Into the Light

68

"Come on, man! Hurry!" I exclaimed, patting the back of Sam's seat. "I'm going as fast as I can, Brother," he replied. "It's not like the store is going to disappear or something." "Yeah, but we gotta have these cars back to the place in, like, 30 minutes. That doesn't leave me much time to decide what to get," I sighed. "I'm sure she'll love whatever you get. Anna doesn't seem like she's high maintenance or hard to please," Kat said, looking back at me and smiling. I smiled back. "You're right. She's great. I just want it to be perfect...but I realized that I don't know much about her interests or anything like that." "I'll help you," she replied. "I don't know much but we've had a couple of conversations. I'm sure that I can help you find something." "Thanks Kat," I said, then leaned back in my seat. We were only about 5 minutes away now, but it seemed like the longest 5 minutes in the world. I wouldn't have minded if we were a little late, usually. This time, we had to be back on time, or we would lose the van that I had rented for the ride home. I wasn't willing to do that. I pulled out my phone and texted Brennen, to see where they were at. "Brennen and the gang made it to the store. They're sitting there waiting now," I told Sam. "I told them to give us about 20 or 30 minutes." He nodded and pulled into the little café. "Finally," I said, unbuckling my seatbelt. Thankfully, the place wasn't busy and Sam, Kat, and myself were able to go straight to the memorabilia section. We browsed through it, picking things up and then setting them back down. "Here's a tape player, Colby. Not sure if it works though. I think these are in production again though. You can probably find a new one," Sam said, setting the tape player back in it's spot. I looked it over and noticed that one of the buttons were chipped and the inside of the tape deck had a wheel missing. "Yeah, this isn't worth it," I agreed. I passed over some things and found the Teddy Ruxpin that she had been so happy to see. "I really think that I want to get this. What do you guys think?" I asked. "I, personally, find that thing freaky as fuck, but you know...whatever, I guess," Katrina replied. "She did seem pretty happy to find it. Yeah, I think she'd like that. What kind of story are you going to get though?" Sam asked. He picked up some of the tapes that were scattered around the mechanical bear and read through some of the names. I shook my head. "I guess it doesn't really matter. These are all children's books. It's not going to matter which one I get. "Excuse me, sir?" I heard a soft voice speak from behind me. When I turned to look, there was an older lady, with white hair gathered on top of her head in a bun. "Ma'am?" I asked, politely. "I couldn't help but overhear that you're trying to find something for someone. It sounds like your girlfriend, maybe?" She waited for me to nod. I hadn't technically asked Anna to be my girlfriend, but...we were a couple, right? Guess that was something that we needed to talk about too. "I got one of these for my grandson a few years back. They're very rare now, but this little place always has an extra one on hand. I'm the owner. My name is Greta. It's very nice to meet you." She held her small, thin skinned hand out to shake mine. I reached out and took it, noticing how cool her skin was. "We have a little place, right here in the back of the store, where you can record your own tape, and have Teddy Ruxpin read that, instead of one of the books. Sometimes the eyes and mouth don't exactly line up to the words, but, honestly, that happens with the stories that he comes with. What do you think? Would that be something that you're interested in?" "That's so cool! Colby, you should totally do that! Anna would love it!" Kat exclaimed, with Sam nodding his agreement. "Yeah, I think I will," I murmured, then looked up to meet the lady's pale green eyes. "Will it take long?" I asked. "We're kind of in a hurry." She shook her head and smiled. "Nah, it's old technology. Just take long enough for you to say whatever you're going to say and for Tommy to rewire a couple of lines. That's it. Usually about 10 minutes." I looked at Sam and Kat again, but I already knew that this was it. This was what I would get for Anna. With a special message to her, from me. "Gooo," Kat said, pushing me towards the older woman. "Okay, I'll do it," I said, smiling at the woman. "Thank you for the suggestion." She patted me on the arm and smiled. "Of course, honey. Now, grab that bear and come with me." I did as she said and followed her through a door that was located behind the coffee counter. We walked through the kitchen, where the workers were cooking their last meals and putting away food, until we reached a wooden door that was off to the side. "My husband, Tommy, the one I told you about, he loves working with these old things. Gotten really good at it, too. Come on," she said, before turning the knob. The room was small and cluttered, with various odds and ends. There were old newspapers, yellowed with age, broken toys from generations past, vinyl records, and other things that I couldn't begin to identify. In the middle of the room was a wooden desk, scratched and worn, with small tools littered around it. The small area was lit with a dusty yellow lamp hovering over the work area. I could see dust particles dancing in the air, so thick that my asthma wanted to come back, just on instinct. An old man, with tufts of gray hair coming from underneath his worn dark blue cap, sat behind the desk. He had a tiny screwdriver in his bulky hands, working on some old toy. It looked like a giant red calculator to me. "Hon," the lady said, but he held up his hand for her to hold on. He didn't say a word for another few minutes and it was starting to make me anxious.