The Eyes

"Well, that's not happening" Ari said as she tossed aside the college brochure that showed yearly tuition would be upwards of $30,000 dollars and that was the cheapest in the area. She couldn't afford it and that college was her last hope of attending college. "I need a job" she said to her mom as they sat at the small dining room table filtering through today's mail. Her mom stopped reading the latest grocery sale ads and put a hand on Ari's shoulder. "I'm sorry honey, I wish we could offer some help, but things are hard since your dad has been laid off." Bill was not actually Ari's father. He was her stepfather, but her biological dad left before she could remember, and Bill was all Ari had ever known. She loved Bill probably before her mom did and proudly walked down the aisle at their wedding as the flower girl. He always treated Ari like a daughter and even made Ari a sister once the twins were born. When he was laid off at the end of her senior year, Ari knew they wouldn't be able to afford to help her pay for college, but even so Bill insisted that Ari had a car as a graduation present. It was not much; a white Toyota Avalon that had over 100,000 miles, but it ran and could get a person from point A to B. "I think I'll get a job for the summer and if I save up enough, I'll take a look at going to a technical school" Ari said taking her head out of her hands and looking at her mother. "Mind you that means you'll have an adult kid living at home still." Her mother chuckled and put her hand on top of Ari's "We can't always fly from the nest right away. Plus, I got the help wanted ads right here!"

The next day Ari got up, put on makeup, and found her best pair of blue jeans a collared white shirt she wore once to her aunt's second wedding. She stared at herself in the mirror once she was dressed. Ari was a plain 19-year-old girl with a soft complexion, brown hair and eyes, and freckles on her cheeks. She didn't think much of her looks but said to herself "Looks good enough to me." She then went into her little hometown and down the list of ads that she qualified for and traveled to each for an interview. The gas station attendant job had already been filled when she arrived. The manager for the cashier opening at the grocery store said she would give her a call if she selected her, but honestly Ari did not want her to. Ari could tell the manager was a grade-A bitch in sheep's clothing. The barber was looking for another barber, but he misspelled barber as bagger. Even Ari was confused by the advertisement and now she understood why. The current barber was very old and probably had to put the add in online. Ari could image him pecking at the keyboard as he looked over his thick spectacles. Last on the list was Mr. Fawn's pawn shop. Ari had wondered into the pawn shop before with friends from school, but other than that she didn't give it much thought when going into town. She stepped through the full glass framed door and it was exactly as she remembered it the first time she walked into the shop. A wondrous building of curiosities. There were many odd objects amongst the crowded and cluttered space. Shelves filled with knick-knacks and small trinkets, walls of old pictures and posters and even a large leg bone stuffed in a corner that looked like it could have belonged to a dinosaur. Items filled every space except for the narrow walk spaces that customers could use to get a better look at items in the middle and back. One of these narrow walk spaces led straight from the front door all the way to the back to a long wooden counter. It held the cash register, and the top was inlayed with green felt. Behind it stood a man who looked like he was in his early 60s with hair that had begun to fade from black to grey, sun weathered skin and pale blue eyes. He was tinkering with a small round alarm clock when he looked up at Ari. He called from the back "Can I help you find something little lady? Not sure I have much to offer you in our digital world. Most things in here are like this alarm clock. Old, broken and vastly outdated" He put the alarm clock down as he chuckled, and Ari approached the counter.

"I was answering your help wanted ad. Don't suppose it's still available?" she asked. Mr. Fawn's eyes lit up at that.

"I forgot I still had them run that ad. It's been at least six months since I started it" Mr. Fawn said.

"So do still need a cashier?" Ari asked a little hopeful.

"No, I don't need a cashier…

Ari frowned and looked down at the ad paper she still had in her hand. She had crossed them all off except for this one and now it looked like she would cross it off too.

But then Mr. Fawn continued "…no I need someone to help me turn this place around. I need someone to make this old pawn shop relevant again. I'm too old to figure out Facebook and keep the sales books going and maintain product. I need someone to care and take on a massive challenge. Do you think you're the one to do it?"

"Yes! I do! I could help with that!" Ari said excitedly.

"Good, then you're hired. I'll be working your hard, but I'll pay you for it. How's $25 an hour sound?"

Ari couldn't believe her ears, "Did you say $25 an hour?"

"Yeah, is that not enough?" Mr. Fawn said with concern on his face.

