Afterlife: Meggan & Nico + Gwendoline; the lost cameo

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Meggan and Nico -with Gwendoline, of course- obtain and deliver the cameo requested by the ghost.

Backdated to Saturday, May 28 in the afternoon

Meggan was carefully looking over every inch of each shelf she came across in the back of the thrift shop—she had even gone so far as to look through the stuffed animals, wherever they happened to be scattered. Ever since she had spotted three ankle bracelets, a Hello Kitty necklace, and an old, dusty earring hidden beneath a bunch of strangely one-eyed Furbies, it seemed like the best thing to do.

She moved a stuffed rainbow toy, and carefully picked up the items beneath. There was a chain with no necklace, an old class ring, four mood rings, and…a cameo. Maybe even the cameo they were searching for, she hoped as she studied it.

Waving frantically to get the attention of the girl at the other end of the shop, Meggan called out, “Nico!” At the high level of annoyance directed her way from the manager, however, she mouthed a quick ‘sorry’ before hurrying off. “Nico,” she whispered as she held out the item. “Does this look like the cameo Gwendoline described to you? This looks like a little cursive ‘G’ engraved on the back.” Meggan couldn’t be completely sure. If it wasn't this one, they would just keep looking.

Nico took the came carefully, thumb pressing against the surface. "It certainly looks like it, doesn't it? Same shape, looks old enough, and has the G on it. And if it isn't...well, she can tell us herself once we show it to her." Nico didn't even want to start considering what could happen if Gwendoline got mad at them for getting the wrong cameo, but if it needed be, she would put the little ghost girl on her place; she had been standing the ghosts for long enough without snapping at them. "Does it have a prize tag somewhere? We are going to need to talk with that storekeeper..."

“I didn’t see one attached,” Meggan said with a slight shake of her head. With most of the things around there, a tag had been tied on. There was a slim chance it had fallen off as she picked the cameo up, but she knew she would have seen it. “Maybe he has a chart up front for jewelry. A specific price for necklaces and cameos…unless they’re obviously very valuable,” she suggested. She hoped they wouldn’t have to haggle, if there wasn’t a set price. She was half afraid the owner would mark it up, if he knew they desperately needed it. If they were wrong about this one belonging to Gwendoline, the ghost would likely tell them soon, with more details added on. How many could there possibly be with this exact design?

As if on cue, Gwendoline appeared beside Meggan, materializing out of thin air. Her eyes fall on an old bowler hanging slightly askew on an ancient coat rack. "My Peter had a hat exactly like that, he did. Same colour, though his was a tad bit bigger, on account of his giant head. Not that he had a big brain, God bless him and rest his soul." She nodded, then squinted and looked at the price tag. "Heavens to Betsy, he wasn't daft enough to pay that much for a hat. That is obscene, how can anyone get away with that? Why, that was more than Peter made in a week when we were newlyweds -" Gwendoline turned to talk to Nico. "Our honeymoon was in Niagara Falls, oh, it was beautiful. Rained so much though, dreadful, positively dreadful I tell you. We got drenched running from the car to the hotel room. Why, I thought I'd catch a cold and die, I swear, and do you know what..."

Her eyes fell on the cameo in Nico's hand, and she fell silent for what was most likely the longest stretch of time since any of the students had first laid eyes on her. "Oh. Oh my. That's... that's it."

Meggan didn’t jump at Gwendoline suddenly being beside her, so much as she gave a tiny jolt. She assumed that meant she was gradually growing used to it, just as she was slowly starting to enjoy hearing about the lady’s time when she was alive. “Good. Don't worry, we’ll have it bought as quick as we can,” Meggan promised softly. Once they figured out the price on it.

Nico didn't even bat an eyelash when Gwendoline materialized; if anything, she made her best effort to stare at anything else. She wasn't sure if she was getting used to her popping out of nowhere like that, or she just had learned how to filter the ghost's voice. And hadn't they heard that story before? She didn't think there were studies about it, but it had to be unhealthy up to some degree to have to hear ghosts all the time, right? "Well, I guess we will need to deal with the storekeeper. As long as we can pay it things will be fine." So with that said, Nico headed for the counter, cameo in hand, stare fixed on the man. Taking a short breathe, Nico tried to soften her overall expression a little.

"Hello, we were wondering about the price of this cameo?"

