Part 03: In this post: Olive buys a thirty-two-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica…

Olive buys a thirty-two-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica…

The shop assaulted Olive’s nostrils with a blend of old-people’s home and musty cloth, making it difficult to breathe. The owner had vaguely grouped furniture and displays by room. Olive flitted over a hardwood floor and bumped into a table laden with dainty figurines, collectable plates, china cups, and thimble collections. Luckily, nothing fell. She passed a kitchen nook where antiques cluttered a primitive pot-bellied stove and headed straight for a chamber stuffed with vintage books and comics.

On her first visit, many months ago now, she’d found a thirty-two-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica, bound in leather. About as useless as a telephone directory these days, but suited her purpose well. She’d bought them with the ten pounds Bert had given her and had been taking them home six at a time. These were the last.

After making sure nobody was about, she dumped the books in the boot of her car and drove to a newsagent. There, she purchased a modern thick bible to go with the two worn examples she’d already picked up from the antique shop.

She strolled out of the newsagent, slipped into a tearoom next door, and treated herself to a large doughnut and a pot of tea. She carried them to a round table with a chair in the dim rear of the cafe and gobbled them as fast as she could. As she came out and returned to her car, she again glanced along the street.

A young, handsome man approached, whom she recognised. He worked at The Stables as a farmhand. Like dozens of other employees, he held his palm out for his wages each week on a Thursday.

Cash, none of that modern-day digital funds transfer into bank accounts. Despite the unfortunate encounter, Olive suppressed a fit of giggles. Soon now, she’d empty The Stable’s treasury into her own strongbox and from then on nobody would receive a penny in pay.
 
To be continued… 

​The real world:
 
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Like to know more about Alf, Bert and the rest of the gang? You can read their chaotic history in What on Earth.
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Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay