Odds and Ends

He blew into the shop with a gust of wind that made the shop bell tinkle. My greeting was met with a sigh that seemed to swell up from his leather shoes, through his sharp plaid trousers, pause a moment around the fob watch chains and finally escape with a puff around his ears, which moved the soft, light hair of his head. I let him shuffle his desolate way around to the counter where he shrugged in place of greeting. We’d been through this before, I knew our local inventor was out of steam.

I poured a fresh cup of tea from my tea-cossied kettle and slid it across the counter to him. It was accepted with a grateful shaking hand and sipped gently. As the cup diminished he seemed to take more interest in his surroundings, eyes tracing along the floor, to the back room, across the counter and resting on the bowl of odds and ends I’d placed there only this morning. Suddenly, our inventor went stiff as a board, then clanked the empty tea cup back to the saucer. His left hand snaked out into the bowl of odds and ends. His right fished for a handful of spare change from trouser pocket.

“I’ll take five!” he exclaimed suddenly looking at me, his blue eyes shockingly electric. He scattered a fistful of change across the counter and bolted for the door. The bell jangled, I shook my head and started to scoop up the more than sufficient coins. At a second ring, I looked up to see that excited face leaning around the door jam and struggling for a moment of composure. “Thank you,” he said flashing a wicked smile, “sincerely,” and was gone.

Image	Name	Price
	Brass Safety Pins   Dimensions 64mm x 12mm aprox   Materials: 1.6mm round brass wire safety pin  …	$3.00