by Eric Hodges
CHAPTER 4
SHOP DELIVERY
Wheeler pulled away from the curb in front of the shop very gently. His VW did everything gently due to the lack of power and low gears. It sounded rather sewing machine-like as he headed down Main Street with the furniture comfortably stowed in the back.
“So tell me, Wheeler, how is it you are in town here looking for work? Hard to imagine anybody would want to move here” Alice said in a friendly, pleasant tone. The nervous rapid-fire speech had been replaced with a calm, friendly tone a bit lower in pitch. Sitting next to Wheeler in the bus she was not the same woman as the one in the store. Wheeler had just been whiplashed.
“Some time ago I left the Navy with no real world skills. I was part of a combat unit that I left to find out what the real world was like. I needed both time and distance, so I just hit the road and kept going.” He made no mention of the other Alice that had apparently been left in the store. “How did you end up in the antique business? Pardon my observation, but you don’t seem matronly enough to go in for old furniture and curios.”
“You’re right, antiques are not really my style, but I worked the store with my mother since I was 10 years old. I learned the ins and outs but did finally get off to college to learn something else, Art History. When I came back mom was not able to run the store by herself so I stayed on for ‘just a while’.” She said the ‘just a while’ like she was using the finger quotes in the air but didn’t do it. “It wasn’t long before she passed away and I became a shopkeeper.” Alice was becoming a pleasant companion and some wheels in the back of Wheeler’s mind were quietly spinning away putting pieces together, to inform him when something lined up.
“I’m sorry about your mother” Wheeler didn’t say more to allow her to work through the hurt and just continue at her own pace. She continued after a moment.
“Oh it’s all right. She had Bob and me when she was older, so her passing was not unexpected, it was time for her. Our father passed away some time ago and mom missed him. Now I am the proprietor of Eaton’s only antique emporium.” She seemed stable now, not overly emotional and level headed; Wheeler liked her.
“Wow, look at you; young, attractive, the owner of one of Eaton’s premiere businesses, you must have all the men in town after you.” He did notice a bit of a blush as he spoke.
“I did until a month ago. I had one of those ‘young men’ of which you speak.” There was the air quote thing again. She was cute. “He wanted me to be the barefoot and pregnant wife and sell Old Glorys to finance a new truck or boat or something. Pea-brain, I call him that now, he thinks we’re living in the backwoods still marrying cousins.” Wheeler couldn’t hold back and laughed out loud. My gosh, she had some spunk.
Alice continued “Now he can’t get it through his undeveloped brain that I’ve had enough of him and he better leave me alone.” She looked over at Wheeler sizing him up. With him around maybe pea-brain will think there’s something going on and leave me alone, she thought. She could do worse but kept the musing to herself.
“Just out of town, take the right and the billboard, I’ll show you” she said, trying to get the conversation away from her drama that deflated her every time she thought about it.
Wheeler slowed the bus to make the turn and headed up the slight incline at a mature speed. “The house is right up there” she pointed. “Just pull in the drive at the front.”
He pulled up with the rear doors of the bus facing the porch as smartly dressed woman opened the door. She had professionally done hair with a bit too much red Wheeler thought, matching slacks and jacket, and what looked like a silk blouse.
When she saw Alice get out of the VW, she exclaimed “Alice, how wonderful of you to bring the tables, I’m so looking forward to the new look to my sitting room.” She and Alice embraced almost like mother-daughter and walked over to the VW.
“Evelyn, this is my friend Wheeler” Alice said. “Wheeler, this is Evelyn.”
“Pleased to meet you, Ma’am” Wheeler opened side doors to the VW so they could get a look inside.
“Oh they will be just lovely, bring them this way.” Evelyn was outgoing and friendly, nothing like the timid, reluctant woman Alice described that had picked out the tables at the store. This was getting interesting, Wheeler thought, was Eaton a town of Jekyll and Hides? Probably not, Bob was an even sort of guy after all.
