Onto The Next Adventure

“I remember when this was an awful lot easier,” Jeff spluttered, tugging the metal shutter upward for the final time. He lowered his gaze instinctively, knowing from years of experience that the early morning sun glinting off the windows would be enough to temporarily, and painfully, blind him. Every morning, since long before his hair turned gray and began to depart, Jeff had completed the whole ritual of opening his Pawnshop on auto-pilot. Not today though. On this, his last day as a shop owner, he savored every moment of it; the way the lights flickered for a few seconds before fully lighting up the cluttered store, the buzzing that filled the space once he switched everything on.

In the back room, filled with boxes that would soon be loaded onto a couple vans and taken to auction houses and thrift stores alike, Jeff warmed his oatmeal in the microwave and ate it at a table held together by tape and glue. His wife Mary found the sight of her broad-shouldered, six-foot-tall husband, hunched over the too-short table amusing every time. Over the years, he’d bought a variety of items that could have replaced the ones he used for his own little space back there, but he’d never had the heart to throw the single chair and table set into the dumpster. If anyone asked, Jeff would insist that sentiment had no part of the life of a pawn shop owner, yet there were hints of it in his chipped coffee mug, and bowl with slight burn stains from the times he’d become distracted while heating up his breakfast.

Fed and watered, he felt ready to take on the business day. Jeff gingerly placed his mug and bowl in the sink to soak and stepped onto the shop floor. He took his place behind the register, the floor tiles more worn away there than anywhere else. Although he had spent weeks packing up objects that had been at the store so long he didn’t think the people who sold them to him would still be around to buy them back, there were still many hanging around on the store floor, awaiting their fate.

“Who knows?” he wondered aloud to himself, “maybe this is the day some of your owners will return.” He caught himself then and shook his head. “What are you doing?”

The bell over the door rang out then, saving him from the need to answer his own question.

“Guess who!”

Jeff chuckled. “Morning Sadie.”

She scurried up the counter, never one to move slow, even now in her late sixties, cake box in hand, “I really was going to wait until later in the day, but I just couldn’t do it!” she told him, “I made this yesterday and I couldn’t help looking at it all the time, I thought I may as well just bring it over here.”

“You didn’t have to do that, you know.” He almost wished she hadn’t. Not because he didn’t want the cake, she ran the best bakery in town and he’d been blessed to work right next door to it all these years, but because of the risk he would break the one rule with which his father raised him – never let anyone see you cry.

“Well of course I did, silly! We’ve been neighbors for, what, more than three decades, why wouldn’t I make you a cake on your big day?”

Jeff smiled and patted his substantial stomach. “You’re going to get me in trouble with Mary again, but it’s worth it for every bite.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” She undid the tabs and gently opened the box, revealing a perfectly frosted chocolate cake, with ‘Happy Retirement!’ written on the top in icing.

“It’s beautiful, thanks, Sadie.”

“You’re more than welcome. So, how does it feel, knowing you have all the time in the world ahead of you? Nothing but sunshine and sand from here on out, sounds like a dream!”

Jeff shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t imagine it. You know me, I’ve taken a handful of vacations since I took over this place, the idea of an unending vacation until...you know...I can’t get my head around it.”

Sadie sighed. “I can already see myself there and I have a few years to go yet! I can understand though. This place has been your whole life for, well, your whole life.”

“Right? It’s weird. I grew up in the store, played in the aisles, learned the business, took it over when my dad finally accepted he couldn’t do it anymore. Six days a week for as long as I can remember, I’ve been here.”

As though sensing an inaudible shift in tone, Sadie tilted her head sympathetically but moved on. “You know what you can do now though? Have hobbies! I’ve heard they can be very interesting.”

“I think I’ve heard that too,” Jeff laughed, “fulfilling even.”

“Perhaps you’ll take up crochet.”

“That rich people game with the mallets?”

