EPISODE SIXTY-THREE

I rubbed my eyes and stared up at the ceiling. My dreams had been strange, filled with dragons, golden light, and the cat staring at me. None of it made sense, and I didn’t feel like I’d slept much, yet I wasn’t tired. Even so, my bed was comfortable and a small dragon at some point had curled up next to my right side during the night. Her little snores were adorable, and I peeked under the covers at her with a smile.

It was time to get up, though, based on the sunlight coming in from my skylight. The beam of warm light hit the beautiful flower on my nightstand, making each of the petals almost glow. The white round object in the center glittered. Finally, I pulled myself out of bed and headed to the bathroom.

By the time I was dressed and ready to head downstairs, Indigo was gone from my room. The door was cracked open. I chuckled as I headed out onto the balcony, excited to see what type of day I would have.

The shop was different. The tall bookshelves were the same, but everything else wasn’t. More tables filled the space, along with other objects like dressers. Each flat surface had things on it like bottles, books, or signs. The front display was changed, and beside the wingback chair was a lamp, along with a large planter.

I shook my head, trying to figure out what it reminded me of as I headed downstairs. My first stop was the coffee machine, Betty. She, along with the counter was the same, and I quickly made a latte before heading into the kitchen. It dawned on me. An antiques store, that was what the shop reminded me of. My fingers twitched wanting to dive into the stuff and see what treasures I could find.

Antiquing was one of those things I did with my mom. We would spend hours checking out new shops near and far during high school. I loved the thrill of the hunt, finding an old quilt or the perfect coffee mug. Maybe I’d have time after breakfast to do a little browsing.

The Cat sat at the counter, staring into the open fridge. “We forgot to do the shopping.”

“What?” Then I paused, thinking of the last time I’d placed a grocery order. It was well before the Conclave. While we had a ton of bacon in the freezer, we were out of eggs. “Well, we can do cereal with milk, and I can place an order this afternoon.”

The Cat nodded.

I pulled a box of cereal out of the cupboard along with three bowls. One was smaller than the others. “Do you know where Indigo is?”

“Listening to a lesson in her hut,” answered the Cat. “She received a new one this morning from that Elder.”

I nodded. “I’ll get her in a moment then.” I poured cereal for each of us, then milk. Then I headed to the hallway. “Indigo, breakfast! It’ll be quick.”

By the time I was eating my first bite, the dragon was flying into the kitchen, her MP3 player clutched in her front claws. She landed better than last time, using her back feet more. The headphones were still on her ears, and I could hear something still coming from them.

She moved toward her bowl.

I held up a hand. “You might want to pause that. If you ruin the headphones, or the player, you will need to wait until I can get you a new one.”

Indigo paused, looked sad, then took off the headphones and set the player down carefully.

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I wasn’t fast enough to stop her from jumping into her bowl. Milk went everywhere, but nothing got near the player. The Cat even growled at her as he ate his own breakfast. She sent a sheepish look his way before gulping down bits of cereal.

I quickly downed my bowl, but still Indigo beat both of us, draining the milk in her bowl. The question of where did all the milk go echoed through my head as she flew over to the sink to rinse off. The tap turned on automatically, and she literally washed herself off in the stream before shaking off in the sink. Then she grabbed the MP3 player before carefully putting the headphones back on and flying out of the room.

“You’re staring,” said the Cat.

“That was impressive,” I replied as I finished my own cereal.

“Dragons learn fast.”

I nodded slowly in reply. It wasn’t long ago that she didn’t think about the fact that if she swam in her food, she’d get dirty. Now she was cleaning herself off all by herself. “What does today look like?”

“We will be buying… then selling.”

“Okay, might as well get started…” I paused after standing up from the stool. “Do you think the shop has any quilts out there? I used to love hunting for nice quilts with my mom.”

The Cat blinked at the question. “No idea. I can check…”

“That would take the fun out of it.” I set my bowl in the sink, then went to grab the others, but they were already gone. There was still the plate with a few extra brownies and cookies on it in the middle of the island. I grabbed the plate, along with my latte, and I headed back to the front of the shop. The shop even smelled slightly dusty, like an antique shop. Those were some good days before I felt overcrowded by my family and everyone decided I needed to be meddled with.

“Sable, you ready?”

The Cat’s question knocked me back into the present and I nodded, setting the plate of goodies on the counter. I pulled out the glass dome from underneath to set on top. Less dust that way.

The door unlocked and whatever sign showing the store was now open went into effect. The door opened almost immediately. In walked a woman who, by her puffy eyes, pink and slightly damp cheeks, had clearly been crying. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she looked like she was my age. She carried in a cardboard box.

“Welcome to the shop!”

She nodded as she made her way to the counter. “Thanks, I saw in the paper that you buy stuff. I have some antiques and just some weird stuff I inherited. Basically, the things I thought I’d try to sell before the garage sale.”

“Yeah, we can take a look and see what you have…”

“We?” she asked.

The Cat meowed, drawing her attention.

“Oh, you are so adorable.” She reached out to give the Cat pets.

I opened the box to look inside.

“Just buy the entire box, offer like $500,” said the Cat while purring for the lady.

“How about I make you a coffee and you can have a brownie as I look through things,” I added to the woman.

“Oh.” Her face brightened. “That would be wonderful!” I quickly got to work on the coffee as she kept talking. “Things have kinda sucked since my grandma died. She left her house to me. It was all so sudden, though. I didn’t even know she was sick.” She paused for a moment and I set the to-go cup in front of her. “I’m trying to deal with her stuff as quickly as possible. I got offered a great internship across the country. At least if I can rent the house out, it will help with bills. But I have to empty it out first, and she had so much stuff!”

“Oh, I totally understand. You chase after that internship - they are invaluable.” I grabbed a brownie and set it on a small plate before putting it next to her. “You dig in, chocolate always helps. I’ll look through the box.”

“You could just offer her the money,” muttered the Cat.

I didn’t respond, but after she left I’d have to explain social niceties to him, yet again.

“She had these weird collections,” she added, before taking a bite of the brownie. Then she went quiet as she munched it.

I took my time looking through the box at the crystals, feathers, candles and other things her grandmother had clearly collected. All of it looked like the stuff people would sell in an occult bookstore. None of it looked special. Yet, I touched one of the crystals and it shimmered. For a split second it looked different, magical. I began to suspect that grandma was more than a collector.