FALTER MACREE GAVE his doorstep another vigorous dusting. He wished for some rain to settle the dust so he could concentrate on staring at the door from behind the counter, just to see if someone might pass through it. Perhaps a rain shower would make passersby seek shelter and by some miracle choose his shop to shelter in.
Then they would be amazed at his display of toy goods, purchase stuff and actually help him make a living.
Grimly the man smiled to himself, for this was the only humour he could find right now in this splendid land of opportunity.
Miracles were not part of the Frangea dream, not for him anyway.
It seemed a good opportunity when he first set up shop. A trading unit with modest but adequate floor space between a used furniture store and a rag shop that seemed to take stuff in but never allow anyone to take it out again. A sort of horder shop it was, waiting perhaps to go bankrupt or meet some other dissolution. The worrying gossip among the neighbourhood suggested the owner was contemplating fire insurance and the occasional waft of strong spirits caused the Macrees sleepless nights.
It was a quiet street, ideal for contemplation on what might be wrong and Falter had plenty of time to discuss business matters with the more forthcoming furniture guy next door. The latter liked to polish three-legged tables on his high front steps for his property was oddly three feet above that of the toy shop. He explained it allowed him to look down on his customers.
'I for one would simply like to look them in the eye once in a while,' Falter responded in his usual grim humour mood.
The quietness was a thing not mentioned in the optimistic brochure that had brought him west to Cherryball Flats. There were supposed to be no quiet streets in such a booming metropolis. Yet here was a quiet little forgotten corner between affluence, a dark pool of oblivion shunned by busy folk intent on spending and making money in equal measure.
Passing Lane it was called, a narrow passage between two larger streets occasionally used by those wishing to get from one place to another, a shortcut for those in a hurry, too busy to stop and look around.
Unless one were a wide-eyed girl trying to take in a new world all at once.