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Serena stood outside the store window, admiring all the nifty little trinkets piled up on the dusty-looking display. The store, which had a peeling sign proclaiming it to be the Rings ‘n’ Things, seemed to have lots of unique and shiny jewelry and trinkets. Exactly the sort of thing that Serena found so fascinating. She wondered how she hadn’t found it earlier.
Mind you, Deer Drive usually had stores like this. They’d settle in like they’d been there forever, sell cheap stuff for about a week, and as time passed and sales continued to be lacking, everything they sold would be of cheaper price and quality. Eventually, the owners would start to go bankrupt, and would put out signs like ‘40% off’ and ‘Everything Must Go’. They’d get maybe a few more sales then they’d usually have, but not enough to save the store or even make a large dent in their inventory. The store would vanish, the building would be abandoned for a few months, and then another hopeful store would take over the building. Repeat cycle.
Serena glanced down at the yellow purse hanging from her arm. True, she usually didn’t carry much spare cash around with her, but what if she came here tomorrow and the store was gone? At the very least she had to check out the inventory. Maybe she’d find something nice.
So with that thought, Serena opened the door of the store and strolled inside. The door-bell made a hollow, clunking noise as she opened it, quite different from the usual cheerful cling-a-ling Serena was used to in this sort of store.
There was a cough from somewhere in the back, and a hoarse voice muttered, “Chto ono teper? Wait one moment, I’ll be right with you!”
While waiting for the hoarse-voiced person to come out, Serena got a chance to get a good look around Rings ‘n’ Things. The place was much neater then it had seemed outside, with everything properly on shelves and nothing scattered about. However, all of the stock seemed to be in boxes, which were behind wooden boards that had been bolted around the shelves. Somebody had been more concerned about keeping everything on the shelves then taking things out.
Asides from the many shelves and a small table nearby the front door, there didn’t appear to be much else lying around. The room itself had no other door that Serena could see, so she assumed that the cougher was behind some of the shelves. The only light seemed to be coming in from the big front store windows, and the room was very warm, like somebody had turned the heat on as far as it could go.
Serena was debating whether or not to take her vest off when an elderly lady came in from behind a shelf. She had long white hair, but not particularly clean white hair, and was dressed in a patched up red dress and cap. The old lady was much taller then Serena, and while Serena wasn’t exactly the tallest girl in her class, the old lady was still quite impressive by anyone’s standards. Her face was tanned and had a crooked look to it, like at some point in the past somebody had smashed her face in a few times, and there was an unlit cigarette gripped in between crooked and stained teeth.
“Er…” Serena began, before getting cut off by the old lady.
“What do you want?” She asked, gently pulling the cigarette out of her mouth.
“I was just looking around a bit.” Serena said timidly.
“For what?”
“I don’t know. I just wanted to see if there was anything… interesting for sale.”
The old lady stared at Serena for a moment, before asking, “Mind if I light up?” Serena paused for a moment. Serena was not one of the girls who had an easy time saying no, and she wasn’t particularly worried that a few minutes in the presence of smoke would give her lung cancer, but she did kind of hate the smell.
“It’s your store.” Serena said uncertainly.
“You’re a potential customer.” The old lady retorted.
“I don’t mind either way.” Serena said.
The old lady shrugged, took a lighter out from somewhere within the recesses of her skirt, replaced the cigarette in her mouth, and in a moment had it lit. Serena glanced around the store nervously, not sure what to do next. Normally, most of the people she encountered in shops like these stood behind the counter, either not paying attention to her or trying to be helpful without scaring her off. Usually they weren’t so intimidating as the old lady.
Finally, the old lady removed her cigarette and said, “If you want to buy anything, you can’t ask me any questions. Or rather, you can, but I won’t answer them. Understand?”
“Um.” Serena said. She decided that when she got home, first thing she’d do is to see if there were any little old ladies on America’s Most Wanted.
The old lady sighed. “Probably not. Well, where’s the best place to visit, in your opinion?”
“You mean, like on a vacation?” Serena said.
The old lady closed her eyes. “I’m not going to answer that.” She said. She re-opened them and repeated her question.
“Well… if I’m on vacation, I don’t really mind, so long as someone else is paying.” Serena said cautiously.
The old lady shrugged. “Fine, that’ll do as an answer… Favorite colors?”
“I don’t have any.” Serena admitted.
“Nonsense. Everyone has a favorite color. What’s yours?”
Serena glanced down at what she was wearing. Yellow shirt, grey vest, grey pants, white ballet shoes. “Right now, it’d probably be yellow.” She decided. “Why are you asking me this?”
“I’m not going to answer that. If you could wear one pair of shoes for the rest of your life, what would it be?”
Serena, who actually had thought something similar to that question, quickly answered, “A pair of boots.”
“What’s your favorite animal?”
Serena stared at the old lady, and wondered why she’d chosen to come in here in the first place. “Er… dogs.” She said. She glanced meaningfully at the exit.
“Favorite subject in school?” The old lady continued, looking unhurried, as if she could go on like this all day.
“English.” Serena quickly said, then blushed. “Listen, I just remembered that I-“
“Shush, we’re almost done. Who are you closest to?”
Serena looked at the old lady suspiciously, glanced around the room, and finally said, “Unless there’s somebody invisible in the room with us, probably you.”
“Smartass. Unless you honestly think that was what I meant, in which case you might be a bit dense. Last question: What kind of books do you like to read?”
“Short ones.” Serena answered promptly.
The old lady replaced her cigarette in her mouth, nodded slightly, and vanished behind one of the shelves. There was the sound of something heavy being shifted about. Serena looked back at the door, and the windows revealing the street outside.
She knew that this was probably as good a time as any to escape, but somehow, the part of her that wasn’t screaming ‘Stranger Danger!’ at the top of its lungs was saying, ‘Cool, what’s going to happen next?’ So she stood there hesitantly glancing about back and forth from the door to where the sound of stuff being moved was going on.
Just as Serena decided that she might as well leave before the old lady came out from the back with a gun, the old lady came out from the back… with a little wooden box. “Do you think this might interest you?” She asked, bringing it forward for Serena’s inspection.
Serena glanced down at the box. It was made of ordinary lightly colored wood, was just small enough to fit into her pocket, and had a Celtic Knot pattern on the lid. “It’s nice, I guess.” Serena said cautiously, “But I don’t have anything to store in it.”
The old lady casually opened it up, revealing the inside of the box. It was lined with some sort of velvety material, but inside was a bracelet. It was made of some kind of silvery material, which was shaped into a group of chains linked together. Hanging off of one of the links was a little charm shaped like a cloud, but grey. It was a charm bracelet, Serena realized.
“It’s lovely.” Serena admitted, “But how-“
“No questions. Just tell me what you have, and we’ll work out a fair price.”
“Only about ten dollars.” Serena said. The old lady shrugged.
“Three dollars sound good? Seven if you want the box included.” She said.
“Sure, that sounds fine.” Serena agreed, relieved that things were slightly more normal now. She reached into her purse, dug out her wallet, and handed the old lady a five-dollar bill and a bit of change.
The old lady shut the box, handed it to Serena, and took the money, which promptly vanished. “Will that be all?” She asked.
“Uh, yes, thank you.” Serena said. She slipped the box into her purse and backed up to the door. “Bye.” She said quickly. Serena grabbed the door-knob, and stepped outside as the door-bell rang its hollow, clunking sort of non-ring. Serena looked back up the street, and casually strolled forwards.
Once she was sure that she was out of sight from Rings ‘n’ Things, Serena broke into a run and didn’t stop until she was well out of Deer Drive.
 Kate will BRB · Fri Jun 11, 2010 @ 09:13am · 0 Comments |
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