"No! It's not that, it's just not what I was expecting."

"Well, you'll have to earn it like I said and if we need to negotiate for more later, I'm willing to do so."

Ari didn't think he totally understood her position on being offered $25 an hour for a job at a small-town pawn shop. Especially since the other places she had visited that day had been offering only $12 at the most. She didn't understand how he would be able to afford it either since the place didn't look like it had seen good business since the early 1900s. However, at that rate Ari would be able to help her parents out with bills and save for technical school at the same time.

"You good to start tomorrow?" Mr. Fawn asked.

Ari stumbled to answer, "Y-Yes!"

"Ok, I'll see you bright and early. I expect you here at 7."

Ari reached out to shake his hand and he gently grabbed her hand, "Thank you so much, Mr. Fawn!" She went home after that smiling ear to ear, eager to tell her parents.

"We're going to be late if we don't get going" Ari yelled at her brothers. She didn't want to be late for her first day of work and she had to drop her brothers off at the field where their baseball coach was offering a free summer camp for boys in lower income families. It really helped since Ari's mom would be at her factory job that she had held for the last 12 years, Bill was out taking odd and end jobs with a construction company and Ari would be at the pawn shop.

"We're coming sissy!" Derrick and Joseph ran down the hallway that led to the two bedrooms shaking the pictures on the walls as they went. The boys were only 10, but that didn't matter to Ari. She loved them deeply and was very protective of them. Her parents always joked that Ari was their second mother. The boys didn't mind either, Ari always made time to play as their dragon to slay or pretend to treasure hunt for hidden gold.

"I got your lunches here" she handed each of them a brown sack "and do we have our bats?"

"Yes" the boys said together.

"Do we have our gloves?"

"Yes" they answered again.

"Are y'all ready to kick some ass?"

The boys giggled and Derrick answered through laughs, "It's just practice."

Ari smiled, "Doesn't mean you can't go out there any kick some ass." They all giggled as they went out the door.

As they drove Joseph asked, "What's your new job?"

"I'm going to work at the pawn shop in town." Ari said as she drove toward the community center.

"If you find any cool toys, will you bring them home?" Derrick asked.

"Maybe once I can afford some."

"You could just borrow them for the night and take them back in the morning." Joseph said proudly as if he had solved world hunger.

Ari laughed, "I'm not sure if Mr. Fawn will be okay with that, but I will ask the question."

The boys looked at each other excitedly and Ari just shook her head.

When they finally reached the community center, Ari pulled up to the curb to let the twins out. Derrick ran towards the field as soon as he was out of the car, but Joseph turned back and shouted into the car "Go kick some ass at your new job sissy!" and shut the door before Ari could respond. Ari knew she should say something to him about cursing, but she knew they would never say it to anyone else. She smiled and drove off to the shop. She got there ten minutes before Mr. Fawn and stood outside of the front door. He walked up to her once he parked and removed a key from his key chain, "Well, if your punctuality is anything to go by, this is going to be a good partnership. Here is a key to the door. I have another in my desk." He handed her the key and motioned her to open the door. She turned the locked and it clicked into place.

"Okay, first things first, flip the sign to open and then we got things to unpack." Mr. Fawn said we a devious grin.

That first day was grueling work. Mr. Fawn had shown Ari to the back where he had another sales floor that wasn't as accessible as the front but just as crammed and cluttered with items. Mr. Fawn had Ari inventory every item and sort them into similar piles. After lunch, he showed her how to operate the cash register and how to balance the books.

"You know Mr. Fawn there are automated systems that could do all of this for you if you just had a computer" Ari said a little hesitantly.

Mr. Fawn face bunched showing all his laugh lines and wrinkles, "Really?"

Ari nodded her head furiously. "In that case," Mr. Fawn stated, "it's time I get one of those damn machines in here. Know how to go about that?"

