Excerpt: Ten Tales Of Trouble And Tender

Lynn’s hand slid to Tilly’s, took it and pulled her over to an old, huge store window. Tilly stumbled and rebalanced herself over the window, kicking her old, stubborn shoe heel on the hard sidewalk. Lynn pushed a long-nailed finger against the barrier, tapped it repeatedly in an attempt to draw her companion’s attention. Tilly stroked her high updo, careened her head back and over to read the shop’s worn, plain sign.

“Todder’s Antiques and Collectibles?”

“Have you ever been here?”

“Can’t say that I have.” Tilly peered into the dirty window. “It looks dreadful.”

“‘Dreadful’ is code for ‘cheap’, you know.”

“Well-”

“Tilly Anne Jarod, you’re much too poor to be so finicky over your shopping habits!”

Tilly glared deep into Lynn’s eyes, burned through her sockets into the back of her skull. Reluctantly she took the shop’s rusted front bar, tore the creaky old door open with both hands. Lynn followed close on her friend’s heels, one manicured hand pressed firmly against the small of Tilly’s back.

“It smells like the woman from Petelo’s, only older and less like talcum.”

“Yes, yes. Get those gams moving.”

“As you wish, but let it be known under God and the sun and sky that you are not a nice woman.”

“You’re very melodramatic, you know that?”

Tilly dragged her heeled shoes against the old wooden floors, attempted to block her nostrils off from the ghastly stench of mothballs and dust, massaged her hands together in an impatient tick. Lynn picked an old fur muff, strewn out carelessly across a small display shelf, and tucked her thin hands away inside of it. She rotated a full 90 degrees, kicked out a leather foot and posed playfully for Tilly, who gave her head a firm shake. Lynn detached from the scratchy fur muff and positioned it nicely on the shelf’s front corner; she then moved on to an antique vial of golden fragrance and spritzed it up into the air. They both coughed and choked and covered their noses, hurrying away from the table around a sharp corner and directly into a jewellery case.

“That was awful.”

“I had noticed, Til.”

“But truly awful! What did the bottle say?”

Lynn whipped her hair back, huffed and touched her red cheeks. “I didn’t check, you should know that!”

“Of course.”