Saturday morning, Anna woke up nice and early; she never did sleep much. She roamed lazily around her apartment in her pajamas for a little while before deciding to fix herself a nice, hot cup of tea with lots of sugar in it – just the way she liked it. As she poured in the last spoonful, she took a sip and sighed contentedly. Perfect. She continued to drink her tea as she padded over to her front door. She had one of those mail slots, just like in those old black and white movies she loved to watch. It still made her smile to look at that. Her very own door slot – it made her feel like she was in one of those romantic films herself.
As she bent down and picked the mail up off of the plush, dark green carpet, Anna was reminded yet again of the two main disadvantages to having a slot in your door for the mail. First, she had to bend down and pick it up off of the floor. Second, since it all fell onto the carpet instead of being placed carefully into a nice, neat little box, it had a tendency to scatter all over the place. No matter. She quickly brushed these thoughts aside, as she did every day. She liked the romance of her mail slot and didn't want to think about what a pain it could be.
She took the small pile with her back to the kitchen, leafing through it as she went. Bills, bills, bills. All bills – rent, electric, storage... Annoying, but Anna wasn't actually disappointed; it's what she'd been expecting, really. All she ever got were bills. She had only made friends recently, and she hadn't told any of them her address. The only people who actually knew where she lived were the people who sent her bills.
Anna knew it had been nearing the end of the month, but she had been pushing the thought out of her mind. Now, she had the bills in her hand and no money in her bank account. At least, not much. Certainly not enough to cover what she owed. She sighed. Looks like she'd have to do what she always did – find something to sell. But it was such a hassle.
Anna ambled around her apartment, mug still firmly in hand, taking stock of what she owned. The apartment was a small, one-bedroom unit complete with living room and kitchen. The living room was the biggest part of the house, and the front door actually opened directly into it.
On the left was a short hallway, which dead-ended at a small linen closet. On each wall of this tiny hall was a door. The door on the left led to a small, almost hotel-sized bathroom. The other door led to Anna's bedroom.
Anna walked into the bedroom, surveying the furniture she saw. Her bed was a beautiful Colonial-style four-poster made of wood so dark it was almost black, complete with a canopy. The two posts at the head of the bed framed a blue and green landscape painting, and all four posts had been carved into spirals. Both the headboard and the footboard were supported by small, beautifully ornate spindles. Anna smiled. She loved that bed; she'd had it since she was a child and selling it wasn't an option. So she turned towards the two dressers sitting side-by-side on the wall opposite the closet.
The one on the left was made of a light wood and had been purchased by Anna in 1892. The other one had been purchased, oddly enough, almost exactly one hundred years later – 1989, Anna believed. The new dresser was the one Anna used to keep all of the clothes she still wore. The other one used its top four drawers to keep clothes that were at least eighty years old; the bottom drawer was where Anna kept all the papers and receipts for each piece of furniture she owned.
These three pieces of furniture, along with a small nightstand, made up all of the furniture in this room. Anna shook her head slightly to herself. Every piece in here was functional – she wouldn't be able to sell any of these without causing herself some major inconveniences. She decided to look at the living room and dining room instead.
Unlike Anna's bedroom, the small living room was crammed with furniture. She had a couple of antique wingback chairs on either side of a couch she'd bought in the mid-1970s. A coffee table sat in front of the couch, and on the other side of the room was a rather large chest with a television set on top of it. Crammed into the corner was a small table with two tea chairs. The room really was too crowded, and she made a note of this. Something in this room, at least, would have to go – probably the table and chairs. The chairs had thin, spindly legs that weren't really good for sitting on, anyway.
On the right side of the living room was an archway leading into the kitchen and dining room area. Really, it was just a small kitchen with a counter running along two sides of the room, and just enough space at the near end for Anna to set up a table. It wasn't really a dining room, but Anna liked to think of it as one. And since there was no one to argue with her, she did.
