Chapter 4 Ignorance Is Bliss

Rana went down as she heard a couple left the store with the bell chiming upon being closed.

She was walking down the stairs when she heard a voice of a man and a woman who appeared to be undecided whether they would buy the bracelet or not. She would have gotten down fast to see how it was going but stopped herself when she heard the shy voice of Noreen, her young assistant trying to persuade the customers to buy it.

She hid a smile to herself.

Working over a month now at her A&V Shop, Noreen has shown wonderful progress. She started the job being a very silent type of assistant and Rana was quite worried because she needed someone good at selling her antiques and vintage items. Her previous assistant Ariadne who was twenty-five years old was a brighter and more talkative sort who could easily sell to customers but she was eight months pregnant and decided she needed leave for her pregnancy so Rana decided to give her one last month.

Rana could do the work mostly at the shop but she decided she needed an assistant to help her because sometimes while she was busy checking about other things in the shop she sometimes missed a customer and they thought no one was there so they left the shop.

So last month she posted a large note looking for Store Assistant in bold black letters on her window and after three days only a young woman who has just turned twenty came in. She was a quiet and shy sort of female with long raven hair she saw at first glance but as Rana talked to her during the interview she was impressed at how well Noreen knew her grasp at vintage and antique items. Noreen explained to her that she used to help her grandmother when she was still alive while she was living in New Jersey but her grandmother died a year ago and the shop was closed thereafter. Her mom decided to get her again and let her live in New York.

She went down the stairs and saw Noreen showing her rare smile. She stopped by the edge of the glass counter.

"I heard that," Rana said giving her a big smile and double thumbs up. "You were great just now."

"Really, Ran? Thanks. I've been working my way how to speak to a customer without fumbling my way through."

"Well, you're quite honest, Noreen. So that's you're selling skill."

"I'm glad Miss Kat agreed with me. She was eyeing the vintage bracelet but didn't want to buy it."

Noreen explained.

"She has a very nice slender wrist and I thought they would look great on her so without thinking I said it out loud."

"Is that what happened?" Rana asked smiling.

"I couldn't take it back."

"Well, that's good because your honesty made you sell it."

"It makes me happy doing that. You see when I was still in gran's antique shop she was the one who was good at selling these things. I'm not a chatty sort but they bought at gran's because they liked those things and how well she talked to people."

"Just keep being honest, Noreen and you'll see they'll agree more if you share your thoughts."

They kept busy at the shop. More customers came in. Three customers entered doing a canvass shopping and soon enough it was eight at night. Rana and Noreen closed the shop.

-

Rana woke up early the next day and decided to go early to her shop. She has many things to do today. She got out of her car, unlocked the door of the shop, and entered in with the bell chiming its usual cling. It was just six o clock showing on the vintage-style clock in glazed black and gold placed on top of the glass case of vintage pieces of jewelry.

Upon stepping into the doormat after closing the door, Rana closed her eyes briefly.

And opened it again.

She was then standing on the second floor of her shop by the lamps she needed to list and arrange on the table and the shelves.

Rana walked to the round coffee table where she left her pen and notebook yesterday and started to go over them. She received new vintage lamps items yesterday coupled with new sets of chairs and a dining chair set. The new sets of vintage chairs were also to be arranged on the other side of the room.

The second room floor was for lamps, seats, tables, shelves and a couple of vintage paintings hanging or displayed on the shelf. A mini-library section close to the stairs was to be found beside a glass-grilled window where she put in classic books which were displayed on an antique Georgian wall shelf and a 19th Century French Napolean shelf below it. A tall bookshelf wooden antique stood beside them. A red vintage sofa with a vintage coffee table was placed before the area.

Rana looked over her list. The acquired new antique sets of chairs were a pair of transitional King Louis XV armchairs and a Victorian rosewood Bergere armchair. Three seats of 18th century Fauteuil gondole. Three pairs of rare and important carved Zitan armchairs of the Qing Dynasty. She arranged them close to the large grilled window dressed with transparent long white curtains.

