((This chapter and branch is the result of significant collaboration and brainstorming between MaryMary/Tangello and I. This starting chapter contains significant contributions from both of us. Please enjoy. :) ))
Nadine Ferguson stood before Jon, earnestly holding a gilded and engraved jewelry box with a broken latch. The girl was so plain and inconspicuous, she had basically snuck up on Jon through his direct line of sight. His immediate reaction was to tell her it’s not for sale. His grandfather had obviously held onto it for a good reason, even if those reasons were now lost. The man never wore jewelry, so it had to be at least a little bit special, right?
His mother’s glare from across the yard froze his outstretched hand and changed his tune. “Uh… Forty dollars I guess,” He murmured. Nadine happily forked over the money and went on her way. Jon felt a pang in his stomach at trading a memory for barely enough money to buy a shoddily made DLC.
This is mostly how the morning went. Some familiar face from around town would show up to poke around the Madison’s personal belongings, all while asking questions Jon had no answers for. Leonard, the AP GOV teacher, walked away with a broken brass compass. Mr. Soderland, one of his moms friends, made off with a pair of cufflinks. Tiffany Sanders was taken by silk gloves in an old wardrobe box, and purchased them eagerly. Each person left with another item, and each person left behind a deeper sense of loss for Jon. Every sale bid goodbye to a story he would never hear, a question that would never be answered. Because seriously, silk gloves? Whose were those grandpa!?
Luckily he didn’t have to spend too much more time processing and reflecting on how this whole endeavor was just a metaphor for grief when Karyn and her mother arrived, Rebecca greeted him kindly, then bustled over to meet with his mom. The two ladies retreated to the house while Karyn approached him more cautiously.
“How you holding up Jon?” She asked kindly, her blue eyes wide and sympathetic, probing to look past her friends' flat expression.
“Much better.” Jon replied. “Other than having to spend my afternoon pawning my grandpa's life like second hand junk, I’m all good. And hey, I’m a few bucks richer to show for it” he crowed, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Nothing’s more important than that. Not memories or personal connections to your role model.” He concluded sardonically.
“Well, I mean, this stuff is nice and all, but you still have his most prized possession. Nothing he left behind could possibly compare to the stone.”
“Yeah, about that…”
Tail between his legs, Jon began the lengthy explanation of his decision to rid himself of the responsibility of the stone. He was sure Karyne would interrupt him and jump down his throat at any moment and scream ‘you freaking idiot!’. To his surprise, and relief, she listened attentively throughout. In the end, without scolding, or showing even a flash of anger she replied, “I’m actually kind of relieved you did. I didn’t like seeing what was becoming of you Jon. I’m just glad to see you doing and feeling better.” She smiled. It reached her eyes, and Jon was relieved.
For all the trinkets before him, rare and teeming with lost stories and memories, the most valuable thing was right in front of him.
He struggled to find the words to communicate his appreciation for his friend, and the chance passed him by.
Karyn groaned, “Oh shit. Are they seriously coming here?”
Jon watched as a pearly white range rover swooped in to double park in his empty driveway. The harbinger of bad experience after bad experience, that car could only mean the arrival of their least favorite pom-pom'd provocateur.
Jon and Karyn didn’t even have time to hope they would go unnoticed as Sarah’s eyes locked on them the moment she exited the passenger side door. Her posture held her higher than her former friends, and her expression regarded the sale with all the appreciation of a day-old fish market, yet she still found the need to strut over and intrude upon their shared moment.
“Oh Jon, I didn’t realize your family was struggling for money.” Her voice dripped with contempt.
“I always thought the used flannel and denim was just your weird thrift style, but I guess you’re not even interesting enough for that.”
“Go away Sarah.” Karyn snapped.
“Oh, I didn’t see you!” Sarah quipped, having utterly ignored the other blonde until now. “I guess you’re still invisible even after your recent cries for attention.” Sarah fixed her gaze on Karyn’s messy blonde, then dropped her eyes to the girl's recently enlarged bust with a sneer. “Fashion tip girlfriend, don’t buy second hand clothes from your crushes mom.”
“Seriously Sarah?” Jon snapped, “Don’t you have better things to do than bother us?”
“Oh, I definitely do.” She remarked, “But my mom made the mistake of thinking you might have something worth buying. She’s looking for French Country, not Goodwill Grunge.”
Sarah ignored the heat of Jon and Karyn’s fury and picked up a faded stuffed animal cat between two fingers. “Truth be told, I wondered if you were as boring in your personal life as you are at school. Can’t say my expectations were disappointed..”
“That…” Jon shouted, then the words caught in his throat. He recomposed his and concluded. “Is not for sale.” He snatched the little kitten back and put it under the table, recognizing the toy from his infant years. It was bad enough selling his grandpa’s stuff, there was no way in hell he would give something so personal to Sarah. The girl just laughed at his response.