Ari called a company to install a Wi-Fi system and helped Mr. Fawn purchase two computers online. A good portion of that summer was spent organizing items better in the shop, making the bookkeeping all electronic and showing Mr. Fawn how to use a computer. When she wasn't helping with customers or sorting things, Ari would collect the books she could find and read them on the couch with purple fabric and sliver studded edges. They hadn't found anyone that was interested in it yet, even after they had posted it on Facebook. So, it had become the unofficial break area. Mr. Fawn caught on quickly that she was a bit of a book worm and repositioned some of the bookshelves that were on the sales floor to behind the counter. "There! Now you can collect and read when things are slow up here too." Ari immediately filled them with everyone book she had found. There were books of all shapes and sizes, dusty and cracked with age. Most of the spines could barely hold their yellowed pages, but Ari had read them all and treated them with care. Her reading continued to benefit the shop. She found a book titled "Advertising Online for Dummies" and used it to start advertising the business on Facebook and it was bringing in more customers than before. The more they sold the less cluttered the back showroom became and eventually they uncovered a door that led to a small room that Mr. Fawn had completely forgot about.

"Well, I guess this will just have to be yours." Mr. Fawn said after opening the door. The room had remnants of cleaning chemicals, a mop, and bucket. It was probably a janitors closet at one time, but still roomy enough.

"My what?" Ari asked perplexed by his statement.

"Your office, of course."

Ari turned to face him a little confused, but pleasantly surprise.

"You'll have to order another computer though. I rather like mine and we use the other one as a cash register" he said with no signs of joking. "You've definitely earned it," he took a few steps into the room looking around as Ari stood by the door "brought a whole bunch of business back to this old shop and times are good." He looked at her then, "Now I know you have plans to go off to school come the fall, but I would like it if you could make time to stop in every now and then to check in on this old man. And you'll always have a job here during your summer breaks, but I won't blame you if you don't want to."

Ari asked, "I don't understand why you would want me too honestly."

Mr. Fawn sighed a long and tired sigh as he walked out of the little room and sat on the purple couch. He rubbed his forehead and Ari sat down across from him on a wooden dining chair. Mr. Fawn said without looking directly at Ari "I've been on my own for a long time. Longer than I care to admit. I used to have a good friend and..." he hesitated and then continued "...I lost him." Ari wanted to ask questions about his friend, but he continued before she could. "Afterwards, I inadvertently isolated myself from the world, bought this shop and stuck my nose down into work. I guess having you here has made me feel a little closer to humanity and I consider you to be a good friend that I'm not ready to lose just yet." Mr. Fawn looked at Ari then and found that she was smiling.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily. You wouldn't even know to open your e-mail if I wasn't here every day." They both chuckled. "Yeah, I was planning on going to school, but I found a new option that I was going to talk to you about." Mr. Fawn perked up at that. "I can go to school online for half the cost and I can do it from here so I can continue to help with the shop, but I wanted to ask your permission first. I would have to step away from the counter every now and then to attend virtual lectures, but I could do homework after hours. What do you think? Would you be okay with me doing that here?"

"Huh, this technological world never to cease to amaze me, but I'm glad to hear it and of course you're welcome to do what you need to here. I can watch the counter when you can't." Mr. Fawn smiled and stood up from the couch. Ari stood and hugged his neck and slowly he returned the gesture. When they released each other, Mr. Fawn cleared his throat and said "Alright, now let's go grab that bright pink desk that won't sell up front and get it into your new office!"

Ari's smile dropped into a frown, and she raced after him shouting "Don't you dare push that ugly thing on me!"

Things went on like that well into the fall and things couldn't have been better for Ari. She had started classes online, her father got hired on full time with the construction team, the boys' team was in the playoffs this week for state champs and the shop had steady business. Since her folks didn't need help with finances anymore, Ari got to put a deposit down on a small one-bedroom rental house on the outskirts of town. It wasn't much, but she was close to family, work, and school. All of which brought joy to her and Mr. Fawn it seemed.

On a particularly cold morning, Mr. Fawn came rushing into the shop carrying a couple of boxes. It was new items that he planned on adding to stock. Ari immediately dove into them when he set them on the counter. "Not much today I'm afraid. It's too cold out there for my bones. Ari chuckled and set to work. This week's stock included two hand-carved wooden ducks, three women's dresses, a bag of shark's teeth, a jewelry box, a miniature coco clock, some old red glass dishes, a samurai sword and four peculiar books. The books were large in width and thickness wrapped in leather bindings. When Ari opened one, she found that the text was handwritten in a language she couldn't read, but the pictures within depicted a beautiful land filled with creatures that piqued Ari's interest immediately.

"My goodness! Where did you find these?" Ari questioned Mr. Fawn.