She had wandered slowly around the apartment, refreshing herself on what she had. Her furniture was a strange mix of the relatively new and the very old sitting side-by-side. Her closet was the same way; it was packed with clothing that ranged from things she had bought two weeks ago to things she had gotten almost two centuries ago.
Almost two hundred years ago, the money Anna had taken from her house as she fled her hometown that night had started to run out. She hadn't had much, but she had been very careful with what she did have, knowing that it would have to last her for a long, long time. She had managed to stretch it out for almost seventy-five years this way. But, her family had not been all that wealthy, and she hadn't gotten the lavish amount that an immortal would need to live on.
Fortunately for Anna, just as her funds were starting to run out, she'd hit upon a simple, yet brilliant idea: she would sell antiques. It was really a natural career choice for someone like her, once she'd thought about it. All she would have to do was buy furniture – or anything else she saw fit – keep it, and then sell it years later as she needed.
It turned out that this plan was a little more complicated than she'd originally anticipated. The most difficult part was picking out things, not by how popular they were at the time, but by how popular they were going to be in the future. Fortunately, Anna discovered she had a knack for this kind of thing, and she was almost never wrong. She'd also learned to keep any receipts and certificates of authenticity she may have had, just in case.
As Anna toured her own apartment, her kitchen table was the thing that really caught her eye. It was a deep, dark mahogany table with ornate designs carved beautifully on both the legs and the edges of the tabletop itself. Amazingly, the whole table seemed to be made out of a single piece of wood. Anna had never seen anything like it before, and she knew when she first laid eyes on it all those years ago that she just had to have it. She bought it in 1815, and it was the second-oldest piece of furniture in her apartment, after her bed. It had been an impulse buy that she'd only barely been able to afford, but she knew that one day it would make her a lot of money. And today, it seemed, was that day.
Anna finally set her mug down on the counter before walking back into her bedroom. She sauntered over to the antique dresser and pulled open the bottom drawer. She leafed through stacks of papers for a few minutes, until she found what she was looking for: the manila folder with all of her documentation on the kitchen table, and the one containing the information on the table and chairs set. She laid the folders on the bed and then started to look through the top drawers of the dresser.
The top drawers were where Anna kept all of her old clothes. Most of them were women's clothes dating back almost one hundred and fifty years, but there were also men's and children's clothing there that she'd purchased from time to time. Carefully, she took out an armful of dresses along with two or three men's shirts. She folded them gently into a large cardboard box, filling it to the top. After placing the folders she'd taken out on top of the clothes, Anna then carried the box back to the kitchen and set everything on the corner of the counter.
In a drawer in the kitchen was a Polaroid camera that Anna had bought about thirty years ago. She took several pictures of the table, highlighting the engraving done on it. Then, she walked back into the living room to take photographs of the chairs and table. Once the pictures developed, she tucked each into their respective folders and set the folders back in the box.
One of the reasons Anna had picked this particular apartment was because it was only a few blocks away from a very reputable antiques shop. And since she'd never bothered to learn how to drive, it was important for her to be able to walk there. Anna checked her watch – 7:45. Perfect. By the time she got dressed and walked down there, the shop should be open. So, after a quick change of clothes, Anna grabbed the box and headed out the door.
***
Anna had decided to dress professionally for her trip to the antiques shop, and had put on a pair of black pants and a white V-necked blouse. She'd pulled her hair back in a neat bun, trying to look as old as she possibly could. She wanted whoever she talked to take her seriously, and she'd long ago discovered that people just didn't listen to her if she looked too young.
Before Anna had even moved to this town, she had looked up the local antique dealers. The fact that there was a big, well-established shop at the center of town had been a real draw for her. It was this shop that Anna was headed off to.
She glanced up at the sign as she crossed the parking lot towards the two-story building. "Ye Olde Antiques Shoppe". Anna smirked slightly as she read the name, thinking that, in all honesty, it was pretty stupid. Who wrote things like that? Even still, they were some of the best people around for miles, and she knew that they'd know exactly how valuable the things she was bringing to them really were.