This stumped Sadie for a moment, then she began to laugh. “That’s croquet you goof! Crochet is like knitting and I was kidding, although you beat me there.”

“I don’t see either one of those featuring in my retirement life,” he said, shoulders shaking with silent laughter. “I might take up gardening though.”

“Now that I can see. You could get yourself a nice little ride-on lawnmower, the kind with the beer holder attached.”

“I’m beginning to like the sound of this gardening thing.”

Sadie’s laughter became a heavy sigh, her smile bittersweet. “Oh Jeff, I’m going to miss this so much. Whoever the new neighbors are, they aren’t going to be the same.”

“That’s the thing about time huh? You don’t notice it passing but before you know it, so much has gone by that you won’t be able to experience it again,” he said.

“Don’t even get me going on that philosophical stuff,” Sadie told him, patting her eyes with the corner of a tissue. “I need to get back there before it descends into chaos.”

“The new apprentice that bad?”

“I swear that boy didn’t know the difference between a muffin and a cupcake when he first showed up.”

“You’ll make a baker out of him yet, Sadie.”

“If God gives me the strength, I will.”

“Amen to that,” Jeff agreed. “You take care of yourself, and that husband of yours, you hear?”

“Someone has to keep him out of trouble. You make sure Mary looks after you too.”

“She always does.”

“Enjoy your gardening, make sure you use sunblock,” Sadie said.

“Oh, I’d turn to ash otherwise after all these years indoors.”

“Right, I need to stop being so silly! I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

Jeff waved a hand at her. “You don’t need to interrupt your day again later just for m-”

“It isn’t an interruption,” Sadie told him, “of course I’ll come over when you finish.”

“All right, I’ll see you later then.”

She headed outside, the slight breeze causing the red ‘LAST DAY – ALL SALES FINAL’ poster that hung in the window to flutter. When Mary had first shown him the poster, Jeff had asked her if it was a joke.

“It’s huge!” he’d told her, laughing.

Mary had shaken her head. “You know as well as I do that customers aren’t very skilled in reading signs, no matter what color or size.”

He’d still thought it was excessive but stuck it in the window anyway. Now, he stood behind the register, shaking his head at it, when the stood opened.

“Hi there,” Jeff greeted the customer.

“Hey,” the young man replied, his legs as stiff as his trousers as he stepped up to the counter. He placed a games console in front of Jeff, who immediately spotted the crumbs in the crevices, the scuffs on the plastic corners. “Could I get cash for this, please? And I’ll be back next week to get it back, I just have a bit of a situation right now.”

Jeff almost chuckled. ‘Well would you look at that, Mary couldn’t be more right, as always.’

“You won’t be coming back next week.”

The young man laughed. “I know, you probably get that all the time, right? I actually will though, I can give you all my details and stuff, you can even call me and check nearer the time-”

“That won’t work for me son, I’ll be in Florida by then.”

“Huh?”

“How did you miss that giant sign, son? It’s the size of Texas!”

He turned around and eyed the poster curiously. “Oh.” His cheeks began to flame.

“I shouldn’t mess with you, it happens,” Jeff said. “So it’s up to you, if you really were planning to come back for it, then I can’t help you, but if you don’t think you were going to we might have ourselves a deal.”

The young man considered his options for a moment. “I really would have been, I guess I’ll take it down the street to Sell-O-Rama.”

Not too long ago, Jeff would have gone to great lengths to stop him, to prevent the chain of pawnshops to gain another customer, but not today. It didn’t matter anymore. They were the reason the shop was closing rather than being taken on by a young business-person like he used to be.

“Good luck, they’re stingy as hell over there.”

“I heard as much.”

Jeff noticed he read the poster once he left at least.

It seemed that most others were too. Customers were few and far between as the day went on. A few sales here and there, new homes found for a TV, a set of golf clubs, a few pieces of jewelry.

Where most of the time, Jeff had eaten his lunch in the backroom, depending on the doorbell to alert him to customers, this time he brought his sandwiches out front, not wanting to sit among the boxes and packaging for another meal.