It was not hard to tell Evelyn Morton lived alone. Alice and Wheeler were nearly forced into coffee and a nice chat around the kitchen table, the two women catching up on gossip and events that gives character to small town life. Wheeler was half paying attention, interjecting ‘Of course’ and ‘Thank you’ when necessary. His other attention was sensing a normalcy about the whole experience. There was nothing unusual or curious about the visit, just the companionable chit chat of two women that knew each other pretty well.
It was mid-day when they drove back into town and Alice said “Let’s stop by Bob’s and see if he’s ready for lunch.” Wheeler drove around the back of the shop to see a shower of sparks shooting ten feet across the shop. Bob saw them drive up, took off his face shield and waved. Wheeler walked by the hanging Hemi and noticed the front cross member was missing from the support frame and the bar on Bob’s bench looked like it would fit the space.
“Are you ready for a break or did you have lunch yet?” Alice said with a warm familiarity.
“Ahh, you’re just in time. I’m just ready to weld so this is good time to stop” Bob said as he put his face shield and gloves down. “I’ll just wash up. You go on ahead and I’ll meet you at the diner so you don’t need to bring me back here.”
They all had the pot roast special and Wheeler thought it was one of the better examples from his travels. Bob said he would be done with the welding by 3 o’clock and Wheeler planned to be back then. When Wheeler and Alice got to her shop, the phone was ringing and Alice made the dash to the back.
“Old Glorys” she said, with bit of the outside calm voice. She listened for a moment.
“I told you not to call me anymore.” She was speeding her cadence as the pitch in her voice rose.
“I don’t care, don’t call, don’t come here and DO NOT BOTHER ME!” She used more speed, higher pitch and more volume. There was a pause with what Wheeler assumed to be Pea-Brain speaking.
“Don’t you dare! I have a helper today I don’t have time for you, not today, not ever! Leave me alone!!” She slammed the phone down without waiting for a response, her voice and the receiver echoing in the otherwise quiet store. She stood motionless for several moments staring down past the phone to nothing beyond the floor. Wheeler was looking intently at a vase on one of the tables doing a good impression of an appraiser, all the while not having any idea what he was looking at.
After she was mostly composed, she said “That went well.” She tried to seem normal but her expression was near panic.
“Is there anything I can do?” Wheeler asked in a kind voice.
“No, no, he was just making idle threats that won’t come to anything. It’s just hot air blowing out of his deflating manhood.”
Wheeler let it pass and tried to get them back to a more normal reality. “Well boss, what’s on the schedule for my next two hours?”
Alice returned to her fidgety, bird-like flitting, looking here and there across the store, stopping her gaze on one piece, then the next, and then another back to the first. As she was deciding Wheeler noticed the personality change at the same time noticing the odd smell from the morning. He refused to notice the contents, he knew it was there and didn’t want to give purchase to the chaos of it. To know a thing is to be able to manage it and it was now evident to him this ‘smell’ was having its way with Alice and maybe more. She apparently, did not know she had changed persona.
“I would like to do a bit of arranging to see if we can spice up this old stuff.” She started to wander about the front of the store as Wheeler noticed a rather elaborate coat rack. It was a
sturdy thing with a four inch post rising up out of four highly decorated feet supporting the curved wooden scrolls at the top and it must have weighed a hundred pounds. As he approached, the smell intensified and he felt a sense of nausea creeping up on him. He stopped to readjust his senses with his perceptions to make sure he did not fall into some kind of spell like Alice had. There was something there that was more than a mere coat rack, it was inhabited.
“Help me move this dining set away from the front window” Alice asked. “I want to make a cozy living room grouping that might be more inviting.” Wheeler did not go any closer to the coat rack but he did realize how it would serve the greater good. He carefully backed away keeping an eye on it like it might jump out and grab him.