Karyn crossed her arms. “If you don’t want anything, then go ask your owner to take you back to the kennel, you bitch.”
Sarah smirked and blinked slowly at the two, her eyes sparkled as she drank in their anxiety. “Oh, but I do want something, and I’m getting exactly what I want.”
“You’re such a sociopath!” Jon spat. “You know, if you look over there, you might find some Tennis Rackets you can use to screw yourself!”
Karyn continued. “Not that you’ve ever had any trouble finding something to screw you.”
A nasty expression twisted up on Sarah’s pretty face. “That’s rich coming from the girl who stuffs her bra, copied my hair, and still can’t get a boyfriend!” She huffed and walked away, leaving Jon and Karyn in a brief respite.
The pair had long since deduced that Sarah must have heard Karyn’s wish, but she was one of the few that had. Most everyone else had memories that said Karyn had always been blonde and busty. The discrepancy had been a target for Sarah, her emotions teeming with suspicion and jealousy.
Their relief was short-lived. They were freed from one McMillan just in time to be confronted by another.
Draped in an air of overblown dignity, her golden hair seemed more veneer than crown, each piece of minimalist jewelry contributed to her self-styled aristocracy. Her sharp red smile was hardened by conceit, and every one of her wayward glances seemed accompanied by some snap judgment. Her heavier body was shaped by designer clothes into a stunning profile that Jon, to his embarrassment, couldn't keep his eyes off.
“Do you keep the antiques in the house?” The mature woman asked.
“The antiques? Like… our furniture?” Jon blinked, confused.
“Of course, this isn’t all you have is it?” She purred, brows raised in faux shock.
“I think the only furniture we’re selling is my grandpa's old roll top desk.”
The blond woman posed as she looked at the item and sneered. “How disappointing.”
Jon’s face pulled into a scowl. For a moment he was about to recommend the tennis rackets for a second time, but bit his tongue. Instead he mumbled. “If you’re looking for antiques, I guess we have some older stuff here.” He gestured to the table by the cashbox. Most of the items on the table were his grandfather's personal effects. Jon’s stomach curdled at the idea of giving even one of them to someone with the last name McMillan, but he was confident enough that she wouldn’t find anything to meet their hoity toity…
“Oh, how cute.” Mrs. McMillans declaration interrupted his thoughts. She plucked a silver framed mirror from the stack. The small round hand mirror was ringed by a lightly tarnished floral motif. “How’d such a gem end up here?” Mrs. McMillan pondered out loud. It wasn’t a question she expected to be answered, and the implication caused Jon’s cheeks to flush red.
“This will do.” She flatly declared. “Do you take card?”
“It’s a yard sale...” Jon replied tersely.
“And?” She rebutted, the one word dripping with exasperation. “Goodness. Some people need all the help, I suppose.” She reached into her purse, then put a single bill on the table in front of Jon. “I’m sure this is plenty.” She concluded.
Jon looked down to spy a hundred dollar bill. He gripped the bill in his fist, ready to throw the money in her face and snatch the mirror back when Sarah appeared again. “Great, can we go now? I’m worried someone we know might drive by and see us.”
Jon could only gape at how brazen Sarah was being around her mom, but he was even more shocked as Sarah’s mom smirked in response. She actually smirked! The older woman put her arm around her daughter and guided her back to the car.
“Now we know where Sarah gets it.” Karyn huffed.
Sweaty and sun-fried after a long day of hocking wares, Jon and Karyn lugged the last two boxes of the unsold items back into the much emptier attic. To his relief, Jon had managed to price a few valuable pieces out of sale while his mom wasn’t looking. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if his mom forced him to liquidate every last thing of his grandpa’s. Even so, they had made a considerable dent into his heirlooms.
Karyn actually tried to keep some order among the remaining things, but Jon was more haggard, and too emotionally exhausted to care. As he leaned over to drop the box in the attack, a glint of silver caught the corner of his eye. Looking over, he spied a box he had overlooked when hauling everything down for the yard sale. Brow furrowed he pushed an old briefcase out of the way to find something familiar, an exact twin of the tarnished silver mirror Mrs. McMillan had bought.
He smirked, feeling satisfied that Mrs. McMillan had apparently lost out on the full set. Wondering what had intrigued her so much about it, he inspected the ornate design, rubbing his finger along the carvings on the frame, before finally holding it up to his face. He gasped and nearly dropped it at what he saw.
“Huh? What is it?” Karyn asked. She took the mirror from Jon’s hand, and looked in it, seeing only herself. It wasn’t until she turned it back towards Jon’s stunned face that she realized what had startled him. The face reflected back in the mirror was not his, but rather the face of Mrs. Susan McMillan.
