There’s No Place Like Here

33

I don’t know how long I’d been in the storeroom. I had lost track of all time. I looked out the window for the first time in hours, feeling cross-eyed and tired from concentrating on my possessions for so long. My possessions. I actually had belongings in this place. They brought me that bit closer to home, momentarily linking the two worlds, blurring the boundaries so that I didn’t feel so lost as I touched and held things I once held in my place, near the people I loved. Especially Mr. Pobbs. So much had happened since I’d seen him. Johnny Nugent and a thousand other Johnny Nugents had happened. It seemed that the night Mr. Pobbs disappeared from my bed, an entire team of Mr. Wrongs had taken his place.

Joseph walked by the window and I sat back and watched as he strode confidently in his white linen shirt with sleeves rolled to just below his elbows and trousers rolled above the ankles of his sandaled feet. He always stood out from the crowd. He looked like somebody important who oozed dominance and power. He spoke little, yet when he did he chose his words carefully. When he spoke, people listened. His words moved from whispers to songs, never anything in between. Despite the strength of his physical demeanor, he spoke softly, which made him all the more superior.

The bell on the shop’s front door rang again. The door squeaked and closed.

“Hello, Joseph,” Bobby said cheerfully. “Did my Wanda not want to see me today?”

Joseph laughed lightly and I knew Bobby was funny to have made him laugh. “Oh that girl is so in love with you. Do you think she wouldn’t be here if she knew I was here?”

Bobby laughed. “How can I help you?”

Joseph’s voice lowered as though he knew I was here and I immediately pressed my ear against the door.

“A watch?” I heard Bobby repeat loudly. “I have lots of watches here.”

Joseph’s voice was lowered to inaudible again and I knew it was terribly important for his voice to be so hushed. He was talking about my watch.

“A silver watch with a mother-of-pearl face,” I heard Bobby say and I was thankful for his habit of repeating people. Their footsteps on the walnut floor got louder and I prepared to move away from the door in case it was opened.

“What about this one?” Bobby asked.

“No, it would have been one you had found yesterday or this morning,” Joseph said.

“How do you know?”

“Because it went missing yesterday.”

“Well, I don’t know how you could know that.” Bobby laughed awkwardly. “Unless you’ve been talking to someone from the other world, which I’m highly doubtful of.”

There was silence.

“Joseph, this watch is exactly what you’ve described.” I could hear the confusion in Bobby’s voice.

“It’s not the one I want,” Joseph said.

“Did you see it somewhere? On somebody? Perhaps you could tell them to visit me so I get an idea of what you’re looking for. If I come across it, I’ll save it for you.”

“It is the very watch I saw somebody wearing, that I’m looking for.”

“Someone from Kenya? Years ago?”

“No, from Here.”

“Here,” Bobby repeated.

“Yes, Here.”

“Did somebody from Here give it to me?”

“No, it went missing.”

Silence.

“It can’t have. They must have misplaced it.”

“I know, but I saw it with my own eyes.”

“You saw it disappear?”

“I saw it on her wrist and she didn’t move an inch from her place and then I saw that it was gone from her wrist.”

“It must have fallen off her.”

“Yes, it did do that.”

“So it’s on the ground.”

“That’s the funny thing,” Joseph said drily and I knew it wasn’t funny at all.

“But it can’t ha-”

“It did.”

“And you thought it would show up here?”

“I thought you may have found it.”

“I didn’t.”

“I can see that. Thank you, Bobby. Speak of this to no one,” he warned, giving me a chill. Footsteps began to move away.

“Hold on, hold on, Joseph. Don’t go yet! Tell me, who lost it?”

“You don’t know her.”

“Where did she lose it?”

“Halfway between here and the next village.”

“No,” Bobby whispered.

“Yes.”

“I’ll find it,” Bobby said determinedly. “It has to be there.”

“It’s not.” Joseph raised his voice to a normal tone but for him it was loud. From the way that he said it, I knew that it was not.

“OK, OK.” Bobby backed down, still not sounding like he believed it. “Does the person who lost it know that it’s gone? Maybe she knows where it is.”

“She’s new here.” That said it all. That meant she doesn’t understand a thing, and he was right, I didn’t, but I was learning fast.

“She’s new?” The tone in Bobby’s voice had changed. I recognized that and was sure Joseph would too. “Maybe I can talk to her and get the exact description.”

“I have given you the exact description.” Yes, he noticed it. Footsteps moved toward the door again, the door squeaked, and the bell rang.

“Was there a name on the watch?” Bobby called out at the last minute, and the squeak of the front door stopped. It closed again, and footsteps got louder as they neared me again.

“Why do you ask?” Joseph’s voice was firm.

“Because sometimes people engrave names, dates, or messages on the backs of watches.” Bobby sounded nervous.

“You asked me if there was a name. Why did you specifically ask about a name?”

“Some watches have names engraved on them.” His voice went up an octave in defense. “I should know.” He tapped on glass and I guessed it was the jewelry cabinet.

There was a funny atmosphere outside, I didn’t like it.

“Let me know if you find the watch. Be quiet about it, you know how people would react if they found out that things from Here were going missing.”

“Of course, I understand it might give them hope.”

“Bobby…” Joseph warned, and a chill ran through me.

“Yes, sir,” Bobby said smartly.

The door squeaked, the bell rang, and it was closed again. I waited a while to make sure Joseph didn’t come back in. Bobby was silent outside. I was about to stand up when Joseph walked by the window again, closer this time, staring at the building suspiciously. I quickly ducked and lay flat on the floor, wondering why on earth I was suddenly hiding from Joseph.

Bobby opened the door and looked down at me. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Bobby Stanley,” I said as I sat up, brushing the dust off me, “you have a lot of explaining to do.”

He took me by surprise and folded his arms across his chest. “And so have you,” he said coolly. “Want to know why I wasn’t at your auditions? Because nobody told me about them. Want to know why? Because around here everybody knows me as Bobby Duke. Ever since the day I arrived here, I haven’t told anybody that my name is Bobby Stanley. So how did you know?”