The China Cabinet - Story 8 of 31
Lynn, a Tapir on Summer break from College visits her grandmother, Sofia. While Lynn was away, Sofia added a few new pieces of furniture to her house.
The China Cabinet–Story 8 of 31
By Ta’kom Ironhoof
Lynn loved visiting her grandmother, Sofia. The only thing that Lynn loved more than visiting her grandmother was Sofia herself. Each summer, as the spring classes wrapped up, Lynn would make the trip from Manchester over to Beverly to visit her aging grandmother, who lived in the ramshackle house sitting on top of Snake Hill. It was Lynn’s dream to finally graduate college, get a decent paying job, and help Sofia fix the place up.
Sofia had practically raised Lynn as Lynn’s parents were both well paid lawyers for different international corporations and were often jet setting around the globe. Not that Lynn wanted for anything. They both spent as much time with her as they could and made sure that Sofia was given everything that she needed to make sure Lynn grew up in a safe and happy home.
Needless to say, Lynn was much more attached to her grandmother Sofia than she was to either of her parents. Lynn didn’t resent them but, there was a familial bond between the grandmother and herself that just couldn’t be broken. The pair of Baird’s Tapirs might as well have been mother and daughter.
Being that Lynn only had one more year left, she thought that this year, she’s tell her grandmother of all her plans. When the bus dropped the twenty-two-year-old Tapir off, she merrily made her way up the hill as quickly as she could.
“Grandma! Grandma, I’m home!” Lynn called out excitedly.
With a rusty creaking noise that could be heard throughout the entire property, Sofia pushed open the door and walked out onto the porch.
“Oh! I wasn’t expecting you so soon. Come in, come in! I’ve just put on a pot roast for us to enjoy for dinner tonight.”
Sofia ushered Lynn inside, telling her to just put her things down by the door. The pair then made their way to the dining room to enjoy a nice snack; some tea and cookies.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you, Lynn. I’ve got so many things to show you.” Sofia said after she took a sip of her drink.
Lynn looked around, noticing several new pieces of furniture that weren’t there when she was last there over the winter break.
“It would seem so! Where did you get these things?” Lynn asked, curiously.
Sofia sat her cup down and leaned against the table. “Well, while you were gone, I hired some guys to help me clear out the attic. There were all kinds of things up there. Mostly junk, but a few delightful pieces.” Sofia took another sip of her tea, not wanting to get cold before she could finish it. “In the living room, there’s a nice coffee table and a couple of side tables for the sofa,” then Sofia pointed behind Lynn, “and that china cabinet. I’ve always wanted a nice china cabinet like that. It even came with some decorative plates!”
Lynn turned briefly to look at the dark oak piece of furniture. It was rather large and showed the wear and tear of time. Fortunately, the glass on the doors was still intact and there were a handful of decorative plates on golden stands.
“Wow! That’s great grandma! Anything else?” Lynn asked.
Sofia sat and thought for a moment. “Well, there are still a few things up there, but it’s much too heavy for me to move around. The two men that I hired to help me move the stuff down here just up and vanished on me. I didn’t even have time to pay them!”
Lynn’s face twisted quizzically. “Ain’t that something? Hire some people to do a job and they just walk out on you. Figure they’d stay around at least long enough to get paid for their work.”
Sofia chuckled. “Yes, that was what I thought as well. I asked around town and nobody had even heard of the two gentlemen before. It’s all so strange.”
Sofia twisted her trunk around in the air, sniffing the delectable scents wafting from the kitchen. “Ah, I had better go check on the roast. Finish you tea, Lynn. And after we eat, we can get you settled in.” Sofia then pushed her chair back, standing up and slowly making her way to the kitchen.
The younger Tapir sat and watched her grandmother, mentally reminiscing about all the years that they had spent together in this house. She wanted nothing more than to do everything in her power to make Sofia proud of her. She thought about how glorious this house could be if only someone were able to put the time and effort into making it beautiful again.
Then Lynn’s ears twisted to point behind her. There was a noise coming from somewhere behind her, incredibly faint, but just enough to rip her mind away from her thoughts.
Slowly, Lynn turned to face the direction of the sound and, try as she might, she couldn’t pinpoint the sound. It felt close, yet distant at the same time. Lynn stood from her chair and pushed it back under the table, the large china cabinet’s height looming over her. Through the glass panes, there were three shelves and on the top two shelves were three plates; on the bottom shelf, only two.
It wasn’t until then that she really looked at each of the eight plates. Though they looked to be of high quality, the prints on each were almost childish representations of different species. Her eyes scrolled over each of the plates, from the top moving left then down; Lion, Wolf, Donkey, Monkey, Bear, Anteater, Opposum, and finally, Ostrich.
“Maybe these were made by the last owners’ children?” Lynn thought to herself. Staring at them, the light reflected on the glaze of the individual plate and the golden stand on which they sat upon. If these were handmade crafts, someone had put a lot of time and effort into making sure they were preserved well. Curiosity drove Lynn to want to look at them closer. Besides, there had to be more inside than just these plates.
With a slow creak of the hinges, Lynn pulled open the left door of the cabinet, followed shortly by the right door. Lynn continued to stare inside, noticing that the shelves were as clean as could be, an odd thing given how rustic the rest of the cabinet looked. Maybe her grandmother had done her best to restore the inside, but the outside was too big of a job.
Lynn reached inside to grab one of the plates
“Lynn! Honey, come help me in the kitchen for a minute, will you?” Sofia called out. However, when she didn’t receive a reply, she came around the corner back into the dining room. “Sofia?”
Curiously, both of the china cabinet doors were wide open, but no signs of Lynn could be found.
“Sofia, where did you get off to? The cooker is too heavy for me to lift.” However, nobody reply to Sofia’s call. The older Tapir moved around the China cabinet, closing both of the doors before moving to look for Lynn through the rest of the house.
Sofia never realized that inside the china cabinet, there was an additional plate; now nine in total.