Morning all. I hope you are having a good, if frosty week. I know I have been getting flashes of record low on my weather reports and we actually got a little snow. I don’t know when the last time we had snow before Thanksgiving was. Looks like it is going to be a cold winter. But for the moment we have the chance to warm our brains up. So set those timers and let’s give the above sentence all we can.
I some how suspect there is a haunted mirror or trinket box in someone’s future.
Tuesday, November 11th: The bell above the door jingled merrily as it was pushed open.
The bell above the door jingled merrily as it was pushed open. I inhaled deeply, smelling the scent of dusty old furniture, old books and forgotten glassware. I smiled knowing we had found one of the old school junk shops. I spent a lot of my live dipping in and out of such places. I loved picking up worn items and making them usable and loved again, of finding new uses for outdated bits and in general reusing what was no longer in fashion.
In fact doing so, and then selling the items on to trendier places, was how I supplemented my income for a long time. These days it seemed those sort of shops were no longer around. Older out of date things could be found at flea markets and rummage sales of course, but the junk shops were a dying breed.
The rent was now too high to allow most of them to stay in business. These days it was the trendy sort of shops I used to sell to that now filled in the store fronts. I darted a glance to Lara. She was already frowning. If it was not shiny and brand new, touted by some celebrity or other as their go to item or recommended by high end designers, she wanted no part of it.
I knew not more than two steps in the door, she would be pushing for only a hurried look and a hasty retreat. I could already see her looking through the glass at the trendy boutique across the street. In no mood I slipped down one of the aisles and kept moving. I figured if I started towards the back and worked my way forward I would have a better chance not only of seeing what the store had to offer but of actually getting a chance to look without Lara whining in my ear.
‘Let her be Stacy’s problem,’ I thought.
I had been friends with Stacy for a while now. We were friends for reasons neither of us could explain. Despite having very little in common we clicked and had fun when we went out. Lara was one of Stacy’s friends from another group and they had been hanging out more lately. I had to admit, they did have more in common than I did with either of them.
Part of me suspected that the strange friendship Stacy and I had formed was coming to an end. There just wasn’t enough shared anything to keep us together and she was going back to her own kind. Truthfully I was sure my other friends would be relieved as Stacy had as much in common with them as I did with Lara.
‘But I don’t bring them with me when I hang out with Stacy,’ I thought as I kept moving. I tried not to let the thought be a sour one but Lara had not made this a pleasant trip. ‘They knew we were coming here,’ I consoled myself. The destination was not a surprise to anyone. This shop was the destination. Behind me I could already hear Lara making comments. I reached the end of the aisle and forgot all about Lara.
My eyes went wide as I saw a set of depression era glassware. I almost held my breath as I leaned in. There were only a few pieces on the shelf and for a moment I thought that was all there was. Then I spotted the box beneath. The rest of the set was in the box below, carefully wrapped. I knew I had to have it.
Ten til Midnight 