The storekeeper looked up from where the sports pages, where he had been checking the horse racing results. "What?" he said irritably. Damn kids had been in and out of the place all week, causing a ruckus. They had been buying, at least, these last few times. He looked at the piece of jewelry dangling from Nico's hand. "That? It's a family heirloom, that piece is. Couldn't let it go for less than..." he paused, as if calculating. "Fifty bucks."

Fifty dollars? They almost had enough, but Meggan wanted to see if she could beg him to bring it down by a little. “We knew the lady it belonged to,” Meggan began softly. Would it have been better to say know? Tenses got messed up when the ghost in question was standing beside them. “There are a lot of memories wrapped up in this.” Sure, they were new ones, but there were memories of a ghost! The experience had to count for something.

“Are you sure you couldn’t part with it for, say…thirty-five dollars?” She hoped he would think they were relatives of Gwendoline who had only just heard the news of her passing, because she couldn’t figure out a way to explain the real situation without him deciding they were insane and hiking up the price.

Fifty? Truth to be told, Nico didn't know what prize would be right, but she had enough street smarts to distrust the storekeeper's word at once. It was all business after all, so she wouldn't blame him for wanting to make a little extra. She was about to make a counter offer when Meggan spoke, and Nico had to make an effort not to facepalm right there. Putting emotional value to the object trying to be sold was just going to play against them, or so she thought.

"Forty", said in a deadpan tone as she turned towards the man. "Looks like the one the old hag used to wear, but I'm not making a big deal out of it. Deal?"

Forty was twenty more than he'd intended to sell it for, so he was certainly coming out on top. "Deal," he said, before thrusting out his hand. "Cash."

Forty was great—forty they had. Meggan didn’t want to argue with that amount, fearing it might somehow make things worse. She quickly dug four tens out of her pocket, passing it to the owner. “Right. Here you go, sir.” Maybe he’d be happier after making a profit. Most people that sold things were.

Gwendoline had been eerily silent while they bartered with the shop owner. Her eyes remained fixated on the cameo, lighting up a little more as Meggan paid the cash for it. "Forty dollars, goodness gracious, it's a wonder you weren't mugged, carrying around that much cash, my dear. Why, I don't know that I've ever had more than $20 on me at any one point in time. I always had change, though, I was always good at providing the exact amount owed." She nodded, picking up with her rambling where she'd left off, though her eyes mainly remained on the cameo now.

And out they went, because who knew if the storekeeper would go and change his mind. "Okay done", said as she swung the came in front of the ghost. "Now what?"

Her eyes still fixed on the costume jewelery, Gwendoline spoke. "You have to bring it to my granddaughter, Lily. She lives in New York." She looked at them all before returning her gaze on the cameo. "Please, you must do this for me, it's extremely important." It obviously meant a lot to her while she was alive, and Gwendoline moved to reach out for it, stopping herself when she realized how futile an attempt it would have been.

“We will. We’ll figure out her address, and deliver it straight to her.” But they would need a a cover story! “If we’re asked why it’s late in coming…” Meggan frowned for a second in thought, before nodding. “Lawyers. It’s lawyers that did something to the paperwork.” At least Lily didn’t live on the other side of the world—they would have had to scrape together more money for the plane tickets.

"Looking people over the Internet is ridiculously easy, so we'll know all we can about her as soon as we get back. From there is just taking a bus to the city, finding her and trying not to flail too much while we explain to her that by some impossible circumstances we were given the cameo." Well, that was the best cover story she could come up with. "Lawyers? Care to elaborate?"

“Lawyers are busy people, they might make a mistake,” Meggan began. “There was a miscommunication between lawyers, and various parties were buried under paperwork for years, when the cameo was misplaced at their workplace, and someone sold it! And then…then they lost the paperwork and her name--lots of legal red tape, until it was rediscovered hidden away in a drawer after that table was auctioned off when someone was laid off.” That wouldn’t explain how they were the ones to give it to her. “Maybe, after we stumbled across the cameo, and happened across the paperwork, we made the connection and just wanted to do a good deed?” She wasn’t sure what she’d say if they were asked what law firm it was. She glanced at Nico curiously. "Too much?"

Nico blinked on disbelief. "A little too much, yep. It would be a lot easier to say we got the cameo via mail after a ridiculously long period of paperwork hell, and it even had the original address somewhere on it, so after a quick search we managed to pin down the location of Gwendoline's daughter, which is pretty easy when you have the right information, and then we just decided to do a good deed." She shrugged a little. "Or is that too simple?"

