“Have you personally tried giving it to someone outside the family, mum?”
“It hadn’t worked for anyone else, so I didn’t want to give it a try in case something terrible happened. I don’t have a lot of time and I just can’t take the risk. Besides, who would I give it to? It’s not like I have any close friends anymore and, like you, I’m an only child and so was your father. You’re the only family I have left.”
“That makes sense, I suppose. Has anyone ever tried to give it away when it’s still giving out the good stuff?” Iris wondered aloud.
“Not that I know of but I, maybe foolishly, didn’t ask many questions when it was offered to me. I don’t think my dad had it long enough to appreciate it in its entirety and I don’t think he asked his dad many questions about it either. He seemed pretty sceptical of it all and I think he thought my grandad’s mind was starting to go, so he accepted it without really believing. I think that’s why it didn’t last very long for him. Almost as if he didn’t do it properly, that kind of thing. And he wasn’t speaking to his brother at the time so definitely wasn’t going to reach out about the cabinet.”
“So, in the 38 years you’ve had it, it’s honestly given you something good every single day?”
“It honestly has. I have so many great memories from the things it’s given me over the years.” Evelyn says, smiling at Iris.
“Oh! So that’s why you always seemed to have exactly what we needed, even the most random things. Like when we went to that diner and the couple on the table next to us had lost their map of the area? They couldn’t remember the way back to their campsite but you just happened to have a map in your bag?” Iris said animatedly.
“Yes, that’s right I did! I’d forgotten about that one. I’d wondered that morning what I would possibly need a map of the area for when I’d lived here for about 20 years at that point.”
“And that time when you took me to that waterpark for my birthday and you just happened to have a spare smaller swimming costume for my friend’s sister to come with us?” Evelyn chuckled and shook her head at Iris.
“No! That’s just because I’m always prepared as a mother and I had a feeling one of your friends might forget part of their swimming costume. That or a parent would think that the party wasn’t open to siblings too.” Iris laughed out loud a little.
“Oh, I see. That was such an amazing day mum. What did you get that day?” Evelyn looked pensive for a moment as she tried to recall a memory from 17 years ago.
“I don’t remember them all. Some of them can be pretty insignificant when you look back and compare it to the rest of them. I think that day I got a locker token for the lockers at the waterpark. I thought it was a bit of a crap object, to be honest, as I had a money bag full of them already. I always kept them every time we went but I had an extra one and I just figured it would come in handy. Turns out they’d changed the shape of the locker tokens, so all the old ones I had didn’t work anymore but the one I got in the cabinet did work. Which was handy as the lockers were a good 10 minute walk from the reception area where you bought the tokens. It was always such a stupid layout. Anyway! So, it’s not always life-changing and earth-shattering but it was always just what was needed at the time, especially with 15 kids under 12 to watch around water and huge open spaces, not to mention all the sugar they’d eaten already!”
“Yeah, I can see how that would have come in handy but what a boring object!” Iris ran through it all in her mind as she sat on the end of her mother’s bed. If it genuinely was true, it was a lot to take on but either way, letting her mother keep it felt selfish.
“Ok, mum, I’ll take it.” Iris said. She’d decided that on balance, the best thing for her and her mother was to take the cabinet.
“Are you sure?” Evelyn asked her daughter. “Because once you accept it, you can’t give it back.” Iris nodded.
“I understand.”
“Ok. So you must move it into the room you’re staying in tonight and you have to take it with you when you leave. You’ll get your first object when you wake up tomorrow.”
“Do you have to keep it by your bed? Can’t I keep it by the sofa or something?”
“As far as I’m aware it has to be by your bed. I’ve never tried it anywhere else and neither has anyone else that I’m aware of. You could try it but given what we do know about the cabinet, I felt like it was best not to mess around with it.”
“What about when you go on holiday or something? It’s not like you can take it with you. What did you do when we went on holiday when I was a kid? And when you used to work away for months at a time? It’s not like you could have taken it with you.” Iris asked.
“Well, that’s another weird thing. You still get the thing every day, wherever you are. It’s like the magic, or whatever you want to call it, follows you around. I’ve had things appear in the bedside cabinet next to me in hotels or in my suitcase or once I even had something appear in my shoe.”
“So, you have to have the cabinet next to your bed but if you’re not with the cabinet it’ll still find a way to find you?” Iris asked, perplexed.
“Pretty much.” Evelyn said with a shrug.
“So, is it really the cabinet that holds the magic… or is it us?” Iris wondered aloud, half wanting an answer and half not.
“What? Like we pass the magic on to the next person and it’s not the cabinet at all?” Evelyn said. Iris shrugged and nodded. “But the cabinet must have something to do with it; otherwise your great-grandfather wouldn’t have become ill when he tried to give it away. “
“That’s true.” Iris agreed. “There must be some kind of connection. I wonder what I can find out with the power of Google.” Iris gets her phone out of her pocket and starts to type.
