The General Store

The whir of the fan, its plastic tassels slapping against one another, a metallic cicada, mimicking the humid summer sounds just outside the dingy windows. “The General Store” sat in the middle of the sidewalk with faded paint and sagging shudders, a small plaque rusted almost beyond recognition read “EST. 1915.” A small photo collage, yellowed with age, hung behind the counter. Faces of the past crowded together smiling in front of what was once the only store in town, now an antique shop just as forgotten as its contents. The current owner hadn’t felt the need to come up with a new name, so the general store became “The General Store”.

The bones of the store remained the same, the aisles and shelves that once held all your necessities now housed the memories of your grandparents attic. The display cases were filled with estate jewelry and ticking pocket watches. The farthest point of the store’s shelves were burdened with the weight of countless volumes of dusty broken spined tomes. Literary classics and old tv guides shared space crammed into this wall of forgotten prose. The upstairs, once the living quarters for the McCarthy family, now housed furniture and clothing. Nothing fancy, nothing extravagant, not a place people from the city would travel for the next thrifted fashion find. Just, a general store.

Dani snapped her gum as she flipped listlessly through an old copy of Vogue magazine, absent-mindedly reading old celebrity drama. Dani needed a job to pay for her final semester of college and her father, who had lived up the road from the shop his whole life, had suggested stopping in. It was not her first thought, this place had always been an eyesore growing up. The women who owned it were strange and always smelled like mildew. In the summer, the lack of air conditioning and the accumulation of dust made it stuffy, hot, and oppressive; not a place Dani nor her friends would have paid much attention to when they were kids. But she was desperate and didn’t have a car, which is how she ended up spending her summer sweating inside the stale interior of the antique store.

The tinkle of the bell above the door grabbed Dani’s attention, slowly lifting her gaze, a page resting on her finger ready to be turned. The sun from outside kept the visitor in silhouette, features hidden momentarily.

Dani straightened up. He was handsome, very handsome. Dani tried very casually to smooth out her wrinkled appearance, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. He gave a small chuckle and placed the box he was carrying on the counter.

“I have some things I’d like to return, I just moved in down the street and the previous owners left all sort of boxes in the attic,” he explained pulling out various books and collectibles.

“We don’t do really do returns,” Dani gestured to the piles forming on the counter.

“Oh, I don’t want anything,” he said shaking his head, “one of the books said to return it here if found, I figured I’d just bring everything in”.

“Oh weird.” Dani inspected a water damaged photo album. Why would someone want to have this stuff returned to the shop?

“Well maybe I’ll see you around,” the stranger muttered turning and walking out the front door. Dani stepped out from behind the counter and grabbed the box, stepping over a vintage rocking horse, she knelt down in the display window. The layers of dirt on the windows did nothing to keep out the hot sun, the sweat immediately beading up on Dani’s skin. She wiped her forehead and began moving around the books in the display shelf, tucking away the “ONLY $10” sign. She made quick work of organizing the books by color to make the display more eye catching, wondering if she should put this on her resume as “marketing”. As she fingered through the covers looking for title and author a thin leather-bound book struck her as odd. The leather was worn, soft, a faded black with a band attached to the back holding the book closed. She opened the cover to see a return address,

If found return to the general store on North Rd.

She paused, this must be the book that guy had been talking about. Flipping through the pages she saw that it seemed to be a catalogue of items; listed with size, name and price. It appeared to be the log of a jewelry appraiser, mixed in with some short diary entries signed F.F. Dani set the book aside and decided she’d take a look during her lunch break, the thought of some old town gossip hidden in the diary pages intrigued her. It would be nice to have something other than the same six magazines to flip through.

Dani took her break outside, stretching out across a bench behind the store. She was engrossed in the pages of what was actually the diary of an aspiring jewelry thief who lived in town. The log in the diary was a record of all the pieces this person had stolen, accompanied by short daily entries. As Dani read she wrestled with the moral obligation to surrender it to the police, some of these pieces were thousands of dollars. She looked at her phone, realizing she only had ten minutes left of her break and she really wanted to finish the diary before making the decision to hand it over.

June 11th, 1982

A yellow canary diamond flew in during my shift today on the hand of a very loud petite blonde. She and her new beau had just moved in “on Cherry Lane, a little picket fence and everything” her southern drawl like nails on a chalk board. She asked me if we carried a jewelry cleaning kit for home “I just don’t know if I can trust anyone in this town yet, sorry”. She handed me some letters and asked if I could send them out for her, I rolled my eyes but at least now I had her address. I watched her through her upstairs window, I assume it’s the bathroom. She took her jewelry off and placed it in an unseen bowl full of cleaner, leaving the window open just a crack. A sturdy looking trellis under the side windows made the perfect ladder, almost too easy. The sun sets in about an hour, after the street falls asleep I’ll climb up and grab that ring.