He had been walking back towards his office, probably in an effort to get to the heater in there Ari thought. His eyes widened with what looked like surprise and Ari thought she saw fear there too. He quickly walked over to Ari and collected them from her. Chuckling he proclaimed "Those aren't supposed to be in there. Must have fallen in while I was packing everything" he stated as he turned and headed towards his office again with the books in hand.

Ari felt cheated and quickly asked "Mr. Fawn, would you mind if I placed them on my bookshelf?" He paused hesitantly and turned back to face Ari. After a moment of silent contemplation, he told her "As long as you promise to leave them in the store. Understand that these are not to be sold under any circumstances." Ari nodded her agreement "I promise!" not thinking twice about his weird requests. She walked over and took the books from him and gently placed them among her favorite titles. The rest of the week she poured over each book and studied each illustration in detail. Several times she had asked Mr. Fawn to look at something in the one of the books or if he had any idea what was being shown, but he would only shrug and say, "How should I know?" On Friday, Mr. Fawn called to Ari from the back, "Why don't you head home early today? No one has even looked in the window." He was right, it was an unusually quiet day. Ari had finished her schoolwork for the weekend, and no one had come in today. She had spent most of her time that day pouring over the last odd book that she hadn't fully finished. She called back, "Yeah, looks like it might rain soon too. I'll need to get my patio furniture covered." She logged off her computer, closed the register, packed up her bag and stopped by Mr. Fawn's office. He was sitting behind his desk pecking at the keyboard and squinting at the screen, "See you on Monday, you old fart."

"See you then, you brat!" Ari smiled at him and headed to the front door to flip the sign to closed. Before she did so, she looked back at the bookshelf. She felt disappointment rising in her about the fact that she would not be able to finish looking at the book until Monday on account of the promise she had made. She found herself in front of the bookshelf and stroking the spine of the book contemplating. She craned her neck to see if Mr. Fawn had stepped out of his office. Once she saw that he hadn't, she slipped the volume into her satchel and strolled out the door, flipping the sign as she passed. He won't even know it's gone, she thought.

"Oh my gosh! It's so cute!" Ari exclaimed as she sat on her patio. The page she was looking at had an animal that looked like a fluffy orange ball with a tail. Ari had taken refuge in her favorite reading spot. It was a beautiful fall afternoon even with the looming clouds in the distance. She had a soft navy-blue lounge chair she had rescued from the pawn shop, that faced the tree line behind the house. The view from the patio was a major reason she had chosen this house versus others, but as she read the sky began to turn purple and a deep blue. The pages were becoming difficult to read and she looked up to notice that night had fallen on her earlier than she had anticipated. With a heavy sigh, she placed her bookmark between the pages and tucked it under her arm and went to head inside. Before she grabbed to door handle, she heard a movement coming from the tree line. At first, she wasn't alarmed. There was a stray cat that she had been feeding that she believed lived in the there. She had named him Henry upon seeing it was a male and, when he finally got the courage to come up to her, she started leaving out food. Henry would come in the afternoons usually while she was reading and sit by here legs, but hadn't shown up yet. Ari called out to the tree line, "You're late for supper Henry!" The noises stopped, but Henry didn't show. Ari walked half the distance across towards the trees and called again for Henry. Still Henry didn't show. Ari squinted and narrowed her vision to see into the blackness of the tree line and her heart skipped when she noticed two great big blue eyes staring at her. They looked far to large to be the eyes of a stray cat. Frozen to the spot she ran through her mind everything that she could be possibly faced with at that moment. "A mountain lion? No, too small. A bear? Still too small and not in the south of Arkansas. What should I do? Should I yell for help?!" In the end she decided to remain still and quiet and not break eye contact with the creature. "If it moves, I'll move," she thought. Several tense moments went by, and the world seemed to fade away along with her ability to breathe. The eyes blinked slowly and deliberately but did not deviate their gaze. Another blink but this time the eyes did not reappear from the blackness. Breath re-entered Ari's lungs and she ran. She ran hard clutching the book tightly to her chest making sure that each foot fall was level enough not to make her trip. She couldn't be sure if the thing were still watching her, but she wanted to be anywhere but outside in the dark. Throwing the back door open, she forcefully shut and locked it once she was through. She breathed a sigh of relief and went to sit on her living room couch. She tucked the book into her bag once again and laid her head down on the armrest while she stared at an old water stain on the ceiling and began to question what she had seen. "Am I going crazy? Or did I see eyes?"