Soon after he’d eaten, he began to wonder if it wasn’t time to shut up shop for the day, and forever.

So few people are coming in, why wait until 6 pm? he wondered.

That way he could quietly slip away, no fuss, just the way he wanted it. He considered doing that, but the thought of the look on Sadie’s face if he left without saying a proper goodbye put a quick stop to the idea.

I’ll just pop in and see her one last time, he thought. Mary wants to be here too, I guess.

Jeff pulled out his phone and thumbed the photo of his wife on their wedding day.

“Hi honey, how’s the last day going?” she asked.

“It’s going very quietly, that’s for sure. I’m thinking, I might just close up earlier than planned, let’s get our next adventure started now, what do you think?” he suggested.

“I think I can be there in ten minutes baby,” she said, and hung up without another word.

Ten minutes. Only ten more minutes with this place.

His heart felt heavier than it had all day. It had become real the moment he told Mary he would close up soon.

One adventure comes to an end, the next one begins, he thought, but God, this hurts so much more than I thought it would.

He walked around from behind the register and sat on a chair that had long since been forgotten by its previous owner. Without another person in sight, he could safely let his emotions loose without worrying about betraying his father’s memory. He let the tears fall freely for just a minute, before collecting himself firmly and standing up from the chair.

That’s it for now, he told himself, knowing he could lock himself in the bathroom in the evening if he needed more time to process.

No sooner had Jeff dried his eyes and caught his breath, than the door swung open.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for a ring!” the woman announced, coat flapping around her legs, stray hairs flying loose from their tie.

“I have plenty of those,” Jeff said.

“No,” she added, insistent, “it’s a specific ring, for my mother.”

“Oh, OK. What do you know about it?”

“It’s a simple gold band, with just a few very small sapphires, and, most importantly, there are initials engraved inside,” she explained.

“Hmm, that sounds familiar,” Jeff said. He walked the rows of ring holders in the jewelry section, hand hovering over them, until he landed upon it. “This one?” he asked, holding it up.

The woman’s eyes filled with tears, telling him all that he needed to know. “That’s it.”

“It’s your mother’s, you say? It’s been here such a long while, I don’t even remember.”

She nodded, wiped her eyes. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I actually expected you’d still have it.”

“Good timing too, this will be the last sale before we close permanently.”

She gasped. “Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack.”

“That’s like, magic or something. This is a little overwhelming,” she said, and took a deep breath. “My mother, she has dementia, she talks about the past a lot. I don’t know what made her think of it, but she suddenly told me this morning about my father giving her this ring when they were even younger than I am now. They had to bring it here when he lost his job and they were really struggling. Then I suppose time went on, stuff got in the way, we lost my father, my mother lost her memory… But I’ve found this now, and I know this is going to mean so much to her.”

Heart-breaking as the story was, Jeff held back a smile, proud to have been able to return such a valuable item.

“How much do I owe you?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“What was that? I didn’t hear you properly,” she asked.

“Nothing,” Jeff repeated. “Like I said, this is the last day, I’m closing up after you leave. Plus, with how much it means to your family, I don’t see why I should make anything out of it.”

Tears welled up in her eyes once again, but this time she didn’t stop to wipe them away. “You sir, are an angel.”

He shrugged, and though a thought momentarily crossed his mind, They wouldn’t do this at Sell-O-Rama, he didn’t say anything about that. “Just a regular guy.”

“Not to me,” she told him with a smile, “thank you so much!” She pocketed the ring and left.

“Couldn’t have asked for a better final sale,” Jeff mumbled to himself.

He approached the door, ready to lock it, when he saw Mary coming up the street. He opened it back up and stepped outside, taking a deep breath of fresh spring air. When their eyes met, Mary’s face lit up in a wide smile, and any lingering sadness washed away.

This next adventure, it’s going to be a good one, he thought.