Meggan shook her head. “No, yours is much, much better,” she agreed. With Meggan’s, one of them could have forgotten one small sliver of the plan and ended up with a complete mess of a lie that just kept digging them in deeper when they could have simply given her the cameo right off the bat. Simple paperwork hell was more feasible. “It’s the right amount of simple. Mine sounds more like a confusing treasure hunt movie spilled on it.”

The goth gave Meggan a wink. "Remind me to call you when I need one of those. Anyway," added as she turned to the ghost. "do you agree to go on this way? The sooner we deliver this, the sooner everyone can get over this whole mess." And Nico was eager to get rid of the ghosts already.

Nodding quickly, Gwendoline spoke again. "Yes, yes, please, it must be done, I beg of you." Any talk of the cameo and especially of returning the same had her complete and utter attention.

***

The apartment was at the top of a three-storey walk-up in Brooklyn. After climbing three flights of stairs, their destination - a rather battered looking door painted a faded dark blue - was a welcome sight.

Once they were there, Nico was starting to feel like she shouldn't be running around delivering things a ghost told her to. Out of everything unreal in her life, she was a bit peeved that things had come to that. It was not normal to do something like what she was doing without second thought, and yet there they were, doing it. Sighing, she casted the thoughts apart; she could complain about it all once it was over.

Knocking the door a couple of times, she turned to look at Meggan. "Well, here we go."

“Yeah, here we go, listening for footsteps,” Meggan whispered with a small chuckle. Footsteps, which she heard approaching the door moments later. She was fervently hoping that the woman believed their story and wanted to have the cameo, if only so Gwendoline could be at peace. The ghost deserved it.

The door opened to reveal a woman in her mid-twenties. She seemed nice enough - her face was open and expressive, if a little confused at the two girls on her doorstep - and she was using one leg to hold back a fluffy apricot and cream coloured cat from making a break for it. "Can I help you girls?"

Gwendoline was just staring at Lily, smiling widely and getting misty-eyed, as much as a ghost could at any rate. "Give it to her, please." Instead of her eyes being glued to the cameo, they remained focused on her granddaughter. "The spitting image of her grandfather, my Pete, she is. You can see it in the eyes, can't you? Can't you?" She reached out to touch Lily's cheek, and as she did so she began to fade away.

Nico hold the cameo in front of her. "This...belonged to a Gwendoline. It arrived at our home by accident. Apparently paperwork got heavy with it and ended up anywhere but the right place, at the right time. We kind of checked who was supposed to get this...and it was you." She extended her hand, trying to remain calm. "Um...I'm sure Gwendoline would have wanted you to have this." And that was the cue to shoot a pleading look towards Meggan.

Meggan caught the look, and stepped in to help. She motioned to the cameo still held by Nico, with a tiny smile. “We didn’t think we should keep it, if we could find you. It deserves to be with Gwendoline’s family…that's you, right? It took the scenic route around town, and…really, we just wanted to make sure the cameo did end up in your hands, and wasn’t lost in the post again.”

Lily took the cameo, a small frown denting the space between her eyebrows. "It's...very kind of you," she said, sounding a bit confused. "I'm afraid I don't know a Gewndoline... wait, my grandfather, when he died, he talked about a Gwennie. My grandmother's name was Anne, so we didn't know who he was talking about. Was that her?"

Once Lily had the cameo in her hands, Gwendoline began to fade even faster. She nodded in an uncharacteristically quiet response to Lily's question, glad to see that her final wishes were now finally carried out and the cameo safe in her granddaughter's hands.

Giving it a side glance, Nico allowed herself a little smile; they were doing a good deed, all in all. Sighing, she kept the smile a little longer as the woman faded, headed to who knew where. While it had been fun, Nico was nowhere interested to enter the ghost whispering service, so she hoped that was the last she knew of ghosts. Turning to Meggan, she gave her a very 'this is when we walk away' kind of look before turning her attention to the woman. "Well, we won't take more of your time now."

Meggan wasn’t sure what you were supposed to do when a non-evil ghost left, but she quickly averted her eyes as Gwendoline finally faded. She would have waved, but there was no way to do that without looking crazy. It felt best to give her a little privacy as she left the living world behind. “Right. Please take good care of it,” she added before she left with Nico.