Schadenfreude

From Torg Adventure

Schadenfreude. The name on the sign over the shop door drew her attention. She knew she had heard the word before but couldn't remember the meaning. She pulled out her smartphone and looked it up in her dictionary app.

"Taking joy in someone else's misfortune" was the definition, "from the German 'shaden' meaning 'harm' and 'freude' meaning 'joy'." She thought that only the Germans could be so perverse as to have a word like that. That still didn't explain what the shop was, so she stepped to the door and opened it. A tiny bell rang over her head to announce her entrance. The store looked like an antique or perhaps a junk shop. The walls were lined with shelves reaching nearly to the ceiling. A doorway to the left led to another room that look filled with furniture and larger objects. A glass counter stretched along the wall to the right. She walked to the counter and saw it was filled with all manner of small items: coins, jewelry, cameras, and other knickknacks.