The Three

WHAT WAS supposed to be a nice summer day turned out to be a day of fog and drizzle. Typical English weather – especially when a nice day was what Katie Jones had wanted. She was a pretty, bright, friendly twenty-one-year-old blonde girl who was moving house that day to a new area, having just completed her college course in dance. Katie had decided to move out of Plymouth city centre and go south to a small rural town in Cornwall where there was a call for dance and drama instructors.

Arriving in the new town, Katie couldn’t really see much of what the area looked like from all the thick fog drifting through the narrow streets and weaving in and out of the small alleyways. Never mind: sightseeing was something she had planned for later on anyway.

Driving carefully through the deserted streets, she finally found her new home: flat 22b in the main street. Pulling up on the kerb, Katie got out of the car and took a look at the old stone building in front of her. At one point in its history it had been a very large three-storey house, but had since been converted into a set of flats. This building and the whole area looked really old; at least two hundred years for some of the houses nearby.

Moving quickly to the back of her car, Katie opened the boot and grabbed as many boxes as she could carry in her arms, then proceeded to take them into her new home. After struggling to unlock the door without dropping everything, she climbed the narrow staircase to her top floor flat. She went back and collected the last of her things, then locked her car and got inside before the drizzle turned into a downpour.

After about an hour of unpacking, she finally had most of the essentials set up. Now she just wanted to sit down with a nice cup of hot chocolate and listen to the rain getting heavier and heavier outside. Being on the top floor, the sound of raindrops hitting the skylights in the attic made an interesting sound echo throughout the flat. Something she would have to get used to if she was going to sleep well that night!

The sound of a car alarm ringing through the early morning streets gave Katie an unwanted awakening the next day. Stretching an arm out of her bed, she felt around for her watch on the bedside table and took a look at it: eight-thirty. Groaning and weary-eyed, Katie got out of bed and opened the curtains to be greeted by grey skies. There was no point in going back to sleep, she thought, since there was a whole new town to explore - which most likely had some clothes shops in it!

After getting washed and dressed, Katie quickly made some toast and tea. She put on her long brown coat and scarf, then headed into town.

Walking down the street, she could tell that it was a very close-knit community; people kept looking at her as if to say “Who is she and what is she doing in our town?” Ignoring them, Katie continued her walk to do some window shopping and possibly buy something for lunch. As she walked, she smiled to herself and thought that at least it wasn’t raining today – but no sooner had the thought crossed her mind than the clouds opened up and it began tipping it down. It was like the sky was throwing buckets of water at the world below. Looking around quickly, Katie noticed a small alleyway between two of the shops. The two buildings were so close together that their roofs enclosed the alley, so she quickly made a run into it to try and escape the rain.

Cold and damp, Katie looked around at this strange little alleyway and wondered why they didn’t just join the two buildings together since they were so close. Either way, it added to the character of the whole area and gave the town a certain ‘feel’ to it.

It suddenly occurred to her that she didn’t know where the alley went, if anywhere, and being the curious type Katie decided to take a wander a bit further down the passageway. She was not expecting to find anything of interest, so was surprised to see another small alleyway that led to a small, old, out of the way curiosity shop.

Katie peered through the dirty and slightly warped glass to see if it was open and noticed a light on inside. Opening the small wooden door, she was greeted with a face full of dust and musty old smells from times long since past.

It appeared to be some sort of antiques shop, selling things from rot-ridden wooden chairs to full suits of armour. In the far corner was a counter and stood behind it was a small old lady, hunched over slightly and wearing clothes that looked antique themselves.

Uninterested, Katie went to leave, but something in the shop caught her eye: a shiny red jewelled egg no bigger than her hand, seated on a little gold stand in the window. Katie reached to pick it up. When she did, the egg gave her what felt like an electric shock through her hands, yet didn’t hurt.

Dismissing it, Katie called out to the old lady, “How much is this egg?”

The woman looked up sharply, as though she had been disturbed from something important, and frowned. “Five pounds fifty,” she croaked.

That isn’t very expensive, Katie thought, but didn’t complain: she thought it would look nice on her fireplace.

Upon getting home later, Katie set the jewelled egg on her mantle piece and thought nothing more of it.