chocolate or for a magick spell or manifestation. He held many wishing circles and chocolate groups and really there was no time to see people individually or just give out his secrets on the streets. He went out looking like a 70’s hipster and nothing like Charlie Bones the great manifestor! He was alone and looking forward to a day off to get his food supplies.
The streets were quite empty at this time. It was only 7am and Charlie had taken great strides to hide himself away from people. It was almost the summer solstice and he was planning a great gathering and ritual on this auspicious day. The food needed to have a magical element so he was going to bless it every day for the next month and to lay it out under the full moon for a night.
Awakening with the light was normal for Charlie. The sun was now appearing at 4.30am and Charlie would leap out of bed and sit on his toadstool table outside chanting a mantra as the day was just beginning. He would then drink his raw chocolate, bang his gong a few times and leap into a yoga position while chanting a second mantra. He was then ready to sit cross legged for a few minutes in meditation before eating his muesli and molasses and then indulge in some fresh fruit. Melons were on the menu today and he loved to have avocados for lunch but had run out.
Charlie rarely showered in the normal way or had a bath. Instead he had installed a waterfall feature in the garden and he would strip off naked and stand underneath the waterfall every morning in summer. In winter he would continue this ritual if he could stand it and if it wasn’t freezing too much below zero.
The supermarket was fairly empty. Large melons were strung up on floating shelving and coconuts from the Canary Islands were in large wooden containers. There were superfoods in one department: coconut oil, carob, spirulina, barley grass, wheat grass growing kits, goji berries and cia seeds. There was a large section of oils such as hemp, flax and avocado oil. There were seed and nut sections and grains; body oils and toiletries and lots of cereals and flours. There were vegetable sections, gluten free products and healthy snacks to take away. Charlie absolutely loved the shop and made sure he only came here once a week otherwise he would be tempted to buy out the whole shop. In fact this is what Charlie secretly wished to do eventually. He wanted to acquire a large warehouse and run his own organic and superfood business with supplements and many of the herbal products that were now going into extinction due to the new EU law on herbal production.
The floor was a little slippery as the cleaners had only just disappeared. Charlie wasn’t happy when his left foot gave way and he slid onto the watery floor onto his trendy purple trousers. The very concerned thirty something female manager rushed over immediately, ‘Are you all right sir? I’m so sorry we haven’t got round to putting the warning sign up yet and the cleaner was a bit late I’m afraid. Can I get you a cup of herbal tea or something?’ Immediately Charlie perked up, slid himself along the floor and stated ‘Yes, I’ll have a cup of liquorice and chocolate tea please.’ The regretful manager helped him up and took him over to a seating area where he was told to wait for his tea. He watched as shelves were stacked and the warning signs gradually came out. ‘but where are people supposed to walk?’ he wondered. The signs were ok but they meant that half the supermarket was out of bounds now. ‘I’m terribly sorry.’ the manager said, ‘Here’s a discount voucher. It means you can have two products costing under £10 for free today. Please claim them today as otherwise they will run out. I do hope this will never happen again to you or anyone else.’
Charlie was particularly enamoured with the manageresses’ attitude and thanked her greatly. It wasn’t as if he’d broken anything though he felt a bruise coming up. ‘where exactly are people supposed to walk with these ‘no entry’ signs all over the place?’
‘Just have to wait till its dry. Won’t be long now anyway, they’re getting the dryers out as we speak. Must be the moon in Aries today making everything a bit fiery or something! This doesn’t normally happen!’ Charlie reassured her that the full moon probably was having its effect today and said that he was reminded of its power and that it was at its fullest at 3.10pm. ‘Try to do a little ritual and make a wish at that time. Its the most powerful time of the full moon this month.’
‘Thank-you’ the young woman said. ‘I’m Lizzie by the way, pleased to meet you.’ Charlie shook her hand but did not introduce himself directly to her. Instead he pressed his business card into the palm of her hand and as he walked away he saw her eyes light up as she saw who she had been serving tea to early that full moon morning.
Charlie slid himself from one aisle to another dropping lots of food products into his giant trolley. His eyes were failing him a little now so he always took his large magnifying glass with him everywhere so he could study the labels on every product. Anything with refined sugar or gluten was out of the question for healthy Charlie and any food containing palm oil was off his menu due to the harm done to Orangoutangs in the rain forest. Everything had to be organic otherwise he would run the risk of being infected with a GM food product or gradually killed off by toxic pesticides. He had already installed a device in his home to protect himself from mobile phone masts and other sources of electromagnetic stress. The world had become dangerous but Charlie was determined to survive and outdo those who weren’t interested in his good health.