When Sara was growing up, her "magic crayons" helped her escape the pain. Now as an adult and the world famous Art Angel, can they help her to find the life she's always dreamed of?

Unfortunately she was going to have to do just that, as a red light on her dashboard came on signaling she had an engine problem. Sara sighed and then slowed down to look for the next exit and hopefully a petrol station. She loved driving Pink but she didn't know much about her maintenance and as a result she'd never so much as changed a tire, let alone looked under the bonnet.

By the time she'd found the next exit, steam was beginning to come out from under the bonnet and she slowed the BMW to a crawl. While she didn't see a petrol station anywhere, she did see the well-lit parking lot of what appeared to be a small shopping center, and headed straight for it.

Sara shut the motor off as she entered the lot and let the car coast into an open space beneath a lamppost. Sara sat and watched as the car was blowing steam and whistling like a boiling teakettle. She clicked her nails on the steering wheel as she tried to figure out what to do next.

Obviously she had a motor problem and obviously she had no idea how to fix it. She also wasn't exactly sure where she was at, and aside from this shopping center she didn't see any other businesses, so taking off on foot to find a mechanic or a petrol station wasn't really an option. She did have her cell phone but whom was she going to call? She could call Prue or Jenna. That could offer her some moral support, but roadside assistance would be beyond their means. Calling the operator wouldn't do much good either. She couldn't tell her where she was or who she wanted to talk to. Seemed like the best thing for Sara to do was to go into the shopping center and find out where she was, and then try to get the number for the nearest mechanic.

Sara pulled down the makeup mirror and was fishing for war paint in her purse when tapping at her side window startled her. Sara looked up quickly, half expecting to see Jack the Ripper licking his lips, but was pleasantly surprised to see the smiling face of a pretty young woman instead.

She waved at Sara and then rolled her hand in the crank maneuver, signaling Sara to roll down the window. Sara complied, sensing nothing dangerous from the beautiful blonde. "Hi, looks like you're having some car trouble there. Is there anything I can do to help?" offered the friendly face.

Sara smiled back relieved. "To tell you the truth, yes. I would be ever so grateful if you might have the number of a mechanic I could call."

The tall and slender jean clad blonde nodded. "Yeah, I can do that for you if you want, but their gonna nick you 50 quid to show up and another 50 to pop your bonnet."

Sara shrugged her shoulders and sighed, resigning herself to being at least a hundred quid poorer. Her new friend winked a heavily lashed blue eye and smiled. "Look I know a thing or two about cars. I was the only girl among five kids so I've always been something of a tomboy. If you don't mind I could take a look at it for you. Might save you a few quid."

Sara was deeply touched by the kindness of this stranger and beamed a bright smile back at her. "Oh wow, that would be great! Thank you." Then realizing her manners quickly added. "I'm sorry I haven't even told you my name. I'm Sara, Sara Briton."

"Janet, Janet Davenport, nice to meet you", her new friend returned with a smile and a wave. "Well Sara, what you say we pop the bonnet and have look see then, eh?"

Sara nodded and then quickly joined Janet outside the car, as the pair of blondes went to inspect the damage. Janet rolled her eyes and chuckled a bit. "I love the BMW-Z4 but I'd have to have in a metallic blue, because pink's never been a good color on me."

Sara laughed' as the comment seemed fitting from a self-proclaimed tomboy. Janet popped the bonnet and began poking around beneath it while Sara stood beside her. She felt blessed to have met such a kind woman and thankful to have Prue's warm jacket as the night air had a definite cold bite to it.

While Janet tinkered and Sara looked on helplessly, the two women began chatting. Normally Sara would have been as forthcoming as a clam, but already she was making a new start. Sara told Janet she had been visiting her childhood home and was returning to Derby where she worked as an artist, keeping her secret identity as the Art Angel though still a secret.

Janet confessed she was a professional photographer, who had just opened a shop there in town, which made the two practically sister's by profession. The conversation quickly turned to shop talk as both women began sharing their passion for art in general.

Sara was having such a wonderful time chatting with Janet she was almost disappointed when little miss mechanic said she'd found the problem and could fix it for her straight away. A clamp had come loose on a radiator hose and she'd lost all her coolant. When Janet pointed to the source of the problem, Sara leaned up against the car, reaching forward to brace herself as she looked down in. After seeing the dangling hose dripping coolant she pulled back and then gasped in horror as she'd gotten grease and oil across the front of her beautiful blue jacket.

Janet winced and shook her head. "Ouch...that bites. You're gonna have a devil of time getting that stain out if it."

