“Well he’d just have to bring his own wardrobe, wouldn’t he?” Iris smirked. “Anyway, keep going.”
“Where was I? Oh yeah, she was telling me that she’d managed to find herself a job that was part-time but paid well for what it was. That meant she only needed childcare for 4 half days a week, about £120 a week with breakfast, a snack and lunch included in the nursery. Plus it was within walking distance of her house. She knew she could afford that with her new job and she was excited to start the next week. Things had really turned around for her in the few weeks since we met by chance on the train.”
“That’s crazy. That a blanket and 50 quid could make such a difference to someone’s life.”
“50 quid was worth a lot more then. I could do nearly a month’s shopping with that if I planned it out in advance. And don’t forget that money was extra for her. She’d already paid her bills that month, so she wasn’t relying on that money for some everyday reason.”
“I don’t think that would last me a week these days, never mind a month!” Iris exclaimed.
“Yes, but not everyone buys the expensive food online and has it delivered to their door.”
“True but the reason you don’t use it is because you’re a technophobe who would end up buying 500 bananas instead of 500 grams of bananas and never use it again.” Evelyn pretended to be offended and clutched her nightie to her chest.
“How dare you call me a technophobe! I was using a computer before you were even born!”
“Do typewriters count as computers?” Iris said with a cheeky grin.
“Haha, you’re so funny. But going back to the woman on the train. I think the biggest gift I gave her was hope. There was so much she could have done with that money but she decided to take a chance and try to better herself, for the sake of her child. I’d like to think it’s something any mother would do. She herself told me that she wasn’t expecting to have that money at all, so she had to do something out of the ordinary with it. She had to take the chance to do more with it than just extend the way she was living at the time.”
“Sounds like she made the most of that opportunity then.” Iris said.
“I really hope it worked out for her but I’ve not seen her since so who knows.” Evelyn sighed. “I’m just grateful that we haven’t been in that kind of position since you were tiny.”
“Really?” Iris sounded surprised.
“Your dad and I went through a rough patch financially when you were about three. But thankfully I’d just finished my degree and I got a good job that helped us get back on track. I know how that woman felt that day. There were times when I would have given anything for a stranger on the train to give me £50 to make it through the month.”
“I can’t imagine that, especially looking at what you have now.” Iris gestured around them.
“I know but your father and I worked hard to make the best out of every opportunity we were given along the way. And yes, when your father died, you and I were lucky that he had a good life insurance policy. It paid off the mortgage when you were 15 and it meant that I could change jobs to be around more for you. But I don’t forget where we came from and I use that to drive me forward. I just hope some of my determination has rubbed off on you.”
Evelyn looked at her daughter sat in front of her. She had her father’s black curly hair and olive complexion but it was her smile that reminded Evelyn of her late husband the most. Iris’ smile always spread across her whole face and she had a dimple on the right side, in the same place her father did. Not a day goes by that Evelyn doesn’t miss Steve. The life they had imagined and talked about late at night, wrapped up in each other, had been cut far shorter than anyone had expected.
Chapter 4
Evelyn tells her daughter about the catch with the bedside cabinet.
“It’s not all glitter and rainbows. Yes, it gives you something good every day but one day, the thing you get is no longer like the rest. It doesn’t come with a warning label or anything like that and you won’t know until something happens that the object you’ve been given that day has turned bad. The objects you get going forward don’t help anymore; they just cause something bad to happen, either to you or to someone else. When that time comes, you have to give the cabinet to the next person; otherwise, you’re stuck getting progressively worse things every day for the rest of your life, however long that may be. When you hand it to the next person, you also have to explain absolutely everything about the cabinet to them. The most important part, they have to willingly accept it. Otherwise, you're still stuck with the cabinet and getting progressively worse things every day.”
“So all the stuff you get is good and then one day, what? You get something crap that the person it’s for doesn’t like?” Iris seemed confused.
“Not quite. We’re not talking about getting a notebook that gives you a papercut or getting your favourite book with the last few pages missing. It’s nasty stuff.” Evelyn explains.
“Is that why you’re telling me all this now, mum? Has the bad stuff started?” Iris asked.
“Unfortunately, it has. But I’ve had a good run with it. I’ve put a lot of good and a lot of hope out into the world with this. Hopefully the butterfly effect and paying it forward or whatever has helped make the world a slightly better place.”
“So, what happened? When did it start?”
Evelyn tells her daughter about the first two bad things that she got from the cabinet.
“The first thing was weightlifting chalk. It seemed just like all the other objects. How could chalk even be bad or make something bad happen?” Evelyn took a breath. “A gym friend of mine was training for a bodybuilding competition. He had this ritual he did every time he trained before lifting weights that involved the chalk. He would rub it into his hands but he always threw a bit of it onto the floor and used his foot to draw his lucky number in the chalk. He realised he didn’t have any chalk on him, even though he was convinced he’d packed it, so was going to drive all the way home and come back. Which personally I think is extreme but whatever makes you happy.” Evelyn shrugged.
