Summerfield: Chapter 6

I coughed as the dust swirled around me. I was trying to clean up my place as best as I could, but I didn’t have much experience in the cleaning department. It was me versus the ancient building and the building was winning. I sprayed Lysol everywhere to kill the bacteria that I knew was infested everywhere, but I swear I was allergic to it.

So, after searching for cleaning tips online for gross and grimy chores, and doing my best, I finally gave up for the night. Well, at least the place was less dusty and only had one layer of grease left on the walls in the kitchen. I pushed some stray strands away from my face, straightened my messy bun, and went through the door.

I noticed that Josh was still in his book shop or at least the light was on and his car was still parked outside. I figured I might as well be friendly since he was the only person I really knew so far. I knocked on the door. He looked up from what he was doing and waved me inside.

I took a moment to look at my surroundings. The inside of the book shop looked like a log cabin. There was wood everywhere. The real wooden floors looked like they would be gorgeous after they were cleaned. There were handmade bookcases that lined each wall and nearly reached to the ceiling.

Josh was gently dusting off each book and the book shelves with a dust rag when he noticed my appearance.

He gave me a sideways grin when he saw me come in.

I took the view in before asking, “How’s your shop coming along?”

“Well, considering I know little to nothing about running a book shop, great!”

I smiled back.

“Well, my grand dad did leave me a journal full of instructions. Mainly, how to keep business records, do taxes; ya know, stuff like that,” he looked around for a moment and continued, “But it will never be the same without him. He knew everyone in this town and he knew every book in this shop. He could almost look at a person and know what book they needed most in their life at any given moment.” Josh leaned on a rung of a nearby ladder and stared off into space.

He returned to the present and straightened up. “So, how’s your coffee business lookin’?”

I sighed disapprovingly, “Well, if I could get all the grease off the walls that would be a good start.”

He nodded like he’d seen the place before.

It was awkwardly silent for a moment.

“Did you know one of the bricks between our two places is loose?”

“No, where?”

I directed him to the brick wall to his left and he followed. It took a few tries, but I found it and took it out carefully.

Josh looked interested and then got closer to look through the hole.

“Wow…” he said quietly.

“What?”

“It is dirty in there!”

I rolled my eyes as if to say, “I told you!”

Fortunately, he didn’t see it.

“Do you think there are any other ones loose?”

I just shrugged.

He started tapping and pushing on random bricks, maybe hoping to find something.

I found myself joining in.

After a few minutes, Josh asked, “Wait, do you hear something?”

“What?”

“I thought I heard a ticking clock.”

I looked at him like he was crazy. “Come here.” He gestured for me to join him on the right side of the wall.

The closer I got to him, the louder it got.

It took us a few tries, but we figured out it was coming behind one of the bricks, so we pried it loose.

Once we got it out, we saw something. It was an old pocket watch wedged in between a broken brick and a whole one. The pewter watch was smooth, but a little rusty in patches. Josh looked at it and then put it in my hand with the back side front. Someone had engraved it with two first initials: J and A. My eyes grew wide and I almost dropped it on the floor. Josh put his hand on my shoulder to steady me.