Sara frowned, nearly on the verge of tears. "I can't believe I just did that. This jacket is really special. It was a gift from someone who means more to me than anyone else in the world and now I've ruined it."

Janet smiled compassionately. "I'm really sorry Sara. I should have told you about mechanics rule number one: Never ever get near the motor if you have anything nice on."
Sara sighed dejectedly. "It's okay Janet. Maybe when I get back to Derby I can try and get it cleaned then."

Janet shook her head sadly and then walked over to her truck and opened the tailgate. Sitting in the bed was a large toolbox, a tripod for a camera and a couple of five-gallon containers. Janet started fishing through toolbox and smiled triumphantly when she found the screwdriver she was looking for. Grabbing one of the containers, she walked back to Sara and her beloved little Pinky.

She really felt bad about Sara's jacket, especially since it meant so much to her. Suddenly Janet's blue eyes lit up and smiled started turning at the corners of her mouth. Snapping her fingers, she had a thought that might save the day or more accurately Sara's jacket. "Sara, I just thought of something. It won't take me 5 minutes to reconnect the hose, but you'll have to wait until the engine cools down before we fill the radiator back up or you might crack the head, and that's definitely not good. So, you're going to have about an hour to kill while you wait. Well...there's one of those quickie dry cleaners inside the mini-mall. Since the stain's still fresh, they might be able to save your jacket for you."

Sara's eyes lit up immediately. "Oh wow, that would be great! Would you ummm... want to go in with me? We could get a cup of coffee or sandwich while we wait. It's on me, that's the least I can do."

Janet sighed sadly. "I really wish I could, but I've got a big shoot in about thirty minutes, so I can't stay, but I'll fix the hose and then leave you with the antifreeze. All you'll have to do is pour it in until it's full, twist on the cap and you'll be ready to roll."

Janet replaced the hose and then showed Sara where to pour the coolant and how to make sure the cap was secure. She even gave her directions in the mall to find the dry cleaners. She couldn't remember the name of the place but she told her it was past the Bath and Body Works, right at the pet shop and then down the corridor to the last shop on the right.

Sara offered Janet a good number of pound notes for her help, saying she'd been out at least a hundred quid anyway. Janet refused the notes, but said she except hugs instead and gave Sara a warm embrace and a wish for luck before heading off to her shoot.

Sara waved at the good Samaritan and kindred art spirit until her taillights disappeared into the distance. Locking up Pinky, she headed for the mall entrance; hoping Janet's shoot went well and the dry cleaners could work magic.

Sara pushed open the entrance doors to reveal a mall interior bustling with activity. In the past she would have made a hasty retreat, as the thought of being lost in a sea of shoppers would have been terrifying, but now she had a confidence. A confidence that came from the belief that she was a good person, worthy of love and friendship. It had given her the courage to be comfortable in the presence of another woman and as a result she had made a new friend, Janet. Now she would find out if this newfound confidence would allow her to take the next step, literally, and carry her through corridors packed with bargain hunters looking for a good sale.

Sara took a deep breath and into the breach she went. With each baby step her confidence and comfort grew. The young woman kept her head up, no longer afraid to meet the gaze of a passing stranger. The little girl within sensed the young woman's confidence and felt it was safe enough to make her presence known so she peeked out in Sara's smile.

By the time Sara had reached the end of the first corridor she was feeling pretty good. Her first solo mall hop in years wasn't exactly a walk in the park, but it hadn't been a walk through hell either. She was tempted to get on the cell phone right then and there and call Prue or Jenna. When she told them she was inside a crowded mall and not climbing the walls, she knew they would be so proud of her. Knowing her friends would be proud of her meant a great deal to the young woman, but to the child who lives to make her parents and family proud, it meant everything.

Sara might had made that call if she hadn't seen something first that caught her eye. There across the corridor sat the Bath and Body Works, her first landmark on the journey to the dry cleaners. She quickly weaved her way through the crowd until she was in front of the sweet smelling store. Sara enjoyed a good soak as much as any woman and just had to stop and check out the displays in store's front window.

As she daydreamed about being up to her neck in bathwater scented with this weeks special: Plumeria, she caught sight of her reflection in the glass, and wave of déjá  vu swept over her. She was in a town that she still didn't know the name of and in a mall she couldn't have seen or even been in and yet she was absolutely sure she'd lived this exact moment in time before. Her mind searched her memories and every possible solution reality had to offer but it wasn't until she ventured outside reality that she found the answer. She was living THE dream. She'd BEEN living it from the moment she'd stepped into the mall, but she hadn't realized until now.

