A bell echoed, a cloud of dust arose as I pushed open the door to the curio shop half-hidden down a grouty alley. Grimy, fly-specked front windows held a jumbled display of broken crockery, disemboweled appliances, and tottering stacks of ill-used paperbacks.
“Mr. Jenkins?” I called out the name etched in faded gold letters on the door. I expected an equally rundown elderly gentleman to shuffle out of the darkened room behind a makeshift display counter full of assorted glassware. Greet me in a thin wheezy voice, peer with rheumy eyes through smudgy bifocals and offer me gunpowder tea in cracked Spode china cups mismatched with their saucers.
I never expected this vigorous man, mid-fifties, a touch of grey at the temples of his wavy, dark hair, and wickedly sparking jade eyes. He wore a flannel checked shirt and blue jeans over his muscular frame. Smiling warmly, he addressed me in a deep, husky voice. “How can I be of assistance?”
I also did not expect to find myself gagged and bound next to the Mr. Jenkins in the back room of the shop. While the pseudo-Jenkins stole the valuable antique bottle collection from the battered display case. {198}
Written for Sunday Photo Fiction 5.2.17
© Lorraine
Photography: © J Hardy Carroll
February 11, 2017 at 7:52 am
That was unexpected. Great twist,.
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February 11, 2017 at 8:36 pm
Thanks! Wanted a good twist, and guess I got it.
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February 11, 2017 at 9:26 pm
Yes you did :-)
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February 8, 2017 at 1:04 pm
Nice twist. Well done.
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February 8, 2017 at 1:09 pm
Thank you. Smiling.
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February 6, 2017 at 10:52 pm
Interesting twist. Don’t let those goodlooking guys catch you unawares. :)
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February 6, 2017 at 10:52 pm
He looked too good to be true. Smiling.
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February 6, 2017 at 10:05 pm
I have heard some people get tied up for hours looking at the antiques. No one mentions the gag and person robbing the place. 😉
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February 6, 2017 at 10:30 pm
They tend to leave that part of the story out.
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February 6, 2017 at 10:54 pm
But they go back antiquing…
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February 6, 2017 at 10:59 pm
Hey, maybe they like being bound and gagged. Just saying . . .
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February 6, 2017 at 10:59 pm
The thrill of the hunt is what is said about it
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February 6, 2017 at 11:01 pm
Depends on who’s tying up who. (or is that whose and whom?)
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February 7, 2017 at 8:57 am
That is probably depends on the one doing the tying. It is a control thing, so I’m told. It’s a good thing cell phones didn’t exist earlier 😉
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February 7, 2017 at 5:37 pm
True. It is about control and power. Not my idea of fun — whether in the antique shop or the bedroom (blushing)
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February 7, 2017 at 6:23 pm
I don’t really find anything in it either. Plenty other ways to entertain
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February 8, 2017 at 2:00 am
Most definitely.
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February 6, 2017 at 1:36 am
Who would have thought it… :-)
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February 5, 2017 at 8:27 pm
Rich descriptions, and boy, when you described the handsome proprietor, I definitely thought you were going in a different direction. What a twist! Well, no wonder Fake Mr. Jenkins is so successful at his job, disarming his marks like that.
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February 5, 2017 at 10:08 pm
Master bottle thief strikes again. He is one smooth operator.
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February 5, 2017 at 11:39 pm
He sure had me fooled!
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February 5, 2017 at 6:35 pm
Great twist! has me laughing …. oh how the dark and twisted is alive and well this eve ;)
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February 5, 2017 at 10:10 pm
Thanks — another one that wrote itself as it went along. My mind is deviously controlling my fingers. Laughing.
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February 5, 2017 at 5:59 pm
Yes very neatly done!
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February 5, 2017 at 10:11 pm
Thanks.
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February 5, 2017 at 4:43 pm
I did not expect that ending! Nice twist.
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February 5, 2017 at 10:14 pm
Thanks.
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