The Hauntch Shop
When I awoke the clock on the wall said it was three, all was dark according to the boarded up windows.
“AWAKE she IS!.” a shrill voice sounded out from behind.
I thought my eardrums would bust it was so loud, and then the chatter of a thousand people filled air. I rose from my chair, with an overwhelming urge to run. Just RUN! My jaw dropped, and my breath escaped me. The blood in my veins began to turn ice cold, I could hear my heart in my eardrums. My mind began planing my escape through the front door into ‘Nary Town. What my eyes saw, I would never believe. A ghost war being raged, in full glory. And I ran. Oh yes! You bet I ran. They couldn’t have gotten rid of me fast enough, I ran through the open door. Every ghost in the place at my back, chasing me down, I did not even look where I was going. I ran. The next thing I knew, I was glancing over my shoulder at the ghosts. They were glaring menacingly and brandishing weapons, as they stood in the doorway of the one story shack. Water came rushing up over my head, as I ran straight off the docks. Before I hit the water I could have sworn I heard laughter. By the time I got back to the surface, all I saw was a very angry bearded ghost slamming shut the door.
I let out a sigh, “Great.” I muttered to myself. They had probably locked me out too, with the keys inside. I swam around to the ladder and got out of the water, only to find that they had indeed locked me out.
And yes. There was laughter. Great, whooping laughter. “Laugh it up!” I shouted at the door. A thin man at the end of the road began to distance himself further from me, and act as if he was busy. I banged on the door with my fist, but it only made their laughter increase from inside. “That’s right.” I nodded at the window. “I see how this is.” ‘Bunch of ingrates is what they are.’ I complained to myself. ‘You try to take care of people, and this is what you get.’
By the time I had reached Bradock’s Orphanage, my thoughts were completely verbal.
“Just like your aunt.” A very handsome thin man pulled himself forward out of the shadows. His dark brown hair was cut exactly like all the boys from the orphanage, giving him a younger look, though he seemed to be around his mid thirties.
“Mr. Bradock.” I smiled politely.
“The children are simply taken by you, and I can see why.” he pulled a pipe from his tattered jacket pocket and set it between his teeth. “Quite the dripping beauty.” he smiled, his brown eyes sparkling as he wiggled his eyebrows at me.
I laughed at his nonsense.
“Perhaps you want to come in and dry off?”, he walked to the front door and opened it for me. “We don’t have much, but what we do have is clean.” he set the pipe back in his jacket as I entered the building.
A labeled shelf filled with shoes sat in the hallway by the door. You could tell that each child got to make their own name tag, some were decorated with drawn flowers. My eyes were instinctively drawn to Sarah’s unicorn, it was expertly done, with fuschia hair and magenta eyes. It looked so happy running through the meadow she put it in.
“They are brilliant aren’t they.” Mr. Bradock was back with a clean towel. “That was actually drawn by Marco. I’ll be sorry to see him go, such a blessing.” he glanced at Marco’s shoe slot. His voice turned sad and distant, “But they do grow up don’t they, and leave the nest.”
I could hear the morning bustle starting upstairs, as the downstairs clock began to chime five.
Then all of the sudden the noise seemed to come to halt near the top of the stairs. I could hear a girl squealing as she bounded up them, “It’s the lady from the store!”
Mr. Bradock turned a bright shade of red, “Excuse me.” He hurried off to the stairwell, and I could hear him giving a gentle lecture about polite society. Then they proceeded down the stairs in double file, and turned down the hallway away from me. As Mr. Bradock returned he offered me breakfast.
I had to refuse knowing they barely had enough for themselves, however I did take use of his study. A really small room with a small fireplace. It was lined with book filled shelves, that started at mid height and ran to almost the ceiling. It held a desk and it’s chair, plus an end table and sitting chair. It was a good thing that everyone at the orphanage was so thin, there was only enough room for a child to move around. Closer to nine o’clock my clothes were dry enough to go outside. I knew the doors to the store, at least one of them, would be unlocked in thirty minutes.
As I was starting out to find Mr. Bradock, he found me instead, holding Marco roughly by the arm. I drew in a quick breath out of panic, the expression on Marco’s face was straight fear.
“Have my children been making a nuisance of themselves in your shop?” his voice was as stern as his look. “Why did you know, that even today he was planning to take a separate set of ten?”
“No, that’s okay.” I let out the breath I had been holding, and waved it off as if it were nothing. Which it was indeed nothing. “In fact.” I said thinking quickly on my feet, Marco’s face was still fear filled. I nodded towards Marco as I spoke, “I was wanting to talk to Grady and Marco, and his little friends. To see if they might do some things for me, I would pay them of course.” I looked up at Mr. Bradock, who immediately released Marco’s arm.
“You mean jobs?” he stood stunned.
“If I could.” I was glad to have struck some sort of chord in his heart. Though Marco seemed more interested in what I had to say than Bradock did. “You see, your children are well behaved and I find them to be highly intelligent. They’ve been in my shop, not once but twice. They’ve been respectful, honest, trustworthy and… They stayed out of my way when things got really busy yesterday, and they were just angels. They don’t bother me, they don’t bother my customers. I encourage them to come over.” ‘And eat.’, I thought to myself.
“If that is the case, and they really aren’t a bother.” Mr. Bradock began to smile the broadest smile I had ever seen. He pulled Marco in for a hug, “You lot make me so proud.” He looked as though he was moved to tears.