Her new arrived lamps were a mix of antique and vintage ones. Old antique vintage. Brass vintage lamps. Arizona vintage lamps. A Lucy and Ethel table lamps. A Victorian vintage. A glass vintage. A blue and white ceramic lamp.  A style table desk stained glass.  She re-arranged them on the long table nearby the stairs putting one or two lamps on top of the shelf surface as she saw fit. She placed one lamp on an antique table set next to the Victorian rosewood by the window.

Her antique and vintage shop has been in operation for five years. Rana had a fondness for antique and vintage items since she could remember though she didn't remember much before she was eighteen. When she opened her shop she simply called it A&V Shop, short for Antique and Vintage Shop. It's not something so noticeable. It's not very popular either but customers visited her shop because of its unique charm and select pick of vintage and antique charmers.

As Rana was going through her list, her eyes were caught by the light golden tails of one of the lamps making her vaguely remember the guy she met briefly yesterday.

She was on her way to meet Julienne yesterday afternoon at Central Park. She was walking fast when her necklace got loose and it dropped on the pavement before her. It was given to her by Aunt Juliet, Julienne's mom. She and Jules own the same locket necklace. It's a vintage necklace her Aunt Juliet had picked for the two which she gave to them when they were eighteen. She hastily picked it up from the ground. Then, feeling someone was watching her, she turned round to find a man looking at her from a distance who was in a deep embrace with a woman. He had light golden hair and was wearing black-rimmed glasses.

As she continued to walk on, she heard him calling the name Enara. She continued on her path but was lost where to turn and when she saw no one was near her, she made a deep breath and transported herself.

It's a secret no one knows except her and Julienne. Rana was capable of transporting herself to a different place. She's also capable of changing time at her will but it consumed her more energy. That's the main reason she hired a new assistant. She found herself easily tired after re-adjusting time when she found herself alone after Ariadne was gone. Unexpectedly, she noticed that more customers seemed to have visited her shop than when Ariadne was around. At first, it thrilled her because it was a good thing for her shop but as she also did two things at once, she found herself getting tired more easily. After the third day, she posted the hiring sign on her glass window.

Sometimes she subconsciously teleported herself when she's never really consciously thought of it. It's the error she has lately found herself troubled with. She has no intention of transporting herself but sometimes it just got out of control and she found herself disappearing and where it willed her she's brought to the destination.

Like her latest error of teleportation yesterday. Rana was lost in direction to turn to meet Julienne. She subconsciously found herself transported before the deers in the woods. She was captivated by the sight presented before her so she lingered for a while and talked to the blond guy whom she found was also looking at the deers from a distance. She even forgot it was the guy who called Enara earlier. She could be pretty friendly when necessary like when she invited the stranger to come over to enjoy a deer sighting with her.

When she walked back to find Julienne in the park, she got unconsciously pulled away by teleportation again. It was because she needed to use the bathroom.

Rana since eighteen realized that she was bad with directions. Not just bad with it but really bad with it. She couldn't remember much before that but her doctor told her that she must have suffered from a very traumatic experience and because of it, it must have affected her sense of direction. 

Although it was also during that time that she was struggling with her sense of direction that she discovered she could teleport herself when she thought of the place she wanted to go to so long as it was not very far. She could only do near-distance teleportation. After a while, she found that she was capable of maneuvering time, too but only very short ones something that only took minutes, thirty minutes at most. And when she's done with it, she felt her body drained and she needed longer rests.

Her gaze shifted to another lamp on the table. Rana took it and decided to place the antique slag glass lamp on the first floor transporting herself in the process to the first floor. Then, she put it on the nearest round table which could be immediately seen by customers entering the door of the shop. She placed a vintage telephone clock in front of it and beside the glass lamp, she put a tall glazed white vase with strings of fuschia orchids.

Satisfied, Rana broke into a smile. Then, she felt herself being pulled away again. Oh no, she thought. She let the pull made her and found herself in front of the bathroom. Just perfect. She needed to relieve herself and freshen up.

Rana teleported again at the last step of the staircase when she heard the chime bell clinging. She peered past the wall and saw Noreen closing the door.

"Morning, Noreen."

Rana cheerfully greeted her assistant. Noreen turned her head to look at her and replied with her bright but shy smile.

"Morning, Ran."