The History of the Timeless Curio Shop
The Countess Lenora Raven De-Winter inherited the shop from a distant uncle, a dusty, musty collection of odds and ends that she hardly knew what to do with. An artist herself and never very interested in antiques, it took her some time to clean out the clutter and discover the hidden treasures and summer dreams beneath. The strangest thing about the shop was that an article that seemed to be there one day might be gone the next. Whether it was bought or stolen or simply vanished, she never understood (not being much of a record-keeper herself), but she didn’t let that bother her. There were bits and baubles and shiny plates, gadgets and Gatchas and quirky stuff of all sorts. When she first arrived at the shop, it was dimly lit and cramped, with shelves piled high with rare books and odd memorabilia from long-forgotten eras, but she had spent many hours clearing out the worst of the junk and attractively displaying the best: a corner for a bookworm’s nest, sparkly plates hanging on the wall, model airplane kits (the old kind, lovingly handcrafted of wood), scrimshaw from a whalebone. And she grew quite fond of the junk and clutter and when traveling, as she often did, developed the habit of keeping an eye out for that unusual magic kit or love potion that might find a home at the shelves. One time she’d bring back matryoshka (those charming nesting dolls from Russia), the next, batik sarongs from Indonesia, painted psanky eggs from the Ukraine, or origami from the Orient. In fact, it became an obsession with her, and she never really knew whether she owned the shop, or the shop owned her.
