Sunset Over Bethany

Chapter 3 - Abby

Chapter 3 - Abby

            Abby walked into the antiques shop, the small chime of the bell that hung above the door lit up the room with its bright sound. The shop was a tired old place, filled with clockworks that had long since stopped working but their intricate faces still remained beautiful as the day they were crafted, sets of china cracked and faded, dolls of girls that had lost tufts of hair and makeup smeared across their faces, lamps wrought of glass and porcelain twisted in fanciful and obscene ways, and the soft drone of the fan that stood at the counter, moving cool air feebly around the room.

            “Abby!” cried a young woman positioned behind the counter of the shop. The glass case was filled with shells and glass ornaments and crystals shaped in the form of swans, little teddy bears and flowers, reflecting off it a multitude of colours. Abby had bought a couple on one of her earlier visits. They rested now on the black wooden shelves facing the windows of her bedroom, letting arrows of light to shoot around the room.

            “Shireen, I hope business isn’t too slow today!” said Abby. She always wondered who ever walked into an antiques store to buy something. The inventory can’t really change too much and oftentimes she noticed that a speck of dust accumulated into a giant dust bunny by the end of the month – not a hint of disturbance in that time.

            “Oh, the usual I suppose,” replied Shireen as she gave off a sigh, “nothing does much doing around here”. Shireen was a pleasant enough youth who had an odd way of putting things, but deciphering what she meant was half the fun in talking to her. “So what’s up? Anything new or interesting happen since last time we talked?”

            Abby looked around the shop for a bit, thinking of an answer. “Not too much, working at Mark and Midge’s is still not what I’d hoped it would be and the landlord still hasn’t fixed the cable problem” She pulled her hair out of her face as the fan blew in her direction. “But I did meet a guy this morning-“

            That caught Shireen’s attention.

            “Oh my god Abby! Tell me everything and spare not a detail!” she shrieked, giddy as a girl who’d been given a pony for her birthday. When it came to gossips and Abby’s love life, Shireen was one to want to know everything. Abby needed to think about it for a bit; one little unintentional slip could trigger Shireen’s imagination like a spark to a propane tank.

            “Well, I got put at this table at the café my dad used to take me to all the time. It was really busy so that’s why I got put with this guy. He’s reading a newspaper and all of a sudden puts it down and tells me how great I look” She blushed. “Of course, I’m thinking to myself, is he hitting on me, or being genuine?”

            Shireen nodded, taking in every last word that she said.

“Anyway I take the bait and start doing some small talk. We hit it off pretty well and next thing you know we’re having breakfast and doing the crossword together!”

            “Wow … it’s like you’re married to him already,” sighed Shireen.

            “Errrmm what?”

            “Like picture him sitting at your kitchen table making breakfast for him before he goes off to work and you’re his wife who does things for him.”

            Shireen said some odd things in her time, but this was the strangest.

            “I wouldn’t say that Shireen, I mean I just met the guy. You can’t put a label on something like that so quickly.”

            “Oh Abby, when are you gonna find a man that you can call your own? You’ve turned off every man you’ve met because you’re too afraid to commit. Why is it so hard? Dating a man isn’t the same as marrying him”

            Isn’t that what I just said? Abby thought. But she was right, why was it so hard for her to commit to something that will probably not be a permanent situation? She thought too hard about things, perhaps it was time to just let go. But again in the back of her mind, she didn’t want a commitment. She was her own person, who walked to her own rhythm. If others can’t keep up, she shouldn’t hesitate to cut them off forever.

            “Remember that boy, Darryl?” asked Shireen.

            “Yeah I remember him, why?”

            “He was the sweetest boy you’d ever brought to me. And I don’t remember a single moment when you two weren’t happy together. You told me about all the flowers he got you, the jewelry he gifted you and the love he showered you with. But I remember that night when you came into this store at the dead of night and your eyes filled with tears. I asked you what was wrong, and you replied that you had broken up, and I asked why, and all you could say was ‘he loved me’. You see Abby? I don’t think you understand what being part of someone is. You weren’t ready to be with him because he felt a certain way about you and you couldn’t handle a label. You didn’t want to be Abby and Darryl, so you chose to be just Abby. And that’s a mistake that you’ve always made.” Her smile had disappeared as she looked at her friend long and hard in the eyes. “Abby, I want you to put in the effort into this guy. I want you to show me that you are capable of being a part of something bigger than you”

            Abby stared at her from across the universe.

            I don’t know if I’m ready. She thought. I’m never ready.