“Don’t dig into it too much. Who knows what crazy stuff you might find on the internet? And I’ve had enough crazy for the last few days!”
“Yes, that’s why I’m ordering us Chinese first mum. Can’t investigate some crazy magical cabinet that just got my mother attacked and our neighbour mugged on an empty stomach!”
Evelyn tutted and smiled at her daughter, before yawning wide and snuggling further down into her bed.
“Just get me some lemon chicken, a spring roll and some chilli beef, will you?
“And share a beef with mushrooms, special fried rice and Hong Kong style sweet and sour pork with me?”
“Will we eat all that?” Evelyn says, scrunching her face in thought.
“If we don’t, I know what I’m having for breakfast!” Iris smiled and rubbed her belly.
“Ok, my purse is in my, oh! I don’t know where my purse is! Or my bag! Are they evidence?” Evelyn exclaimed.
“Your bag is as the police got a fingerprint off it but you got to keep the contents. Apart from the pen, obviously. It’s all in a plastic bag downstairs. But don’t worry, I’m paying for this one. The app says it should be here in about 45 minutes so have a nap and I’ll wake you when it gets here. And I’ll take this with me since you don’t need it anymore.” Iris motions to the bedside cabinet next to her mother’s bed. “I’ll swap it for the one in my old room.”
Iris cleared off what was on top of the cabinet and picked it up. It was much lighter than she had expected but it didn’t feel at all flimsy. She carried it across the landing to her childhood bedroom and placed it down at the foot of her old bed. She picked up the cabinet that currently occupied the space next to her bed and moved it out of the way. It wasn’t used anymore so was already completely empty. She swapped the cabinets around and carried the non-magical one to her mother’s bedroom. She slowly and quietly put the cabinet down next to her mother’s bed and moved everything off the end of the bed. She placed it all back on the top of the new cabinet and did her best to arrange it as it had been laid out before. Evelyn had already dozed off so Iris quietly went downstairs to wait for the food delivery to arrive.
While she waited, she decided to clean and tidy what she could but
with a neat freak for a mother, that was a practically impossible task. She picked up today’s junk mail from the pile on the sideboard in the hallway and put it in the recycling box in the garage. There wasn’t anything else to do so she got some plates out of the cupboard and got comfortable on the sofa in front of the TV. Food arrived a few minutes later and she put the bag in the kitchen on her way to wake up her mother. She decided against it in the end though as her mother was sleeping so deeply, it would have been a shame to wake her up. Iris went back downstairs alone to eat some dinner.
Chapter 7
Iris spent the next few days with her mum, making sure she was ok after the last few days of absolute craziness her mother had experienced. Thankfully it was a Thursday when the police called Iris and she had some saved time in lieu to use up.
Iris got the very first object the morning after she accepted the cabinet from her mother. She was apprehensive when she opened the cabinet, unsure of what she’d get and what, or who, it would be for. She needn’t have worried though, the first item she got from the cabinet was for her. It was a very small pair of clock hands. At first, she wasn’t sure why she’d been given them but then she remembered the canvas clock she’d had made at a village fair a few years ago. She was going to take it with her when she moved out but the hands had accidentally snapped off somehow. She’d been meaning to replace them for years but never quite got round to it. The clock was in her mother’s garage so she finally had the opportunity to fix it. She’d even saved a space for it in her house on the wall opposite her bed. The rest of the day passed in a blur of digging around the garage and relaxing with her mum.
The second day she got a small pocket-sized sewing kit, with a single white button, and ended up giving it away while she was out. She went into Witten-on-Sea, the local town where she grew up, and bumped into someone she went to school with. He was in a rush for an interview but had to buy a new shirt as the button has popped off the only one he had, right in the middle of the chest. She offered him the kit and the button but he didn’t know what to do with it. She told him if he buys her a coffee, she’ll sew it back on for him. He agreed and they headed off to the nearest café.
He ordered two coffees and she found a table. He put the drinks on the table then went to the toilet to take his shirt off for her to fix. He came back with his coat done up all the way and his shirt in his hand. They chat about everything and nothing while she quickly sewed the button back on. He filled her in on all the gossip she’d missed from the past few years and she tells him about life with her.
“What’s it like living in Windsor? Bet it’s a lot nicer than here, especially when we were growing up.” Marc asked.
“It’s alright. The people tend to be a bit better off but Windsor is right next to Slough so it’s the same as everywhere really. Property is more expensive though and it’s so close to London it’s easy to commute or go shopping or whatever.”
“Ever seen the queen?”
“Not yet! So, what about you? Are you married? Kids?”
“No, not married, no kids. Jenna and I had a thing for a while but we broke up last year. I wanted kids and she didn’t.”
“Jenna?”
“Stafford? We had biology with her?”
“The one who sat next to the ginger one, oh what was his name?!” Iris furrowed her brow, trying to remember the name of someone she hadn’t seen for 14 years.
“Oh, uh, Ben his name was. We play football together most weekends these days. We’ve got a standing friendly match going.”
