Chapter 1 : A New Shop

College was soon going to be a distant memory for Lacey Dupree. Soon she’d be worried about job interviews, and then after that—hopefully—working. Gone would be the no class Thursdays where she could ride her bike into town. Sunnington was a small college town, it’d probably be nothing without Glenda College, the all-girls school nearby. While it hadn’t been her first choice, she did have to admit as the sun streamed down around her and naught else but the sound of wind birds, and the turning of her bicycle’s wheels, it had grown on her.

What hadn’t grown on her was the dreaded freshman fifteen (or sophomore seventeen for that matter). While she might have liked to have gained a bit up top just for a boost of self-confidence, not being top heavy had its perks. Her slender figure make bicycle riding and jogging through the nearby woods a tad easier.

Her penchant for hiking and bicycling also helped her keep her sanity during some of the more frustrating times. As one of the girls in the school who hadn’t decided to experiment with the fairer sex, the only flirtation fun she’d get was when she’d either ride or hike into town. Who cares if she’d been labelled a bit of a tease, it was her right to play with their attentions a little, there was no harm in it.

The town was not much noisier than usual, though there was a new storefront where there had been a used record shop. A few swarthy men were working? or more accurately taking a break in front of it. It looked mostly finished. Ole Time Curios was stenciled in calligraphy on the front window, and she peered in at some of the oddities inside.

One of the workers was watching her approach, with her long legs, and spaghetti strapped tank that clung to her little torso with spots of perspiration from her ride. He whistled in appreciation, “Hey, lookin’ good honey.” His buddy smacked him on the shoulder with a laugh hoping to not spoil the great view of her ass by making her walk away too soon. Their leers ripped into her day, suddenly making her feel quite alone.

She stole a quick glance and when he met her gaze, she quickly turned away? he was brazen, and unashamed with that crooked toothed grin. Something about it set off her alarm bells.

“Don’t be shy, sweetie, let me holla at you, you fine little thing—”

The door opened, and well-groomed man with a distinguished aura emerged from the store, he turned to Lacey, “Ah do you see something that you like in the display? Please come —”

The second worker chirped in with a slimy chuckle, “I see something I like.”

The man turned to face the workers, putting himself between Lacey and them, “Ho there, Slackjaw, I don’t pay you to sit there and harass the customers. You’re done today, I give you leave to vacate the premises.” After a beat he added, “Now.”

“My apologies, miss, as the saying goes, it is so difficult to find good help these days.”

She took a moment absorbing it all. Now completely unbothered by the men with their abrupt dismissal, she marveled at the absolute un-PC character of what had just taken place. Part of her felt better without the leering, but she wasn’t sure she liked the white knight coming to the rescue. “I was fine, I can handle myself,” she said with an independent puffing of the chest.

He smiled, “I am sure you were fine, however, they were out of line and needed to be corrected, regardless. But I digress, has my shop piqued your curiosity?”

He seemed genuine in his motive. Plainly, a business owner he would want to stop that behavior, but she was an autonomous agent able to fend for herself without needing to be treated as fragile. She decided to let the whole social dynamic rest for the moment, and give him the benefit of the doubt as a shopkeeper. Still, she filed it away to chew on it later. Taking a breath she turned to the question and to him with a smile, “Kind of, yeah, what is this place, exactly?”

“Ole Time Curios, a place of wonder, where one can find old memories or define new ones, where knickknacks are the order of the day. Come in, come in for a spell and take respite from the heat!”

She smiled and prompted by his peculiar manner of speech, responded in kind, “Don’t mind if I do,” she said with a slightly affected southern accent.

“Dorsey Basilton is my name, and this is my playground,” he inhaled the cool air of his shop, “Ah yes, the joys of air conditioning, a definite postmodern addition, back in the older times, the only civilized way to beat the heat was to unbutton your blazer and sip on a Diplomatic Rickey in the shade, maybe fan yourself with your boater if it is really sweltering. I have a few fans for the ladies, you know, quite demure you might like one. I didn’t catch your name, miss...”

“Lacey.”

“Ah a lovely name, very young name, though popular in the 80’s. Names are interesting things some come and go like fashions and some are timeless. Names like...” Lacey checkout out of his ramblings and just starting peering at the random oddities. Still he continued rambling on. “Some even change gender association. Kim—for example used to be an exclusively masculine name, did you know that? It really is a fascinating thing. Ah there you are, you have a good eye.”

“Huh?”

“You’re staring at the clockwork schooner.”

She blinked. She was staring at a pile of gears and odd angled clips, hinges, and greased shoestrings by her measure. “That’s a schooner?”

“Clockwork schooner, here let me show you.” She watched entranced as his fingers deftly worked magic assembling folding tinkering with the metal parts until in a matter of moments, they had turned from a mess of parts into a differently shaped random mess of parts.

“Uhm...”

“Wait, come over here and watch,” he indicated and she took his spot and knelt down to looked closely at the contraption which was now round and with a hollow center and a crank on the side. “Wait one more moment...” he produced a candle and a match and lit it and set it in the center. “Now lights...” He strode the the side wall, pulled a rope and blackout drapes covered the front window, suddenly darkening the place to nearly night. Still, the candle lit metal did nothing of interest. He strode back and placed a book behind the contraption and began to turn the crank.

Then ... magic. The shadows from the candle on the book cast an image of a schooner on the ocean, and as he turned it, it seemed to move up and down with the tide. She gasped causing the light to flicker briefly, then watched as it continued to sail on the ocean. “Cool,” she added then she noted what she thought had been a random shadow was actually a shark fin chasing after to boat. “How does it ... wow.”

“Ex-ACTLY! That, yes, that,” he strode back to the wall, “That is what I am going for!” He continued talking as he pulled the ropes to lift the blackout drapes again. She had to admit, he had a flair for the dramatic. “You ... get ... what ... I ... am ... Doing ... here we go. Yes, that there, a world of wow, a bevy of blinking beautiful things to add wonder to the days going by from days gone by.”

He’d turned his back and gone off to the next great thing so she blew out the candle and followed him.