Chapter Text
"I love everything about it!", the young woman with blonde hair that had straightened a bit as she grew, but still held a few delicate ringlets here and there in a very appealing fashion, said as she turned a small circle.
Her husband who watched this, amused and just admiring her again, was about to comment but he coughed on a bit of dust brought up by the box he set down.
Once that ended he did comment. "You sure? It's a bit...", he looked around as well, searching for the word as if it was written on one of the lamps hanging from the ceiling. "Drab", he finally found.
"Oh of course I'll paint it", the woman, Amy Davis, giggled as she turned to her husband, Andy. The latter rolled his blue eyes, but his smile was hard to hide. He shook his head again, though, "I'm not sure you're supposed to paint an Antique shop...", he looked around their most recent purchase, after moving nearer in to the area. Second Chance Antiques.
"Oh please, feel free", an older woman, the daughter of the old owner, said as she helped by bringing in one of the boxes Andy had been working at moving in from his car. Their small investments to their new...business? Andy supposed so. He wasn't really sure what he and Amy were intending here. Well. he knew where his thoughts tended to lie, someone had to look out for all these discarded memorabilia and match them to good homes and such. Like he had with his toys and Bonnie Anderson.
She’d called that summer after his first year, in tears, to explain she’d lost Woody. Well Mrs. Anderson has called for her, but Bonnie had then taken the phone. To explain she let him down. That the poor girl thought that went to Andy’s heart!
A road trip. The easiest place in the world for it to happen, and she hadn’t noticed, she’d been so focused on her handmade Forky, as kids were prone to, and had thought he was just there.
To say Andy wasn’t worried would have been a lie and...
Was he sure he wasn’t just hoping to find him in a box someone brought in?
Andy didn’t know. But of course he’d been reassuring to Bonnie.
With another smile, Andy walked over to take the box the woman helped bring in, "Thank-you, here let me get that, and I'm sorry again to hear about your mother's passing".
The whole reason they now had an Antique shop. She had no interest in running it, and her teen-aged daughter, Harmony, wouldn't be interested either when older, she said. Which was a shame, her mother had added in telling them, because she used to love the toys, but also had a bad habit of losing them.
From around the box hand off from the old owner to, well, new, a five-year old with her mother's blonde pigtails, but father's straightness, and his blue eyes, rushed around, two toys in hand, and in fact holding the "hand" of both toys. One was a Prospector Pete doll completely covered in rainbows and stars, both paint and stickers, while the other, a Velociraptor with a blue streak, had come away better. But then this child was not the one who had painted Pete. Raptor Blue's blue streak was factory given.
The girl glanced to both sides of the store. "Perimeter seems secure", she stated, "But why don't you make sure, Pete", she seemed to chose one of her two "deputies" (given her star sticker and father's old hat, she was probably playing Sheriff right now) at random and swung Pete out away from her to glide across the floor, and over towards a shelf.
"Woa!", Andy felt bad that in quickly assessing what to do, he kind of pushed the box back into the woman's hands as he rushed over to catch Pete before he hit a shelf of dishes. He breathed a sigh as he stood with the toy and turned to his daughter, bending down again to hand her Pete back. "Saylor, you're going to have to be careful in here", he gently explained, "There are breakable things everywhere, and some of the toys are very fragile", he added, knowing it was only a matter of time before she added to her "posse".
Not that Saylor always played Sheriff, but where as he had built a world and inhabited it with his toys, in her play, Saylor was always the main character and her toys supporting roles to her within the world. She still supplies their answers, though was also flexible and “played well with others”. In fact sometimes Andy would pipe up from across the room or such and supply the answers and she would roll with that!
Poor "Painted Pete" was one of the main ones and switched from Sidekick to Antagonist as needed.
"Ok, sorry Daddy", Saylor nodded and seemed to get it.
"Is that a Woody's Round Up Prospector Pete?", the old owner's daughter said stunned as she set the box on-top of the other brought in and walked over, holding out a hand to see the toy closer. Saylor glanced from Pete to her and whispered to him to "check her out for them" before handing him over, still giving him Reconnaissance.
"Ah, you do know your some back history", Andy grinned, "Yes...a bit...hidden behind paint", he smirked.
From where she was measuring for a banner or pattern, Amy turned to mock glare at her husband's jest, "Hey I improved him".
"Oh nothing a good painter couldn't fix", the woman said, then caught herself, and realized this toy was not an antique though. It still had a little girl. She smiled, "Though he's very unique as is". She pulled Pete's string. "My Biscuits are Burning!", Pete's voice-box declared. "What they got away with in the 50's huh?", she smiled before handing Pete back to Saylor.
"I use that when Mom's baking, though it never does that one", the girl said. She and Andy shared a small laugh.
"Alright, are we done with Teasing Mommy time?", Amy asked, coming over and dusting her hands from inspecting. Andy stood to give his wife a side hug that tried to make up.
The transaction was mostly done though. "I think the paperwork's good. Here's the key", the woman dug in her pocket before handing it to Andy. "You are now in charge of every dusty collectible in here. May you not regret it", she grinned to him.