I wake up to my ma yelling for all of us to wake up and come down for breakfast. I sit up and stretch, then slide over to the edge of the bed to put on my slippers. I make my way downstairs and everyone is already there. The table has a plate of pancakes in the middle and fresh maple syrup in a glass jar. Ma loves to heat up the syrup. I sit down and grab one of the pancakes from the plate.
Halfway through breakfast my pa grunts as he sits his fork down on his plate. "So, your ma says you want to work at the store. I have debated all night. I know you are getting older Aura and you need to venture out a little more. I will let you work at the store, but you will need to ride with Ember every day. You will do whatever he asks you to do. Don't give him a hard time."
I glance up at Ember and he doesn't seem too happy at all that I will be going with him for now on. I know that he thought he had to watch over me but I would assure him later that he would not have to watch over me.
My pa continues, "After breakfast I need the two of you to meet me in the barn. We need to talk about a few things before you go."
I nod and finish up eating. After breakfast, ma has Finn ad Briar busy doing cleaning while Ember and I make our way out to the barn with pa. He closes the door behind us. "Aura, I hope I am not making a mistake by doing this. I talked to your ma and I know you are getting older and one day you will go out into the world doing your own thing. I know no matter what I do, I will not be able to keep you here forever. I can't tell you everything right now but the men that came the other night do business with me. You may see them often at the store. Ember will deal with them do you understand?"
I shake my head yes. I wanted to ask him who Mr. Lindstrom was but I thought against it because then he would know that I had opened the box.
"You stay at the store the whole time. I don't need you roaming the streets. Don't make me regret my decision."
"I won't; I will help out at the store and listen to Ember. I promise you pa I can do this."
"Very well then, here is the box for today. They should be there his afternoon to pick it up." He hands the box to Ember. We walk out to the truck and Ember drives us into town.
"I can't believe he agreed to let you do this. You are better off staying at home where you belong," he sighs in irritation.
I roll my eyes back at him. "I'm sorry Ember. You don't have to watch over me you know. I can hold my own. I can help out."
"It's not just about helping out Aura. If these men come to the shop you act like you are just there working, helping me out you understand. You are not my sister; don't refer to me as your brother. I don't need you getting hurt. And if you do, pa will have my hide."
"Hurt. Why would they hurt me? What is so important about blown glass bottles?"
He scrunches up his face while gritting his teeth. "It's not the glass Aura; it's what's in the glass. Pa is mixed in something that is out of his control and if we don't do what they want we will all face consequences, therefore they don't need to know that we are even related."
"What's in the glass?" I had to ask; I had to know what my pa was involved in.
"I not at liberty to say; pa never wanted me involved either but he had no choice. And since they are making more demands, we have to do whatever they want." He comes to a stop sign and looks over at me. "Aura, I don't want to scare you, I also don't want you to get hurt or involved. These men are not good people. Believe me if they find out who you really are they will find a way to use you to get what they want."
"How do you know what they want?" I look back over at him with a questionable look on my face. "What do they want?"
"The land...they want the land, Aura. Our land holds precious minerals and the location with the caves makes it easier to transport the supplies. Pa refuses to sale the land so he does the only thing he knows what to do and that is to get them the supplies they want."
"So that is why he told us we can't go into the caves anymore. They are not collapsing, are they? Does he get out the minerals or does he have others doing it?"
"He blocked the caves so we can no longer play in them. The crew goes into another opening and they extract what they need. It's added inside the blown glass so that no one knows that it is there."
"How long have you known about this?"
"For a while now. He told me to swear to never tell anyone however since you will be at the store you need to know what you are getting yourself into. I will deal with them when they come in alright."
"Alright."
"You won't tell anyone about anything that we do, not even pa. If he knew I told you he will have my hide."
"I won't tell anyone, I swear."
We don't say anything the rest of the way into town. He parks right behind our shop and we get out of the truck at the same time. As I walk around the back, he is taking out one of the boxes and hands it to me. Then he reaches in for another. I wonder to myself how pa fills all these bottles by himself; it seems that it would take a lot of time doing so. Not unless there are others on the land that somehow we just never see them. This is way he wants us all in bed early and stay out of the caves.
I follow Ember into the store. He places the one box on the counter and walks towards the front to change the sign around to say that we are open and then unlocks the door. When he makes his way back, he glances around to make sure everything is where it needs to be.
Seconds later he is handing me a cloth. "Make yourself useful and dust the pieces. You can start on that side and make your way around to the other side."
"Oh how fun. You don't have anything better for me to do?"
"Aura...working him is pretty boring at times, at least until someone comes in. Otherwise, you need to be doing something."
"Fine." I roll my eyes while letting out a small huff while I snatch the cloth from his hands. I make my way over to the left side and start dusting each little piece. I think about the tourist that will come in and look around and I know seeing signs of dust they will look at us like we are just poor little Indians that are barely getting by. Which apart of that might be true but I didn't want to see that on any of their faces.
We were open for over an hour before two women walked in. I was already on the right side of the store dusting by this time. I greeted them with a smile, "Welcome to Spiritual Glass, let us know is we can help you with anything?"
Both smiled kindly back at me and said in unison, "Thank you we will."
I stopped with the dusting so that they could look around without me being in their way. I tried not to listen to their conversation but it was so hard not to. They made small talk about things I had no idea about but then when picked up certain pieces made comments about how pretty each piece was. They looked at the bottom for the price and then set it back down. I was behind the counter one of the ladies asked, "Excuse me ma'am do you actually make these pieces or are they shipped in?"
I look over at Ember. Then back to them. "Our pa actually makes each piece by hand at home. Ember also makes smaller pieces for jewelry and ornaments here at the shop. He would be glad to make you anything if you would like."
"They are just so pretty and so colorful. These are amazing." She reaches over and grabs one of the pieces while the other lady looks around for one for herself. "I would love this one please."
Ember walks over closer and takes it from her. He starts to wrap paper around it and secures it all in place with tape. "This should make it safer for travel." She smiles and hands him her credit card. Afterwards he rings up the next lady and they leave the shop with smiles. I was also smiling until I saw Ember's face.
"What?" I ask.
"Seriously, I told you that we are not related. Someone could have heard if someone else was in the store."
"But there wasn't, was there."
"Aura this is serious. You don't know who is who. Heck that could have been a wife or a sister trying to get more information. You really think you're smart don't you? If you can't do what I ask, then don't even bother just stay at home."
I throw my hand up in the air and grab the cloth back off the counter. "I get it all right, I won't say another word, jeez."
We had people come and go all day at a steady pace. Towards the end of the day, the door dings and I see a man walk in all alone. Ember motions for me to go to the back and I do as I am told. On the other side of the wall, I try to get as close as possible to see if I can hear anything. However, I had no such luck.
Shortly after closing up, we head out to the truck and make our way back home. The ride was so quiet. I turn to look out the window. "I take it the last costumer was there to pick up the box of supplies."
"Yes, he was and thank you for going to the back. He never mentioned you, so that was a good thing."
"Would it make any difference?" I turn to look over at him.
"I don't know Aura; I don't want to know. These men they are really dangerous. They don't want any interruptions, nothing getting in their way. They come for only the one thing and that's what is in the box."
"If they only want what is in the box, then why would they even care who I am?"
"Aura they do other things as well. Pa would be mad if I knew but these men when they come they talk to me. They ask me about certain things and I would never want them to be around you."
"Do you care to elaborate?"
"Not right now, just know that you do not want to be involved in any way all right."
I get that he cares for me, but if I am going to be helping out, I am going to have to know eventually what is really going on."