The Uprisen

Chapter 29

"This is this the place?"

Joseph checks his phone's GPS, and looks at the location that they're in.  "This is the address that Liam gave me."

"Let me see," Cameron says, grabbing Joseph's phone and checking for himself.  "427 South Pebble Beach Drive, Crescent City, California."  He looks up at the small white house littered with people and tables stacked with boxes of keepsakes unimpressed.  "I guess this is it."

"Liam brought us to a yard sale?"

Cameron sighs.  "Honestly, it's not the craziest place we've been in the past few days."

Joseph nods.  "True.  But we can't just walk up to the owner and ask her about her mysterious elemental book full of secrets."

Cameron watches the potential customers sift through the collections of used clothing, decorations, picture frames, toys, and whatever else a person would normally throw away but could try to sell to other people.  "Why not?" he says, getting out of the car.

Joseph looks around the car for a clue to understand his friend.  "Why not what?  Wait, you're not going to just ask her...Cameron, hold on—" he gets out of the car and follows Cameron through the crowd of customers.  "Cameron, wait."

"What?"

"You can't just ask her about her random book of mystical secrets and such!"

Cameron stops and looks at Joseph with a bored expression.  "Joseph, have you ever had a yard sale?  People ask the weirdest questions, and most of the time they're crazy questions.  This wouldn't be any different."

"Fine, but I'm not going to go look crazy with you.  I'll be over here"—he points to a random table of boxes—"looking for our book."

Cameron smirks.  "Okay, good luck finding it in the collection of Beanie Babies."

Joseph looks over his shoulder to the table and sees about five little girls crowded around the table holding creepy, lifeless dolls wearing shiny clothes.  "Uh, well—"  He looks for Cameron, but he's already lost him in the crowd of people.  "Okay, I'll start looking then..."

The table of dolls was bigger than it should've been, in Joseph's opinion.  Mothers and their children watch him warily as he approaches the assortment of dolls, and starts rummaging through the boxes like a creepy teenager.  The way the people are watching him with caution reminds him of the days he used to live on his own.  Apparently, thirteen year-old kids should not be wandering the streets of Boston looking for a box to sleep in.

Suddenly a chill crawls down Joseph's neck the way a spider creeps up an arm.  He quickly spins around, knocking into a little girl holding a doll.

"Sorry," he mutters embarrassingly.

The girl stares at him judgmentally, and he decides that he should go find Cameron to avoid feeling like a creep any longer, but Cameron finds him first.

"Well, the lady wasn't really helpful in knowing whether or not she still has it, but she said if no one bought it already, it's still here."

"So we're just going to look through all of these boxes?" Joseph asks.

"Not all of them, just the ones in the books section."

 Thank goodness for the book section, he thinks.

"Well where is it so we can get started?"

Cameron gives his friend a doubtful look as he points to a section about four tables wide stacked with three layers of books on and around the tables.  Looking through all of the books would take hours, and that's assuming that the book isn't already gone.