Collectibles and Curiosities Part Two

[SPOKEN WORD Atmospheric] [STYLE / GENRE: Minimalist spoken‑word narrative. Neutral observer conversational voice. Slow, steady cadence. Eerie. ominous. No melody, no singing, NO percussion] Continued Days blurred...Nights dissolved into dreamless stretches. ...Reality compressed into one room -- the dining table, the chair, the painting... She ordered a magnifying glass....She had to see inside the windows...She imagined the rooms, the furnishings, the family she’d never had. Sometimes she thought she heard a gramophone...Laughter...A life unfolding just beyond her grasp... One morning, she woke still seated at the table, cheek pressed to her folded arms... Her eyes lifted groggily... A face. A young girl stood in the foreground of the painted lawn, smiling directly at her...Pretty, with shiny dark hair tied in a ribbon at the nape of her neck. She wore a Victorian traveling suit and carried a small satchel. Martina startled, stared, breath shallow, heart slow. The girl’s smile was warm. Familiar. [pause] [exhale] The first of the month passed... Martina’s landlady noticed the missing rent. In eighteen years, Martina had never been late with her payment. She gave it time... Courtesy, after all, for her best tenant. By the fifteenth, she knocked on Martina’s door... Lightly at first, then harder...No answer... The neighbors hadn’t seen Martina either, but that wasn’t unusual. The police arrived for a wellness check... The passkey turned... They stepped inside...recoiled at the smell...and found what they expected...Martina slumped at the dining table, head resting on her arms...eyes open and blankly fixed on the painting. The officers glanced at the painting. Nothing remarkable... just a Victorian cottage in an empty garden lawn... No people... just a landscape... A silent world. With no next of kin, the landlady had Martina’s belongings taken to the curb...A few hours later, an old van pulling a trailer rolled up...Collectibles and Curiosities was painted on the side in hand lettered script. A young girl hopped out of the passenger door...shiny dark hair tied with a ribbon...She lifted the painting from the pile with practiced ease and carried it to the back of the van. She smiled at the old woman behind the wheel. The van pulled away. The alley was empty again.