I slam the door shut behind me and wait for the others to get out. The car has one of those cloth tops, brown in color, which is held up by a sturdy frame. The rest of it is a creamy off-white with silvery metal accents. The sunlight warms the exposed skin of my arms, neck, and face as my eyes wander past the cars parked in neat, although unmarked, rows to scan the erected tents beyond. Most are of a white cloth and flat topped, making it easy to see the red, wooden buildings beyond. I ignore the scattered conversation beyond and nearby as I wonder what each tent contains.
The crunch of four pairs of feet on the dirt lot follow my own as we make our way towards the first row of stalls – squares on the ground marked by white lines. The right side of the path is filled with various trailers – some with their doors open and their owners nearby; others closed tight to deter anyone stupid enough to take an empty trailer. My gaze is held by the first tent on my left, lingering on the wares displayed within and in front of it. The footsteps of the people around us is reduced to background noise as we inspect the wooden wonders before us. Large birdhouses hang from a short wall on the right, sparking my interest. I lean closer and feel the rough surface, my eyes drawn to the white strip of paper upon it. $40. Frowning, I consider it, but then shake my head and back away.
We move on to the second stall, filled with more crafts to wonder the eyes. Polished wood bring a smile to people walking by and browsing. Yet again I find something to spark my interest – a polished logs festooned with animals. Atop each log rests a solar light, like the topper of a Christmas tree. I smile as I point them out to my grandma and ask her opinion of them. Shorter than I with black hair, she looks younger than her real age. Her skin is tanned from working in her garden at home. She agrees that one would make a great gift for my mother, yet I’m not satisfied completely. I look for one bearing animals she would like, her favorites being birds and teddy bears, but find them lacking in that respect. Grandma reminds me that we can come back later, so we move on.
The next stall had no tent and instead displayed a variety of stone figures and water basins, some sporting quaint sayings. I glance at them and smile, noting a standalone dog placed on a water basin, but wait for grandma and Aunt Annette to finish before moving on. My two cousins decide get a head start on the rest of us. Both of them are younger, yet taller than me – if only by an inch. Ali has strawberry red hair and is quite skinny and limber from years of dancing. Alona is an oddity in our family, possessing black hair instead of the normal blond and red. You wouldn’t know it, however, since she had dyed it blond not too long ago. Although she is not as thin, she has been dancing for longer than Ali has.
Moving on I spot a larger, three tiered log with a solar lamp on top of it. At the bottom were some pretty stones, a large one engraved with the word “Welcome”. Near the top were two birds: one a yellow finch, the other a blue hummingbird. My eyes lit up at the sight of it and I eagerly looked for the price tag. $30, I didn’t have that much since mom had given me two $10 bills and I had $6 left over. I told this to grandma and she said she would give me $5 if I really wanted it. She agreed that mom would probably love it, but told me that it would be better to see everything the Bazaar had to give before buying. I agreed, but made sure to remember what stall I had found it in. I hoped it wouldn’t be gone when we came back.
We made our way slowly down the row, stopping at most of the stalls, but not buying. At the end of the first row we moved further towards the red buildings and went down the opposite side of the stalls we had been looking at previously. We saved the other side of the row for when we came back down it. When we came to the next row, Ali and Alona were waiting for us. Ali told something to Aunt Annette, both of whom looked much alike since they were mother and daughter, although Annette’s hair is blond and not red. She gave Ali some money to use to buy kettle corn and off they went. Yet again I stayed with Aunt Annette and grandma, browsing the stalls. Mostly I was looking for something to rival what I had seen in the first row; however, I also went to wonder at the talented works of others.
A few things caught my eye, but did not seem as perfect as the one on my mind. Hours ticked by as we browsed, finally ending near the food stalls. Many smells assaulted me, but the sweet smell of glazed nuts overrode them in my mind. I knew the taste. This is the first time they’ve sold glazed pecans so of course we tried one first. It was delicious and much softer on the teeth than the almonds. Aunt Annette was wary of them at first, since a glazed almond had once chipped her tooth. Grandma and I barely gave that a second thought and bought a coned bag of almonds and pecans mixed together. We shared them on the way to the big red building farthest to the right.
Climbing the steps I could smell the sweet yet tangy sent of apple cider, my throat suddenly dry. I told grandma I wanted a glass and she agreed. While we were waiting in line, I decided I’d call mom and ask if she wanted a gallon of apple cider for home. When I flipped open my phone, however, I saw that the batteries were dead. Determined to get my mother’s opinion, I asked Aunt Annette if I could use her phone and she was willing to part with it. I kept the gift I had in mind a secret, asking her if she wanted a gallon of cider. She told me she did and asked me if I could get her a bag of apples. After a moment of confusion I agreed and hung up only to find that my aunt had already left to go downstairs.
Shrugging I put my aunt’s pink Razor in a pocket and told grandma that my mom would like a gallon of cider as well. Each of us with a cup of cider in hand, we went back downstairs to look through the items the gift store could offer us. I didn’t find anything of interest, so I followed the others around, a bit impatient to get my mother’s gift and anxious that it could already be gone. I realized I still had Aunt Annette’s Razor phone in my pocket and gave it back to her. I also kept to my mother’s wishes so we went into the grocery building next door to look for apples. Finding none, I left with the others after my aunt had bought some bread. Back outside we agreed that grandma and I would go back to the first stall with a mysterious package from Ali and Alona in tow. I was told not to let her see the contents, so I made sure that only I held it.
I kept with grandma’s pace although I wanted to move faster, dreading that my gift had already been taken by someone else. When we went down the first row, heading back towards the car, my anxiety surfaced as we neared the middle where a road went between stalls having found only one stall with the solar lights. I asked her if she was sure it was the first row when I knew in my mind that it was. I sighed in relief as we came upon the right stall and found that the item I wanted was still there. Smiling, I took my grandma’s $5 bill and paid the woman in charge of the money. I was perplexed as to how I should move it, however, until her husband agreed to take it to our car for us. I was glad the car was not too far away as he told us of a lady who had him wandering all over the parking lot looking for her car. He had been carrying a heavy toad at the time. He put it safely in the car just as the others came back, making sure that it wouldn’t roll and harm the birds that were insecurely attached to the log. Thus I found the perfect gift for my mother the day before Mother’s Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment