Something Old...

It was a slow morning at Dusty Armchair Antiques, however, it didn’t bother Maryellen Beckett too much. Everything seemed to move at a snail’s pace in Paloma Falls. It was a tiny desert town about thirty miles west from Needles- and probably a hundred or so miles from anywhere else. As always, Maryellen emerged from her tiny apartment above the shop to get everything ready. Her work day always began at about eight-thirty, then she’d open up for business at ten. Her business partner, Alexei Gazmanov, usually showed up sometime around nine.

There wasn’t really much to do in an antique store, except turn on the lights and set a few items up for display. There has been the occasion, however, when a strong wind would come and stir up a dust devil, blowing sand everywhere. If Maryellen had made the mistake of leaving the door open, it would make a mess inside. Then, she would have to spend a copious amount of time sweeping the floors and dusting the shelves. Still, she was incredibly disciplined in making sure her little shop ran properly. Still, Maryellen was incredibly disciplined in making sure her little shop ran properly.

Once she had everything set in place, Maryellen sat in a chair behind the main counter in the back and looked everything over. The shop was small, but she had managed to collect a variety of things to sell. There were fine china sets, and first-edition copies of books. In the far corner was a well-worn wicker peacock chair. This was actually one of the first items ever brought into the store. It had originally been for sale- like everything else- but, people were so accustomed to seeing it when they came in. Instead, the price tag was replaced with a “not for sale” sign; and, it had turned into a sort of an icon unto itself. So much, that it was more or less the inspiration for the store’s name. The shop had originally been called A&M Antiques, but “Dusty Armchair” had a better ring to it.

Maryellen watched the atomic clock on the wall, waiting for Alexei to arrive. Finally, he appeared at the door, searching for his set of keys to get in. “Good morning, Masha!” he said, pushing the door open with one foot. He had also brought a large cardboard box with him, and was struggling to pick it up. Maryellen stood up from behind the counter to help Alexei, holding the door open so he wouldn’t fall. “Hello there, Lyosha. What have we got here?”

Alexei brushed a few curly strands of hair out of his eyes and picked up the box. “Tiny cats,” he answered, “many tiny cats.”

“What do you mean by ‘cats’?” Maryellen asked, adjusting her wire-framed glasses.

Alexei propped the cardboard box on his knee and pulled out a tiny, blue glass cat. “An older lady gave me this box of glass cats to sell at our store.”

Maryellen took the box from him and sure enough, it was full of Fenton glass cats. “Well,” she sighed, “I usually don’t take donations, but sales have been kind of low lately. Maybe a change of inventory might help.” The two of them then carried their newfound goods into the store.

At this point, Maryellen was more than grateful to bring anything into the shop that might sell well. Then again, it also gave her an uneasy feeling to bring in more than what was going out. She knew that in order to keep the lights on, there had to be a steady income. Lately, it felt more like she was running a tourist attraction. Travelers off the interstate would stop by every so often and have a look around, but they seldom bought anything. Perhaps investing in vintage curios was a bit too risky in terms of spending- as if the next hundred or so miles to Las Vegas was any better. Maryellen wasn’t in a place to judge people on their financial habits, however. She just wanted to live her dream of running an antique store with her best friend.

Alexei finished putting the last of the Fenton cats in the display case, carefully examining each one for any damages- like cracks or chips. “How much should we charge for the cats?” he asked, pulling himself back up from below the counter. “Ten each, unless you find any flaws. Then we’ll discount them. I think that’s fair” Maryellen replied, “They’re from the mid-fifties, from what I can tell.” Alexei shrugged and sat down at the stool next to the register, “That works for me.” Being Russian, Alexei Gazmanov would easily admit he was a bit less experienced on the value of American collectibles.

At last, it was ten o’ clock. Maryellen walked up to the door and flipped over the hanging sign that read “CLOSED” to the reverse side, “OPEN”. She then propped the door open, releasing a cool breeze from the air conditioner inside. All she had to do now was wait, and hope someone was tempted to walk in. Alexei had remained seated at the front counter, trying to find the right setting for a small metal fan. Maryellen walked back over to him and quickly pulled the plug on it. “What did you do that for?” Alexei asked, “You know I get overheated more easily than others.” Maryellen took the small fan under her arm and took it towards the office in the back. “I know,” she said sympathetically, “but it costs money to run extra appliances- and we don’t have as many funds as usual.” Alexei got up and carried his chair towards the air conditioner. “Perhaps we can have some sort of sale, or ask some people around if they want to do something to help raise money.”

