On impulse, she phoned Nan back. “I’m just finishing my second cup,” she said. “So I’ll pick you up in about fifteen minutes.”
“Perfect,” Nan said. “I’m really excited.”
She laughed and said, “Me too. It’ll be fun.” When she hung up, she rose and considered leaving the animals behind, but that didn’t make much sense to her. She called Nan back. “Do you think we can bring the animals?”
“Oh, I’m sure we could,” she said. “We absolutely don’t want to leave them behind.”
Doreen frowned at what may have been a hint of sarcasm and said, “Well, I just don’t know. Maybe it’s not a good idea.”
“I think it’s a perfect idea,” she said. “And, if the clerks don’t want us to go inside, I’m sure we can go into other stores.”
With that, Doreen decided to give it a try. Especially so soon after losing Thaddeus, the last thing she wanted to do right now was lose them or leave them behind. Finishing her coffee, she put her cup in the sink and grabbed her purse. After loading the animals in her car, she slowly drove out of her garage and down to pick up Nan. She hoped this was a good idea and liked the thought of finding a table. If it was cheap enough. She had some of the money from Nan’s bowl rolled up in her wallet, just in case.
As she drove closer, she saw Nan standing impatiently outside, waiting for her. She smiled when she saw Doreen drive up and quickly hopped into the car. “This will be fun,” she said excitedly.
“I’ve never really been to a secondhand shop,” Doreen said, “though Mack and I went to some garage sales once.”
“Well, this is a very different story,” she said, and she quickly explained how to get to where they were going. By the time they pulled into the parking lot, they’d been driving for fifteen minutes.
“Is this the farthest one away?”
“Yes, that’s why we’re starting here,” Nan said. “Then we’ll work our way toward home.”
They went inside the store with the animals, and nobody said a word. Feeling much calmer about the concept, Doreen walked through everything but didn’t like much of what was here.
Nan kept shaking her head, as she looked at various things. “There’s always the potential to find all kinds of good stuff here,” she said, “but unfortunately not today. But not to worry, a couple more are within walking distance here.” So they went back outside, and Nan led her across the street, where they went through two more stores, but still found nothing.
“Well, another one’s around the corner. Let’s try there.” By now, Doreen had realized what kind of stuff was to be expected at these stores. Some of it was overpriced, and some of it was decent. She had eyed a couple jackets, but, so far, she didn’t really need one and hadn’t really figured out what she might need for winters here yet, so didn’t want to spend money unnecessarily. Although the jackets appeared to be quite reasonable, every time she looked at something, Nan came over and checked it out for quality, then made her feel bad, thinking she was wasting her time. Finally, at the next stop, Nan said, “Is there anything else you’re looking for?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know if I need a coat or not,” she said, “so I’ll keep looking at them, but I don’t really want to buy anything yet.”
“Do you have any at home?”
“I do, a couple from you actually, but until it’s wintertime, it feels weird to wear them, so I don’t yet know if I’ll like them or not, you know?”
“Well, that’s a good point too,” she said, “but still, if we find something that’s perfect, no reason not to buy it, if it’s cheap enough.”
“Well, some of this stuff is cheap,” she said, “but some of it isn’t.”
“And that’s the trick to buying in a secondhand store. It’s like garage sales,” Nan said. “You can get a lot of great deals, but you can also get taken too.”
“Well, I don’t have enough money for that,” Doreen said with a smile. When they walked into the next place, she spotted a beautiful rocking chair in the corner, but it wasn’t for outdoors. She looked at it and sighed. “Isn’t that lovely?”
Nan checked it over and nodded. “It is, though I’m not sure where you’d put it.”
“In the living room,” she suggested. But, as she wandered around, she sat in it for a moment. “But I don’t know what else to put in there, so it seems like buying one piece isn’t a good answer.”
“You already have a few single chairs, so, no, it isn’t a great answer. Better we find you something that rocks for the deck. You’ll still have several months of good weather outside, and then we can look for furniture for inside.”
They wandered through the store and, at the back, found a little bistro table. She looked at it and said, “This is almost like yours,” she muttered.
“It is, indeed,” Nan said, looking at it with a critical eye. “And it might be a good answer for you when you’re alone,” she said. “It’s not big enough to have a meal out there, but it is something to set your coffee on.”
“Well, it’s a table, but nothing goes with it,” she joked.
“I wonder if they have more around here, if not we’ll keep looking for a small set,” Nan muttered as she moved things around. Obviously used to the way the system worked, Nan dug deeper and deeper into the stacks of furniture.
“Is this how you found lots of your antiques?”
“Well, we found some like this,” she said, “but estate sales were best for that.”
“I can imagine,” she said, “but I don’t know what’s an antique versus what’s not.”
“No, and it’s not something that you necessarily pick up overnight, with so many imitations out there.” Just then she said, “Aha,” and pulled a chair forward. From the outside, it looked like it wasn’t anything special, with a weird brace on the front and the sides. Nan pulled it around, then told Doreen to sit, cautiously, in case it wouldn’t hold her weight. Doreen sat down and then made a startled exclamation as it rocked but not in a normal way.
“It’s called a glider rocker,” Nan said. “And this one is meant for outdoors. Now if it only had the footstool.” Her voice trailed off, as she returned to digging into the stash piled up behind her.
Doreen sat and rocked gently in the chair. Mugs sat at her side, wagging his tail happily, and Goliath hopped up into her lap and made himself comfortable. “I guess you two approve,” she said with a smile.
Just then somebody walked toward them. “I could make you a deal on that chair,” he said. “We have so much stock, we need to get some of this moving.”
“Well, I guess it depends on how much of a deal you can make,” Doreen said cautiously. She really was enjoying the chair and was reluctant to get out of it. But then she was sitting in the middle of a store, so that wasn’t very normal either.
Just then, Nan popped out from the back, carrying something that looked like a footstool, but not quite. She put it down in front of Doreen. “Here. Put your feet up on this.”