A man in his early thirties, wearing a red shirt with jake’s on the pocket, was working the till. “Sorry,” he said when Annie asked if they carried bikes. “We usually bring in a few in the spring, but we’re all sold out now. I doubt any place in town’s got any. You might want to take a run to Binghamton.”

“Is that far?” Charlie asked.

“About an hour,” the clerk said. “Or check online, see if anybody’s got anything in stock before you go.”

Annie took a crestfallen Charlie out to the sidewalk. “Sorry, sport. I’ll do some checking when we get back to the house. Hungry?”

He was. They decided to take a chance on the Bagel Shoppe, with that special spelling, expecting the worst. But the chocolate chip bagel Charlie wolfed down and the poppy seed with chive cream cheese Annie ordered proved borderline satisfactory.

On the way back to the car, passing the antiques store, Annie said, “Let’s check this out.”

“Do we have to?”

“You never know what you might find. Maybe some more old Ray Bradbury paperbacks.”

Charlie offered a sigh of surrender and in they went, setting off another jingling bell. Annie quickly realized this was less an antiques store and more a hoarder’s paradise. Old furniture, Sears catalogues from the 1970s, books, broken lamps, old model train buildings and other accessories, printers that hadn’t been hooked up to a computer in twenty years, Beanie Babies that looked like they’d been gnawed by dogs, boxed jigsaw puzzles that Annie was willing to bet were missing several vital pieces.

Charlie wandered off toward the back of the store, while Annie had a glance at the paperback books, thinking that even if she found one that interested her, odds were it would not be mold-free.

“Look ’round long as you like!” said a voice. Seconds later, a heavyset woman with gray hair and wire-framed glasses emerged from between two aisles of junk. “We got just about everything you could ever want.”

Provided your list consists of nothing but shit, Annie thought. “Thanks. Just thought we’d browse.”

“Got some classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures back there somewhere your boy might like. So long as he’s not fussy about them having all their limbs.”

Annie gave her a polite nod. For all she knew, there were great treasures to be found, but nothing was organized. Royal Doulton figurines were on a shelf with toy guns. Old copper pipe was in a box with wool mittens. A Cuisinart base with mixing bowl sat on a shelf next to an ancient Howdy Doody doll. The only reason to stay another couple of minutes was out of politeness. Once she’d rounded up Charlie, they’d be out of here, but he had vanished into the bowels of the shop.

She worked her way down an aisle and called out softly, “Charlie?”