‘Nary Town
Now you can imagine the surprise I had when I saw that I was no longer right off the pier. Instead what I saw was, I was in the center of a T-intersection in apparently what was the mid-eighteen seventies. I say that because of the prominent bustle in all the women’s dresses, and the horse drawn carriages. Though most of the clothes seemed to be either navy blue, black, or some other darker color. No one seemed to take any notice of my clothes, or that me or my shop existed at all. Just as I was about to step out and explore, I heard a jingling of keys behind me. I stepped back into the shop and glanced at the fading pink wallpaper, “Fading pink?” I questioned myself as I reached for the shop keys that hung on the key rack near the front door. I decided to not bother thinking about it, and I stepped outside. The front door locked with the first key I tried. I stepped back a few steps to see the building I had come out of. It was spectacular. The freshly stained pine wood gleamed in the evening sun, and majestic windowed dome sat on top of the first story. Above the door was a picture of the broom and bucket from behind the house, except the broom had been painted to look as if it was sweeping beside the bucket. In fat, arched, dark brown letters were the words The Hauntch Store. A small girl aged about six tugged on my cape, I glanced at my clothes for a split second realizing I now looked like everyone else out here. The girl was blonde, wearing a yellow dress and bonnet. “You don’t want to go there.” she warned me. “That’s the Haunted Shop.” She motioned for me to stoop lower so she could whisper. As soon as I was in earshot she began, “If you have the haunts and you have to get rid of them, you take them there. But the name was too scary you see, the ghosts they would run away when they would see the word haunt. So they changed the name, and it fools them. But you don’t want to buy haunts, they never go away. They just sit around and fool you.” She leaned back and eyed the door suspiciously. “My mother says, that place is full of haunts, and one day they will all be set free to roam ‘Nary Town. Just you wait, when my daddy is mayor, he will make them go far far away. And then we can be safe here.” “Well, it will be nice to be safe wont it?” I agreed with her and glanced up at the shop. “I tell you what, I can show you where the ice cream shop is if you buy me a cone.” she looked up at me. I put my hand in the drawstring purse I carried and found it had coins in it, “You’re a shrewd business woman aren’t you. Lead the way.” This girl was named Cynthia Perking, she was the daughter of Lacy and Stephen Perking of the Straton Perking’s. Her dad had been running for mayor for ten years, he’d never won. She also had a little brother, Kyle, he was only three though and could barely talk. I was invited up to the main house for tea by Cynthia, and again by her mother when she came to get her from the ice cream parlor. Where apparently Cynthia was supposed to have been this whole time. But I politely waved goodbye, and watched their white and gold carriage ride off. It was starting to get dark outside, and the candles in the street lamps were being lit. So I headed back to my store, fumbled through the keys trying to get one to open the front door, and eventually got back to my bed. Tabitha was probably torturing some poor defenseless ghost for not cleaning her litter box to her satisfaction, but I never saw her. I was determined to spend more time in ‘Nary Town tomorrow, after all… no one came in the shop. The next morning at promptly nine thirty, the locks on the doors clicked. A barrage of visitors poured in from both doors. From the back, being led by a dark skinned well mannered older boy, was a small motley group of children. From the front a barrage of men and women dressed in mid-eighteen seventies attire, each holding various objects and speaking quickly in various tones. Oh how my poor head began to ache with the new sound of children’s laughter and chatter, mixed with complaints and panic from every adult. After a few moments the adults began to calm down and one by one they began to issue their complaints. A thin elderly woman perhaps around ninety six, with her dark hair pulled back in a bun, was first in line. She was holding in her hand a very thick old law volume, and asking how much would she have to pay if I would take care of a haunted book. Apparently, her husband had died in their library while studying a recent court case. The case he was studying so fervently inside the book, was exactly like his case. So when he died, he fell straight into the case from the past. Now any time you opened the book to the case in question, out popped her lawyer husband arguing and bellowing the facts of the case. Which she did indeed show me, and the whole of the shop jumped and was quieted until the book was closed. Her husband had no intention of coming out of the book, he was nowhere near finished with his study. “The question is not wether or not I love my husband, I do indeed love him so much so that I must see to this.” Mrs. Gravethorn explained as she glanced lovingly at the old law volume. “It is only that I do not have much time, and I do not know how long he will be studying this case before he is able to move on. It could take centuries.” She paused slightly, as if she was thinking wether or not to tell me something. “I just need you to check on him from time to time, to see if he needs out. That would be just dreadful if he were to be stuck inside that book for all of eternity.” she gasped. “Oh don’t worry, Mrs. Gravethorn.” I consoled her quickly. “I’ll take care of it for you.” “Oh bless you, sweet child!” she exclaimed and handed over a bagful of gold coins, along with the book. “I just don’t know if this is enough.” Her voice was filled with relief, “I’ll just leave half the estate in my will for the rest of his upkeep. I know how stubborn Rupert is, if it takes centuries, he’ll prove to them that they are wrong. And it may just.” She stopped for a second and looked me straight in the eye. “Not that I didn’t love my husband, I stood by his every conviction. In life.” The children stayed most of the day, rummaging through old trunks and keeping themselves entertained out of the hot July sun. I hadn’t the time to watch over them, or see to them in any manner. But the oldest boy, whose name was Marco, kept them in line fairly well. I did notice at around noon, rather healthy looking sandwiches seemed to appear out of nowhere coupled with apple juice. As it neared five o’clock, the children began to file out of the store in an orderly fashion. Marco’s watchful dark eyes on each one as they passed through the door, making sure no one took anything that didn’t belong to them. My last customer of the day too was handing over a small bag of gold, and a cursed brass necklace. Over the whole day I had receive two haunted chests, one cursed tea set, a bewitched parasol, a haunted book, and two cursed necklaces. At five the doors locked themselves, and I sat in the chair by the fire. I was exhausted, I closed my eyes only for a little while and I fell asleep.