Theo put his hands down, blinked his eyes, and could not believe his eyes. He frowned in confusion. He thought, this must be a dream or there was a show held at the end of the alley. Anyway, he saw something which you wouldn"t see every day in a narrow, dark and dirty alley.
It was a rabbit.
A clean white furry rabbit. It was big and fat, looked like a furry round bundle when it walked closer to Theo and stopped in front of the alley. It dressed neatly, with red ribbon tie, stiff collared white shirt, black vest, dark colored oxtail coat and a pair of gold framed spectacles. Its bulging body looked out from its narrow clothes. There was a square shiny golden pin pinned on its vest. Theo tried to read the scripts on the pin, but he couldn"t.
It raised its furry hands, pulled out a golden pocket watch hinged on a thin chain on its waist.
"5.43," said the rabbit.
Theo jumped in shocked. He looked closely toward the rabbit, rubbed his eyes several times. But the rabbit was still there.
Theo swallowed his saliva. That rabbit can talk, Theo said to himself. And, his voice was annoying.
The rabbit held out a hand to Theo, signed Theo to follow him. He talked in angry voice, "C"mon, quickly! We will close in an hour seventeen minutes."
"Hah?" Theo taken aback, he could not say a word. Being shaken up and bewitched, he followed the wriggled white rabbit, while scowling his pocket watch.
He sneaked up into that narrow alley, antic.i.p.ated the smelly waste and dirt. To his surprise, the alley didn"t feel narrow. It seems like it could load two people walking side by side. It wasn"t smelly at all, just a little bit cold and damp.
The alley seems like very long, there were some turnings as well, even though Theo could see the other end from where he kicked the tin cans, and he was sure there was no turning in that alley. Theo hurried up his step, tried not to get left behind the rabbit.
At the other end of the alley, a bluish grey light shone out, dazzled Theo"s eyes after the darkness along the alley. He blinked his eyes several times then looked around.
Again, Theo frowned in wonder. Outside before he went into the alley, the evening sky was soft and pale and was fading away slowly. But here in this place, it looked like the day had just begun, with the sun had just fully shown.
"Come on, faster!" the Rabbit exclaimed from afar, pulled Theo out of his thought. In the distance, the rabbit looked glowing in the sunlight rays, its white furry shining bright. Theo ran to the rabbit and found himself in front of a shop.
An ordinary little shop, nothing unusual. It was placed between a butcher shop and a closed bakery shop. Theo tried to peek inside from the window shop, but somehow he couldn"t see anything. Could it be because of the canopy on the upper window shadowing, so it was darkening the window, or there might be a blind inside the window.
There was a signboard above the door. It was only a word "SHOP" written on it, nicely carved across the mahogany wooden board. On the window, there were stickers to form a word, but some letters were peeled off, so you couldn"t say what was written on it.
The neatly dressed rabbit jumped up the steps in front of the shop and pushed open a polished wooden door. Theo followed it inside.
It was dark. There were lots of tiny light bulbs hanging on the ceiling, but they were illuminating in dimmed golden rays, not enough to brighten the little shop. Inside, Theo could see outside through the window, the street was quiet, not a single person in sight. There was no sign of an insect, a cat or a leaf…. and there was no blind, nothing behind the window.
Some cabinets stood in a row, contained big cardboard boxes and jars. At the other side, there were big clocks with giant pendulums and an antique telephone, typewriter and telegram. Some display cabinets showed various types of antique jewelries, old fashioned gla.s.ses, Russian-styled pistols and Chinese porcelains.
All these jostle things might prevent the light into the shop, Theo thought.
He carefully came near to a rusty carved bra.s.s scale covered in dust. So this must be an antique shop.
"Is there anything I can help you, sir?" a voice came from his side. Theo shook his head while turning around to the voice source, "I"m sorry, but I"m not interested in…."
Theo shrieked in horror. Behind the cashier table, stood a grown big sheep wearing an old gown and a lace cap on its head, it was terrifying under the dimmed light.
The sheep was approaching him slowly. While panicking, Theo stepped back and tried to open the shop"s door, but it was locked. He turn back in panic, his heart pounding fast uncontrollably and found it uneasy to breathe. The sheep brought a lantern, emitted a horrible orange light that makes a terrifying shadow on the sheep face.
Theo gulped, horrified. The sheep was getting closer toward him. "I"ll be eaten by it!" cried Theo silently.
The sheep"s face was very close now, moving towards him…, Theo screamed at the top of his head.
Suddenly, it laughed.
"Sorry, I"m sorry, I"m just kidding," said the sheep chuckled in amus.e.m.e.nt. Its front leg felt about around its neck, then pushed up its head. Theo shrieked out when its head got off. And then… feeling silly. Why, under the sheep head, appeared a girl"s head.
He just then realized, the girl had big grey eyes. Shining like a doll"s eyes, made out of gla.s.s. Her hair fully straight, not wavy at all. It was black and shiny, cut at chin level in a bob style.
She took off her sheep costume. She wore an old dress under it, it was blue with dark brown stripes and a matched color big ribbon on its back. Her small rosy lips grinned broadly, showing a row of her neat white teeth.