"Because they've got all these bomb-ass shops here!" Piper said dramatically, "They just opened up this new one that's so kitschy; I wanna go check it out!"
Dakota didn't quite get how "bomb-ass" and "kitschy" went together like Piper tried to make them work. Maybe it was something like a "so bad, it's good" thing? Dakota didn't really know. Despite Zack and Piper having declared her an "official" Daven's Port native, she was anything but. That being said, Piper seemed uber excited about heading out onto the pier so she could simultaneously laugh and gawk at all the stuff that was being peddled to all the snowbirds.
The shop that she had been talking about—and thus, dragged Dakota to—was this place called Abida's Eclectics. It was an old-timey looking place that was actually closer to the mainland than the pier, though the beach was in sight from the store's new-ish doormat. Despite the fact that Piper, as well as the sign out front, declared it "newly opened", Abida's Eclectics looked to have already had its heyday behind it by several years. The windows were already grimy, and everything inside looked to already have a respectably sad layer of dust coating it. The decor was decidedly nineties, something right out of an RL Stein novel, and more or less looked more or less forgettable. Rather, forgotten.
"This is the place?" Zack asked with a wry curl of his nose as a musk wafted into the otherwise fresh air, "This can't be right..."
"No, it's right. I heard one of those chumps talking about it—just opened up." Piper said with a shrug, placing a hand on the glass door's handle, "See, sign says so right out front."
Dakota noted, with no small amount of exasperation, that the sign also looked rather worn.
"Piper, this place is ancient." Dakota rolled her eyes, "See? Dust says so."
"Come on, stop acting like such a tourist." Piper scoffed as she opened the door, "So it's old! Educate yourself with a little Daven's Port classique."
The door chime dinged overhead as the three teenagers made their way inside. The stench of dust and musty old everything was even stronger inside than it was out. The lighting was rather dim, and if buzzed a lot more than she guessed it probably should. It went back surprisingly far, offering plenty of floor space for what looked like useless junk, and opened up to a doorway at the very far back that was draped in one of those bead dividers. For a shop around the beach—Dakota noted with a cursory glance—there didn't seem to be a lot of typical "tourist" attractions.
It certainly lived up to its name though; Abida's Eclectics was anything if organized. There were shelves upon shelves upon shelves, trinkets and bobbles lined the walls as armoires and dressers and old fat-back TV's and bookcases cluttered the floors. There were old books, a glass case of jewelry, and a not-surprisingly-large collection of those creepy porcelain angels that every insedit old lady seemed to have handy. All of it dusty.
"Jesus Piper, you took us to a pawn shop?" Zack groaned, "We couldn't at least have gone to the cool one in downto—OW!"
Zack rubbed his arm where Piper punched it, the noise rousing a shape deep within the shop, presumably from the back.
"Oh, customers?" came a cheery tone, "Wait riiight there!"
From behind the beads, a powerful shape emerged from the deeper levels of the store. One draped in fluorescent colors, providing more than an eyeful of oranges, reds, purples and yellows as it made its way through the beads. A large woman finally emerged, with dark—not tanned, but dark—skin from behind the divider, appearing belly-first as she parted the vaguely eastern pattern. She was dressed in a bright orange dress, wrapped in draped in various scarves with a tightly-tied technicolor head wrap. Beneath that, she had thick black hair that fell into ringlets, which fell onto her meaty shoulders and neck.
"Welcome to Abida's Eclectics, children!" the woman said in a particularly broad accent, "You are just in time for the grand re-opening!"
"Ha!" Zack said sharply, "Told ya."
"Whatever, it's re opened, right?" Piper said with a roll of her hand, "So technically I'm still right."
"Yes yes, we have just reopened for business!" Abida said with a smile as she came closer to Dakota and her friends, matching Piper's emphasis on 're-', "Please take a look around! I have gone to great lengths to amass—"
"Hoard" Zack snickered under his breath before Piper punched him again
"—such a collection!" she continued, either not noticing or not caring Zack's intrusion, "Everything in my shop is unique, and it all has a story to tell. Please children, I implore you to look around. Find what speaks to you! Then, bring it to me and trade it for currency. No checks."
Huh. Okay. An old antique shop. Not exactly how she expected her day to go, but there were worse things, she supposed. It was sort've like going to a swap-meet, just like home. Except inside. With one person. One person who had apparently never heard of Swiffer. Or dusting.
The three friends broke apart and meandered the store, wandering aimlessly until...
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