Page 32 of A December to Remember
With glasses thoroughly washed and wine poured, they began their search in earnest. Maggie had compiled a list of things Augustus had been fond of—though this wasn’t easy since heseemed delighted by almost everything—and they used this as a rough guide of where they might focus their attention.
Star dusted off the gramophone, and soon the shop was filled with the tinny crackle of old jazz. Simone positioned the Calor gas heater in front of the sideboard and after a few minutes a gentle heat slowly wended its way along the aisles, warming the merchandise and awakening fragrances of old book bindings and beeswax polish. They worked as methodically as possible in the chaos, taking an aisle each, starting at the end nearest the front door and working slowly down. Their thematic approach to the search was short-lived as the sheer farrago of stuff overwhelmed them. Every trinket box was shaken, every watch, ring, and jewelry box was opened. Vases were tipped out and knickknacks rifled through. Artemis had a habit of leering unexpectedly out from the shelves or jumping up to inspect what they were doing. Maggie thought the cat gravitated toward whichever of them was about to find a house, but she dismissed the idea as nonsense.
As they worked, they called out the names of unusual items found.
“Ceremonial tribal staff!”
“Didgeridoo!”
“Victorian clockwork bird in a cage.”
“China figurine of man sitting on a chamber pot!”
“An actual chamber pot!”
At the end of each aisle, they would refill their wineglasses before disappearing back into the mountains of jumble. Each Monopoly house they discovered received a cheer and a celebratory wine top-up.
By the time they had scoured the shelves, their hands were grey with dirt and dust and they were all three drunk as farts. Itwas eleven o’clock and even through her wine haze, Maggie was aware she would regret drinking when she got up at five tomorrow morning to receive the egg shipment. They had found twenty-six more Monopoly houses, which they added to the four they had found yesterday, making thirty. Only two more to find and they would have access to the ledger, which would help Duncan, the handsome knitting Sotheby’s appraiser, make sense of the vintage mess.
“Where haven’t we looked?” asked Simone.
“Ooh, the till!” yipped Star.
“You always loved that till.” Maggie laughed. “You used to stand on a chair to play with it.”
“Remember when the cash drawer shot out suddenly and knocked her clean off her stool?” Simone quipped.
“It’s got such huge buttons; it looks more like a slot machine than a cash register.” Star was already pushing down the stiff buttons, which clacked like typewriter keys, as she worked to find the one that would open the drawer.
“We haven’t checked the kitchenette,” suggested Maggie.
“Okay, you do the kitchen and I’ll do the understairs cupboard,” said Simone.
“Watch out for spiders,” Maggie urged, just as Simone pulled open the cupboard door and a thick web plastered itself over her face. She screamed and fell over, and the others stifled their laughter.
Unsurprisingly, the poky kitchenette contained nothing you’d expect to find in a kitchen. One cupboard housed several small wooden and leather chests containing various war medals. Another was full of beautifully hand-painted tea caddies, with designs ranging from Chinese inspired to Victorian floral. Maggiepainstakingly checked them all, sifting through buttons, ribbons, thimbles, and even a few gold teeth, which she didn’t want to think too much about, but found no Monopoly house. A loud ting rang through the shop followed by a yelp from Star as the till finally gave up its treasures.
“I’ve got one!” she shouted jubilantly.
Maggie abandoned a cupboard full of painted canvases to join her.
“Good work,” she said. “One more to go.”
Simone backed out of the understairs cupboard and they rushed to divest her clothes and hair of cobwebs and dead spiders.
“We’ll need to pull it all out and go through it if we’re going to search properly. It is absolutely full of crap,” she said, pouring them all more wine. “It’s impossible to find anything in there, let alone a fingernail-sized house.”
Star was tapping her chin. “Where else would an eccentric old codger hide a Monopoly house?”
“Has anyone looked inside the grandfather clock?” Maggie suggested.
They moved as one toward it, a little wavy for the wine. Simone turned the key and opened the door to the front of the old clock. The stilled pendulum felt like a metaphor for the shop. Aside from a surprised field mouse, who quickly scampered out of reach up into the workings, they found nothing of note.
Simone swayed slightly as she relocked the front panel, and Maggie giggled and helped steady her, though she was not much more balanced herself. They both jumped and turned as a loudcuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoosound rang out through the shop. Star stood grinning beside the noisy clock on the wall.
“What are you...” Simone began, but her words trailed off when she registered that the twig, which repeatedly emerged from the clock, held a blue Monopoly house instead of a wooden bird.
“That’s it! There it is!” said Maggie. “We’ve found them all.”