Sara began to tremble at the thought of her dream and reality becoming a single entity. It didn't seem possible but yet as she took a second long look in the glass, her reflection was a mirror image of the one she'd dreamed so many times before. Everything was the same: the display in the window, her skirt blouse combo, her tall black boots, even the blue jacket Prue had given her.

Sara eyes suddenly grew wide as she noted the black grease and oil stains that ran up the sleeve and across the front of her jacket. In her dream she thought it was black striping on her blue jacket, and when Prue had sent her a jacket in real life it had been a perfect match to her dream one in every detail save for the striping. Now she realized it wasn't striping at all, but the reflection of the oil and grease stains in the glass.

Sara trembled, but not so much from fear as it was from excitement and anticipation, the excitement one feels about truly living a dream and the anticipation of following that dream in reality to the place she hadn't been able to follow it to in her subconscious: it's conclusion.
Sara paused for a moment and thought about her next move, literally. Up until now she had ambled naively down the corridor in search of her dry cleaners, unaware of the significance of each step she took. Suddenly she felt as though the corridor ahead of her was a minefield. She was afraid if she took a wrong step, a wrong turn or did anything different than she did in the dream the magic she just encountered might blow up in her face and she'd miss her chance to live the dream to it conclusion.

The old Sara might have become so paralyzed by her fear that she'd been unable to move for fear of failure, but this was the new Sara, and she had the faith in herself she could succeed. Sara took a deep breath and tried to calmly think about the events that had brought her here.

Basically she had been on autopilot from the moment she'd stepped in the mall. She was just trying to follow Janet's directions to get to the dry cleaners when she stumbled onto Bath and Body Works. A smile slowly turned at Sara's lips and her fear subsided as she'd reasoned it out. It was elementary my dear Briton. If blindly following Janet's directions had gotten her half way there, then why change her plans just because she was no longer blind? The best thing she could do now was to do what she had set out to do when she got here, find the dry cleaners and with any luck she'd find the rest of her dream.

Sara left the sweet scented soap seller and started down the corridor again. Janet had told her to continue past Bath and Body Works until she came to the next junction. At that point she was to make a right at a pet shop and continue down that corridor until she reached the last shop on the right and that would be the dry cleaners.

Sara walked down the main corridor until she came to the junction that Janet mentioned. The traffic had thinned out considerably at this end of the mall and when she gazed right she was greeted by the cute kitten logo of Kuddle Kitten's Pet Shop. Sara was beginning to feel like Nancy Drew tracking clues on a mystery, as she quickly walked toward the next one she had.

Once Sara entered the next corridor she found it now, just as she had found it before, devoid of all traffic. As Sara passed Kuddle Kittens, she heard the meows and cries of several kittens hoping to adopt her as an owner. Suddenly another piece fell in place. In her dream she thought she'd heard babies cry, and in reality she had, but now she realized those cries came from furry four legged babies and not the two-legged human variety she'd originally thought. Once again reality had sharpened Sara's perception of events that had drifted in and out of shadows while in her dream state.

Sara was tempted to answer the cries of the kitten's but knowing now wasn't the best time to adopt, she resisted that urge to look just as she had in her dreams and continued down the corridor in search of the last shop.

As soon as she passed Kuddle Kittens she felt the same draw pulling her down the corridor as she had in her dream. It was almost as though once she'd made it this far, the forces that had lead her here were now bringing her in on their own power. Sara continued walking alone, passing quite a few shops but unable to browse their store windows as she had eyes only for the last one.

When Sara reached her final destination, the dry cleaners was nowhere to be found but a more familiar sight stood waiting for her. The dark wood front with its finally detailed carvings and stained glass window in the door looked as out of place in this modern mall setting as it had in her dream.

Sara stepped up to the front door and then looked up to read the sign above. The clouds that had obscured all but the "S" in the shop's name had been chased away by reality and Sara could read it plainly now. She giggled at the trendy sounding name for the very old looking shop. The sign was beautifully printed in old English script and read: Spells 'R' Us.

The beautiful blonde placed her slender fingers around the doorknob and hesitated before turning it. She wondered if her mother would be in there waiting for her. Whether she was alive or a ghost that was a pretty frightening prospect for Sara. If she was going to run this was her last chance to do it. Sara took a breath and then smiled confidently. She had stopped running when she chose to return to her childhood home and she wasn't going to start again now. Whispering under her breath, "In for a penny, in for a pound", she turned the knob and entered. A bell above her chimed and announced another customer had entered the shop.