Brenna was about to open the fridge her phone rang. Tiddles meowed in protest as she pivoted away from the fridge and answered the phone instead. “Hello.”
A bouncy Maggie greeted her. “Hey, Bren, I’m dying to know what happened.”
“Well they offered me a huge amount of money,” Brenna teased Maggie, purposefully leaving out details.
“Bren! How huge?”
“Five hundred thousand smackeroos,” Brenna held the phone away from her head expecting an ecstatic scream but there was only silence. Maggie couldn’t shut her mouth all the way if she tried, so she must have been completely stunned.
“Mags? You there?”
“Yeah, I think so. What did you say?”
“I didn’t accept the money. Not yet anyway. I told them I was going on holiday for a week in Oakwoods, and I would make my decision when I got back. That dirtbag Hector told me I have two days to make my decision,” Brenna said.
“Well, I think you made the right decision. When do you leave?”
“First thing in the morning.”
“Stop by the shop in the morning before you go. I’m going to pack you a care package. I’ll leave it around back.”
“You’re the best.”
“I know. Have a good trip. Don’t worry about Tiddles or the shop. They’ll be fine with me,” Maggie said.
“Thank you, Maggie. I’ll see you in a few days.”
“Good luck, Brenna.”
Brenna placed the phone back on the hook and remembered about her dry throat. She opened the fridge and scanned the shelves, pulled out a bottle of orange juice, and a half-empty can of food for Tiddles. Tiddles squawked at the sight of it. She spooned the sloppy food into Tiddles’s bowl. Brenna screwed up her face as the smell of sardines invaded her nostrils.
“Yuck, Tiddles, how can you eat this stuff?” Brenna took her drink and went upstairs to pack.
Brenna set a small suitcase on her bed and stuffed it full of clothes. After packing her toiletry bag, she looked around the room. It felt like she was forgetting something. She looked in the wardrobe at her clothes which were mostly dark dresses. Then it hit her. Boots! One couldn’t go on a trip wearing only sandals. She reached up to grab her well-worn but favorite ankle boots and had to step forward to reach. Her foot hit something unexpected on the floor. She bent down and moved aside a pile of clothes that had fallen from hangars. The wooden box her grandmother had left her was nestled under the clothes. “Oh.” It struck her like a blow to the head. It was the same box. The one from her dream. She hadn’t been in the right headspace to go through her grandmother’s things when she died and had put the box in the bottom of the wardrobe. She ran her fingers over the carvings of the moon phases. What was going on? She sat cross-legged on the floor and sat to box on her legs.
It opened with a slight creak. A puff of nostalgia-scented air escaped the box. Musk, lavender, and rosemary brought her back to her grandmother’s kitchen. To a time when she was too short to reach the counter and had to stand on a stool. Whipping up creations that either tasted good or healed ailments.
Inside the box was full of dried herbs. Most of them were probably too old to be any use. Certainly not for cooking. Speaking of cooking, it was getting way too past dinner time for Brenna’s liking. Time for pizza. Pizza with lots of cheese. She closed the box and set the box down on the bed before heading downstairs to order said pizza.
Pizza ordered, she grabbed the current book she was reading and stretched out on the plump sofa. Nobody would ever accuse Brenna of being an interior designer or anything, but her living room was one of her favorite places to be. The coolness of the rustic floorboards was offset by a large Persian rug. The far wall was lined with shelves overflowing with books and treasured trinkets. A modestly-sized television that didn’t see much use sat atop a distressed cabinet in the corner beside a well-used fireplace. The best feature, in her mind anyway, was the overstuffed floral sofa she currently slouched on. So far, she had managed to stop Tiddles from scratching the velour fabric with a few scratching posts scattered about the place.
A loud crash upstairs made her jump. She flew off the sofa and raced toward the stairs then stopped. Was it wise to run toward the sound of