A special event of some sort would have been a good idea, except Maryellen had no idea what to do with the thought. Despite living in Paloma Falls for three years now, she was terribly shy and not entirely acquainted with everyone. The only person she really knew well enough was Alexei. They had traveled across the country after finishing college, only to end up stranded in Paloma with a broken-down car. Taking it as some sort of sign, they had decided to stay and make the best of it. Eventually, the car was fixed, and it was agreed that Alexei would keep it. He moved eastward to Needles, and Maryellen stayed in Paloma Falls, making the shop her home- quite literally.

Maryellen and Alexei were deeply consumed with finding ideas to raise more money. So much that they barely noticed the sound of shuffling feet coming through the door. “Hard at work, I see.” said the accompanying voice. Maryellen turned around to greet the stranger, “Oh! Hello there, Lew.” Their first visitor of the day was Lewis Tallfeather. Maryellen tried not to look too terribly ecstatic at seeing Lewis coming in. Admittedly, though, it was hard not to ignore him when he did. He easily stood out among the shelves of dusty knick-knacks, dressed in a blue button down shirt and dark jeans. The spurs on his cowboy boots, along with his silver and turquoise earrings made a soft jingling noise as he moved about.

On most days, Lewis Tallfeather was usually busy at the local museum on the edge of town. He was head of the Native American cultural department- an appropriate position, as he himself was Mojave. Occasionally, however, he was known to come into the shop and browse around. Today was no different, except on this occasion he was accompanied by a woman.

Maryellen watched them walk through the door, chattering among themselves. Surely it had to be amusing, as the woman following behind Lewis tried to stifle her laughter. As they were speaking Mojave, Maryellen couldn’t understand them. The only languages she knew were English- obviously- and Alexei had taught her a few Russian phrases. She was never one to eavesdrop, but she just couldn’t help but wonder what they were saying.

Alexei moved away from the air conditioner and returned to the register. He thought that it might be a bit better if Maryellen handled this interaction.

“What brings you in today, Lewis?”

“Nothing in particular, really. I was on break and I thought I would take Rhoda by your shop. She’s in town for the weekend and wants to do a little sightseeing.”

Maryellen looked the woman- whom she now knew as Rhoda- up and down. She had a short, round figure, clothed in a cream linen dress. Her face was round and her straight, black hair was tied up with a pink scarf. Overall, she was reasonably pretty.

Rhoda stuck out her hand to Maryellen. “It’s nice to meet you. Lewis has told me all about how quaint this little store is, and I just had to see it for myself.” Maryellen took Rhoda’s hand and gave it a short, but firm shake. “That’s nice to know.” she said, “I definitely won’t complain about free advertisement.” As the two ladies conversed, Lewis looked at his watch to check the time. “I hate to spoil your fun,” he said, taking Rhoda gently by the arm, “but I’ve got to get back to work.” Rhoda made a face at him. “Fine,” she pouted, “but I’m definitely coming back here later to buy something. Those little glass cats under the counter are just too cute!” As the two of them began to walk out of the store, Lewis turned back and let out a laugh. “Oh, sisters. You can’t do a thing with them!”

Somehow, finding out that Lewis and Rhoda were related made Maryellen feel a bit more relaxed. She turned towards the register to see Alexei with a mischievously crooked grin. “You should have seen yourself.” he taunted. “What do you mean?” Maryellen asked, slightly annoyed at Alexei’s bold observation.

“The way you reacted when Lewis was here. I swear you died and came back to life, all in about ten minutes.”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“Perhaps not, but it didn’t seem that way.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Just the way you always look at him. I think your hair stood on end, up until he said that woman was his sister. I can smell jealousy a mile away.”

As much as she hated to admit it, Maryellen knew Alexei was right. She did seem to be a bit jealous over Rhoda being there at first. Only, a little bit, though. Silly feelings weren’t so important at the moment, however. The main priority was to figure out how to pick up sales. Besides, Maryellen knew she didn’t have much of a chance with Lewis. For one thing, she was as white as a sheet of paper. She had a rather bad case of astigmatism, and wore her dark hair in a messy pixie cut style. Perhaps she was pretty enough for someone, but that someone certainly wasn’t Lewis Tallfeather. Maryellen didn’t have time for a schoolgirl crush, though, she had a business to run. And making sure that business stayed afloat was the most important thing to her.

Fortunately, today was a bit better than it had been. Maryellen managed to sell quite a few things. Rhoda had returned as she had promised and bought two Fenton cats. She would have gotten more, but decided against it, saying “It wouldn’t be fair. What if someone else wants one, but there I went, taking them all for myself?” A man, who told Maryellen and Alexei about his long drive from Sacramento, bought a taxidermy squirrel wearing tiny overalls. Honestly, neither of them could remember when or where the squirrel came from, they were just glad to finally get it out of the store. Later, the owner of the bookstore across the street, Susan, came in and purchased a Blue Willow china set. Things slowed down by late afternoon, and soon enough it was nearing time to close up shop.

