Page 10 of Her Wonderful Wonder Bell
“I could smellreeferon her. You have got to be careful. There’s all sorts of trouble with that type. I did a movie on it.” Pearl’s look of genuine concern is the only thing keeping me from bursting into laughter.
I swallow down the laughs and do my best to hide my smile. I’ll have to remember to give her a talk about this later. “Thanks Pearl.”
The walk is long and most of the businesses are new to Pearl, though a lot of the buildings themselves are the same. She’s unimpressed by the way cars look these days compared to how they used to look. She says they’re too big and fast. To be honest, she’s not wrong. The weirdest thing to her, however, is how people carry their phones everywhere.
“Why is everyone staring at those things? You said it’s a phone, but I don’t see them talking.”
We walk through the park and see people laying in the grass or sitting against trees, but almost all of them are scrolling on their smartphones. I wouldn’t have noticed it if she hadn’tsaid anything.
“They’re notjustphones. They have the Internet, games, texting, social media, streaming, and other stuff. People use them for work even. There’s so much stuff it’s hard to explain. I’ll have to sit down with you and physically show you because just talking about it isn’t gonna cut it.”
“I guess you’ll have to because a lot of that sounds like gobbledygook.” She sighs. “I’m sure I’ll have to spend a lot of time learning new things.”
“Yeah.” I give her hand a reassuring, very gentle squeeze as we continue to walk. “Oh, hey, want to know something fun? The government sent a man to the moon.”
“Oh, we’ve had people who could space travel in Ghostlight Falls for ages. The rest of the country didn’t know, but I suppose it’s nice that everyone else can do it. Have they made it out of the galaxy? Or made homes up there?” She looks at me with an excited look that has my brain making a disappointedwomp-wompsound inside.
“No, not yet.”
“Oh, shame. I’m sure they will soon. The government must be halfway there by now. You can always rely on them to be on top of things.”
“…Yeah.”
We make it to Rosa’s just after opening. Her daughter, Sharon, is cleaning the counter when we walk in. She’s averyhot goth babe with long, black hair, elaborate black makeup, and clothes like a Victorian widow. We made a brief attempt at dating, but discovered we were sexually incompatible. It’s not impossible for two tops to be together by any means—it happens all the time—but these two tops just didn’t work out. Plus, she’s not a sports fan, and I don’t like the feeling of velvet.
“What do you want?” Sharon asks with her signature monotone voice.
“Actually, we’re hoping Rosa is around. We have an issue.” I point to Pearl, who waves her hand in an especially flappy way to show off its flatness.
“I’ll ask her if she has time. Only because she likes you.” She sets down her cleaning supplies and eyes Pearl. “And because of your issue. Lock thefront door.”
Sharon disappears behind the pink, velvet, rose-printed curtains that hang behind the counter while I lock the door. Pearl and I wait nervously, looking around at the goodies. The place smells like caramel, chocolate, and cinnamon. The décor is pink, red, and deep brown, with roses printed on almost everything.
“Hello, honey. What’s going on?” Rosa asks as she walks through the curtain. When she sees Pearl she pauses, looks her up and down, and shakes her head. “Dios mío. It’s something new everyday in this town.”
“Yep.” I chuckle and watch as Pearl blushes with nerves. “As you can see, we have a problem.”
“Come back to my office, tell me about it,” Rosa says as she holds the curtain open for us. Rosa is a tiny woman, but I’m a tall one, so I duck a little as I go under the curtain.
I’m excited to be going back here, as it’s rare for anyone to be invited into Rosa’s kitchen. She hands me a hairnet to match hers before I’m allowed to step foot past the threshold, and I gladly put it on. She looks Pearl over with a second hairnet in her hands, apparently decidesit isn’t necessary, and puts it back. She then walks us through the kitchen where all the fantastic candy is made—a surprisingly normal-looking kitchen, no stereotypical witchy stuff here—and into the back office. We sit down on a simple, pink sofa and she sits on an office chair at the desk in front of us.
“So, tell me what happened.”
“Well, I found a box under the brick floor at the baseball stadium. Please don’t tell anyone I found it there because Brigley will try to take it.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” Rosa says as she makes the lip-zipping motion.
“Thank you. The box had the logo from this shop on it. Inside the box was a Ghostlight Falls women’s baseball team baseball card from the forties with her,” I point to Pearl, “on it. There isn’t any record of a women’s baseball team ever being here, though. There was also an empty gum wrapper, and a letter inside saying that whoever found the box was supposed to protect ‘her.’ It didn’t say whoherwas, but I think we can assume it meant Pearl. The letter also said to beware of Brigleyand was signed ‘V.’ With the logo being from Rosa’s and it being signed V, it made me think it was your grandma. Pearl had a dream that I think confirmed it.”
“It does sound like it. Did you bring the letter?”
“Yes, duh, I should have given it to you.” I shake my head at my own forgetfulness and hand it to her.
Rosa reads the letter, a smile appearing on her face as she does.
“This is my grandmother’s handwriting. I know it’s a serious message, but I can’t help smiling. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything new from her. What happened next?”
“Well, I just read the card and tried to figure out if it meant anything but couldn’t. I left to get a drink of water, and when I came back, there was Pearl.”
