Yolks on You Box Set

Chapter 9-1

Chapter 9

Joylove Antiques took up the entirety of an old Victorian house on the corner several blocks away from Yolks on You. Dom walked there, hands in pockets, dodging families scuttling to and from various events and shops. He could imagine Mount Angus at most other times of the year, streets much less full, normal business more of a trickle.

A bell tinkled when he entered the store and he decided to wander around for a time before asking for the replacement box. He’d always found antique stores fascinating, dusty old hordes of magical junk that might just be worth a fortune. He imagined the children hunting for eggs here were practically wandering through an Eye Spy book, then he wondered whether those were still popular. He stuck around until the bell announced several families entering, one after another, and he decided he no longer wanted to be in such a crowded space.

Dom made his way to the bottom level of the store, searching for where the register would be. One of the rooms he passed through was filled entirely with sculptures and lawn ornaments made from old metal. Many of the items were fascinating; a dinosaur skeleton, its ribcage made from old pitchforks; posts designed to hold flower pots; an old metal fence turned into a bench.

“Can I help you?” asked a late middle-aged woman, straight dark hair to her shoulders.

“I’m looking for either Briana or Joy,” said Dom, hoping he’d remembered the names Kiko had given him. The woman smiled.

“I’m Briana. What can I do for you? Finding antiques you love is our joy here at Joylove Antiques. Were you interested in anything in particular?”

“Well, actually, Kiko sent me here to pick up a box of eggs,” said Dom, taking one last glance around the sculptures in the room before following Briana through to the back of the shop, where the register was. Another woman about the same age as Briana sat behind the desk, her long blonde hair tied back.

“Joy, where did you put that box of eggs I gave you?”

“It’s just here,” said Joy, standing and pulling it out from under the desk. When she passed it to Briana their hands touched and Joy gave Briana’s arm what Dom could only label as a caress.

“Are you sure there’s nothing I could interest you in before you run off with this?” asked Briana. “Maybe one of those sculptures you were admiring? Locally made, very unique.”

“By that she means each piece is an individual,” said Joy. “They make spectacular garden accents; you’ll be the talk of your neighborhood.”

“Also great gifts,” said Briana. Dom moved forward and took the box from her.

“Thanks, but I don’t have any way to get one home. Who made them?” He didn’t think either woman had.

“Sam!” said Joy, jumping from her seat. “I completely forgot about his box until now.” As she dashed off into the back room Briana smiled and explained.

“Sam. We let him show his work here. He’s really very good, isn’t he? Joy’s getting his box of eggs. He always sends them through us because his poor wife’s sick and he’s very busy with their eight-year-old twin daughters.”

“There you are,” said Joy, bringing out a tiny box and setting it on top of the one Dom already held. “Lucky we forgot about it first time around, isn’t it? Sam wouldn’t have had time to make another.”

For one terrible moment Dom feared the small box would explode, having been left for days just so that Kiko would stop by to pick it up. But the seconds ticked past and nothing happened; he sighed in relief and decided to press somewhat. Everyone in this town seemed to have some big secret that was still somehow common knowledge.

“Sorry to hear about it,” he said. “I’d buy one if I could get it home.”

Joy sighed.

“I tell him he needs to make more small items, they go as soon as they get here. He should’ve made more for the Eggstravaganza…”

“He could do so much more for the Eggstravaganza if he only had a little more time,” said Briana. “Which is a shame, because he could really use the promotion, the time out in the community—”

“The prize money?” asked Dom, hoping he didn’t sound too eager for a response. Briana shrugged.

“Of course!” said Joy. “The medical bills the family must have—outrageous. I’ve encouraged him to sell at fairs and the farmers’ market in Madison, but he won’t. He owns the scrap and salvage place out by the Pickle, but you know they must barely scrape by on that…”

“Joy,” said Briana, warning edge just barely audible in her voice. She followed it with a tease. “You always were a shameless gossip.”

“He’s curious,” said Joy. “And Sam won’t be able to care about getting a pity sale if he doesn’t know about it.”

“I’ll think about it,” said Dom. “And if I can figure it out, I’ll get one after the celebrations are over. You do online sales?”

“We do,” said Joy, passing him a business card with their website on it. “Sam won’t list his things, though. But if you shoot us a message we’ll see what we can do about it.”

“Thanks,” said Dom, shifting the boxes in his arms. “No explosives in these, right?”

Neither of them laughed at the joke, which was unsurprising, but Joy began talking again.

“Terrible about those, isn’t it! No, ours are explosives-free.”

Briana rolled her eyes, mumbled something about seeing if the other customers needed help, and walked off. Dom had no intention of leaving yet, though. He adjusted the boxes in his arms.

“This is my first time in Mount Angus, and I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”

“Nothing ever blows up here,” said Joy, shaking her head. “It’s terrible. Someone could have been…I hear Chad’s going to pull through from Kiko, that has us all relieved. Poor Buddy Miller, though.” She gave a little laugh. “He loved that stupid Brown Swiss. Can’t believe he thought anyone would mistake it for an Angus. Can’t believe the number of tourists that did!”

“Isn’t it a little odd that he’s so broken up about it?”

“Oh no, no, not at all. He was very attached to that cow. Why?”

“I was wondering…it seems strange to me, that’s all,” said Dom. Joy looked like she was about to laugh.

“Are you saying you think Buddy Miller’s behind this? He’d never do that to his own cow. Never.” She paused. “Visitors always have such interesting theories about life here.”

“Why do you think this is happening, then?” he asked.

Joy blew out a breath. “Oh, I don’t know. Probably some tourist with a grudge.”

Dom opened his mouth to reply to that, but the sudden noise almost directly above them stopped him. The ceiling and walls rattled; he could hear falling knickknacks and a moan, directly followed by screams and wails. He was startled for long seconds as his mind grasped that another explosion had gone off and right above him. He slammed the boxes on the counter and turned as Joy bolted from her seat and rushed past him.

“Bri!” she shouted, moving so fast that Dom had a difficult time following her. They ran through the main level and up a flight of stairs, Joy with the ability that comes from knowing every inch of a space, Dom with far less grace. He crashed into boxes of costume jewelry and knocked over a quilt rack, narrowly dodging several small, cluttered tables.

Everyone seemed to be clustered in a back room, a mother clutching a bleeding child, bleeding herself, shrieking at a man who had to be the father. He too was bleeding, and shouting into a cell phone. The other people that had been in the place at the time had gathered around; he watched as Joy ran to Briana, who was kneeling next to the mother. Joy dabbed at the cut on Briana’s face with her sleeve, relief clear in her eyes.

Dom stared at the scene, realizing the moment he went for his phone that the bleeding father was already shouting at the 911 operator. He noticed the other two families slipping toward the stairs and the exits and he moved to stop them.

“Hang on,” he said. “Don’t leave yet, please.”

“Who’re you?” demanded one of the parents.

“I don’t want my kids to see this,” said another.

“The police are going to want to question you,” said Dom, placing himself at the top of the stairs.

“We didn’t see anything.”

Dom wondered what was taking the cops so long—hadn’t they been to the scene earlier when the cow exploded? When Chad was injured? Dom couldn’t remember, and these people seemed agitated.

“Why don’t we wait downstairs?” he asked. “It’ll be easier on the children.”

He led the way, not pleased with having to turn his back on these people, but they settled into antique furniture and waited. Dom breathed out a sigh of relief and stood by the door to wait.