Cherreads

Chapter 6 - That Stuck up bitch

Sophie woke up to Damien poking her on the shoulder. She felt a blast of chilling cold air, as he had taken her torn-up blanket off of her in a swift manner. She spent the night on a rotting wooden bench. For her, there was no place to stay. She didn't consider where she use to live to be her 'home.' It was just a place she used to reside.

"What could you possibly be doing lying on such a dirty bench, out in the open like this?" Damien poked some fun. He made a goofy face, wide-eyed and large mouthed.

"That is none of your concern, now is it? I'm only working for you to pay your grandfather back for his clock that I just so happen to break!" Sophie hissed.

Damien furrowed his brow. She had looked clean when he had met her, and seemed poor, but not homeless.

"Are you homeless, Sophie?" Damien replied softly.

"I just misplaced my home, that is all. I have no reason to stay with such abusive, ungrateful, little twits who don't care what I do or say, because they are so completely oblivious!"

"Do as you will. I can't keep every single runaway in check, and I'm not one to stop you if they aren't tolerable to live with." Damien then walked a few feet away and stared out into the distance, looking out at the smoggy sky that had once been clear with beautiful blue skies.

"At least you have parents to speak of. My parents passed a long time ago."

What happened to them? Sophie felt a twinge of pain at her heart.

"I'm sorry for your lost." Sophie frowned.

"It doesn't matter much anymore. Let's get to work... But, please, tidy up a bit for our customers, will you?" Damien walked straight ahead down the cobblestone road marked 'Destiny Way" that lead down to their shop.

Still pondering in her thoughts, Sophie popped up off of the bench and followed down Destiny Way. I'll show him.

The Jacksons' had a small bathroom in the back of their shop and an apartment above. The bathroom comprised of a faucet (an interesting short person sized porcelain contraption) and a toilet. The once pristine sea-water blue wallpaper had begun to peel at the edges. The walls needed to be re-done. There was not a single feminine touch in the place. It was a man's bathroom if she had ever seen one. Sophie cleaned herself as much as she could with what little resources she had; A sponge from the bottom of the Bay of the Land at the Center of the World that was near the Land of Flowers, and a bar of soap made from animal fat. Scrub a dub dub.

Ring-a-Ling. The front door's bell chimed. Sophie waved her hands to air dry them, and then frantically put herself together. She walked her best stride out to help the 'customer.'

"Oh, hello. I wasn't expecting to see a new face working here today." The lady looked as if she hadn't seen someone with water dripping from their face before. She then put on a faux smile like a sly fox. Thus was a facade, but to Sophie's naked eye, just a common jester of benevolence. "They generally don't hire anyone outside of the family, you know?" The lady pondered.

"I'm only making up for the clock I broke of theirs. I felt horribly bad about it when I did. I'm quite clumsy." Sophie said very honestly.

"Oh really? Which one?" The lady looked in disbelief.

"The one with the picture of the white snow owl inside of it."

"Yes, I remember that one.It was a beautiful clock. They didn't seem to have any intention of selling it. It's sat there for years." That made Sophie feel worse about breaking it. It hadn't seemed like such a big deal, but not selling it must of made it special to them. Sophie decided to divert the conversation to keep off the subject.

"If you don't mind me asking, how often do you visit this shop?"

"Every once in awhile to see how those two gentlemen are doing. I'm the Mayors wife, so I take it upon myself to find out how every business is doing in our city, even if we can't really help out." The Mayor's Wife bluntly put.

"That's very kind of you to do that." Sophie smiled.

"Anyhow, do you know where I can find the young Mr. Jackson?"

"Oh, Damien, right? He's downstairs working on something."

"I wonder how he is doing on that project of his. It looked pretty mystifying the last time I saw it. A very unique project."

"Do you know what he's building?" Sophie hadn't given it much thought before but now she was intrigued.

"It really is a secret that only a few of the townsfolk know about. He doesn't want someone else stealing his idea. I hope he doesn't mind me peeking in."

"I'm sure he'd be happy to see you. Just go down those stairs right behind that door over there." Sophie pointed to the far corner of the front part of the shop.

"Why thank you, Miss, uh?"

"Oh, its Sophie, Sophie Gerard."

"Yes. Thank you, Ms. Sophie."

Sophie's name didn't seem to register in the mind of the mayor's wife. Thank goodness, Sophie thought.

As Sophie had become a runaway, she didn't really want her family to find her. She was done with them. Sophie wondered what kind of project Damien was working on so intently. He was probably happy to have someone else keep up with the shop when he wasn't around,and that was probably one of the better prospects of her breaking the clock. He lost a clock, but gained a lackey to do what he commanded.

Sophie didn't understand how antiques became priced, or the prices of the antiques in that particular store, and it wasn't important that she actually SOLD an antique. The store could survive off of one antique being sold.

Cree-eek, BOOM. The door at the bottom of the staircase hit the wall. The Mayor's wife walked as fast as her little feet could carry her away from Damien.

"What could possibly be going through that boy's head?" The mayor's wife remarked flabbergasted.

"What did he do?" Sophie asked with an air of curiosity.

"Nothing to do with you, as it's none of your business."

That was kind of mean, Sophie thought.

The mayor's wife slammed the door on the way out with a lot of force, almost breaking the glass paneled door. Damien trudged out of the back room. There was sweat all over his face and a big black oil hand print that spanned all the way across his pearl white shirt.

"That stuck up...." Damien's eyes darted towards the ceiling, and he put his hands at his sides.

"Bitch?" Sophie put it out there.

"I was trying to find a nicer word to describe her." Damien frowned at Sophie.

More Chapters