Anna struggled with the door for a few minutes, trying to get it open while still holding her big, awkward cardboard box. The box was too big to hold with just one arm, making it difficult to pull the door open. Fortunately, a short, leathery old lady with frazzled orange hair was just leaving, and held the door open for Anna.
"Thanks." Anna mumbled to her as she made her way inside.
The inside of the store looked like a warehouse. The whole first floor was only one room, about sixty feet long and just as deep, and furniture was stacked everywhere. After glancing around, it became apparent to Anna that the room was organized not by type of furniture – beds with beds and desks with desks – but by the era that each piece was made in. The area she was currently standing in looked like it was designated for paraphernalia from the 1930s and '40s. Everything on this floor looked like it was from some time in this century. Along the back wall, Anna could see a staircase leading upstairs to where she presumed the older furniture lay.
Looking around, she spotted the cash register in the center of this over-crowded room. Slowly, she made her way over, careful not to run into a table corner jutting out or knock a precariously-perched lamp to the floor.
The counter was four-sided, and in the middle sat a rather plump old lady reading a book. Her blue-white hair was pulled on top of her head in a kind of beehive. When she saw Anna approach, she stood up and smiled, pulling red-framed glasses out of her pocket and slipping them on her nose. "Good afternoon," the woman said pleasantly. "How are you today?"
"I'm doing fine." Anna replied, hoisting the box up onto the counter. "How are you?"
The woman brightened visibly as she said, "I'm well, thank you."
Anna felt sorry for the old woman; she got the distinct feeling that most people didn't care enough to ask how she was doing.
After exchanging their greetings, Anna took her pictures out of the box. "I've been going through some things at my grandmother's house," she lied, "and I think I'm going to have to get rid of a few pieces." With this, she started carefully pulling the clothes out of the cardboard box. The woman walked out from behind her desk, and started helping Anna lay the dresses out flat on the counter. The old lady was clearly awestruck, though she tried her best to hide it. After several moments of silence, she finally said, "I've never seen clothes this old in such great condition."
Anna smiled at hearing this. So many times, people at antique shops tried to pretend that she'd brought in things that are almost worthless, though Anna knew perfectly well they weren't. This time, however, she knew that the woman's shock would make it much easier to get the kind of price she deserved; there wouldn't be nearly as much arguing as there usually was. After all, Anna knew exactly what she could get for the things she sold, and she wouldn't take less. She had been doing this for a very long time, after all. And since she'd intended to sell these clothes since the day she'd bought them, she'd taken excellent care of them – and it showed.
"Thank you." Anna said to the lady. "I'm hoping to sell these today. I also have a few pieces of furniture in my apartment that I'd like to get rid of as well." As she said this, Anna handed the old woman the folders, complete with Polaroids she'd taken just an hour or so before. If possible, the old woman's eyes got even wider as she flipped through the photos. Anna found herself becoming excited at how easy this was going to be. "Since I don't have a way to get those here myself, I was hoping I could arrange for someone to come get them." The places Anna'd gone to in the past usually had someone with a truck who could transport big pieces of furniture in situations like this. Ye Olde Antique Shoppe proved no exception.
"I think that can be arranged." the old woman told her. Then, tearing her eyes away from the photographs, she said, "I can pay you now for the clothes, and you'll receive the money for the furniture when we come to pick it up. That way we can properly inspect it to determine a fair price."
Anna nodded and the woman walked back behind the counter towards the register.
Anna walked out of the store with a glint in her eye and a pocket full of cash. And she'd been given a pretty high estimate for her furniture, which would be picked up on Tuesday afternoon. Anna couldn't help but be happy; she'd gotten more than even she'd been prepared for – which was saying a lot. With the money she already had in her hand from the clothes, and the money she'd receive for her furniture, she'd have enough to last her several more years – almost a decade if she was reasonably careful. Oh, yes. She'd definitely found her calling.