Despite her protests earlier, Maryellen finally gave in to Alexei’s demands to have his mini fan. He eagerly pulled it out of the office before he counted up the day’s profits. Now, he would be quite content as he sorted out the bills in the register. The breeze from the tiny fan made a mess of his already unruly curls. Even though they managed to sell a few things today, Maryellen couldn’t help but wonder if it was enough. Rent was due on the building at the end of the month. The last thing she wanted was to come up short and risk getting shut down. She had just barely scraped by the month prior.

Once Alexei finished recording the day’s profits, he returned the books and his little fan to the office. Usually Maryellen didn’t ask him to stay around to turn the lights off. She knew he had to drive all the way to Needles to get home. “Goodbye, Masha.” he said, locking the door behind him, “See you tomorrow.” Maryellen waved to him as he left, “See you tomorrow, Lyosha.”

After she had everything shut down for the night, Maryellen climbed the stairs to her little apartment above the shop. It was a fairly modest little place, just enough for one person. More like a studio loft, really. Once she walked inside, Maryellen realized she had forgotten to change the date on the tiny calendar on the wall. She quickly pulled away the slip of paper to reveal today’s date underneath. Tuesday, April 5, 1994. Rent was due on the 29th. All Maryellen could do is hope she had enough money by then. Otherwise, she’d end up unemployed with nowhere to go, and more than two thousand miles from home.

The last thing Maryellen wanted to do was to close the store and leave town. Everything that was important to her was here. Sure, her family was on the other side of the country, and she cared about them a lot. But what was there to do back home in Glenville, North Carolina? The options were slim to none, practically limited to either being a waitress or working at the paper mill a few more miles out in Sylva. They were respectable jobs, indeed, but Maryellen felt like she was meant to do more. Her lifelong dream was to have her own little antique shop. She had worked hard to make that dream a reality, and she was going to continue working hard to keep it.

For now, at least, Maryellen would just do her best to relax for the evening. If only it were that easy. The only thing on television at eight was Full House, which she really wasn’t a fan of. Maryellen could have hooked up the VCR and put in a movie. At the moment, unfortunately, she was just a trifle bit lazy. At the very least, she didn’t have to make dinner. There was last night’s leftover spaghetti in the refrigerator. Eventually, Maryellen just settled for the background jazz on the Weather Channel. Spaghetti and “Local on the 8′s” wasn’t exactly prime leisure, but it was better than nothing.

As she washed the few dishes in the sink, Maryellen looked at her reflection in the window. If she had known Lewis was going to stop by today, she might have put a little more effort in her appearance. There was nothing wrong with the faded overalls and striped tee she was wearing, but now it somehow seemed... frumpy. Then again, Maryellen usually saw Lewis on Thursdays. Today’s visit was completely unexpected. Not that she minded though. If it had been completely up to Maryellen, then she would have been able to see him every day.

Maryellen had always fancied Lewis Tallfeather, ever since she had moved to Paloma Falls. Who wouldn’t have liked him, though? He treated most all people with utmost kindness and had a smile brighter than the desert sun. While Maryellen managed to keep her little crush a secret for quite some time, it seemed to be getting more obvious as of late. Perhaps it was because she was feeling a bit lonely. Sure, Alexei was her best friend, but he had recently started dating a girl who lived nearby him. He was usually busy with her during the weekends. Then again, it may have been because Lewis had actually been coming around more often. Maryellen had once been lucky to see him twice a month, now he visited the shop almost weekly.

As far as Maryellen knew, Lewis wasn’t seeing anyone. He probably would have mentioned it if he did. Maryellen knew better than to ask as it was really none of her business. Interestingly, though, today had probably been the first time she had seen him accompanied by any woman. But Rhoda was his sister. It was a bit hard to tell what sort of intentions Lewis might have, as he was friendly towards everyone. Perhaps only time would tell if it was all just platonic, or if there might be something more...

Maryellen tried to put the thought out of her head as quickly as possible. Whether or not she would ever end up on a date- with Lewis or anyone else, really- didn’t matter at the moment. Maryellen knew it was getting late and she needed to be up early in the morning. She put on her pajamas, brushed her teeth, and picked an outfit for tomorrow. Something a little nicer than overalls was the general idea. Time didn’t stop for people’s feelings. If it did, then everything would have frozen in place a long time ago. It wasn’t quite bedtime yet, so Maryellen sat up a bit longer and searched for something interesting on the television.

After looping through the channels twice, she had yet to find anything interesting enough to watch. So, she was still stuck with the weather. Well, at the very least, Maryellen knew what to expect. It would be eighty-seven degrees and sunny- just as it had been today. The same could be said for the next few days following. Quite normal for this time of year. The soft music playing on the television eventually took its toll on Maryellen. She would eventually keel over on the couch into a deep and dreamless sleep.