“Anyone else I’d know?”
“Chris plays sometimes. Your Chris.” Marc said, nervously.
“He’s not my Chris. Never has been.”
“Could have been though.”
“No, we really couldn’t have been. We were just good friends, never anything more.”
“You mean apart from when you were caught doing it in the PE cupboard in year 11?” Iris could feel herself starting to go red.
“Oh god, I forgot about that.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “That was just once and didn’t mean anything.”
“So just stress relief?” He said with a smirk.
“Oh like you’ve never relieved some stress with what’s her name from French, the tall one from Birmingham.”
“Tasha, yeah we helped to destress each other a few times. He always had a thing for you though.”
“What Chris? No, he didn’t! He’d shag anything that moved when we were in school. And he had a different girlfriend every year!”
“He always talked about you though.”
“We were always together so that’s not really a surprise.” Said Iris with a shrug. “Anyway! What’s this job you’re going for?”
“Just an assistant manager job in TJs.”
“Is that place still going? I remember my mum and my nan used to love it there.”
“Yeah, it’s changed a bit, more like M&S now than it used to be. Café is still cheap and cheerful though. And yes, it’s still full of old people!”
“Exciting work for you then!”
“At least I’ll be able to buy sheets for my bed on the cheap.” He said with a wink.
Iris handed Marc his shirt back and he went back to the toilet to put it on again. Once he came back, he jokingly twirled for her like some kind of coffee shop fashion show. He thanked her for her help and gave her a hug. She thanked him for the coffee and he asked her for some advice for the interview.
“Honestly, I think the best piece of advice I have is that if there’s a question you’re not sure how to answer, ask them if there’s anything specific they’d like to know about and, usually, the interviewer will tell you what they want to hear.”
“And then just tell them that?”
“Exactly.”
They said their goodbyes and he left for his interview. Iris stayed for a few more minutes to finish her coffee, before heading out to do some shopping and pick up some bits and pieces for her mother.
She bumped into Marc an hour or so later, he’d actually been looking for her, and told her that he was offered the job.
“That’s amazing! Congratulations!” Iris exclaimed.
“I used that thing you told me and it worked perfectly.” He said with a huge smile on your face. “I’m going to keep that one and use it every time I have an interview.”
“You’re welcome to it. It’s helped me loads of times.”
“I’m meeting a couple of friends for a quick pint; do you want to come?”
“Oh, thank you but no. My mum’s waiting for me at home. She’s not very well and I’m looking after her for a few days.”
“Not even one?” Iris shook her head.
“I appreciate the offer though.”
“Listen, let me give you my number and let me know next time you’re coming down.”
“Yeah ok. I’ll text you so you have my number too.” She said, handing over her phone. “And let me know next time you’re anywhere near me.”
“I have no plans to be, you know what it’s like to try and leave this place. Easier to escape quicksand. But I’ll do my best to make a flying visit when I can.”
They quickly hug and repeat their goodbyes, before going in opposite directions. She was tempted to go for just one drink but she also wanted to know as much as she could about the cabinet. So instead of drinking with old friends, she spent the evening taking out the drawers and going over every inch of the cabinet for clues to its origin. No makers mark, no unusual carpentry techniques, nothing out of the ordinary.
Chapter 8
The third day, a gloriously sunny Sunday with just enough of a breeze, Iris decided that after much discussion with her mother, it was time to go home and take the cabinet with her. Not to mention she could finally take the newly fixed clock with her too, which she was excited about being able to put up in the space she’d saved for it. Evelyn and Iris had talked at length about the cabinet and Iris now knew pretty much everything he
r mother did about it. They’d talked about more of the objects Evelyn had received, including a whisk that now belongs to her mother in law, and how as a woman it was always risky to insert yourself into unknown situations in order to find the object’s purpose.
After loading up the car, Iris was glad she drove to her mother’s; otherwise, there’s no way she would have been able to take cabinet back on the train with her. Not to mention getting it on a bus or in a taxi the other end. Evelyn stood at the top of the drive wrapped up in her dressing gown, even though she was dressed and it was warm. It was something Iris had asked her mum about before but all she ever got back was:
“It’s just comfortable darling. Not to mention my dressing gown has pockets when half my clothes don’t!” Which Iris understood more and more as she got older.
Iris closed the boot of her car and walked up the slight incline to her mother. They wrapped their arms around each other and Iris nestled her head into her mother’s neck. She’d always found this to be the most comforting position, no matter how old she got.
“You’ll keep me updated with the cabinet?” Evelyn asked gently into Iris’ ear.
“Yes, mum. Don’t worry about me with this thing. You know I’ve yet to meet a problem I can’t solve.”
“I know.” Evelyn sighed. “But this isn’t like any problem you’ve ever encountered before.”
“True but I’m your daughter, you’ve raised me well enough to know that I’ll figure something out.”
The Bedside Cabinet: The Cabinet Mystery Book 1 Page 3