F.F.

June 12th, 1985

I’VE DONE IT! SUCCESS!

June 15th, 1985

I hid the ring in the floor boards behind the counter at work, I’ll keep it there until I hear back from Anthony. They’ve put up “REWARD” flyers for the ring. The blonde came in to hand them to me, her face puffy and red from crying “put them everywhere”. Definitely don’t want the ring sitting idle in my house, maybe I’m paranoid. I’m considering “finding” it, the reward is $20,000!

F.F.

Dani gasped, $20,000 would cover her tuition, she tried to imagine spending that much on a ring. She hit stop on her phone alarm, warning only five more minutes of break. She flipped through to see how much was left to find only one more entry.

June 15th, 1985

I am going to prison! Anthony snitched to the police to save himself. It’s only a matter of time before they get here, I’m hiding this diary and making a run for it. The canary is still at the general store, behind the counter, under the boards. I’ll lay low for a while, then go back for it.

F.F.

“Dani break’s over!” a shrill voice broke Dani’s bewildered daze. Dani got up from the bench and walked in through the back door, heart racing. She poked her head into her boss’ office before heading up to the counter.

“I’m leaving for the day, I left you a list of things to do, you can close early if you finish everything,” her boss said handing her a post it scribbled with notes. Dani nodded and took the list, completely lost in thought. “Are you even listening?” her boss snapped exiting the room and turning off the light.

“A customer asked me about the history of the store earlier, I don’t know anything and I’d love to learn,” Dani said trying to sound genuine while lying through her teeth.

“It was a general store for 80 years before the family put it up for sale, it was supposed to be a wine bar, wouldn’t that have been fun,” her boss explained as she made her way to the front door, “ but some college student wrote an article about it and I guess people wanted to save the building, so my aunt bought it and turned it into an antique store.” She seemed just an unenthused by the history as Dani was.

“Have any … renovations been done,” Dani paused, she didn’t want to pique interest but wanted to know if the boards under the front counter had always been there.

“You work here, does it seem like we make enough money for renovations?” Her boss peered over the top of her sunglasses. She didn’t wait for a response before turning on her heel and walking out of the store.

Dani turned to the small corner of wooden panels behind the display case. Kneeling down she felt around the knobby wood for any sort of looseness, hoping she wouldn’t need to pry up the floor. Sliding her hand under the counter she tried not to get her hopes up, happening upon $20,000 would be a miracle. The odds of this ring being hidden beneath the counter were slim she thought, until she felt a board move, her breath caught in her chest. Dani looked around and found a ruler to pry up the board, once popped out of place she gently slid it out from under the counter. Using her phone for light she brought her head down to the floor, exhaling she slid her hand into the dirty abyss. She felt around for a minute before her fingers brushed something cold and hard. Dani strained to reach farther under and grasped the object, pulling it out gingerly. There it was, not even years of dust could dull the sparkle of the yellow diamond Dani now held. She put her hand over her mouth in shock and started to chuckle to herself, realization setting in. She took another deep breath and put the diamond in her pocket, she reached back into the floor to find the reward poster. She tapped around with her hand before feeling the paper. Again, softly, she pulled out the stained flyer. “$20,000 REWARD” it said in bold type at the top of the page. Dani held the paper to the light and was barely able to make out a smudged phone number. Tapping the number into her phone she held her breath as it rang, clutching the poster in her hands.

“Hello Dillon residence,” a feminine, southern drawl answered.

“Hi my name is Dani… I work at the former general store on North Rd… I think I may have found your ring,” Dani stammered. A faint gasp sounded on the other end.

“Where ever did you find it,” she asked, sounding relieved.

“The person who stole it from you hid it with the reward poster under the floor, I have their notebook.” Dani could hear her heart pounding.

“I’ll have my husband stop by with the checkbook and the sheriff,” the woman giggled. They chatted briefly before saying goodbye, Dani expressing how happy she was to return the ring to its owner. She just stood there for a moment, processing, she’d be able to pay for this year’s tuition and start to pay back the loans from the previous years. An uncontrollable smile spread across her face, “thank you” she said holding up the little black notebook.