kaleidoscope

They had been searching for two days, Heta always shaking her head or finding some objection to the potential gift for her mother. It was snowing and very cold, they had tramped from store to store and it was almost closing time downtown. But she still felt hopeful as they entered the last possible store for the day. Why is it always like that? Neither she nor Bridget went beyond the first display case. It was filled with dozens of kaleidoscopes, all shapes, sizes, and styles. They just looked at each other and then started asking the clerk to get this one out and that one too. They examined all of them and kept coming back to the same one. A handmade brass tube with spiraling grooves, it was designed to use discs of multi-colored glass attached to a spindle at the end of the tube. The discs could be combined or used alone and spun to achieve the kaleidoscopic effect. It was very expensive and Heta didn't think twice.