“I told him I happened to have some in my gym bag so I went to get it and gave him the chalk. I figured I’d done my good thing for the day with the object but soon started to wonder if it was the start of the cabinet turning bad. No sooner had he done his first shoulder press, with the bar and weights above his head, than the weigh on one side began to shift. This led to him dropping the bar and it hit him on the back of the head as it came down. He was on the floor unconscious and an ambulance was called. He ended up with a skull fracture and a bad concussion.
I figured it was just an unfortunate accident but that I’d done my good deed as I’d saved him from making a journey all the way home and back. It wasn’t until the next day that I started to wonder if him not going home and coming back played a part in the accident. The gym said that one of the things holding the weights on the bar had a small crack in it and that because he was lifting such a lot of weight, it put too much strain on the break and ended up snapping the thing. They said they might not have noticed it for a while if people had been using it for a much smaller weight. Maybe if he had gone and come back, someone else would have used it and noticed the crack in the plastic and reported it.”
“What happened to him, mum?” Iris asked.
“I’ve been told he’s ok now. He was in the hospital for a couple of days because he passed out and they wanted to monitor him but he was due to come home today.”
“So, he’s still in the hospital?”
“This did only happen the day before yesterday and with the day I’ve had, I haven’t had a chance to check on him.”
“So, what happened yesterday?”
Chapter 5
The second bad thing that Evelyn received from the cabinet was a new handbag. It was nothing too fancy but still special enough to be just right for a thank you present. It was perfect for that new neighbour who had helped with tidying up the
front garden.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had a new neighbour, which house?” Iris asked.
“No.7, they’re an older couple, well they’re my age I suppose, and she has a love for gardening. We passed a few times on the street and got chatting. I was telling her about how I just don’t know what to do with the garden, that I’d love some more flowers and colour but I’m not green fingered at all.”
“True, I remember when you killed that plant that was supposed to flourish in the desert. It had such a lovely pink flower and then nothing.” Evelyn covered her eyes with her hands in embarrassment.
“I know! I know! I think I overwatered it!” Iris smiled at her mother. “So, we met for coffee yesterday and I gave her the bag at the cafe. You know the little one next to the pub?”
“The one with the huge slices of cake and all the cakes have names like ‘Victor’ the Victoria sponge and ‘Carl’ the Coffee Cake?”
“Yes! That’s the one!” Evelyn said. “So, sometimes you know as soon as you see the object how it should be used and I knew Maria would love this bag. Once we’d sat down, I gave her the bag and she loved it so much that she decided to use it there and then. She’d said her old bag was getting to be tatty and the cross-body strap had broken a while ago so I thought it would be perfect and show that I’d actually been listening. Maria and I had a great time chatting over coffee and cake but when we went back to the car, Maria was mugged for her new handbag. I told her, I said it was all my fault and if I hadn’t given her the bag, this would never have happened. Maria said I was being silly and bad things just happen sometimes, she had loved the gift, even if she’d only had it for a small amount of time, and was grateful for the gift at all. Neither of us was hurt, just a bit shook up, so Maria thought nothing more of it. I knew then for definite that it was the start of the bad things and it was time to give the cabinet away.” Evelyn said with a sad look on her face.
“So how do you give it away?” Iris asked, confused as to how one gives away a magical cabinet in the first place, let alone how to accept one when it’s being offered.
“Well, I had to decide who to give it to and even though it had been in the family for so long, I wasn’t sure I wanted to give it to you. While I knew that you had to be told everything and freely accept it, I still wasn’t sure if you were the right person.”
“How do you know the person has to accept it freely, with all the information? Why can’t you just gift the whole cabinet away? Then it would be the next person’s problem. And why would I not be the right person, mum?” Iris wondered out loud.
“Your great-great-grandfather had the same idea and tried to give it away randomly, without a single word of warning to his neighbour. He gave it away to a neighbour he didn’t particularly like all that much, as you do. He didn’t tell him a thing about the cabinet and had hoped that would be the end of his ordeal with the bad stuff happening. That night your great-great-grandfather became ill out of the blue and got progressively worse until he asked his neighbour for the cabinet back.” Evelyn explained.
“What happened then?” Iris asked.
“So, he went over to the neighbour and gave him some excuse about giving him the wrong cabinet or something and got it back. As soon as the cabinet was back next to his bed, he felt the overwhelming need to sleep and when he woke up in the morning, he was absolutely fine again. The bad things in the cabinet, however, got worse much quicker and he knew he needed to pass the cabinet on.”
“Ok so can’t pass it on outside the family. Check.” Iris made an exaggerated ticking motion with her hand, to which Evelyn rolled her eyes.
“Shall I continue?”
“Yes please.”
“His father told him everything about the cabinet and your great-great-grandfather had accepted it freely so, he chose to tell his son all about it in the hopes that he could pass it on. His son still lived with him so at least if he became ill again or something bad happened to his son, then he would be able to fix it quickly. His son freely accepted it and the good things started again for his son.”
“Ok, so must be freely accepted.”
“The son, who was your great grandfather, and my grandfather, took it with him when he moved into his own house shortly after and kept it for another 49 years. He tried to pass it on to someone outside the family to get rid of it but no-one would accept it. Everyone either thought he was crazy or messing around like it was some elaborate practical joke. So, he had no choice but to pass it onto his son, my father, your grandfather.”
