I wasn’t quite finished with the story I was telling by the time 2025 ended and so decided to continue it until it reached an ending point. Then I will start a new one. Besides, I kind of want to see where Penelope ends up. And so we have…
Day 183: As she walked she amused herself with daring scenarios where she gained access to her neighbor’s bank records.
As she walked she amused herself with daring scenarios where she gained access to her neighbor’s bank records. None of them had even a hope of working but they kept her amused and helped lighten her thoughts. By the time she reached the second hand shop she remembered, Penelope’s scenarios had her using rapidly growing vines as ropes to lower herself as though she was committing a bank heist or museum robbery.
She smiled and let the thought go as she stepped into the store. The store was once a large department store. The department store long since went out of business and despite the vast amount of space in the building, it was so overly full that it seemed small and cramped.
‘And dark and musty,’ she thought. Penelope looked up. Despite the banks of fluorescent lights overhead, somehow the space below still seemed somehow dark. ‘Maybe it is all the dark colors.’
Remembering her charm, she held the charm for a five count as she stepped into the store. She felt the charm flare with warmth and assumed that meant it was activated. She slipped the charm and it’s chain into the neck of her shirt, concealing it from view.
Penelope moved deeper into the store. She started to walk down the center aisle, thinking she could start at the back and work her way forward. Instead she felt a mental tug urging her to take the path to the left. She followed the urge and found herself walking a small, twisting aisle that was more of a path through older and discarded furniture than an actual aisle.
She bumped into something with her hip and realized it was a handle. She stepped back and instead of walking around as she planned, Penelope found herself pulling the item free. It was a small cart. It was coated with waterproofed plaid fabric on the outside but it was a metal frame underneath. It was lightweight and could be folded up. There were wheels on the bottom.
“It’s a shopping trolley,” a voice said. Penelope jumped and saw a man at the end of the pathway smiling. He was sitting at a desk of some sort and leaned over when he heard her moving the trolley around. “You take it shopping with you and then you can walk your groceries home without needing to carry all the bags.”
“Oh,” Penelope said. She nodded. “Considering I’m one handed at the moment, not a bad thing.”
She looked at the price and found it was only a few dollars. “Useful,” she added deciding to buy it. “And it folds up when I don’t need it.”
“Useful but not what you came looking for?” he asked.
Deciding it was pointless to have the conversation long distance, Penelope wheeled the shopping trolley over to where he was sitting. “I was thinking of jewelry storage,” Penelope told him. “Something to keep my jewelry from tangling.”
“Ah, we have several sorts of things,” he told her. “You are on the right track.” He pointed down another twisting aisle. “There is a table to the right where we have several options. There are also bags of mystery costume jewelry should you want a surprise to add to your collection.”
“Well I am looking for some gifts for an exchange, she told him. The lie came to her lips before she even thought about it.
Ten til Midnight 