Vanishing Alley

-6-

     The summer goes by way too fast. It was already the third week of July. Amy and Philip had come up with their families to their cottages two days before, which means they had already spent three days in Muskoka. That afternoon we had planned to hang out, walking around town and catching up. We all met-up in the town square around 2pm.

"Hey guys!"

"Hey Clara!" Amy and Philip basically said at the same time. Then Philip asked, "How's it going?"

"Good. You guys? Happy to be at the cottage?"

"Yes! Finally!", answered Amy. "I love coming up here! Luckily my parents were able to get four weeks off this year."

"Yeah, mine too!", added Philip. "They usually take them a week or two at a time, but this year they decided to take them all at once. I plan to enjoy every minute!"

"Too bad Sara and Jamie aren't coming until next week, but at least we'll still be able to spend time together, and we are going to make the most of it! Agreed?"

"Agreed!", they both answered at the same time.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" I asked them.

"Why don't we just walk around, maybe grab an ice cream and enjoy the afternoon? What do you guys think?"

Both Philip and I liked Amy's suggestion and so that's what we did. That afternoon, we walked around, went into some shops, grabbed ice cream at our favourite ice cream parlour, and sat down for a bit on a bench, just enjoying the nice breeze. At one point Amy wanted to go into Annie's Antiques - yeah, that very same Annie's Antique shop where I bought my watch. But do you think I realised that before walking in? No, I did not. Well, you can guess how that went.

"Hello, welcome to Annie's Antiques."

"Hello." We all acknowledged the owner's greeting at the same time.

"Oh, hi. Well, you did say you'd be back. This time you brought your friends with you."

"Oh, uh. Yup. These are my friends. She wanted to come in to see what items you have.", I told her as I pointed to Amy. "Like me, she loves antiques." I hoped no one heard the nervousness in my voice, and I definitely hoped she wouldn't ask if I tried the watch to see if the story was true. I hadn't decided yet when to tell my friends about the story that came with my watch, and I was worried she was going to bring it up.

"Well, why don't you have a look around. Take your time and let me know if you have any questions."

"Thank you.", answered Amy.

At that moment, I thought to myself 'Phew! She forgot about the watch.' That was until I heard...

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask... How's the watch? I assume you haven't had any problems with it since you haven't come back to complain.", she said with a smile on her face.

"Oh... uh... yup. It's working perfectly fine. No problems at all with it." I answered her, again in a nervous tone that I hoped I hid well enough that no one noticed. While I was answering her question, I was thinking to myself 'Please don't ask about the time travel. Please don't ask about the time travel.'

"I'm glad to hear it. Well, I'll leave you all to look around. I'll be at the counter if you need any help."

I was so relieved she didn't ask about the whole time travel story and if I'd tried it out. I wasn't going to be completely relaxed until we were out of the store.

"Clara, what watch was she talking about?" Amy asked.

"Oh, it's just this watch I bought from her shop. I came in with my parents and sister one day and I really liked it. I thought about it for a week until I decided to come back to buy it."