“And then it was passed on to you?”
“Yep, now it’s mine. And I wasn’t sure about giving it to you because, for a start, you have no-one to pass it on to. What if you get bad stuff from the start? What if it has to stay in the family? You’re an only child, no husband, no kids. Not even any cousins. Who would you give it to?”
“I mean one day I’ll hopefully have someone to give it to.” Iris shrugged.
“Well yes hopefully but what if that’s not before the good stuff ends?”
“How long do you get good things for?” Iris asked apprehensively.
“I don’t know, it’s different for each person. My grandfather was given a good thing every day from the time he was 30 until he passed it on at 79. My father, however, only had the cabinet for 30 days before he started getting bad things. That’s when he passed it on to me.”
“So how long have you had the cabinet, mum?”
“My father was 50 when he got it and I was 19 when he passed it on to me 39 years later, give or take.”
“Where did the cabinet come from originally?” Iris asks.
“It’s been passed down in our family for generations and that’s all I know about it. There are no makers marks or anything like that on it. I asked my dad how long it had been in the family and he’d told me that all he knew was that it had been at least a handful of generations. He said he knew his grandfather had it and that he’d been given it by his father.”
Evelyn then began to tell Iris about what she got that morning and how she knew today was the day to hand it over. When she opened the cabinet this morning, all it contained was a fountain pen.
“And that’s what did it?” Asks Iris, her face full of concern.
“Yes, that’s what I ended up stabbing him with. That’s why you’re here now because the police called you and told you to come and be with me.”
“Well, that is why I’m your ‘In Case of Emergency’ contact in your phone and purse!”
“Why did you not tell me you were mugged yesterday? And why were you attacked? Did the guy say anything or do anything first?”
“It happened so quickly but I was walking down the path between my office and the car park, the one with all the big trees and bushes down the side. Then the next thing I know someone’s hand is around my mouth and I’m being pulled to the ground. I was trying to hit him away but I couldn’t quite get him and then he was in front of me, standing over me. I tried to get up but he kicked me back down and laughed. He never said anything the entire time. I was screaming at him ‘What do you want?’, ‘Who are you?’ ‘Why are you doing this?’ but all I got was laughter. After he kicked me down the second time, I started fumbling for my phone in my bag but he kept trying to grab my bag away. Next thing I know my hand finds the pen and I take it out of the bag. The clip on the lid got caught on the zip on the way out of my bag. So the lid stayed in, and before I realised what I was doing, I’d stabbed him with it. It grazed his neck but must have gone deeper than I thought as he staggered backwards and then dropped to his knees, clutching the side of his neck.” Evelyn said heavily, not meeting her daughter’s eyes.
“The CCTV on the path must be monitored as the police arrived not long after that and I didn’t see anyone else around to have called them. They gave him first aid as best they could when they got there but they did call for an ambulance. He was taken away in the ambulance and the police took me to the hospital in their car. I wasn’t injur
ed, just really shaken at the time. They ran a few tests and I had an x-ray and stuff to make sure nothing was broken as my chest was hurting but they said it was just minor bruising from being pushed down and kicked.”
“Oh, mum. That must have been so frightening. I’m so sorry that happened to you. The police said they’re trying to see if it’s connected, if it’s the same guy from yesterday or not but they have to wait for him to wake up. He’s currently in the hospital having surgery to repair the vein, I think they said. They’re satisfied that you acted in self-defence from looking at the CCTV but they need to know his side and all that. Although it looks pretty obvious who’s to blame if you ask me.”
“I didn’t tell you about the mugging because I didn’t want to worry you. And technically it wasn’t me who was mugged, I was just with someone who was. When I saw the mugging yesterday, it was terrible but I wasn’t that involved. I wasn’t hurt or anything and I had just finished paying for the parking at the little machine across the road when I heard the commotion. But you can see why I need to give the cabinet away straight away. I didn’t want it to be you but I don’t have a choice. Today was bad enough and, I’m sorry that it’s selfish, but tomorrow whatever it is could get me killed and I really don’t want that. I still want to see you get married and have kids and argue about how much money you spend on takeaways.”
“I wish you’d called me yesterday, mum.” Iris sighed. “Maybe I could have helped you or maybe today would have been different somehow.”
“My darling girl, you know that I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. It is what it is now and here we are, exactly where we’re supposed to be.” Evelyn smiled at Iris but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. She knew all too well what she was asking her daughter to take on. Evelyn began to wonder if her father had felt the same passing it on to her.
Chapter 6
Iris had listened to everything her mother had to say and now had to decide whether she wanted the cabinet or not. While the good stuff that came out of it sounded great, the bad stuff had frightened her, in all honesty, and she wasn’t sure she wanted any part in this. But she couldn’t let her mum keep it either. Iris saw the effect it had on her mother. Whether the cabinet was actually magical or not, her mother clearly believed in it. So in that respect, she’s right, whatever Evelyn got next could end up killing her and Iris wasn’t ready to be an orphan.
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