There Be Beauty

She came to town as she had every Wednesday for the past 56 years, to do the usual shopping for weekly provisions. Now living alone she made one trip do as her age was taking a toll on her travelling in from the country. She refused to move to town from the family farmstead she had shared with her sister.

The necessities were bought and paid for and while making her way along Main Street she paused to look in the window of the treasure shop. It was filled with stained dresses, straw hats, washboards and of course a treadle Singer sewing machine which had seen better days. Her eyes gazed at the once loved items now on display. Such a shame to see them end their lives this way she thought.

Something caught her eye in the corner. Pressing her face to the glass, she cupped her hands around her eyes and peered in. An “oh my” escaped her mouth and she hurriedly stepped into the store.

“I’ll take that one!” she shouted to the clerk.

Woken from her latest Romance novel, the clerk followed the old lady’s fingers over to the dusty window sill. She can’t be serious she thought looking at “that one”. But a sale was a sale after all and this treasure trap needed it.

While the clerk wrapped that one, she paused and glanced around the shop, and saw a movement behind the rusty Coke rack. A wee white paw seemed to be waving at her. She walked over, unsure if it was her eyes or maybe a breeze from the overhead fan causing it to move. All she knew was that she had to know.

There it hung, on a dusty rack. Stuck, as if the clerk had to find a place for it and this made do. She brushed aside a parasol and stood with tears welling in her eyes. The poor thing was suspended with arms and legs twisted. One eye askew, fur falling out but there was that same wee sewn on smile.

She gently removed it from the rack, blew the dust away and walked to the checkout clutching it dearly. Thoughts of her twin sister long departed and their precious stuffed bears flooded through her mind.

Nodding to the clerk, she said “I’ll take this one as well. They can not be separated ever! They need each other more then you know.”

“But why do you want this one too? It’s ugly, worn and tattered, like the other one and doesn’t look at all like a teddy bear! “

She smiled, reminiscing of those happy days long ago, and replied,

“Ahh young lady but don’t you realize, can’t you see? There is beauty in the eye of this bear holder”.

This was a submission for The Inferno's "Beauty In The Eye of The Beholder". I do enjoy a good pun :)