“Sure, it might look like new inventory to people driving by” he said, walking to meet her at the dining set. The wheels in the back of his mind were turning as he lifted the chairs away and the two of them moved the table. They made an attractive setting of wing-back chairs, a small coffee table and two end tables next to each chair. She looked about for the right lamps as Wheeler kept an eye on the coat rack. He had a plan for it now.
“Get this other lamp and let’s try two of them” she said, lifting one lamp and nodding to another. He placed his lamp where he thought it should be and Alice said “Oh no, no, no. Put it there behind the chair so you can read or knit. The light must come from behind, not in front. Here, let me do that.” She said it in her rapid-fire staccato that reminded Wheeler of the urgency of dealing with the coat rack. She stood back to get a different vantage point on the window display.
“That looks inviting, don’t you think?” she said like she was short of breath. Wheeler looked intently at the new parlor display like he was a world renowned art critic, slowly changing his view angle, leaning down, murmuring a random ‘Humm’ then a ‘Huh’. Alice looked a bit concerned.
“What do you see? Is something wrong with it?” He paced for another long moment before responding, he wanted to get the full effect.
“You know” he drew out the words agitating Alice just that bit more. “If we moved something out to the sidewalk, we could make this really look three dimensional, like the display was inside and outside of the store.” He appeared intent on the display but he was peeking at her out of the corner of his eye. Alice was now flitting between the parlor group inside, the sidewalk right outside the window and back again. She heard the words but didn’t understand.
“What do you mean?” she said with a puzzled look on her face.
“Let’s just try something, open the door for me would you?” Wheeler said as he headed back into the store to get the coat rack. He had to close himself off completely for what he had to do next, there could be no opening in him for intruders. In the few moments it took him to get to the back of the shop, he became an automaton with no feelings, no senses and almost no consciousness. He lifted the huge coat rack in a bear hug, carefully navigated it to the front door and lugged it out on the sidewalk, telling himself it’s just wood over and over like a mantra. He gently put it down just even with the right edge of the large window on the right side of the door, just a few feet away from the building. The parlor setting could be seen through the window on the right, so the coat rack looked like it was in a phantom hallway. Wheeler and Alice stepped off the curb to look.
“I think I see what you’re trying to do” Alice said with her delivery slowing down just slightly.
“Oh, that’s just perfect, it’s exactly what I wanted” Wheeler said trying to sound convincing and effusive but not quite gay. The damn thing had to be outside and he wanted Alice to go along with it. “We’ll just leave it out for the day and bring it back in overnight, of course.” He was doing his best to propose an easy decision for her. “Do you have a ‘For Sale’ sign we could hang on it?”
Alice was warming to the idea of the outside display and distractedly said “Sure, I’ve got a big cardboard one in the back.” Her cadence had slowed a bit more as she processed both thoughts vying for her attention. Wheeler was hopeful it was more than distraction slowing her down.
“Excellent, may I go get it, you could have a customer any second” Wheeler said heading back into the store. Excellent, he thought, cardboard would be perfect. He found the sign leaning against the back wall and made short work of attaching it to the coat rack. Just in time too, the wait would be short.
“Let’s take a break” Alice said. “I have soda and water in the fridge and I could make more coffee if you’d like.” Her fidgety, nervous head bob and clipped speech was nearly gone as they walked to the back of the shop. Her gait was leisurely and Wheeler noticed a gentle sway to her hips as they got to the work table she used as office. He hadn’t noticed her slink before, probably because it wasn’t there. He was, after all, as susceptible to feminine charms as any man.
“I’ll have water please” he said. She joined him at the table with two bottles that they each opened and sipped for a quiet moment, looking toward the front of the shop at their new window display. Through the window Wheeler saw a black, dingy pickup truck blur past from their right and squeal the tires right in front of the shop. He could just see the rear quarter of the truck as it almost stopped. Then he heard breaking glass and the roar of big V8 through a bad muffler as the front of the shop burst into flames.
